Final Thoughts
So as I said this is ASRock’s top of the line board in their Extreme Series, so does it fit the bill? I would say for the most part yes. ASRock has sort of when with a more clean look with this board, which you are either going to like or hate. So many companies have gone with the vibrant colors and lights on their boards, which in some cases does sell boards, but you will find none of that here. The board still looks great and has a solid feel to it.
When it comes to features on the board ASRock really loaded the Z170 Extreme 7+ up! There are three SATA Express ports, three Ultra M.2 slots, four USB 3.1 ports, support for quad-SLI and quad-CrossFire setups, a 12-phase power design and much more. This board is targeted at the enthusiast / workstation market and it has everything those users are going to want to have.
When it comes to performance the board was pretty close to the other Z170 boards we tested, but did fall behind in many tests, which was a little disappointing. This has a lot to do with many of the other boards being made for gaming. So they have better audio, LAN, etc. Overclocking was very good and we were able to bring our Core i7-6700K up to a stable 4.7 GHz at only 1.35V, which is pretty impressive.
ASRock’s A-Tuning software is pretty good and it will help you fine-tune your system from within Windows. While it is not a complete motherboard companion software suite, it does get the job done. ASRock’s BIOS that they are using is much like what we saw on their X99 boards, which is not really anything to write home about, but the BIOS is easy to navigate and works well.
The board is currently selling at our favorite online retailer for $239.99, which seems fair for all that you are getting with this board. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ASRock Z170 Extreme 7+ an 8 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Built with quality components
– Solid overclocking
– USB 3.1 front bay device included
– Three Ultra M.2 slots and three SATA Express slots
Cons:
– Not the best performance
– BIOS and A-Tuning software not as impressive as what is offered from other companies
