You can clearly see some similarities in
the outta look and functionality of ASRock Z77 Extreme3 and ASRock Z77 Extreme4
motherboards, but most of them are the results of both motherboards made by the
same manufacturer. It is totally not fair to say that ASRock Z77 Extreme3 is a
simplified version of ASRock Z77 Extreme4, because it has its own unique
layout.
Supporting
all contemporary LGZ 1155 microprocessors
Both motherboards all support contemporary
LGA 1155 microprocessors, and added maintaining holes around the microprocessor
socket allow using coolers originally designed for LGA 775 CPUs. This outstanding
feature is called Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.). The digital processor voltage
regulator circuit on ASRock Z77 Extreme3 works as 8+3, while the higher model
has an 8+4 circuit. The cooling system on both motherboards includes three heat-sinks
fastened with push-pins made of plastic and springs, but the chipset heatsink
on ASRock Z77 Extreme3 doesn’t have the above decorative plastic plate. Both motherboards
are built with solid capacitors, but the higher models use high-grade golden capacitors,
while the lower models use regular ones. However, after all, they are not very
ordinary: these ordinary ASRock DuraCap capacitors are made in Japan and proud
to be almost 2.5 times longer than MTBF.
Built
with solid capacitors
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 has two PCI Express
3.0/2.0 x16 slots, two PCI Express 2.0 x1 and two PCI slots. ASRock Z77
Extreme3 also has two PCI Express 3.0/2.0 x16 slots. The first slot will work
at full speed only when one graphics accelerator is installed, in case of two
graphics cards, the slots will work at half speed (1x16 or 2x8). The board
supports AMD CrossFireX and Nvidia SLI. Moreover, you can use the 3rd
PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot that uses the PCI-E chip lanes and can offer maximum
speed of x4. Besides, expansion cards can be installed into PCI Express 2.0 x1
slot and two PCI slots. As you can remember from our previous review, the
Extreme4 model had two additional SATA 6 Gbps ports and two additional USB 3.0
ports, integrated through two ASMedia controllers. ASRock Z77 Extreme3 works
with the function of the chip, and unlike motherboards from some other makers, it
uses convenient color code to easily distinguish between four black SATA 3 Gbps
ports and two gray SATA 6 Gbps ports.
The back panel of ASRock Z77 Extreme3 consists
of the following ports and connections:
·
PS/2 keyboard connection;
·
4 USB 2.0 ports, the other 4 are placed as 2 pin
connectors on the board;
·
D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI video outputs;
·
2 USB 3.0 ports (blue connectors) and one
pin-connector for two more USB 3.0 ports is supported by Intel Z77 Express chip;
·
A local network port (network adapter is built
on Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit network controller);
·
Optical S/PDIF and five identical audio jacks
provided by eight-channel Realtek ALC892 codec.
Ports
and connectors
Unlike Extreme4 model, PS/2 port on ASRock
Z77 Extreme3 is no longer popular, but can only use for a keyboard. Instead of 4
USB 3.0 ports, it has 2, but the number of USB ports in total is the same,
because instead of two USB 2.0 ports, it has 4. There is no “Clear CMOS” button
and no eSATA port, instead of Broadcom network controller they use Realtek
RTL8111E, and Realtek ALC898 audio codec is replaced with ALC892.
The functionality of distinguishing the contemporary
ASRock motherboards is the use of two fan connections for CPU fan. One of them
is a four-pin connector, and the other is a three-pin one, making it possible
to adjust the rotation speed of the microprocessor fan for any fan. Most motherboards
from other manufacturers no longer support rotation speed adjustment for
three-pin CPU fans, only some motherboards from Gigabyte can be proud of this stand-out.
This is a very important advantage, worth memorizing. As for the disadvantages,
I have to say that I am not a big fan of the slot locks on graphics card slots in
most ASRock motherboards. Other manufacturers may use latches with convenient width
or inconvenient small, but all of them lock automatically when you put the
graphics card into the slot. The only way to determine how convenient or
inconvenient they are is when you actually have to remove the card from the
slot. ASRock motherboards use small sliders, which must be moved not only when
you try to remove the graphics card, but also when you intend to protect the
card inside the slot. Compared with Extreme4 model, ASRock Z77 Extreme3 doesn’t
have the buttons or the POST-code indicator, while PCB size is unchanged -
305x218 mm. As you can see, the length of both boards is medium, but the width
is 244-mm smaller than ATX standard.
