ASRock Z77 OC Formula Motherboard Review

[News Team]

Today, we have a firecracker from ASRock in the lab. It is called the ASRock Z77 OC Formula and by the looks, this has the potential to be ASRock’s finest product to date. Also, we are intrigued by a new special feature in*The Z77 OC Formula. It has a pseudo-hybrid watercooled heatsink option*for the mosfet and VRM’s, which we will go into detail about later. Now, let’s fire this bad boy up to see if it lives up to ASRock’s new*reputation, and if it unleashes a “can of whoop-ass” in overclocking prowess.

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[JamesLT3]

Great review Jim,seem like its one hell of a mobo.I love the look of the Bios!

[mybadomen]

Love it i was always running Asus RoG boards till a couple years ago when i started running the AsRock Fatality Pro boards. I loved them so much i bought a few of them and then started using the AsRock Extreme 4's in all my customer builds.Was a simple slap it together and set it to 4.5Ghz and ship it. Not one of those builds has ever had an issue. I decided to go back to Asus RoG boards again first with the Rampage Formula IV X79 a Intel 3960x AND 16Gig of Corsair Dominators. I was loving it 5 Ghz on all 12 threads but ran it 24/7 around 4.6 Ghz. Next i figured i would go back to Asus on all my builds and damn what a mistake. Bought the Rampage Formula Extreme IV X79 dropped my 3960x in it and before windows 7 was even installed the Cpu was fried forever .Thats right 1.6 Ghz stock settings couldnt even get windows installed before i lost my 3960x. Got a new Extreme and a 3930k and everythings going good so far but i wish i never switched from AsRock back to Asus. Other things that are a pain is setting up Raid0 or AHCI on an Asus board vs AsRock. Asus you have to have special drivers and have to have the W7 disk with service pack 1 or you cant even install the drivers to install windows.Yes the AsRock boards are a breeze. No drivers needed,do a secure erase on your SSD'S and install .Simple as that.

Conclusion Damn i miss my AsRock boards and lost mega bucks going back to Asus and damn id much rather own that Z77 board or one of the new AsRock x79's at this point .But i will be switching back to AsRock again and this time not looking back.

Great review and thanks for the share.

MybadOmen

Edit : Look at Venom build in my signature.Tell me that board wouldnt rock in it seeing i have to rebuild it again soon!

[aryan51]

nice review jim

[Doctor_Death]

Great review Jim! Excellent Z77 board from ASRock ! Hey Bad, how did the Asus board fry your 3960X ? I've been running my 3960X ES chip in the ASRock Extreme9 ever since the board was released, and have never had a single problem.WE have reviewed at least four X79 boards from Asus, and have never run into any issues, what did Asus say about the fried chip when you told them ?

[Solara2xb]

Nice review Jim!! this is Def. a awesome board!!

[Drdeath]

Thanks guys, ASRock's finest product to date IMO.

[Doctor_Death]

Jim, they have another new Z77 out, I'll try to get a sample.

[Drdeath]

Great Stan. Stan is using this Z77 OC Formula in a build and it is in transit Stan. Should arrive Wed.

[SamCR3]

Really awesome review Jimbo. They just keep getting better and better. Was it the chip that kept you from hitting 5GHz? Seems like this board would have no problem getting to 5GHz with the right chip. Especially like the water cooling on the MOSFEts/VRM. Looking forward to seeing what Stan does with this board. Maybe he will change my mind about the color scheme.

[realneil]

Jim, your review was a good read. I like this board a lot.
ASRock was originally part of ASUS. Even though they are no loger associated, you can tell that ASRock's ASUS roots really helped them to innovate and evolve.
They really do make fine quality boards.

Maybe the slow USB-3.0 performance can be improved in the future with a driver update?
As you said, this is no deal breaker.

[najiro]

Nice board! nice review!
curious about badomen's experience. how did it got fried? and yes that board would be perfect for your venom build.

[vinman]

Great job on this review Jim I am really impressed with this board as well

[TeeBlack]

nice rewiew. i love the look of that board.

[Doctor_Death]

You sure can't beat the price for what you get in return. Sam, best OC with this board, a 3770K and LN2 was a little over 7GHz,
making it one of the top Z77 boards for overclocking.

[alan1476]

Only 239.00 at the EGG

Newegg TV: ASRock Z77 OC Formula LGA 1155 CEB Motherboard Overview - YouTube