Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Right from the start, the ASRock X58 Extreme was impressive and worked like a charm right out of the box. No issues. No fuss. Despite any odd looking socket colors or any stigmas people might have attached ASRock, the board felt and worked like it was much more than the sum of its branding. Every possible feature worked well right on queue right down to stability testing. The motherboard’s layout, design, and function are just about as good as any we’ve ever seen. High end boards included.
I was especially surprised to see the board automatically configure the extremely capable 2000 MHz Viper II memory at 2133 MHz which is the typically the maximum frequency for anything running an X58 chipset. If nothing else, we know that the motherboard can do things with very capable triple channel memory. It’s just funny that it knew to go there right away.
Overclocking wasn’t too shabby at all and pushing our INTEL Core i7 D0 stepping 975 CPU upwards from 3.33 GHz to 4.2 GHz seemed easy on this supposedly budget offering. The board was quite clear on boot if it was going to accept what it was being told to do or not. There didn’t seem to be any half booting which made finding some of its maximum potential easy. And, when it didn’t like something, the CLR CMOS button on the back the board was not only easily accessible, but prevented the pain of having to peel apart your system to reach it.
The ASRock X58 Extreme does a whole lot more than just save you money. At a mere $170 USD as of this writing, the X58 Extreme really is the perfect choice for the frugal consumer who wants to couple the fastest possible Core i7 they can afford with the fastest budget platform available. If we had an Editor’s Budget Choice Award, the ASRock X58 Extreme would be wearing it proudly. Instead, we’ll give it an Editors’ Choice and park it beside a Value Added distinction. Well done!
Pros:
- New Extreme theme
- Super design and layout
- Quality components used
- User friendly BIOS
- Solid BIOS performance
- Respectable overclocking performance
- Extremely stable operations
- Can be purchased for as low as $170!
Cons:
- Semi-bright, odd colored sockets
- Might be hard to find
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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