ASRock Unveils the Z170M OC Formula Motherboard

ASRock got around to launching a micro-ATX variant of its flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard targeted at professional overclockers, the Z170M OC Formula. Although this board spreads across the entire area of 244 mm² that this form-factor allows, it features just two DDR4 DIMM slots, letting ASRock spend the PCB real-estate saved on stronger electrical components. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a strong 14-phase VRM, and a 2-phase VRM for the memory.

ASRock is using an expensive 10-layer PCB to minimize electrical interference. Overclockers are treated with onboard clock fine-tuning buttons, next to voltage measurement points, DirectKey auto-overclocking controls, a decoration of diagnostic LEDs all over the board, and manual switching between two redundant firmware EEPROM chips. The HyperBClk Feature is also featured, in which an external clock-generator is deployed to give users finer control over the base-clock. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 with both populated), and a third PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that's electrical gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the PCH. Storage connectivity includes a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s, from which four ports can make up two 16 Gb/s SATA-Express connectors. Two USB 3.1 ports (from which one is a type-C port), eight USB 3.0 ports, ASRock's high-end Purity Audio 3 solution, and an Intel-driven gigabit Ethernet interface, make for the rest of its modern connectivity.

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