Conclusion
The ASRock Z68 Extreme4 can be said as an upgraded edition of the ASRock H67M-GE/HT. The performance is very good in comparison with it’s competitors. The ability to perform a hybrid function merging the best of both P67 and H67 chipset makes teh Z68 Extreme4 very attractive to PC builders and enthusiasts.
Similar to other ASRock H67 or P67 boards, the board comes with C.C.O which I love most as I need not spend money to bring new heatsinks. While the H67 board bundled in a MCE remote controller and receiver and 3D red/Cyan Anaglyph paper glasses, they were missing from the ASRock Z68 Extreme4. Instead, we have the Intel Smart Response Technology and Lucid Virtu which speeds up system response and video transcoding time respectively.
Other features like the UEFI BIOS and AXTU (replacement of OC Tuner) are also well designed and user friendly for fine tuning your system parameters for overclocking etc. In addition, there is XFast which boosts USB 3.0 speeds (ASRock XFAST with Etrontech USB 3.0 controller performance) and Free bundle of front usb 3.0 panel which can be used to mount your SSD.
With Z68 chipset, overclocking is never locked to 37X for the 2500K processor. Similar to the P67 chipset, we managed to run the CPU up to ~4.6 GHz on AIR. Documentation is lacking as there is no instruction on how to setup ISRT or Lucid Virtu after browsing through thethick multi language manual.
Pros
C.C.O for LGA775 heatsink support
Front USB 3.0 with SSD connector
XFAST USB
Cons
Documentation
Ratings
Here are my ratings out of 10.
| Category | Score |
| Performance | 10 / 10 |
| Features | 10 / 10 |
| Ease Of Installation | 10 / 10 |
| Overclocking Features | 10 / 10 |
| Documentation | 8 / 10 |
| Packaging | 8 / 10 |
| Cost / Performance | 9 / 10 |
| Overall Rating : | 9.2 / 10 |
