The high end motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme9 already appeared in early March - the company demonstrated the product at CeBIT 2012. Two months later, the motherboard acquired its own page on ASRock site.
Z77 Extreme9 is representative of top level. The cost in Europe will be 320 euros, which corresponds approximately to the European price of Intel Core i7-3770K.
ASRock Z77 Extreme9 is equipped with processor socket LGA1155 and primarily intended for use in high end models Intel Core third generation. It has four slots for RAM modules, and supports DDR3, overclocked to 3000 MHz frequency. The maximum memory amount is 32 GB.
The design of the motherboard is using chip PEX 8747 from PLX Technology production, which provides each of the two GPU, connected in either 2-Way SLI or CrossFireX, sixteen channel PCI-E. When connecting the four cards each GPU gets up to eight lines of the interface. PEX 8747 supports PCI Express 3.0 and it should be noted that the five PCI Express x16 slots conform to this standard, the sixth corresponds to the standard PCI Express 2.0. Among the slots there is also a PCI Express 2.0 x1 and one Mini-PCI Express. The latter can be used to install the included module 2T2R, implementing Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, and for the installation, for example, of solid-state drive.
Z77 Extreme9 supports up to ten ports SATA: four SATA 3Gb / s, and six SATA 6 Gb / s. Four additional ports SATA 6 Gb / s are managed by the controller ASMedia ASM1061.
There are eight-port USB 3.0, four are implemented by the controller Etron EJ188. Also there are two RJ-45 ports, two ports USB 2.0 (third shared with eSATA), HDMI video output jack and a PS / 2, IEEE 1394, an optical output S / PDIF, five 3.5 mm jacks to connect audio Device button and reset BIOS.
The power system Digi Power is implemented on a four 8 phase, which indicates a good overclocking potential.
ASRock Z77 Extreme9 supports many proprietary technologies, among them - AXTU, Instant Boot, Instant Flash, XFast USB, XFast LAN, XFast RAM, Crashless BIOS, Internet Flash, Hybrid Booster.