ASRock X99 Extreme3 Is An Affordable Choice For Linux Users
For those in the market for an LGA-2011v3 motherboard this holiday shopping season, a very reasonable and affordable choice is the ASRock X99 Extreme3. For just over $200 USD you can get this DDR4-3000+ motherboard that supports Thunderbolt, ten Serial ATA 3.0 ports, 18-core Xeon processors, three PCI Express x16 slots, and numerous other connections for offering a feature-packaged motherboard at a modest price compared to other LGA-2011v3 motherboards.
With having more LGA-2011v3 processors than motherboards, in building the new 32 system Linux benchmarking test farm (LinuxBenchmarking.com), one of the motherboards I picked up for a new system was the ASRock X99 Extreme3 to go with one of my spare Core i7 5960X Haswell-E processors. While this wasn't a traditional motherboard review sample, I decided to write a mini review about it today as I've been happy with the motherboard for its low cost, feature set, and its daily usage now after several weeks in the test farm.
Over the past ten years at Phoronix I've reviewed dozens of ASRock motherboards and their manufacturing quality continues to improve while maintaining a great feature/price ratio. Leading me to the X99 Extreme3 for my latest LGA-2011v3 motherboard was it being among the cheapest motherboards right now that support the latest Core i7 Extreme and Xeon LGA-2011v3 processors. I picked up this motherboard for just $209 USD while it packs in the functionality of many of the higher-priced Intel X99 motherboards.
Specifications:
CPU
- Supports Intel Core i7 and Xeon 18-Core Processors Family for the LGA 2011-3 Socket
- Digi Power design
- 6 Power Phase design
- Supports Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
Chipset
- Intel X99
Memory
Quad Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
- 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
- Supports DDR4 3000+(OC)*/2933+(OC)/2800(OC)/2400(OC)/2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Supports non-ECC RDIMM (Registered DIMM)
- Supports DDR4 ECC, un-buffered memory/RDIMM with Intel Xeon processors E5 series in the LGA 2011-3 Socket
- Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB
- Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
- 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
BIOS
- 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS)
- Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology
- ACPI 1.1 Compliant wake up events
- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support
- CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.05V, PCH 1.5V, VPPM Voltage Multi-adjustment
Audio
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray Audio support
- Supports Surge Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
- Supports Purity Sound 2
- Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps
- 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier
- TI NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier
- Direct Drive Technology
- EMI shielding cover
- PCB isolate shielding
- Supports DTS Connect
LAN
- Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
- Giga PHY Intel I218V
- Supports Wake-On-LAN
- Supports Lightning/ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
- Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
- Supports PXE
Expansion Slots
- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1 @ x16 mode; PCIE3 @ x16 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE4 @ x4 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slot
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX, 3-Way CrossFireX and CrossFireX
- Supports NVIDIA Quad SLI and SLI
- 15u Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1 and PCIE3)
Storage
- 10 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel Rapid Storage 13), NCQ, AHCI, Hot Plug and ASRock HDD Saver Technology
- 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket, supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)
Form Factor
- ATX Form Factor
- High Density Glass Fabric PCB
Extra Features
- XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
- Premium 60A Power Choke
- Premium Memory Alloy Choke
- Ultra Dual-N MOSFET (UDM)
- NexFET MOSFET
- Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps
- Sapphire Black PCB
- ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
- ASRock HDD Saver Technology
- ASRock Full Spike Protection
- ASRock APP Shop
Contents:
Included with the ATX motherboard was the usual basic selection of ASRock accessories that accompany their motherboards. ASRock lists just Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 as being supported operating systems for the X99 Extreme3, but of course our focus at Phoronix is just on the Linux support.