EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD
ASRock Z77 OC Formula RRP: $239.99 | Website: www.asrock.com.tw
Test Machine Intel Core i7 3770K Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666C10 Kingston HyperX 3K SSD GIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GD Cooler Master M2 Silent Pro 1500W PSU Windows XP SP3/Windows 7 64-Bit SP1
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t seems almost every vendor who has a strong affiliation with or has directly employed an overclocker has a board or component endeared as “X’s baby!” If you’ve not come across this thus far, well the Z77 OCFormula (OCF from here on in) would be Nick Shih’s baby. More so than any other board to date actually, if only because he is actually on the marketing material in his full swag. Regardless of how you feel about it, cheesy or otherwise, one has to admit that this here is one attractive looking board. Actually this is one damn fine board in both
20 The OverClocker Issue 21 | 2012
aesthetics and performance. At $239 it’s very well priced especially given what it is you get for that amount.. There’s no multi-GPU foolery here, sadly that would have sent the board over the $300 mark, however for lack of this, you receive a solidly built board that is undersold by its price tag and somewhat by the history of the brand. All that may change with the OCF and in fact we’d dare say it has to change because whatever we may have thought about ASRock before, this here is a totally different animal and he OCF stands with the best of them. To be honest with boards that do not have plenty of multi-GPU options, this is arguably the best of the lot. Just the features alone make this a compelling purchase. That $239 buys you this much overclocking proficiency is staggering. It’s not just the typical POST LED, V-measure points, Clear CMOS, reset, switchable BIOS and the like we’ve come to expect from an overclocking board. It’s
in how it all comes together especially within the BIOS where we have some of the most comprehensive options we’ve seen on a board. They are all clearly labelled and relatively well explained. It’s not to the ASUS Maximus V levels, but it’s ahead of what GIGABYTE offers on their boards in advanced mode. You have to appreciate the time and effort ASRock has put into the little things which all culminate into making a grand offering. Easily the best board ASRock has ever produced. We could spend the rest of this review telling you about the layout of the board, the electrics and the like, but we frankly couldn’t be bothered with that and we know that you our fellow readers couldn’t care either so we’ll get to the fun bit and let you know that this here is a wonderful motherboard to overclock on. Be it air cooling or LN2 which is what the OCF is actually made for. It’s blissful to work with. We aren’t fans of the Golden night sky