ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 vs 6

[rancineb]

I'm planning my next build and trying to figure out what motherboard to get. From reading a bunch of the forms, it looks like ASRock is a pretty good board and less expensive then others. I see that there's the Extreme4 and Extreme6. Very close in price so either one would work, but having a hard time figuring out the difference between the two.

■The Extreme4 looks to have an extra PCI Express x1 port. I'm pretty new and haven't built a computer in probably 8 years so not sure which is the more common PCI port so maybe an extra express x1 doesn't matter.
■The Extreme6 appears to have a floppy connector which is nice. I've come across a situation where I've needed access to a floppy drive to create a floppy disk for something so like having this option.

I'm looking to get the Intel i7-3770 processor. Also looking at a SSD for my main drive and a normal HDD for my storage. Will be getting a separate video card, but haven't selected it yet. I do not plan to do any overclocking, but want feature rich which points me to Z77.

Can anyone suggest the Extreme4 or the Extreme6? If there's a different motherboard that I should look at instead of ASRock, let me know.

Appreciate your help, thanks!

 

[itzdanielp]

Close on the PCIe x1


The Extreme 4 has 2 of the short connector PCIe x1 slots
The Extreme 6 has 1 Full length PCIe x16 slot (running at x4) and 1 short x1 slot.

The extreme 6 also has a displayport output instead of just dvi/hdmi/vga (if you are using built in graphics)


The extreme 4 only supports RAM OC'ing if you only use 2 DIMMs (the Extreme 6 you can have all 4 DIMMs populated)


So, as you mentioned they are very similar boards. If you don't need any of those features, the Extreme 4 is a solid choice.

 

[rancineb]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm leaning toward getting the Extreme6 just so I can have the floppy drive option if I ever need it. I don't have a need for the displayport since I'll be getting a separate video card. The RAM overclocking is interesting. It would be nice to have the ability to overclock all 4 slots. I'm going to start with 2x 4 GB sticks but could upgrade to 4 and would like to be able to overclock all of it.

What are the usage for a PCI x1 slot? Would I ever see a need both? I can't imagine a need for 2 PCI x1 slots.

 

[itzdanielp]

x1 slots are used for sound cards and nics. x4 slots are used for storage controllers. I doubt you would need 2 x1's, 1 x1 and 1 x4 would make more sense

So from what you are saying the Extreme6 would probably make more sense

 

[rancineb]

Thanks for your help. I'm thinking the Extreme6 is my best bet.

Just to cover my bases, do you like the ASRock motherboards, or would you suggest I look at others like Asus?

 

[gity69]

In 4 years I have built 4 pc's for friends and myself all have AsRock boards. They are great boards with solid features at a lower price point than competitors. I haven't had a single issue yet they are all still running solid.

 

[rancineb]

Great to hear. Thanks gity!