Closer Look / Product Photos
The X299 Extreme4 motherboard arrived in a retail package which is quite large box but also the motherboard isn’t small.
Inside the box we will find quick installation guide, software CD, I/O shield, 4 SATA cables, SLI high bandwidth bridge, screws for M.2 sockets and WiFi bracket. Enough or even more than we will need for installation.
The motherboard is well protected for the time of delivery. Actually in the same way as every ASRock motherboard. I don’t remember any issues related to damages in transport what I can’t say about competitive brands.
The X299 Extreme4 is one more motherboard from Extreme series which is designed for demanding users but is well placed between top and most expensive series and cheaper motherboards for users who need basic features and expect stable work without unexpected problems. The Extreme4 simply has everything what you may need if you wish to build powerful gaming PC or budget workstation and nothing what is useless and may raise total costs.
ASRock X299 Extreme4 looks like high quality motherboard and we can’t say it isn’t. Everything looks great and is well designed. High density glass fabric PCB is black. Heatsinks are dark silver and all other components are black and silver. It should match all computer parts and color schemes so it’s safe to use it if we have PC case with window and ideas of specific lighting. The Extreme4 also provides RGB lighting under chipset heatsink and RGB connector for LED stripes which can be managed in BIOS or Windows software.
It’s hard to miss large heatsinks with heatpipe which are called “XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink”. We can be sure that no matter what CPU we will use, power section remain safe from overheating. CPU power section includes 11 power phases with 60A chokes. On the motherboard there are two 8-pin connectors which are helpful especially when we wish to use processors from the i9 series. The i9-7900X which we will use for tests is not so power hungry but single 8-pin power can be a problem if we wish to use 14-18 cores and overclock them.
Two out of three PCIe x16 slots have steel “shield” what is good if we are using large and heavy graphics cards. This motherboard is designed for two-way SLI/CF so other slots don’t have to be additionally protected.
On the PCB there are three M.2 sockets. Two of them are dedicated for M.2 PCIe/SATA SSD, one for WiFi card which is not included. Both sockets designed for SSD drives work at up to 32Gbps what is maximum bandwidth we can find on modern motherboards.
On the back, next to I/O ports, is CMOS reset button which is really handy during overclocking. I wish to see power and reset buttons on the PCB but we can live without them and if we install the motherboard inside PC case then we won’t need them.
As I already mentioned, the Extreme4 has all you may need and nothing what could be waste of money. From additional devices there is single Intel LAN which is the best option right now. There is also Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec which is popular in higher series motherboards and provides high quality sound. There are also eight USB ports for all the external devices.
