ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ Motherboard Review

Exploiting the Skylake CPUs for their allure to gamers, ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ is a motherboard that targets the enthusiast gaming audience by offering a wide range of the bells and whistles they may desire. Can pumped-up audio, a Killer NIC, strong multi-GPU support, and high-speed storage interfaces persuade gamers who are willing to invest in the Skylake platform? You may have noticed that ASRock sells the Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming as a K6 and K6+ SKU. The sole difference between these two offerings is the inclusion of a 5.25" bay that features Type-A and reversible Type-C USB 3.1 ports. This is currently one of the few ways to obtain front panel USB 3.1 support until case manufactures catch up. Core features for the Gaming K6+ revolve around the needs of enthusiast gamers who also possess an interest in their computer hardware. Central to the board are an enhanced audio solution, Killer Gigabit Ethernet and accompanying software, and a gamer-orientated colour scheme, provided you're into the red and black way of doing things. Hardware features come in the form of a 12 phase power delivery design, as well as other devices to benefit overclocking, and strong expansion support. How will ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ fair in our testing? Features: ASRock Super Alloy Gaming Armor - CPU Power / Memory / VGA Card / Cooling / Internet / Audio Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors (Socket 1151) Digi Power, 12 Power Phase Design Supports Dual Channel DDR4 3600+(OC) 3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe 3.0 x1 NVIDIA® Quad SLI™, AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ Graphics Output Options: DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2 Supports Triple Monitor 7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Sound™ 3 & DTS Connect 2 SATA Express, 8 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3) 4 USB 3.1 10Gb/s (2 Type-A + 2 Type-C), 8 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 5 Rear, 1 Fatal1ty Mouse Port) Free Bundled ASRock Front USB 3.1 Panel Supports Full Spike Protection, ASRock Live Update & APP Shop, F-Stream, Key Master, XSplit ASRock supplies the Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ in a large box that features branding on the front and an extensive list of specifications and features on the rear. An image of the motherboard on the rear side is convenient to users who may be shopping in a store. Four SATA cables are supplied in addition to the rear IO shield, a screw for the M.2 slot, and a rigid SLI bridge. ASRock really needs to start shipping a fully black SLI bridge for the gaming series boards - many enthusiasts will put plenty of effort into styling their system, only for an ugly brown SLI bridge to ruin the appearance. The front USB 3.1 panel is accompanied by two connection cables and installation screws. ASRock smartly uses the 10Gbps PCIe connection delivered by the motherboard's (practically useless, as the high-speed storage market has deemed it) SATA-Express connector and routes it to the USB 3.1 panel's PCB. Power is also delivered through the same cable by means of a PSU-fed SATA connector in addition to a cable connecting to the onboard USB 2.0 header. The logical connection for two USB 3.1 ports is handled by ASMedia's ASM1142 chipset which re-assigns the single 10Gbps PCIe lane siphoned off the SATA-Express connector. This effectively means that the combined, simultaneous throughput of both USB 3.1 connections is limited to a 10Gbps connection to the Z170 chipset, so don't expect to stuff masses of data through them without slowdown. Providing the logic and power delivery management required to physically mount the USB 3.1 Type-C reversible connector is an EtronTech EJ179V switch IC. Taking a single USB 3.1 connection from the ASM1142 chipset, EtronTech's switch IC is able to manage data and power control signals for a USB 3.1 Type-C device. The switch is rated for a power delivery specification of 3 Amps of current on the 5V rail. This seems to align with ASRock's chosen power delivery connectors, so you should expect an output capacity of 15W, not the 100W that USB 3.1 Power Delivery 2.0 specification permits. Documentation is the standard affair and ASRock also includes a shiny sticker. The documentation serves both the Fatal1ty Z170 gaming K6 and K6+ motherboards as the boards themselves are identical. I would like to see ASRock include a platform block diagram in their user manual. Competing vendors do this and it is a convenient aid for enthusiast users who understand the information. Clearly targeting gamers and enthusiasts who are still fond of the red and black colour scheme, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ is also outfitted with a styled rear IO cover. The plastic piece compliments the board's styling and is home to additional marketing names, but it also serves the purposes of preventing ESD damage. I am glad to see that ASRock has used a fully black PCB for the Gaming K6+. Whether in a low light or brightly lit chassis environment, there is no worry of having to withstand the ugly eye sore that is a brown PCB. The board's rear side is home to the added USB 3.1 controllers and gives an insight into the physical PCIe lane configuration. Support for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory is provided by the quartet of single-latch DIMM slots. ASRock states maximum memory frequency support of 3600MHz via overclocking, although the actual speed capability will be tied to partnering hardware. Two phases worth of physical components drive the memory. I know many people may criticise the contrast that white DIMM slot latches create, although there will also be an equally large number of consumers who welcome the bright accent. Along the motherboard's edge are the 24-pin power connector, a 4-pin controllable fan header, and the board's only internal USB 3.0 header. Clearly ASRock is confident enough in its front USB 3.1 panel to offer only a single USB 3.0 header when many competitors are supplying two. Power and rest buttons, as well as a further two 4-pin fan headers, are found in the board's top-right corner. Thirteen physical power delivery phases surround the LGA 1151 CPU socket, although these will be split between driving the CPU, iGPU, and system voltages, with the CPU itself receiving eight phases (judging by the partnering components). A pair of hefty aluminium alloy heatsinks, connected via a heatpipe, cool the power delivery MOSFETs. Power delivery hardware consists of Sinopower SM4337 and SM4336 high- and low-side MOSFETs, which are used alongside 60A chokes, and Nichicon 12K-rated 'Platinum' capacitors. Intersil's ISL95824 hybrid-digital PWM controller is deployed and can manage up to 4+2 phases. A pair of rear-mounted ISL6625A dual-MOSFET drivers (marked 5AZ XDK) from the same vendor help to provide coverage for the entire CPU portion of the power delivery system. So the CPU is effectively driven by four control channels, but eight physical phases. The remaining two controller phases seem to cater for the iGPU, with assistance from driver hardware. An IDT6V41542NLG controller is responsible for managing the BCLK frequency range that is now truly unlocked with Intel's 6th Generation Core processors. Dual socketed BIOS chips provide redundancy in the case of a UEFI crash. This is an inclusion which adds cost, albeit a small amount, but also enhances motherboard resilience. A total of eight SATA 6Gbps ports is provided, four of which double-up as a pair of 10Gbps SATA-Express connectors. The two far-right SATA 6Gbps connectors are provided by an ASMedia ASM1061 chipset, making them slower than the Z170 ports. They are unlikely to bottleneck a mechanical HDD but I would only use them when no other ports are free. The 32Gbps Ultra M.2 connector features support for PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs with a length of up to 110mm, and can also mount a U.2 adapter. Its flexible IO lanes are shared by one of the SATA-Express connectors (and its accompanying SATA ports) which renders it unusable when the M.2 port is populated. That leaves you with four high-speed SATA 6Gbps connectors and two slower SATA 6Gbps ports when an M.2 device is installed. Add the SATA-Express requirement of the front USB 3.1 panel into the mix, and we start to enter a storage device conundrum. Using an M.2 SSD and the front USB 3.1 panel, two Z170 chipset SATA 6Gbps ports and two slower ASM1061-fed connections remain. That's probably still plenty for most consumers, although it does emphasise ASRock's smart decision to include ASMedia's add-on SATA chipset. As a note, if your front USB 3.1 panel ports do not seem to be working when you use an M.2 SSD, trying utilising the other SATA-Express connector. Expansion slots for ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ follow the typical design that we expect to see from an upper-mid-range, gaming-orientated Z170 motherboard. Two-card SLI and three-card CrossFire is supported. ASRock's slot spacing is as good as it gets for an ATX board with dual-card usage in mind, and placement of the Ultra M.2 slot allows an ugly green SSD to be hidden by the graphics card above, albeit while receiving extra heat. In single-card operation, the uppermost PCIe x16 slot receives a full sixteen-lane signal. Put an additional graphics card into the second full-length slot and the CPU's PCIe 3.0 lanes will be split as x8/x8. That lower full-length PCIe slot is electronically wired for a PCIe 3.0 x4 link from the chipset. I prefer the chipset-linked approach for the third slot because it means that a user can happily operate a pair of graphics cards in the two high-bandwidth, CPU-fed PCIe slots (Nvidia SLI demands x8 connections, remember) and then use a device (such as an Intel SSD 750) in the remaining slot. While this adds extra latency for a PCIe SSD in the chipset-fed slot, linking all three connectors to the CPU lanes would foul multi-GPU configurations. With that said, three-card CrossFire is possible thanks to its ability to function with x4 links, although I would not recommend it. If you want to run three graphics cards, you should be looking at investing in the X99 platform. Three open-ended PCIe 3.0 x1 slots bolster the board's expansion capacity. These slots are likely to run from the chipset's flexible IO lanes, so do not be surprised to see some of them rendered unusable if other interfaces (such as the PCIe x4 slot) are utilised. Two USB 2.0 headers join the standard set of front panel connectors and audio link along the motherboard's bottom edge. ASRock also includes COM and TPM connectors, as well as a Thunderbolt link header and two-digit debug LED display. ASRock's Purity Sound 3 audio system is based around the Realtek ALC 1150 codec. Two Texas Instruments NE5532 op-amps drive rear and front panel headphone jacks, while Nichicon capacitors filter the audio signals. PCB segregation is used to separate the audio signals, however the Realtek ALC 1150 codec is deployed in an unshielded state - many motherboards ship with dedicated EMI shielding for the audio codec. A total of six USB 3.0 ports are found in the rear IO section, all of which stem from the Z170 chipset. One of these connectors doubles up to form ASRock's Fatal1ty mouse port that features enhanced control adjustments through OS-based software. ASMedia's ASM1142 chipset feeds the pair of USB 3.1 ports, while an EtronTech EJ179V switch makes the reversible Type-C USB 3.1 connector physically possible. Despite providing legacy keyboard and mouse support via the PS/2 connector, there are no USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard. This can hardly be deemed a negative now that the Windows OS is more USB-aware, although I would have liked to see two of the rear IO USB 3.0 re-assigned to an extra internal header duty, and then replaced by a pair of USB 2.0 connections. This is perfectly acceptable given that the Z170 chipset supports up to fourteen USB connections in total. Gigabit Ethernet is provided by Killer's new E2400 series chipset. Network control in Killer's OS software remains one of its strongest purchasing points for motherboard vendors. HDMI, DVI-D, and DisplayPort 1.2 cater for high-resolution outputs from the iGPU. Audio connections are the standard affair and the venerable clear CMOS button is an always-welcomed addition to the rear IO. How effective you deem positioning of the motherboard's six 4-pin fan headers will depend on your system's components. Both 4-pin CPU fan headers are actually positioned below the socket, with the two connections in the upper-right corner being assigned chassis fan control. This will appeal to users of large air coolers as fan cables can hide under a fin array, but those with an AIO liquid cooler will not be impressed by the CPU headers' positioning. With that said, ASRock's UEFI and OS tools, as well as the Nuvoton NCT6791D chipset's capabilities, mean that all of the fan headers feature extensive control options. So there's no harm in plugging your CPU cooler's fans into the chassis fan headers. Nevertheless, I would have liked one of the headers to be better placed for serving a rear chassis fan without sprawling cables. ASRock Z170 Fatal1ty UEFI Firstly, we are pleased to report that our generic wireless mouse worked to its usual standard in the Z170 UEFI. We’ve found the wireless mouse to be troubling with UEFI support in the past, so when it functions correctly in the interface, that is usually a good sign for overall mouse support. ASRock's Z170 UEFI styling and feature set is very similar to that deployed on the vendor's Z97 and X99 motherboards. Why change a good thing? ASRock's UEFI implementation has improved drastically over the past handful of platform launches. The interface is now stable, well-equipped, and easy to use. Note: Notice the UEFI recognises our sample as the "Z170 Gaming K6". This is an isolated issue due to our early review sample accidentally shipping with the incorrect BIOS installed. Safety features meant that we couldn't simply flash the K6+ BIOS, but using the K6 revision was perfectly fine given that both SKUs are the same motherboard. The Main page displays information about the system components. There is a My Favorite section that gives users quick access to their most desirable settings. The OC Tweaker page controls access to the board’s numerous overclocking-related sub-sections. I like the way that ASRock has split its main overclocking sections into separate folders. This keeps the interface clean and makes the desirable settings easy to find. It also proves that ASRock has listened to previous feedback and taken steps to improve its UEFI user experience. CPU overclocking profiles set by ASRock’s engineers can be applied. These are convenient for gamers who want to boost their CPU clock speed with minimal time spent fussing in the UEFI. Up to five customised user profiles can be saved to the board’s internal memory. I feel that five profiles is sufficient for a motherboard that is not intended for competitive overclocking. A USB flash drive can be used to transfer profiles to and from the board. ASRock includes a number of convenient tools in its UEFI. Users can rapidly apply a number of system configurations and drivers can also be downloaded via the interface. Instant Flash, ASRock’s simple BIOS updating tool, scans through one’s USB flash drive to search for the relevant BIOS file. While this sounds good, with the tool’s ability to scan all the way through your flash drive until it finds the relevant BIOS profile, users with a large amount of data on their drive could find the search time to be in the order of minutes. There’s little wrong with a manual folder search. Included both via the UEFI and OS-based software, System Browser is a convenient tool that displays which components are connected to the motherboard. The tool is particularly useful for troubleshooting purposes; if, for example, a memory stick is faulty, it will not show up in the System Browser window. ASRock includes an extensive set of voltage, temperature, and fan speed readings on its HWMonitor page. There are two ways of setting fan speeds in ASRock’s UEFI. Users can either select from pre-defined profiles, or they can fine-tune their own custom fan speeds. There’s the old way of doing this – by selecting the relevant choices from multiple drop-down lists. Or there’s ASRock’s modern FAN-Tastic Tuning visual tool. I was very impressed by the capabilities of the FAN-Tastic Tuning tool (the cheesy name, on the other hand…). The five-point curve can be adjusted to an individual’s preference with a large range of freedom; a CPU temperature as low as 30°C can be set, while the fan can run at 0-100% in fine increments. And what is particularly impressive is the board’s ability to completely shut-off a controlled fan below a user-defined temperature threshold. The level of control FAN-Tastic Tuning provides is excellent, especially when a fan can be set to stop spinning in order to provide a particularly quiet system. ASRock Z170 Fatal1ty Software Using ASRock's OS-based F-Stream software, users can manage their system's operating states without diving into the UEFI BIOS. Overclocking settings can be adjusted, system activity can be monitored, and the fan speed profiles can be tweaked. System Browser also shows up in the OS software, bringing with it benefits for troubleshooting scenarios. The App Shop allows users to download many of ASRock's dedicated tools. This is where tools such as XFast LAN and XFast RAM are found. As a bonus, ASRock also gives users access to NBA 2K13 and other useful pieces of third-party software. A 3-month XSplit Gamecaster license worth $24.95 is available. Killer's Network Manager software can be used to control one's network resources. Prioritisation for software such as Steam can be set with ease. The variety of ASRock's supported software is strong. From apps that launch directly into the UEFI (useful for Windows 8.1/10 users) to ones that can create a RAM disk, ASRock definitely has the variety aspect covered for general usage. That said, I think Asus has a stronger suite of gamer-centric software on its ROG motherboards. Skylake processors are just the latest Intel CPU architecture to see many of the critical system operations handled by the processor. As such, benchmarking a motherboard becomes more of a test to certify that the part operates correctly and meets the anticipated performance levels. We will be outlining the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard's performance with the Core i7-6700K CPU at its stock frequency (4.2GHz due to forced turbo). Overclocked performance will be outlined later in the review. ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard does not apply multi-core turbo (MCT) by default when XMP is enabled. Instead, users must manually enabled the parameter that forces all CPU cores to operate at their maximum turbo frequency all of the time. We manually activate MCT to keep consistency with other motherboard test results. This will be displayed as the ‘stock’ setting. CPU-Z still has a voltage tracking issue with Skylake systems, so we called in assistance from ASRock's F-Stream software. Core voltage for the MCT settings hit a maximum of just below 1.22V under full load but dropped significantly whilst idling. This is the typical voltage level that we see applied to the mainstream platform Core i7 when MCT is enabled, and it should be simple enough to cool even with a modest cooler. Z170 Motherboard Test System: Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K (4.2GHz forced turbo). Memory: 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz 16-18-18-36 DDR4 @ 1.35V. Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 980 Ti. System Drive: 250GB Crucial BX100 SSD. CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i. Case: NZXT Phantom 630. Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W. Operating System: Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit. Compared Z170 Motherboards: Asus Maximus VIII Hero. Software: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 BIOS v1.20 (latest at the time of testing). GeForce 353.30 VGA drivers. Intel 11.0 ME drivers. Tests: SiSoft Sandra 2015 SP2b (v2142) – Processor arithmetic and memory bandwidth (System) 3DMark 1.5.915 – Fire Strike Ultra (System) Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU) 7-Zip 15.05 beta – Manual video archival (CPU) HandBrake 0.10.2 – Convert 1.23GB 1080P game recording using the High Profile setting and MP4 container (CPU) Grand Theft Auto V – 1920 x 1080, near-maximum quality (Gaming) Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor – 1920 x 1080, ultra quality (Gaming) Metro: Last Light – 1920 x 1080, very high quality (Gaming) Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, maximum quality, TressFX disabled (Gaming) ATTO - SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, M.2 transfer rates (Motherboard) RightMark Audio Analyzer - General audio performance test (Motherboard) 3DMark We used 3DMark‘s ‘Fire Strike Ultra’ benchmark which is designed to be used on high-resolution gaming PCs. Sandra Processor Arithmetic Sandra Memory Bandwidth ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ makes a solid start in our system benchmarks. 3DMark's Physics test registers a strong lead for the ASRock board over Asus' competitor, although it looks to be tied to an early software issue for the latter. Sandra's CPU arithmetic score is what we would expect and memory bandwidth falls a couple of gigabytes per second behind Asus' ROG model. Cinebench We used the ‘CPU’ test built into Cinebench R15 . 7-Zip We manually archive a 1.23GB MP4 game recording to test the performance in 7-Zip. Handbrake Conversion We measured the average frame rate achieved for a task of converting a 1.23GB 1080P game recording using the High Profile setting and MP4 container. CPU-heavy tests run well on the ASRock Gaming K6+ board. Handbrake conversion is as fast as Asus' ROG competitor, while Cinebench performance sees ASRock's gaming motherboard nip into the lead. The 7-Zip archival test favours Asus' motherboard, however the difference in processing time was seen to be one second when looking at our raw test data. Metro: Last Light We used a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the Metro: Last Light built-in benchmark set to ‘Very High’ quality to offer an intense challenge for the hardware. Grand Theft Auto V We apply very near maximum settings in Grand Theft Auto V and a 1920x1080 resolution to push today’s hardware. Our data was recorded using the built-in benchmark. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor We used a 1920x1080 resolution and the Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor built-in benchmark set to ‘Ultra’ quality. Tomb Raider We used a 1920x1080 resolution and the Tomb Raider built-in benchmark set to maximum quality, with TressFX disabled. There's very little to tell these two boards apart when it comes to gaming. ASRock's Fatal1ty series motherboard manages to comprehensively outclass the Asus ROG Hero in Metro: Last Light due to the latter's early software issues. Performance in GTA V and Shadow of Mordor is almost inseparable, while Tomb Raider shows a three-frame lead for the Gaming K6+. M.2 connector We use Plextor's fast M6e 256GB M.2 SSD to test the speed of a motherboard's M.2 connector. We reviewed the 512GB Plextor M6e (and its PCIe x2 adapter card) HERE. Unfortunately we do not have access to a PCIe 3.0-based SSD to fully test the M.2 connector’s performance limits. As expected, the motherboard's M.2 speed capacity will not bottleneck a PCIe 2.0 x2 device such as Plextor's M6e. We experienced an odd issue with the ASRock motherboard whereby installing an M.2 device (be it PCIe- or SATA-fed) would result in a BSOD for our Windows 7 test system. The issue was not present when using Windows 8.1, so we can only assume that the issue lies with the now legacy (but still immensely popular) operating system. SATA For SATA 6Gb/s testing we use a Kingston HyperX 3K (SandForce SF-2281) SSD. SATA 6Gbps performance from Z170 chipset ports is in the region that we would expect it to be. Connectors provided by ASMedia's ASM1061 controller should be used as backup or for slower mechanical storage devices. USB 3.0 We tested USB 3.0 performance using the Kingston HyperX 3K SSD connected to a SATA 6Gb/s to USB 3.0 adapter powered by an ASMedia ASM1053 controller. ASRock cannot match the USB 3.0 performance of Asus and the vendor's UASP-enabling software for Windows 7. When using Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, the gap will be significantly reduced. With that said, USB 3.0 transfer rates that surpass the 300MBps mark still translates into a strong result. We looked at the performance of ASRock's USB 3.1 solution on an X99 motherboard over here. Audio We use RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) to analyse the performance of the motherboard’s onboard audio solution. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested. ASRock's Purity Sound 3 audio system is based around the Realtek ALC 1150 codec. Two Texas Instruments NE5532 op-amps drive rear and front panel headphone jacks, while Nichicon capacitors filter the audio signals. RMAA scores the Purity Sound 3 system on ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard as 'Very Good'. Automatic CPU Overclocking: ASRock's four included CPU OC profiles are: 4.4GHz static, 4.2GHz cache, auto voltages and LLC (hit 1.28V Core voltage under load), disabled power savings, XMP enabled. 4.6GHz static, 4.2GHz cache, auto voltages and LLC (hit 1.28V Core voltage under load), disabled power savings, XMP enabled. 4.7GHz static, 4.0GHz cache, 1.36V Core Voltage and Level 1 LLC, disabled power savings, XMP enabled. 4.8GHz static, 4.0GHz cache, 1.39V Core Voltage and Level 1 LLC, disabled power savings, XMP enabled. I think this is a decent set of overclocking profiles that should be achievable on a wide range of CPUs, even with mid range cooling hardware. The profiles functioned correctly (ignoring the F-Stream frequency reading error) on our processor. Manual CPU Overclocking: To test the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard’s CPU overclocking potential, we first increased the CPU VCore to 1.40V, and checked that the PCH voltage was running at 1.10V. We also enabled Level 1 load-line calibration in order to supply a constant voltage to the CPU. Power delivery settings were set to their maximum levels and the cache ratio was set to 45x. This is a heavy stress test for the motherboard's power delivery stability and its overall overclocking capacity. ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard was able to run our CPU at 4.8GHz, which seems to be the chip's maximum frequency. The F-Stream software recorded a maximum load voltage of 1.408V being applied to the CPU; an 8mV overshoot from the 1.40V we set in the BIOS is a solid result. We will outline the performance increases that can be obtained from using the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard to overclock our system. Our overclocked processor frequency was 4.8GHz and memory speed was maintained at 3200MHz. We will include comparisons to other Z170 motherboards as we build up our database of performance data. Good gains are to be had when using ASRock's gaming motherboard to overclock the CPU. 3DMark's Physics score showed a notable improvement, as did Cinebench. The i7 6700K CPU's high MCT clock speed gives it enough out-of-the-box steam to handle the processing requirements of GTA V. As such, overclocking the CPU does not provide a noticeable boost in average frame rates, although the maximums did seem up a little. We measured the power consumption with the system resting at the Windows 7 desktop, representing idle values. The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is measured while loading only the CPU using Prime95′s in-place large FFTs setting. The rest of the system’s components were operating in their idle states, hence the increased power consumption values (in comparison to the idle figures) are largely related to the load on the CPU and motherboard power delivery components. Largely thanks to its hybrid-digital (not fully digital) PWM controller and efficient power delivery system, ASRock's Gaming K6+ achieves a very low power consumption level when idling. Load power consumption at MCT speeds match those for Asus' Maximus VIII Hero. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ is an impressive motherboard that has all of the bells and whistles an enthusiast gamer could wish for. Performance from the motherboard was strong. The same can be said for the overclocking results, with ASRock's efficient power delivery system managing to hold our i7-6700K CPU perfectly stable at 4.8GHz with 1.40V being shifted to the chip. And that was with the CPU Cache frequency overclocked to 4.5GHz and memory sat at 3200MHz. ASRock has worked hard to create a UEFI that is excellent. Small iterative tweaks over the generations have given ASRock a user-friendly interface that is stable and packed with user-adjustable settings. It's not quite as in-depth as Asus' ROG UEFI, although it is still a strong implementation. ASRock's OS-based software focuses on general usage benefits, such as the creation of RAM Drive and being able to reboot to the UEFI. While this is good for those times when you aren't gaming, Asus has the better software packaging when it comes to enhancing your pixel-pushing action. Motherboard slot layout is smart and I am fond of the decision to route the lower PCIe connector's lanes through the chipset. This permits for two high-bandwidth graphics cards to be used alongside a PCIe SSD, not to mention the PCIe 3.0 x4 Ultra M.2 connector (provided the M.2 issues we experienced are indeed limited to our test system or an early BIOS revision). Feeding PCIe lanes from the (practically useless) SATA-Express connector in order to provide two front panel USB 3.1 ports, one Type-A and one reversible Type-C, is genius. I know ASRock is not the only vendor to apply this solution, so those competitors who have also implemented such a feature also deserve credit. Audio quality is very good, as is the board's balance of features designed for overclocking and general tinkering. I like to see a rear IO-mounted clear CMOS toggle, while the onboard debug LEDs and power and reset buttons are also welcomed. Perhaps my only valid gripe is the fan header positioning that may be deemed less than ideal for many users with AIO liquid coolers and a rear chassis fan. That's a minor point, as is my preference towards the inclusion of at least two USB 2.0 ports on the rear IO for enhanced support with older operating systems, like Windows 7. OverclockersUK have the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ listed for £163.99. The Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 version without the front USB 3.1 panel retails for £23 less, at £139.99. I think that ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ is one of the finest motherboards in its price range. One of its crowning features is the convenient front USB 3.1 panel that is provided, but the cheaper Gaming K6 version is available if that accessory is not needed. Smart design choices that are implemented to a high standard are what makes ASRock's Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ such a user-friendly motherboard. Discuss on our Facebook page HERE. Pros: Good overclocking capability. Well-balanced set of gaming features. Easy-to-use UEFI and dual BIOS chips for redundancy. Superb fan control system through the UEFI and OS software. Efficient power delivery system. USB 3.1 front panel connectors. Smart component layout choices. Good audio solution. Cons: Supported software not as gamer-orientated as Asus ROG motherboards. Fan header placement could be better for AIO liquid cooling users. KitGuru says: An excellent balance between gaming features and ones that will appeal to hardware enthusiasts. ASRock's design choices are smart and they're implemented to a high standard.

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ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ Motherboard Review

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