Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 or Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3?

Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 or Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3. I have the Fatal1ty Pro board and have built two Extreme 7 Gen3 and tested them thoroughly. For me, Fatal1ty Z68 Professional hands down even though the EX7Gen3 is a newer board…

In saying that… Using an Intel 2600k, ASUS GTX560 Video Card and 16GB: Video conversions and read write was similar in performance between these two boards in the real world. BATMAN Arch asylum at 1920x1080 both got between 35FPS to 44FPS. This is more a reflection of the Video Card. I'm no professional tester but these are just some bench marks I use. in my world these two are very similar in performance.

http://www.asrock.com/microsite/PCIe3/models.asp will tell you that they are generally the same. The differences are on board features such as,3 way crossfireX, with number of ports, SATA slots, number of FAN powers on MOB etc… I do like the Fatal1ty over the EX7Gen3 personally. Depentant on your needs etc to what you should get. I believe you do pay $20 to $50 more for the Fatal1ty name. but it dose have some good extra's.

My favourite extra on the Fatal1ty is the Mouse port. The mouse port works even when it shouldn’t. I not sure of how it is seen by some DOS screen but it is. If i plug the mouse into a normal USB port it is not recognised in DOS screens, other Screens or program/s… This port has been bagged in two reviews s I’ve read, one on this site. Personally I would not want to be without this port as it made my life easier for me.

My Rig:
CPU: i7 2600k
Ram: G.Skill Sniper 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
cooler: NZXT Cooler
GPU: 1x asus gtx 560
ssd: Intel 110GB
Hdd: 5x Western Digital 2TB SATA 6Gb/s (RAID 5)
Case: NZXT Phantom (WHITE)
Psu: NZXT PSU HALE90 750w
DUAL BenQ-M2400HD-24inch-LCD-Monitor

Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi PWM Design, Advanced V12 + 6 Power Phase Design
Supports Dual Channel DDR3 2133(OC)
Integrated PLX PEX8608 chip onboard to offer sufficient PCI-E lanes
2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots
Supports ATI™ Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
Dual PCIE GLAN with Teaming function
Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Supports Fatal1ty XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
Supports Graphical UEFI, Lucid Virtu, Intel® Smart Response Technology
Supports Fatal1ty F-Stream, On/Off Play Technology, APP Charger, SmartView
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), THX TruStudio™
Free Bundle : 1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable, 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel, CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite


Z68 Extreme7 Gen3

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
NVIDIA® NF200 Chip Onboard (Dual VGA cards at PCI-E x16/x16; three VGA cards at x16 / x8 / x8)
Integrated PLX PEX8608 chip onboard to offer sufficient PCI-E lanes
1x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot, 4 PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots, Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™
Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
Multi VGA Output : D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Supports Dual LAN with Teaming function
Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Support Intel® Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
Supports ASRock XFast Charger Technology
Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
Supports ASRock On/Off Play, graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™
Free Bundle : 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel, 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket, 1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable, CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite


Hope this helps.I also chose the Fatal1ty Pro Gen3 z68 over the Extreme 7

Aren't the 2011 CPU's rather expensive at the moment though?

The issue with the Extreme7 vs. the Fatal1ty is mauinly with the video. In a single GPU setup they are equal. In a dual card SLI the Fatali1ty is faster because the NF200 chip interpolates the signal for 16 X 16. If you are using a single monitor you will never saturate an 8 X 8 SLI setup. The NF200 shows its' stuff when you are using 3 or 3+ SLI (or Xfire).

Otherwise the main difference is in the SATA ports and the legacy connections for floppy drives and/or IDE.

Both are good boards, but right now with only 2 SLI GPUs I'd say the Fatal1ty is better (if you can stand the image of the narcissistic a__hole every time you use the UEFI). I prefer the regular ASRock interface on my Extreme6 (P67).