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ASRock Z170 OC Formula Now Available in mATX: Z170M OC Formula
The ASRock Z170 OC Formula motherboard is a beast of an overclocker setting and holding many records for Intel’s Skylake platform. Now users looking for a more compact version will be glad to hear that ASRock has released a micro-ATX version on April 1st and it is not an April Fool’s joke at all. In fact, master overclocker John Lam has already scored a 7.025.66 GHz overclock with the mighty mini motherboard.
Similar to the ATX Z170 OC Formula, the Z170M OC Formula sports a black and yellow/gold theme and has a very beefy 14-phase VRM with 60A inductors. The PCB itself is a 10-layer high-density glass fabric PCB and has onboard overclocking controls.
Just because it is an overclocking motherboard, it does not mean that the Z170M OC Formula is a slouch when it comes to other features. In terms of audio, the Purity Sound 3 solution uses a Realtek ALC1150 HD audio codec paired with Nichicon Finegold capacitors and Texas Instruments TI NE5532 amplifiers. USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C is also provided in the rear via an ASMedia ASM1142. For more information, check out the full product specification on the official product page: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170M%20OC%20Formula/?cat=Specifications
| General | |
| OC Formula Kit | OC Formula Power Kit – 14 Phase CPU Power design + 2 Phase Memory Power design – Digi Power (CPU and Memory) – Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM) – Multiple Filter Cap (MFC) (Filter different noise by 3 different capacitors: DIP solid cap, POSCAP and MLCC) OC Formula Connector Kit – Hi-Density Power Connector (8 pin) – 15μ Gold Contact (CPU socket, memory sockets and PCIE1) OC Formula Cooling Kit – 10 Layer PCB – Heat Pipe Design |
| Unique Feature | ASRock USB 3.1 – ASRock USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) – ASRock USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) ASRock Super Alloy – XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink – Premium 60A Power Choke – Premium Memory Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke) – Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM) – Combo Caps – Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors) – I/O Armor – Matte Black PCB – High Density Glass Fabric PCB ASRock IR PowIRStage PWM ASRock CPU Cold Bug Killer ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3) ASRock Full Spike Protection ASRock Live Update & APP Shop |
| CPU | – Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1151) – Digi Power design – 14 Power Phase design – Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology – Supports Intel® K-Series unlocked CPUs – Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking – Supports ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine |
| Chipset | – Intel® Z170 |
| Memory | – Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology – 2 x DDR4 DIMM Slots – Supports DDR4 4500+(OC)*/4366(OC)/4333(OC)/4266(OC)/4133(OC)/4000(OC)/3866(OC)/ 3800(OC)/3733(OC)/3666(OC)/3600(OC)/3466(OC)/3400(OC)/3333(OC)/3300(OC)/3200(OC)/3000(OC)/ 2933(OC)/2800(OC)/2600(OC)/2400(OC)/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory – Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode) ** – Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB* – Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0 – 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots *Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation. **4500+(OC) memory frequency can only be achieved when a single memory module is installed (Single channel memory). |
| BIOS | – 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS) – Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology – ACPI 5.0 Compliant wake up events – SMBIOS 2.7 Support – CPU, GT_CPU, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCPLL, VCCSA Voltage Multi-adjustment |
| Audio, Video and Networking | |
| Graphics | – Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel® Quick Sync Video with AVC, MVC (S3D) and MPEG-2 Full HW Encode1, Intel® InTru™ 3D, Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel® Insider™, Intel® HD Graphics 510/530 – Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 12 – Max. shared memory 1792MB – Dual graphics output: Support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 ports by independent display controllers – Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 24Hz / (3840×2160) @ 30Hz – Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2304) @ 60Hz – Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required) – Supports Accelerated Media Codecs: HEVC, VP8, VP9 – Supports HDCP with HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports – Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports *Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated. **Due to chipset limitation, the Blu-ray playback of Intel® HD Graphics is only supported under Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit. ***Intel® InTru™ 3D is only supported under Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit. |
| Audio | – 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec) – Premium Blu-ray Audio support – Supports Surge Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection) – Supports Purity Sound™ 3 – Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps – 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier – TI® NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets) – Pure Power-In – Direct Drive Technology – PCB isolate shielding – Supports DTS Connect |
| LAN | – Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s – Giga PHY Intel® I219V – Supports Wake-On-LAN – Supports Lightning/ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection) – Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az – Supports PXE |
| Expansion / Connectivity | |
| Slots | – 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2); triple at x8 (PCIE1) / x8 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE3))* – Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™ – Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™ – 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1) *Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
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| Storage | – 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by Intel® Z170, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 14 and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug – 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug – 2 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s Connectors* – 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket, supports type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)** *M2_1, SATA3_0, SATA3_1 and SATA_EXP0 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
Support to be announced*Supports ASRock U.2 Kit Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks |
| Connector | – 1 x COM Port Header – 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header – 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 3-pin, 1 x 4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control) – 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)* – 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector – 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector) – 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector – 1 x Thunderbolt™ 2/3 AIC Connector (5-pin) – 1 x Thunderbolt™ 3 AIC Connector (10-pin)** – 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x USB 3.0 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x Dr. Debug with LED – 1 x Power Switch with LED – 1 x Reset Switch with LED – V-Probe™: 1 x 7-set of onboard voltage measurement points laid – Rapid OC Buttons: +/- buttons to adjust OC frequency – 1 x Menu Button – Post Status Checker (PSC) – 1 x Slow Mode Switch – 1 x LN2 Mode Switch – 1 x BIOS Selection Switch – 1 x XMP Switch – 1 x Direct Key Button *CPU_FAN1, CHA_FAN_1, CHA_FAN_2 and CHA_FAN_3 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.**Only one Thunderbolt™ AIC Card is supported. |
| Rear Panel I/O | – 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port – 1 x HDMI Port – 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 – 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port – 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 4 x USB 3.0 Ports (Intel® Z170) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) – 1 x Clear CMOS Switch – HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| Other Features / Miscellaneous | |
| Software and BIOS | Software – ASRock Formula Drive – ASRock Disk Health Report – ASRock Fine-Tuning V-Controller – ASRock Timing Configurator – ASRock USB Key – ASRock APP Charger – ASRock XFast LAN – ASRock XFast RAM – ASRock Fast Boot (Fast Boot, Restart to UEFI)* UEFI – ASRock EZ Mode – ASRock Full HD UEFI – ASRock My Favorites in UEFI – ASRock NickShih’s OC Profile – ASRock Instant Flash – ASRock Internet Flash – ASRock Crashless BIOS – ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard) – ASRock UEFI System Browser – ASRock UEFI Tech Service – ASRock Easy RAID Installer – ASRock Easy Driver Installer *These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
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| Support CD | – Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar |
| Accessories | – 1 x ASRock Flexible SLI™ Bridge Connector Cable – Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield – 2 x SATA Data Cables – 1 x Screw for M.2 Socket |
| Hardware Monitor | – CPU/Chassis temperature sensing – CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer – CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature) – CPU/Chassis Fan multi-speed control – Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, GT_CPU, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA |
| Form Factor | – Micro ATX Form Factor |
| OS | – Microsoft® Windows® 10 64-bit / 8.1 64-bit / 7 32-bit / 7 64-bit*
*To install Windows® 7 OS, a modified installation disk with xHCI drivers packed into the ISO file is required. Please check our User Manual for more detailed instructions.
For the updated Windows® 10 driver, please visit ASRock’s website for details. |
| Certifications | – FCC, CE, WHQL – ErP/EuP ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required) |
Caution:
Please realize that there is a certain risk involved with overclocking, including adjusting the setting in the BIOS or using the third-party overclocking tools. Overclocking may affect your system stability, or even cause damage to the components and devices of your system. It should be done at your own risk and expense. We are not responsible for possible damage caused by overclocking.
Please realize that there is a certain risk involved with overclocking, including adjusting the setting in the BIOS or using the third-party overclocking tools. Overclocking may affect your system stability, or even cause damage to the components and devices of your system. It should be done at your own risk and expense. We are not responsible for possible damage caused by overclocking.
