Specs
Featuring the Z68 Intel chipset, the Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 gaming motherboard is feature packed and designed around stability and performance while still supporting all the latest components and features such as being able to utilize the Lucid Virtu driver to support utilizing both the integrated on die Intel graphics along with a discrete graphics solution. The Z68 chipset also fully supports Turbo Boost 2.0 that is available in most major Core i5 and higher end Core i7 processors. Turbo Boost is a technology that dynamically increase the processor frequency as needed by taking up the available thermal and power head room allowed by the processor.
ASRock included A large number of I/O ports to allow connection of all the hardware an enthusiast or hardcore gamer would possibly need. The board was carefully designed with consideration give to all aspects to insure a rock solid, stable motherboard. In order to achieve that and in keeping with previous ASRock Fatal1ty boards ASRock used 100% japan-made solid capacitors, the sleek high gloss capacitors are designed for long life and stability. In keeping with maintain stability ASRock has designed the Fatal1ty series motherboards with a V12+6 Power Phase, this allows for smooth delivery of power to the CPU and allowing amazing overclocking capability at lower power. In keeping with the smoothness of power delivery to the CPU this board also utilizes Digital Pulse-width modulation which helps to optimize the Vcore for the processor.
The Z68 chipset as I stated in the beginning offers the best of the H67 and P67 chipset combining on-die graphics one of the key points of the Intel Sandy Bridge series processors with discrete graphics solutions. In order to utilize both graphics solutions you will need to install the Lucid Virtu driver which was thoughtfully provided by ASRock on the support CD. The other benefits are full overclocking support both manually and in the form of the UEFI Bios which allows for 1-click overclocking anywhere between 3.8 and 5GHz while maintaining the best values for stability.
Graphics, obviously a huge part of gaming it represents the world you see and the objectives you complete. Naturally ASRock has included some impressive features for graphical enjoyment, including 2x PCI Express 3.0 x 16 slots, 1x PCI express 2.0 x16 slot and 2x PCI express 1x slots, and the included connectors for supporting AMD Crossfire and Nvidia SLI. All together ASRock has put together a nice set of features with full support of 3 high end graphics cards to power your world.
Coupled with six USB 3.0 ports and six SATA3 ports, the Fatal1ty Z68 Professional gaming motherboard offers plenty of storage options even going so far as to support RAID 0/1/10/5. Your gaming system can also store your growing game and movie collection with little worry about running short of storage options. This motherboard features the ASMedia 1042 USB 3.0 chipset instead of the more common NEC chipset. The ASMedia chipset combined with Fatal1ty XFast USB technology is said to boost USB 3.0 up to 386% by utilizing additional CPU resources over that which Windows normally assigns. ASRock also bundles a USB 3.0 front port panel that mounts in a standard 3.5″ bay or can be mounted in a standard PCI bracket opening in the rear on top of the bracket is mounting for a 2.5 SSD as normally 2.5inch spaces are in short supply.
The back I/O panel of the motherboard includes
- 4x USB 3.0 ports( Unusable until OS is installed)
- 4x USB 2.0 ports ( one is the Fatal1ty Mouse port, more on that in a bit)
- Dual Gigabit LAN ports with support for Teaming
- 2 HDMI 1.4 ports
- 1x Clear Cmos button
- 1x VGA/ D-sub port
- 1x PS2 port
- 7.1 Channel HD audio ports with content protection, THX TruStudio Pro support
- Firewire (IEEE 1394)
- 1x E-SATA
Included in the software bundle is the Fatal1ty F-Stream tuning software which makes overclocking and monitoring of system vitals very easy, the F-Stream application is also the adjustment center for the Fatal1ty Mouse port.
The Fatal1ty Mouse Port™ is a customizable technology powered by ASRock’s F-Stream utility. Gamers may adjust the polling rate of the mouse connected to the port from 125Hz to 1000Hz. The port defaults to the Fatal1ty preferred 500Hz. Without this built-in component the only other options for adjust mouse polling rate involve complicated settings changes or modification of key system software components.
“I looked at all the gaming motherboards I could find, but not one of them had anything like this. There are ways to do this with windows, but it takes a long time. The steps must be taken correctly and in the right order. Done incorrectly you can damage your motherboard by using these hacks. The Fatal1ty Mouse Port™ is the first such mouse port ever put on a gaming motherboard and, although it is really specific, it is something I would want in a gaming motherboard.”
The Z68 Fatal1ty board also makes overclocking via the traditional way easy with the UEFI bios, this new bios type presents the user with a customizable bios screen complete with mouse support and proper icons, this coupled with the larger supported screen real estate really brings the bios to a more modern state where anyone with a will can make changes in the bios and feel fairly confidant due to the increased user friendliness of it. In addition to the UEFI bios the board also includes DR Debug, a display on board which makes diagnosing problems easy . Dr Debug outputs status codes for over 140 different issues with each code listed for easy reference in the manual ( both digital and print).
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| Chipset | Intel Z68 |
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| Audio |
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| LAN |
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| SATA3 |
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| USB 3.0 |
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| Rear Panel I/O |
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| Other features / Miscellaneous | |
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| Smart Switch |
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| Support CD |
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| Hardware monitor |
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| Form factor |
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Lets get a little closer with this awesome looking board.
Hi there this is my first time posting. But i been a forum guess for the longest and i decided to post and tell how i like this forum
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PsvitaHacks
I have one of these boards with allmost same setup tested here except I have a zotac gtx 460 1gb card. It runs bad company 2 at average 65 fps with stock settings and average 80 fps when over clocked to 4000. mhz. With using a cooler master 212plus cpu cooler, the motherboard allmost never gets over 30c and the cpu average in the low 30’s stock and mid/uper 30’s overclocked steady at 4100mhz. It is a beautifull looking board also and the fatal1ty look on the bios is a welcome releif from the usual blue screen of past bios.
I thought that SATA cables had the right angle plug for the HDD end not the Mobo?
it dosen’t matter which end you put it, same result. most of the time I put it on the hard drive, dosen’t matter
Thank you for finally putting the “link” posting back into your email post. It has been missing for about six months and I couldn’t read the email you posted. Thank You!