<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">The typical mainstay for the overclocker is the ATX size, with ample room for large coolers and multi-GPU setups. Is micro-ATX up to scratch? ASRock thinks so at $190 with the Z87M OC Formula, offering direct competition to the ASUS ROG Gene models.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">After reviewing the Z87 OC Formula, the full sized ATX ASRock OC SKU, I was hoping almost for a renaissance from ASRock at the $190-200 segment for overclocking.&nbsp; As I mentioned in the ATX review, for Ivy Bridge at $240 we had the Z77 OC Formula which was, in my own words, &lsquo;the best ASRock motherboard I have ever tested&rsquo;. For around 25% cheaper on Haswell our board is smaller, but still built on the same principles envisaged by NickShih, ASRock&rsquo;s in-house overclocker. The question comes whether the reduction in size cripples our functionality compared to the previous platform, or if it really is the cost effective solution against the Z87 OC Formula or something in the same price bracket, such as the Gigabyte Z87X-OC which is at $200. This latter motherboard will be the focus of a later review for sure.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">Typically I write these reviews after testing. As I test the motherboard, make note of my results/comments/issues, and then sit down to write either the day after or during the next few days if possible. The path of the Z87M OC Formula takes a slightly different turn, as during my testing I was in constant contact with fellow overclockers discussing the pros and cons of the motherboard while they were using it for the professional overclocking league cup. ASRock seeded almost every team that requested a sample, taking a different philosophy to most other manufacturers &ndash; ASRock handed out boards to any professional that requested one at launch to get feedback.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">This is in contrast to most manufacturers who rely on HQ or regional offices that will seed a handful of teams or local users in exchange for posting overclocking scores, forum reviews, or help debug/advise with user experience. All ASRock wanted with the Z87M OC Formula was the professionals to use it, give feedback, and post scores if they manage to get any. ASRock are comfortable with the fewer sales of an already niche product if enough power users can help improve the system. I have asked my fellow overclocking team-mate and UK Overclocker K404 to write his experiences for AnandTech to aid our readers in understanding what goes through a competitive overclocker&rsquo;s head when they get a new motherboard as a comparison to my mainstream analysis. This will feature at the end of the review.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">As mentioned above, the main competition to the Z87M OC Formula comes from the Gigabyte Z87X-OC, another overclocking motherboard available at $200. For the green, the M-OC Formula is kitted out with a few overclocking features &ndash; a Slow Mode switch, an LN2 Mode switch, a BIOS Select switch and the same power delivery system as the full-size ATX OC Formula. The main bulk of overclocking features are in the BIOS and software, featuring an almost identical set to the bigger brother.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">Aside from the six SATA ports and eight USB 3.0 ports, ASRock have fitted this board with an mSATA (shared with a SATA port), an eSATA (shared with a SATA port), a mini-PCIe (for WiFi cards), and single-latch memory slots.&nbsp; In terms of the new features from the A-Style series ASRock is promoting, we get HDMI-In, Home Cloud and Purity Sound. ASRock also likes to promote their use of an 8-layer PCB with micro-ATX, and inclusion of a higher quality thermal paste (GELID GC-Extreme) with the package to help users with their overclocks.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">The main issue from a home-user standpoint for me is ASRock&rsquo;s issue with MultiCore Enhancement. ASRock cannot decide whether to have it enabled by default or not, and will happily supply reviewers with media BIOSes that enable it by default, but then supply public BIOSes with it disabled. This artificially inflates multithreaded scores for stock benchmarks if a reviewer stays with the media BIOS. ASRock asked me for my suggestion on which motherboards in their range should have this feature enabled by default &ndash; I replied that any Extreme ATX should (Extreme3 and up) as well as the OC Formula (ATX and mATX) motherboards. Anything below this is a cost sensitive platform where the extra energy/heat used by the feature might not be appropriate. We will see the results in due course, and as a result I tested our CPU portion of our benchmarks with MCE both enabled and disabled so ASRock can see the enhancements. The GPU benchmarks are with MCE disabled, for &lsquo;out-of-the-box&rsquo; performance on BIOS 1.30, the latest public version at the time of testing.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">For performance, with MCE disabled, the ASRock cannot keep up with its bigger brother in the multithreaded tests due to the MHz deficit, but with MCE enabled it is comparable to the Z87 OC Formula in most tests. The ATX model had the upper hand in some memory-limited benchmarks, but the mATX wins outright in power consumption.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">For most home users, the mATX model will be sufficient. Despite this the Z87 Extreme6/AC which we reviewed at launch can be found for $10-$20 more.&nbsp; For that price difference we get a full ATX, more USB/SATA, HDMI-In and essentially the same every day experience. In most 24/7 overclocking tests on our Haswell CPU we are more limited by the CPU, and both the Extreme6/AC and the M-OC Formula offer similar experiences (with albeit more options on the M-OC Formula). For extreme overclocking, the micro-ATX is certainly worth a look (K404 was very happy with his), but for a daily machine, the Z87 Extreme6/AC which we gave a silver award might be preferable in terms of bang-for-buck.</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 13px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Arimo, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 1px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);"><a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/7175/asrock-z87m-oc-formula-review-matx-oc-at-200" target="_blank">Read more...</a></p>