The ASRock X299 Extreme4 Motherboard Review: $200 Entry To HEDT

Conclusion

Knowing the price of the ASRock X299 Extreme4, we can see it is being pegged as an entry-level type of motherboard in the X299 space. At times it is the least expensive X299 based motherboard available, although there are other boards close to it in price. The Exteme4 is a solid board to get feet wet in the HEDT platform. With the more expensive boards, users tend to bypass the quad-core Kaby Lake-X processors built for this platform, but with boards in this price range, users are able to test the waters and get into this platform at a similar price to the mainstream side (Z270/Z370) while having a viable upgrade path in the future with a move to Skylake-X processors and its higher core/thread count. 

The ASRock X299 Extreme4 has a lot of the features users expect from the X299 platform. It gets the full complement of chipset provided SATA ports, uses an Intel I219-V LAN controller, and has two M.2 slots, USB 3.1 ports (a Type-A and Type-C), and a high-end Realtek ALC1220 audio codec. The USB 3.1 ports are handled by an ASMedia ASM3142 controller, which uses less power and offering better performance than the ASM2142 controller used on some mainstream boards. The 11-phase power delivery isn't built from the same robust power bits the higher end boards do, but it handled everything we threw at it without flinching. The oversized dual heatpipe that connect the heatsinks to help cooling them did a good job, and the heatsinks were only warm to the touch after our 30-minute testing.

The build quality on Extreme4 was fine outside of one minor issue. The beefy VRM heatsink on this sample was a bit warped and barely made contact with a MOSFET or two. While I didn't run into any issues with throttling and the system ran fine, I would hope this is a one-off type issue. Outside of that, I did not have any issues with build quality. Being an entry-level board, as an enthusiast, I can 'miss' features like power on/off buttons or a debug LED which many users do not want, but in the end this is why we pay a premium for additional features. 

Performance on the ASRock board was just about in the middle of the pack in nearly all testing. About the only items of note were in the gaming testing showing this board barely leading a tight pack in the ROTR testing, with the AOTSe testing showing good performance in 1080p, but was 1 FPS/3% slower in 4K. Overall it performed well keeping up with much more expensive boards. 

As always, the difference between motherboards is in the details. In the case of the ASRock X299 Extreme4, it is one of the more capable boards for entry-level X299. It comes with the same or more features than comparably priced boards making it a very solid 'bang for your buck' motherboard as it has been on other chipsets in the past. For $200, it is tough to beat and should be on the short list in the $200 price range. 

Other AnandTech X299 Motherboard Reviews:

• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7980XE and Core i9-7960X Tested
• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7900X, i7-7820X and i7-7800X Tested
• The Intel Kaby Lake-X Review: Core i7-7740X and i5-7640X Tested
• Intel Announces Basin Falls: The New High-End Desktop Platform and X299 Chipset
   
• ($480) The ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe Review [link]
• ($400) The GIGABYTE X299 Gaming 7 Pro Review [link]
• ($390) The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Review [link] 
• ($390) The ASRock X299 Professional Gaming i9 Review [link] 
• ($370) The ASUS Strix X299-XE Gaming Review [link] 
• ($366) The MSI X299 Gaming M7 ACK Review [link]
• ($308) The MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon Review [link] 
• ($340) The ASUS X299 TUF Mark 1 Review [link] 
• ($330) The EVGA X299 FTW-K Review [link]
• ($305) The MSI X299M Gaming Pro Carbon AC [link]
• ($290) The EVGA X299 Micro Review [link]
• ($290) The ASRock X299 Taichi Review [link]
• ($260) The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Review [link]
• ($232) The MSI X299 SLI Plus Review [link]
• ($200) The ASRock X299 Extreme4 Review (this review)

To read specifically about the X299 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.