ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Review - IDE and Floppy on Z77
by Ian Cutress on May 20, 2012 1:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- Fatal1ty
- Z77
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ both uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
Due to the default overclock enabled option of ASUS and Gigabyte boards, the ASRock unfortunately lags behind noticeably in multithreaded testing. The ASRock should have average single thread performance in comparison, but in our 3DPM test, the Professional comes in with the lowest score.
WinRAR x64 3.93 - link
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible.
As a test that utilizes multithreading where possible, WinRAR exposes how the motherboards react to changes in load and application of turbo modes. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional does well here, edging out the ASUS Pro and coming streaks ahead of the Extreme4.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2 - link
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
Focusing purely on single threaded performance, the Fatal1ty does not perform too well. With the ASUS Deluxe somehow blitzing the field, nothing is coming close.
Xilisoft Video Converter
With XVC, users can convert any type of normal video to any compatible format for smartphones, tablets and other devices. By default, it uses all available threads on the system, and in the presence of appropriate graphics cards, can utilize CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD APP for AMD GPUs. For this test, we use a set of 32 HD videos, each lasting 30 seconds, and convert them from 1080p to an iPod H.264 video format using just the CPU. The time taken to convert these videos gives us our result.
As Xilisoft stresses all cores all of the time, the ASUS and Gigabyte boards have the advantage with that default overclock in multithreaded load. As a result, the Professional lags behind a touch.
x264 HD Benchmark
The x264 HD Benchmark uses a common HD encoding tool to process an HD MPEG2 source at 1280x720 at 3963 Kbps. This test represents a standardized result which can be compared across other reviews, and is dependant on both CPU power and memory speed. The benchmark performs a 2-pass encode, and the results shown are the average of each pass performed four times.
In yet another multithreaded test, the Professional does not break into the top half of the motherboard testing due to that speed deficit.
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borden5 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
idk about you guy but i won't buy something that just because of a person image on it, it doesn't feel special about the board since whenever i think of my motherboard that guy pop up instead of something else, i'd rather prefer asrock sticker on it than this crap.kam24 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
I was looking through the Z77's on Newegg and this caught my attention because of IDE. I'll probably retire my old IDE hard drives along with my dusty old floppy (my current OS drive is SATA and I'll keep that for extra storage)...but I have two IDE optical drives with custom painted face plates. Nothing fancy but I'd like to reuse them. I was disappointed though with how the board fared in this review. When paying this much for a board I'd expect better power management and more polish. I don't care either way about the branding aspect.I'd just like to, as someone else mentioned, be able to take a bare bones board and add what I'd like. I wonder how much it would cost a company like MSI or Asus to offer that. I'd pay a little extra for a board perfect for me.
frankanderson - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
You guys know that they do sell IDE enclosures for old school drives and external DVDRW/BR devices right? I have a external usb floppy which I only use to boot up old motherboards that don't like to boot off USB thumb drive for some reason, or insert SCSI driver into floppy.. I just don't like having a floppy in my system anymore, I don't even have a DVD installed, the DVD is installed in my Home Server, I'll network whatever data over that I need, most of my games and apps are digital copies now, they are downloaded in a simple install package and left on my server, can't remember the last time I actually bought a software in a box (I think it was Windows 7 Ulitimate which was years ago)..Another thing is "Wendal" is a great gamer, a pro gamer and probably one of the greatest out there, sure it's a dream that someone can do what they love and still make a living from it.. I just don't believe that because it's "endorsed" by him, means that it's the best product..
And where I am from, most "endorsed" products are just for publicity, us as consumers don't really believe they really use that product at home, even if it's free.. just my $0.02
smithrd3512 - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
Looks like I can put a 5.25" floppy on my new build with this board.Would give the kids something to ask me what the heck is a floppy.
redwolfe98 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
i disagree that a floppy connector is not needed.. it is needed if you are running "windows xp", as i am..read how to flash the bios on a MSI motherboard, which doesn't have a floppy connector, when running win xp:
"get yourself an external floppy drive with a USB connector; add files to floppy disk so that the external floppy drive is recognized (if it works as intended); if all goes well ie if the external floppy drive is recognized, proceed to flash bios..
i remember when Dell quit shipping floppy drives.. lots of people weren't able to install the drivers that were needed for "sata", because they didn't have a floppy drive, and, consequently, had to switch things in the bios to "IDE compatibility"..
i don't see any reason for not including a floppy connector, at least not until windows xp is dead and buried and long forgotten..
i also like using PS/2 connections for mice and keyboards..
spencerp - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I bought a gamer computer back in the day (the HP Blackbird 002 with Voodoo DNA). It has an optical drive with a proprietary LED/button AND it's IDE. It still plenty fast for the occasional optical drive use.Due to the ASRock motherboards supporting both the IDE and legacy CPU coolers, it has allowed me to continue to breath new life into my hardware and use my Blackbird (I have the older, but nearly identical z68 version).
It's got pretty heavy branding which is extremely obvious out of the box. However, when the video cards and CPU cooler is installed, it's not as bad.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spthealien/6387705167...
It has been rock solid.
DreadStorm - Friday, May 2, 2014 - link
Instead of bitching about WHY people use floppies and EIDE, why not just accept the fact that some of us still do - and leave it at that? There are several useful reasons to still use a floppy - or other obsolete removable media - the main one being that no one else has such drives, and what better way to secure data than to place it on a medium that no one else has? USB, Firewire, rack-mounted hard drives, all suffer the same similarity: Everyone has them, and can connect to and try to crack into them. With a floppy, Orb, Zip, Jaz, hell even a 5.25", no one uses anymore, so it makes the data that much more secure against hack attempts. "Old school" hardware still has a number of useful applications nowadays. Personally, I have about 12 different obsolete removable media drives connected to my Fatal1ty Z77 Pro (most via SCSI card). And all work like a champ - except for the floppy drive controller on this board, which had never worked since day one. For the floppies, I have an older P4 machine networked together for those, because of the floppy connector issue on this board.If they ever got it fixed, I wouldn't need the older machine anymore. But other than that, I have no intention of relieving myself of older media. If for nothing else than nostalgia and uniqueness.