I am not going to discover anything new about the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer / 3.1 and I am going to leave a little of the analyzes that you are used to, since I am going to dedicate myself this time to fully check the USB 3.1 connection and pass some basic tests of performance, that's why I've called it a "quick scan."

Product provided by ASRock Spain:

Technical characteristics

ASROCK Z97 EXTREME 4 FEATURES
CPU	CPU - Supports 5th Generation, New 4th and 4th generation Intel ® Core ™ i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium® / Celeron ® Processors (Socket 1150) Digi Power Design 12 phase feeding design Compatible with Intel ® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology Supports Intel ® K-Series CPU unlocked Supports ASRock BCLK Full Range Overclocking Chipset - Intel ® Z97
Chipset	Intel ® Z97 Express Chipset
Memory	- 4 x DDR3 DIMM Slots - Supports DDR3 2933 (OC) / 2800 (OC) / 2400 (OC) / 2133 (OC) / 1866 (OC) / 1600/1333 / 1066 without ECC, UN backed memory - Max. system memory capacity: 32GB * - Supports Intel ® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2 - 15μ Gold contacts in DIMM Slots
Multi-GPU Compatible	Graphics - Supports Intel® Integrated HD Graphics 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 4400/4600 - Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 11.1 - Max. 1792MB shared memory - Four graphic output options: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 - Supports Triple monitor - Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096 × 2304) @ 24Hz - Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920 × 1200 @ 60Hz - Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920 × 1200 @ 60Hz - Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096 × 2304) @ 24Hz or 4K x 2K (3840 × 2160) @ 60Hz - Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI port (no HDMI compatible monitor required) - HDCP Compatible with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports - Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray BD) playback (with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports * Intel ® HD Graphics built-in visuals and VGA outputs can be supported only by processors that are integrated GPU. * * Due to chipset limitations, Intel ® HD Graphics Blu-ray playback is only supported by Windows ® 8/8 64-bit / 7/7 64-bit. * * * Intel ® InTru ™ 3D only supports Windows ® 8.8 64-bit / 7/7 64-bit.Slots - 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (PCIE2 / PCIE5 / PCIE6: Single to x16 (PCIE2); Dual to x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE5); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 (PCIE5) / x4 (PCIE6) - 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots - Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX ™, 3-Way CrossFireX ™ and CrossFireX ™ - Supports NVIDIA ® Quad SLI ™ and SLI ™ - 15μ Gold contacts in PCIe VGA (PCIE2) slot
Storage	- 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb / s connectors from Intel ® Z97, RAID support (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel ® Rapid Storage Technology 13 and Intel ® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI, connection in Hot and ASRock HDD Saving Technology - 1 x SATA3 6.0Gb / s ASMedia ASM1061 connectors, support NCQ, AHCI, Hot Plug and ASRock HDD Saver Technology - 1 x SATA Express Connector (shared with SATA3_4, SATA3_5 and M.2 Socket) * - 1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3, supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb / s module and M.2 PCI Express Gen2 module up to x2 (10 Gb / s)
USB and extras	- 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb / s) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) - 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb / s) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
Net	- Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb / s - Qualcomm ^® Atheros ^® Killer ™ E2200 Series - Supports Intel ® Remote Wake Technology - Supports Wake-On-LAN - Supports Lightning / ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection) - Compatible with Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az - Supports PXE
Bluetooth	Do not.
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 ™ 2 - Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps - 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier - TI ® NE5532 premium headphone Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headphones) - Direct Drive technology - EMI protection cover - PCB isolated shielding - Supports DTS Connect
BIOS	BIOS - 2 x 64Mb AMI UEFI legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x main BIOS and 1 x backup BIOS) - Supports Secure UEFI Backup Technology - ACPI 1.1 Compliant wake up events - SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support - CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.05V, PCH 1.5V Multiple Voltage setting
Format.	ATX format: 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm

ASRock Z97X Killer 3.1

Before going into benchmark details at least comment that it is an ATX motherboard with measures 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm and that a red design and a black PCB predominate. The motherboard is compatible with the LGA 1150 socket with Intel Haswell / Haswell Refresh and Intel Devil's Canyon processors of the latest generation Z97 chipset without the need for an update today. It also includes four DDR3 sockets with a maximum capacity of 32GB up to 2900 Mhz. Over power maintains the design of the ASRock Extreme 4 with 8 EPS pins and 24 ATX pins.

To allow efficient and effective stability, it has 8 digital phases with 20A " Premium Alloy Choke " capacitors, Nichicon 12K Platinum capacitors and "XXL" aluminum heatsinks that are blue. After our tests we have verified that it indeed lives up to the expectations set.

We have a total of 3 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots and another three PCI Express 2.0 to x1 Slots. The board allows us to install a 3 WAY SLI / CrossFireX configuration that, taking into account the established price (about € 130), is the only one that meets this functionality. To improve the transfer of data between cards and motherboard they have added the 15μ Gold Contact function that increases the base performance of the connection 5 times. It also has an extra MOLEX connection to give a bonus to punctured graphics cards.

In addition to the PCI Express connections it also has the M.2 interface . Although many people do not see much sense, we do find it because it allows us to connect a solid state hard drive with a speed of Gb / s.

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The Sound Purity sound card is a combination of various solutions (hardware and software) that deliver fantastic sound, driven by the Realtek ALC1150 chip. What are the improvements? Integration of a 115dB SNR DAC, Premium TI 5532 600 ohm headphone amplifier, shielding and interference isolation.

Finally we stop at the rear connections:

1 x D-Sub port 1 x DVI-D port 1 x HDMI port 1 x Optical SPDIF output port 1 x USB 2.0 port (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 1 x Fatal1ty mouse port (USB 2.0) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 2 x USB 3.0 ports (ASMedia ASM1042AE) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 4 x USB 3.0 ports (Intel® Z97) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) 1 x Port with RJ-45 LAN LED (Activation / connection and speed LEDs) HD Audio connectors: Rear speaker / Center / Bass / line input / Front Speaker / Microphone.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i7 4790k
Base plate:	ASRock Z97X Killer USB 3.1.
Memory:	G.Skills Trident X 2400mhz.
Heatsink	Noctua NH-14S
HDD	Samsumg 840 250GB
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX780
Power supply	Antec HCP 850

To check the stability of the processor and the motherboard we have used a high-end processor: i7 4790k. Since it does not allow us to overclock, we have passed the tests with the stock values.

TESTS
3dMark Vantage:	P49015
3dMark11	P14722 PTS
Crysis 3	48 FPS
CineBench 11.5	9.3 fps.
Resident Evil 6 Lost planet tomb Raider Meter	1311 PTS. 145 FPS. 62 FPS 59 FPS

USB 3.1.

The USB (universal serial bus) connection came fully into our lives on the first motherboards beyond 1996 with the famous "Plug & Play". It was a discovery to connect any device such as a keyboard, mouse or memory through this port. Already over 200 the USB 2.0 output began improving speed and giving leaps and bounds. 8 years later (2008) the USB 3.0 connections came out, which has been standardized until 2013 with the output of USB 3.1 and up to a fantastic 5GB / s transfer.

ASRock opts for an extra card in this series of motherboards that incorporates Type-A (normal and more common type) and Type-C (Reversible) connection. A picture is worth a thousand words.

For the tests I have used a Lianli converter remanufactured by another brand with two mSATA cards with 256GB each, the results have been equally good in both types. We leave you capture:

Final words

Quickly summing up the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer / 3.1 it is an excellent motherboard with a very nice design and features worthy of a high end product. It has 8 power phases, a good sound card, good system to install 2 graphics cards, efficient cooling and enough SATA ports to have many drives connected.

The USB 3.1 connection. and the incorporation of the M.2 port. are their novelties in this model. The results have been excellent and I find it a highly recommended product. Its store price ranges from 160 to 180 euros.