Review: asrock fm2a85x extreme6

It is time to review one of the best FM2 socket boards on the market. The FM2A85X Extreme6 is a solid board, with 10 power phases, supports 100w APUs, memory support of up to 2600 Mhz OC and the top-range chipset: A85X.

Product ceded by:

Before we begin by explaining all the features of the new AMD Trinity processors. I would like to solve a question that our readers will be asking : What is an APU?

APU stands for: P rocessing Units A held. This begins with the AMD Fusion project in 2006. This is a design by AMD and ATI that combine their powerful processors with mid / low level graphics cards on a single chip. Already at AMD Llano we saw one of the best quality / price / performance options on the market.

It is not the first time that we have analyzed such a processor, we had our first contact with the excellent range of processors. Specifically with a 65w AMD LLANO 3800 and a Gigabyte A75M-UD2H. We tested its graphics power with excellent DIRT 3 and FULL HD video playback.

AMD assure us a profit of 13% in CPU and 18% in graphics towards their equivalents. Regarding synthetic tests, 37%.

This palpable improvement is due to the increase in speed and cores (Up to 4). The integration of the HD 7000 graphics series and its manufacturing at 32 nm have a lot to say.

Regarding games and integrated graphics Intel HD4000 (Only on i5 and i7) sweep the company.

What AMD Trinity models have been released? Never better than one of our boards?

MODELS	A10-5800K	A10-5700	A8-5600K	A8-5500	A6-5400K	A4-5300
PRICES	122	122	101	101	67	53
TDP	100W	65W	100W	65W	65W	65W
CORES	4	4	4	4	two	two
AMD TURBO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
SPEED (MAX TURBO / BASE GHZ)	4.2 / 3.8	4.0 / 3.4	3.9 / 3.6	3.7 / 3.2	3.8 / 3.6	3.6 / 3.4
L2 CACHE	4MB	4MB	4MB	4MB	1MB	1MB
UNLOCKED	YES	DO NOT	YES	DO NOT	YES	DO NOT
GPU INTEGRATED	7660D	7660D	7560D	7560D	75640D	7480D
SPEED CLOCK GPU (MHZ)	800	760	760	760	760	724
CORES	384	384	256	256	192	128
POSSIBILITY DOUBLE GRAPHIC (CROSSFIREX)	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	DO NOT
MAXIMUM DDR3 FREQUENCY	1866MHZ	1866MHZ	1866MHZ	1866MHZ	1866MHZ	1600MHZ

* The A10-5800K processor allows us to make a hybrid CrossfireX with the ATI 6570/6670 and 6770.

The chipsets available so far are A55, A75 and A85X. We leave you a table with all its characteristics and functionalities.

A85X top-of-the-range chipset architecture drawing:

ASROCK FM2A85X EXTREME 6 FEATURES
Processor	- Support for processors with Socket FM2 100W- Digi Power Design- Power phase design 8 + 2- Supports AMD Cool 'n' Quiet technology - UMI-Link GEN2
Chipset	- AMD A85X (Hudson-D4)
Memory	- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology - 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots - Supports DDR3 2600+ (OC) / 2400 (OC) / 2133 (OC) / 1866/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory - Maximum system memory capacity: 64GB * - Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2 - Supports AMD Memory Profile (AMP)
BIOS	- 64Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support - Supports "Plug and Play" - ACPI 1.1 according to Wake Up Events - Supports jumperfree - Supports SMBIOS 2.3.1 - DRAM, PCIE VDDP APU, CPU and NB / GFX CPU multi-voltage setting
Graphics	- AMD Radeon HD 7000 serial graphics- DirectX 11, Pixel Shader 5.0- Maximum memory size 2GB- Multiple VGA output options: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort- Supports HDMI 1.4a technology with maximum resolution up to 1920 × 1200 @ 60Hz- Supports Dual-link DVI with maximum resolution up to 2560 × 1600 @ 75Hz- Supports D-Sub with maximum resolution up to 1920 × 1600 @ 60Hz- Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with maximum resolution up to 4096 × 2160 @ 30Hz- Supports DP ++ - Supports Multi-Streaming - Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI (HDMI monitor compatibility required) - Supports stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray with HDMI 1.4a - Supports AMD Steady Video ™ 2.0: New Video Processing Capability: Automatic reduction of home / online video jitter - Supports HDCP function with DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort ports - Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort ports
Audio	- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec) - Supports Premium Blu-ray audio - Supports THX TruStudio ™
LAN	- PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb / s- Realtek RTL8111E- Supports Wake-On-LAN- Supports LAN Cable Detection- Supports 802.3az Ethernet Power Efficiency- Supports PXE
Expansion slots	- 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE2 / PCIE4: single mode to x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4), or dual mode to x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); PCIE5: x4 mode) - 2 x PCI slots Express 2.0 x1- 2 x PCI slots- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX ™, 3-Way CrossFireX ™, CrossFireX ™ and Dual Graphics
SATA 3 and USB 3.0	- 7 x SATA3 6.0 Gb / s connectors, Supports RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI of "Hot Plug" - 2 x rear USB 3.0 ports of AMD A85X (Hudson-D4), supports USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 up to 5Gb / s- 2 x rear USB 3.0 ports of ASMedia ASM1042, supports USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 up to 5Gb / s- 1 x front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) from AMD A85X (Hudson-D4), supports USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0 up to 5Gb / s
Connectors	- 7 x 6.0 Gb / s SATA3 connectors- 1 x IR head- 1 x CIR head- 1 x COM ports head- 1 x HDMI_SPDIF head- 1 x Power LED head- 1 x Enclosure Intrusion Head- 2 x Processor fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin) - 3 x box fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin) - 1 x power fan connector (3-pin) - 24 pin ATX power connector - 8 pin 12V power connector - XFire power connector - Front panel audio connector - 3 x USB 2.0 headers (supports 6 USB 2.0 ports) - 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) - 1 x Dr. Debug with LED - 1 x Power switch with LED - 1 x Reset switch with LED
Rear connectors.	Input / Output Panel- 1 x PS Port / 2 Keyboard / Mouse- 1 x D-Sub port- 1 x DVI-D port- 1 x HDMI port- 1 x DisplayPort- 1 x SPDIF optical output port- 2 x USB 2.0 Ports ready-to-use- 1 x eSATA3 connector- 4 x ready-to-use USB 3.0 ports - 1 x Port with RJ-45 LAN LED (Activation / connection and speed LEDs) - 1 x CMOS Clear Switch with LED - HD Audio Plug: Rear Speaker / Center / Bass / Line In / Front Speaker / Microphone
Special features	- ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) - ASRock Instant Boot- ASRock Instant Flash- ASRock APP Charger- ASRock XFast USB- ASRock XFast LAN- ASRock XFast RAM- ASRock Crashless BIOS- ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard) - ASRock Internet Flash - ASRock UEFI Browser System - ASRock Dehumidifier Function - ASRock Easy RAID installation - ASRock Interactive UEFI - ASRock Fast Boot - ASRock X-Boost - ASRock Restart to UEFI - Lucid Virtu Universal MVP - Hybrid Booster: - ASRock U-COP
Format	- ATX Format- Premium Gold Capacitor Design (Capacitors 100% made in Japan with conductive Polymer capacitors)

ASROCK FM2A85X EXTREME 6: IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA

Brilliantly designed for smart overclocking, ASRock X-Boost technology is capable of unleashing the hidden power of your CPU. Just press the "X" key when turning on the PC, X-Boost will automatically overclock the appropriate components to achieve the 15.77% increase in performance! With Smart X-Boost, CPU overclocking can become a close to a single button process.

More accurate, more efficient

By adopting Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), ASRock motherboards can deliver processor Vcore voltage more efficiently and seamlessly. Compared to analog PWM, digital PWM can optimize the CPU power solution and provide suitable and stable Vcore for the processor.

The next generation of “Trinity” Series A APUs provide even more opportunity to tweak and overclock, and they are better than ever at performing demanding computing activities (entertainment, gaming). Supporting the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series graphics and DirectX 11 standard, the next-generation AMD APU Series A processor provides 3D gaming experiences similar to graphics card solutions. The ASRock FM2 Platform takes advantage of AMD's Trinity APUs, users can overclock the APU for additional performance. With powerful integrated graphics, the ASRock Motherboard FM2 series can deliver results in excess of 7, 800 points in 3DMark Vantage (Performance setting), providing up to 48.92% performance boost.

Premium Gold Trainers and 8 + 2 Energy Phase Design

Premium Gold Trainers are luxury trainers. These 100% Japan-made solid capacitors are elegant, high-gloss with a gold coating that represents long life and stable performance.

This motherboard is designed with 8 + 2 Power Phase design. It offers robust components and delivers completely smooth power to the processor. In addition, it offers unprecedented overclocking capabilities and improved performance, also at the lowest temperature for advanced players.

ASRock Internet Flash checks for available UEFI firmware updates on our servers. In other words, the system can auto-detect the latest UEFI from our servers and flash it within the UEFI configuration without entering the Windows ^® operating system. Please note that it must be run on a DHCP configured computer in order to enable this feature.

The base plate comes protected in a cardboard box dominated by the company's corporate colors: black / yellow.

In the rear part we have all the latest technology and features of this fantastic motherboard.

The bundle includes:

• Manuals and quick guides CD With drivers SATA cables Rear hood

The motherboard is ATX format 30.5 cm x 22.4 cm and the brown color predominates on its PCB. As we can quickly appreciate the level of construction and components are very good.

The FM2A85X Extreme 6 allows us a very good layout with up to 2 graphics cards in CrossFireX and several PCI connections to install network cards, TV tuners, etc…

Asrock has installed two robust heatsinks because he knows the importance of good cooling when overclocking and having efficient system stability.

Up to 64GB at 2600mhz with OC allows this board. One of the most powerful on the market?

Small details that make the difference. Its fan control is very innovative and allows us to connect up to 3 regulated fans.

Finally highlight its debug led, and its off / reset buttons for overclock lovers or reviewers?

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	AMD Trinity A8-5600K
Base plate:	Asrock FM2A85X Extreme 6
Memory:	Kingston Hyperx Predator at 2133mhz
Heatsink	Corsair H60
HDD	Kingston Hyperx 120gb
Graphic card	Integrated.
Power supply	Thermaltake TouchPower 1350W

As always we start with our particular battery of tests:

TESTS
3dMark Vantage:	7802 TOTAL.
3dMark11	P1209 PTS.
Heaven Unigine v2.1	15.3 FPS and 361 PTS.
Aida 64 - Reading - Writing - Copy - Latency	11462 MB / s 9360 MB / s 15309 MB / s 60.4 ns
Lost planet	13 FPS
Resident Evil 5 and CineBench	62 FPS31.35 FPS OPENGL / CPU 3.13 FPS

Regarding consumption, we leave you a table:

Asrock FM2A85X Extreme6 is an AMD motherboard for high-end Socket FM2. Among its most important features we must highlight its 8 + 2 power phases, the possibility of CrossFire, defined overclocking profiles, Premium Gold capacitors, memory capacity of 2600mhz and 7.1 CH HD audio.

To highlight its XFAST technology that optimizes up to 5 times faster memory executions for Adobe Photoshop, accesses to Internet games with lower latency and increases the speed of USB ports 5 times more in 4K reading.

In our test bench we have tested with a high-end AMD A8-5600K processor and the results have been very good (with X-Boost technology activated) of 7802 points in 3DMARK Vantage and playing 62 fps Resident Evil. Excellent results!

In short, if you are looking for a top range motherboard for FM2 socket and at the same time the best quality / price on the market… the Asrock FM2A85X Extreme6 has to be your choice. Since its price ranges from € 106 in online stores !.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ PERFORMANCE.	- NONE.
+ IDEAL QUALITY / PRICE.
+ SATA PORTS, USB 3.0.
+ THE AMD APU CARRIES VERY GOOD INTEGRATED GRAPHICS CARD.
+ POSSIBILITY OF CROSSFIREX
+ GOOD CONSUMPTION

The Professional Review team awards him the gold medal: