ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard Review

ASRock has had a partnership with the Fatal1ty brand for a while now. With the introduction of Intel’s Z97 chipset ASRock has released three Fatal1ty-branded motherboards, today we will be looking at the Fatal1ty Z97 Killer. Of course being Fatal1ty-branded we know that this board is going to cater to gamers. With that said it does offer gaming features like the Killer E2200 Intelligent Networking Platform, ASRock’s Gaming Armor which has loads of features, Purity Sound 2 audio, ASRock Key Master software and you even get a 3 month premium license of XSplit to stream and broadcast your gaming skills. Is this the next motherboard for you? Read on as we take a look…

Special thanks to ASRock for providing us with the Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard to review.

Features
– ASRock Super Alloy
» XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
» Premium Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)
» NexFET™ MOSFET
» Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
» Sapphire Black PCB
– Gaming Armor
» CPU Power – Hi-Density Power Connector
» Memory – 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
» VGA Card – 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)
» Internet – Qualcomm® Atheros® Killer™ LAN
» Audio – Purity Sound™ 2
– Supports 5th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1150)
– Supports New 4th and 4th Generation Intel® Xeon®/Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1150)
– Digi Power, 8 Power Phase design
– Supports Dual Channel DDR3 3200+(OC)
– 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 PCIe 2.0 x16, 2 PCIe 2.0 x1, 2 PCI
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– Graphics Output Options: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports DTS Connect
– 1 SATA Express, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 (PCIe Gen2 x2 & SATA, Supports 30mm, 42mm, 60mm, 80mm, 110mm M.2 devices), 6 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 4 Rear), 8 USB 2.0 (4 Front, 3 Rear, 1 Fatal1ty Mouse Port)
– 1 COM Port Header, 1 Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector
– Supports ASRock Full Spike Protection, ASRock Cloud, APP Shop, F-Stream, Key Master, Full HD UEFI

The full specifications list can be found here.

Packaging
The Fatal1ty Z97 Killer comes in ASRock’s typical packaging. On the front ASRock has listed some of the main features of the board, the biggest being the Super Alloy design.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard

Flipping the box over there is an immense amount of information on the motherboard listed. So if you are at the store you can really get a good idea of what this motherboard is all about before you buy it.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard

Opening up the box and getting all of the accessories out you have 2 bags of SATA cables (4 total), I/O shield, drivers and utility CD, and a few user’s guides.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard

For a full unboxing and overview of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard be sure to check out the video below.

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