Even with the flood of Ivy Bridge processors and Z77 motherboards out there many people (especially gamers) that still prefer Sandy Bridge-E processors and X79 motherboards.  This is because of the increased L3 cache on Sandy Bridge-E processors and the availability of more PCIe lanes.  So until there is official word when we will see Ivy Bridge-E processors X79 still remains the high-end when it comes to desktop systems.  Today we are taking a look at probably the most feature packed X79 motherboard we have seen and that is available today.  It is the X79 Extreme11 from ASRock and it features 7 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, 14 SATA ports, 8 USB 3.0 ports and much, much more.  ASRock is marketing this board as the “Ultimate X79 Motherboard” and we are going to see if it is!  Read on as we take a look at the ASRock X79 Extreme11 Motherboard.

Special thanks to ASRock for providing us with the X79 Extreme11 Motherboard to review.

Packaging
The X79 Extreme11 comes in a very nice retail box.  The front is not littered with a bunch of information like other motherboard boxes, instead ASRock advertises their XFast 555 technology.  If we flip the box over there are sections discussing the main features of the board.

The top part of the box actually folds open like a book.  Here you can read even more information about the board and get a good look at it if you happen to be at a retail store.  Opening the box up and first taking a look at all of the accessories you have 6 SATA cables, I/O shield, a 3-way SLI bridge, a 3s SLI bridge, 2 single SLI bridges, a rear USB 3.0 bracket, 2 molex to SATA power adapters, a front USB 3.0 panel, setup guide, quick installation guide and driver CD.

To give you a good idea of how the X79 Extreme11 comes and for a brief overview take a look at our unboxing and overview video below.