ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Review
by Ian Cutress on March 19, 2014 11:59 AM ESTASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Software
Building a software platform for a motherboard can be a walk in the park or a hard trek. Some manufacturers take the easy route with next to nothing for the user, whereas the majority of manufacturers do make the effort. Smoothing the software production requires good ideas and good software engineers. I have always stated that the best method to do this would be to start with the enthusiasts and ask what they want, then take it to a designer (as in, not a software designer but a general artist) to make it look elegant, and finally pass it on to the programming team. When the programming team is done, future iterations of the software should start with the enthusiasts again but from the software already at hand. My desires aside, ASRock is making progress with their A-Tuning software product, acting as a hub for all the other modular software implementations.
A-Tuning
The first interface of A-Tuning is the Operation Mode, which acts as a quick overclocking selection tool. By default we have standard mode, to the right is the power saving mode and a performance mode on the left. The Power Saving mode, as explained in the overclocking section later in the review, implements a gradient to apply the faster, more powerful processor modes. Thus in order to crank up to full speed, in this mode the system requires 8 seconds of full CPU load. Performance mode allows the CPU to access the full turbo mode immediately, and there is also an Auto Tuning option once Performance Mode is selected.
The Tools menu features the modular aspect of A-Tuning, giving access to XFast RAM, XFast LAN, Fast Boot, Online Management Guard, FAN-tastic Tuning, Dehumidifier function, HDMI-IN, USB Key and OC DNA.
XFast RAM
ASRock’s main motherboard line has shipped with XFast RAM for a few generations. This is essentially RAMDisk software, allowing users to create a pseudo hard-disk from excess DRAM. ASRock’s implementation also includes a few options for commonly used programs, such as caching temporary internet files in the RAMDisk automatically, as well as other temporary files.
XFast LAN
Similarly with XFast LAN, this software is a main component of ASRock’s main motherboard line. Based from the cFos software network management program, ASRock has implemented a custom frontage similar to other manufacturers to allow users to prioritize the internet access of certain programs (e.g. VOIP/games) over others (updates/messengers).
Fast Boot
Due to the capability of Windows 8 to implement a faster boot-to-OS topology, motherboard manufacturers use OS software to re-enable features such as booting into the BIOS. In some circumstances, there are several boot options relating to port enabling on boot that users can customize, and some software also provides an ‘instant boot’ option, which essentially reboots the system and places it in a deep sleep mode ready to ‘awake’ when the machine is turned on.
Online Management Guard (aka OMG)
The online management guard from ASRock, despite the acronym, is a tool designed to block network (internal and internet) access to the system during certain hours of the day. Two main reasons spring to mind as to why this software would be used. First is for children, when internet access is to be restricted, and second is in a public environment where the use of a computer might be restricted to one or two tasks.
FAN-Tastic Tuning
One of the bigger changes in the motherboard ecosystem ever since I started reviewing motherboards has been the response to upgrading fan controls. Previously, fan controls were a two point power-based gradient, which fails to comprehend that fan profiles are not always linear or that users might want a gradual or sharp incline at some point along the temperature scale. ASRock’s solution with FM2+ is the FAN-Tastic Tuning.
The software will test the equipped fan to provide a power vs. fan speed graph on the right hand side, and the user can describe a six point gradient in the graphing area. I need to confirm whether the ASRock graph is Fan Speed in RPM or Fan Power in %, given that the axis is labeled Fan Speed (%). If it is indeed Fan Speed as a % of RPM rather than a % of power, then this is the fan profiling agent I have been looking for.
Dehumidifier
The Dehumidifier function, similar to the BIOS implementation, is somewhat ill-named. This tool allows the fans to keep spinning after the system has been shut down but while the AC power is still running. The user can specify the length of time the fans remain on, the delay from turn off to fan-spinning, and the power of the fan. The purpose of this utility is to equilibrate the temperature of the air inside and outside the case. In hot and humid climates the different temperatures of air can hold different amounts of water vapor, such that when the warm air inside a case cools down slowly, it will precipitate the water as it cools but inside the case on the electronics. By equaling the temperature inside and outside of the case, this should not happen.
HDMI-In
One of ASRock’s new features in 2013 was HDMI-In – the use of two HDMI ports on the rear-IO panel to act as a pass-through for other HDMI devices. The situation ASRock usually has for this is when a user has a console next to their PC, but rather than having a monitor with two HDMI inputs, the console can send a HDMI to the PC, and the PC would act as a pass-through to the monitor. The user can then switch between the inputs using a hotkey. The next stage in this design would be for ASRock to create software to allow the HDMI-In stream to be recorded. With some other motherboard models, particularly the Killer range, ASRock bundle a 3 month license for XSplit for exactly this.
USB Key
Another of ASRock’s new features is USB Key. This is a tool that allows users of multiple ASRock systems to use a USB drive as a login tool, rather than input user names and passwords or for double verification.
System Info
Another tab along A-Tuning is the monitoring software for all the system information. This includes speeds, voltages, temperatures and fan RPM. On our sample however, the software was not working, giving zeroes for every result as shown below. The System Browser tab was also non-functional.
Live Update
We are now in 2014. Every motherboard manufacturer should have a system in place to allow users to connect to the internet and download new drivers or software. ASRock now have this system in place via the Live Update tab in A-Tuning. As shown below, we see the software that the system recognizes is not the same version number as listed on the ASRock servers. The only failing with the software, like others that are in the market, is that we do not have the size (in MB) for each update before we download it. There are still some areas on limited data plans, and would rather not download a new audio driver if it requires 350 MB (but they might if it was 4 MB).
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niva - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
These benchmarks are making me depressed for AMD CPUs. I guess it's time to switch to Intel after not having purchased an Intel chip since 1996.nathanddrews - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
Come on in, the water's fine.Malorcus - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
I hear you man, I did the same with my current Ive Bridge CPU. I am looking to build a media computer using an AMD APU though. They still have their niche, but it is not in high end computing/gaming.ddriver - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link
You'd be surprised by the amount of needed and commercially viable tasks for which those poor CPUs are more than fast enough. It is a sad thing to see AMD struggling to compete with Intel's value products.Fallen Kell - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
AMD has sadly not had a real competing product in the high end side for 6 or 7 years now. On the low end, AMD was competing, until Intel decided to compete in this market segment. The last two updates that Intel has made were more focused on the lower end than on the high end. This is finally cutting into the one thing keeping AMD alive. I really hope AMD does survive because those of us that are old enough to remember know that Intel hates the consumer and only really pushes technology when it is competing. We would have CPU's that are only soldered directly into motherboards with no ability to upgrade, completely locked down CPUs with no ability to overclock, locked in memory bus speeds that are tiered based on the CPU/motherboard that you purchased with higher performance memory compatibility costing you extra, etc., etc....But I really don't see a way that AMD can compete at this point. They are still hemorrhaging money (not nearly as bad as a year ago when they lost $1.2 BILLION, but even after restructuring to cut 31% of their operating costs, they still lost $162 million last year). While I understood the reason for acquiring ATI, I believe ATI is worse off due to that acquisition. ATI went from being a profitable company competing well in their market, to one that is losing money and is seemingly almost a generation behind Nvidia in their offerings (I say this based on the fact that the brand new released top of the line AMD graphics cards can barely beat the last generation of cards from Nvidia in performance and can not come anywhere near the Nvidia offerings in power/performance or heat/performance, and Nvidia is getting ready to release its true next generation of cards even while they simply released the last generation of cards at their full potential to beat AMD's current cards now that AMD finally had a competing product). The major losses that AMD as a whole has, is taking its toll on the R&D AMD can afford to do in terms of increasing the efficiency of their designed with respect to power and cooling requirements while still being able to push the performance of their cards.
Demiurge - Friday, March 21, 2014 - link
Funny, I thought the same thing about Intel CPU's when GPU's started to encroach on the high performance features such as physics, ray-tracing, signal processing, and other high intensity applications. There's a bigger picture that I think a lot of people miss. The market has already shifted away from CPU's being the centerpiece of high performance applications. AMD has the right strategy with buying ATI and the paradigm of Heterogeneous Computing, but like Intel with the P4: it's too little too late. If they had the software, they might've been able to pull this off, but that is exactly what they are trying to do with Mantle. I think only unanimous adoption would've guaranteed a win. It was a big risk, and it would have been an amazing upstart, but I don't think it will pay off as much as they need it to. Just a modest opinion... and so a long rant ends... ;-)pandemonium - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
AMD hasn't been competitive to Intel for the consumer since 1999 or so? They've always been cheaper, and always been far lower in gaming and general desktop usage results as well. You are very, very, very late to the party, lol.mr_tawan - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
I believe it was Intel Core series (2006) that started to get ahead of AMD's CPU. Before that, AMD CPUs was both perform better and cheaper. Intel CPUs were power hungry and expensive while did not yield excellent performance.The raw ALU performance on the current line of AMD CPU is quite low because of the design decision to reduce the space occupied by the CPU while add even more GPU on the die, and then make them work together more nicely. It's the direction the AMD heads to.
I believe that one day even the FX line would be APU just like those A-series.
Vinny DePaul - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
I feel your pain. I am an AMD fan. I want to keep using AMD but the CPU is running too hot. It is heating up the room! I switch to Intel. It is just easier.... I hope the AMD's involvement in PS4 and Xbox One will shape the future in games and software.Xpl1c1t - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
This is exactly what I did going from a Athlon XP Palomino, to Athlon 64 Venice, to a Core i5 Lynnfield.I'd consider purchasing an AMD processor again if the whole APU thing becomes quite competent and powerful at a smaller and more efficient node. I'd promptly and gladly buy an APU with the equivalent of 2 IVB cores and a 7870 onboard if it could me mounted on a Pico-ITX board...