OC Formula, Fatal1ty Gaming K6+, Extreme 7+

Dear Forum Members,

I watched the benchmarks for CPU online and noticed the best results come from Asrock Mainboards for the i4790k and similar CPU's.

After long thinking, I decided the new system should be a i7-6700k. Alternative I'd go for the i7-5820k, but on the single-core it's performance is less and it takes 50 Watt additional power. Although I have more then enough money to pay the electricity bills, I don't want to use resources more then I'm already doing, so the i7-6700k is the winner in my situation.

I noticed on the benchmarks, that upper-class Motherboards score at least 100% better performance, that means, the performance on a high-end Motherboard is at least twice of that on a low-end Motherboard, according to benchmarks. (using the PassMark Software)

However, on the i7-6700k the only results yet, are from people who bought cheaper low-end Motherboards. Since on previous CPU's the Asrock family scored the highest, I'd also go for an Asrock for this new CPU.

Money is not an issue, however I won't pay 2000USD for a Xeon architecture. I'd say that's too much of the good money :)

I need the best performance Motherboard for the i7-6700k and found these 3 as mentioned in the post are the top-level of their specific field of deployment.

But which one of these 3 gives me now the best performance?
OC Formula
Fatal1ty Gaming K6+
Extreme 7+

Of course all 3 running the Z170 Chipset.

Especially I'm interested in Photoshop, Bridge, and similar Adobe Software. I need the best Motherboard for running Photo-Editing.


People, I read the forums here. Most people give really good answers and ideas, but some answer without really knowing what they are talking about or are speculating without reasoning.

Please, to keep the forum tight to the sulotion, only add an answer if you have experience and comparison between asrock boards so the answer you give is well supported by your experience.

If you only have one board, no matter how satisfied you are, please don't tell how satisfied you are because that's not what I'm asking. I need someone, best only 1 answer, who can explain the difference between these 3 boards, how that affects my situation, and the experience of comparison these boards.

Thank you for your time and as a side-note:

I know the i7-6700k is very good on overclocking, some mentioned they managed to overclock to 5Ghz with only aircooling. I wouldn't want to go there without proper oil/watercooling systems, but I assume the OC Formula would be better suited for overclocking? So, in this scenario only the OC Formula is the best? Or do the other boards also support overclocking?

mrgenie wrote: Dear Forum Members, SNIP... Please, to keep the forum tight to the sulotion, only add an answer if you have experience and comparison between asrock boards so the answer you give is well supported by your experience. If you only have one board, no matter how satisfied you are, please don't tell how satisfied you are because that's not what I'm asking. I need someone, best only 1 answer, who can explain the difference between these 3 boards, how that affects my situation, and the experience of comparison these boards. SNIP...

I hope you are prepared for a long wait, since as of today, 8/30/2015, the i7-6700K processor is not available in the United States. That is either from online retailers, or at standard stores. So the set of users with an i7-6700K is still limited.

Next, you are asking for a comparison of the i7-6700K when used in three different models of ASRock Z170 mother boards. How long of an experience with one board would provide a trustworthy experience to you? A day, week, or month? If a week is enough, then you'll be waiting three weeks.

How many people do you think will have used the three ASRock Z170 boards you listed? Given the prices of those boards from a major USA online retailer, that is ~$700. The Z170 OC Formula was out of stock at that retailer, which usually means they haven't gotten any yet.

IMO, two variables, a CPU and processor, is a highly over-simplified hardware set to come to the conclusion you desire. The CPU speed (stock or OC), the memory (amount and speed), and the IO devices (HDD or SSD) are major players in the performance of the software you mentioned. Without knowing these things, any comparisons between different users are worthless.

Consider that I'm a moderator in the new official ASRock support forum, and I cannot even purchase that Skylake processor or any of the boards you listed from a local retailer. I could order two of the boards from an online source, but not with an i7-6700K.

Good luck getting the answers you want.