Question 1

the memory standard is listed as 3400+(OC).
but the memory standard that isnt OC is at 1600.
does that mean that i need to buy 1600 RAM and OC the ram or can i buy a higher speed ram (like 2400) and it wont work unless the system is overclocked?

Accepted Answer

if you buy 1600 ram, you will only be able to run it at 1600.  The board will not overclock it further.  You must buy memory rated at the speed in which you wish to run it at.  DDR3 RAM has very little overhead for further overclocking without running dangerously high voltage.  This will also of course shorten the life.  However, 2133 DDR3 is the sweet spot, with lower enough latency, and still has enough speed without breaking the bank.  You can try 2400 or 2666 if you can find cas 9 or cas 10.  But I suspect cas 9 would be very expensive if you can find it.  cas 10 2800 would be a good point to stop as well.  Use typical formula to measure response time.   CL(CAS #) / ram frequency *1000 = ns response time.  example : cas 9 memory at 2133 speed would be:
9/2133 *1000 =4.219 ns memory response time.
Just another thing to keep in mind you will notice very little difference in speed, lets say from a 2133 cas 9 memory to a cas 10 2800, which sometimes can more than double in price, unless you are crunching large amounts of data and can justify the extra memory bandwidth required. Hope this helps

Question 2

Does this board support the new nvidea 1080?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard book shows PCIE1 2&4 all are PCI 3.0 Express slots at X16. The 1080 will work. I have the Evga gtx 970 SSC on this motherboard it hangs over the top of the SATA3 slots makes pluging HDD OR SSD SATA cables in a little tricky I recommend pluging them in before putting your 1080 in. Its I believe just a little longer. Also Just be careful to check the size of your CPU cooler. I Have the Noctua NH-D15 Premium CPU Cooler I believe it's one of the bigger CPU Cooler on the market and it has one inch clearance from the CPU Cooler to My gtx 970.

Question 3

With regards to the two ATX 8 pin plugs. Do I need to use both? My power supply only has one 8 pin connector?

Accepted Answer

Hi, Greg,

You shouldn't need the second 8-pin power connector unless you are running multiple high-powered video cards. If you do intend to use Crossfire or SLI, you could still try it with just one 8-pin connector. If there were not enough power, it's a fairly simple solution.  It is easy to find Molex/8-pin adapter cables, and they are fairly inexpensive.

Question 4

I'm ready to order but I can't figure out the minimum requirements for the Power supply.  Can someone confirm that 600W is enough for this board and the i7?

Accepted Answer

Most of the i7 cpus are 95w or 125w. My CPU is the i7 4790k with the same motherboard and a Asus 780 ti ocu2 3g ssd and a sshd 16 gigs of ram and all mine needed was a haswal ready 750w single rail continuous power supply. That mother board has 2 12v atx\eps slots only one is need for normal use. 2nd is for extreme over clocking,sli,or large raid configurations. So a 750w single rail continuous PSU will do fine.bronze is lowest on energy efficiency, energy consumption, and higher rated psu's have ways to reduce the energy used when the computer is idle and can raise the power when under a load. gold is the highest quality and most efficient. I hope this helps and if you need more info I would use the Intel website to see complete specs and reqirements for the i7 u going to get.

Question 5

Is the M.2 a SATA slot or a PCI-E slot? Was hoping to put a bluetooth card there if I can.

Accepted Answer

It is an M2 slot, a completely different interface.  It is the small black socket you can see perpendicular in between the first two PCIe slots.  It is pretty much only good for storage and is meant to replace sata2.  You can buy SSDs for the M2. They are super tiny and supposed to be the best storage performance you can ask for.

Question 6

The picture shows an ATX motherboard, but the Z97M should be the mATX version correct? I want to make sure I am ordering the right thing.

Accepted Answer

The motherboard in the pictures is indeed a Z97 OC Formula, standard ATX format.  I just rebuilt a computer around.

Question 7

I read "waterproof." What part of this motherboard is waterproof, if any?

Accepted Answer

The board and exposed circuitry is covered in a waterproof coating.  All the sockets would still be exposed. It's ideal for using N2O cooling solutions where splashing might occur but otherwise pretty useless.  I purchased mine for the advanced power delivery design to safely overclock my gaming rig.

Question 8

This is slightly ready, will it support dual AMD in Xfire?

Accepted Answer

Most of the newer board do, Go to the Asrock web page and look up the motherboard.

Question 9

Does this Motherboard support a 2TB Seagate SSHD?

Accepted Answer

Not an MB-related restriction. One of the other folks that answered a different question indicated they were running a 3gb SSD. And if you want to access 32gb of RAM (if you were to install that much) you need an OS other than win7 home premium (which maxes out at 16gb).

Question 10

can you run 2 GPU x16 3.0 at x16 3.0? not x16 and x8 or something like that

Accepted Answer

No, this isn't due to motherboard limitations but rather due to CPU limitations from Intel. There are only so many PCIe lanes in the CPU to go around. It doesn't matter what manufacturer you buy from any H, P, or Z series chipset will have this limitation. If you want to have dual x16/x16 then I suggest looking at the X series chipset. As a side note, many reviews out there have concluded that x8/x8 configurations vs x16/x16 configurations have little to no noticeable difference running dual graphics cards Hope that helps!.

Brand	ASRock
Model	Z97 OC Formula

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1150
CPU Type	Celeron / Core i3 / Core i5 / Core i7 / Intel Core 4th Gen (LGA 1150) / Intel Core 5th Gen (LGA 1150) / Pentium / Xeon (LGA1150)

Number of Memory Slots	4x240pin
Memory Standard	DDR3 3400+(OC)/2933(OC)/2800(OC)/ 2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066
Maximum Memory Supported	32GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16
PCI Express 2.0 x16	1 (x4 mode)
PCI Express x1	2 x PCI Express x1

Serial ATA (SATA)	8 x SATA 6Gb/s
SATA Express	1 x SATA Express
M.2	1 x M.2
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

ASRock Z97 OC Formula LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

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LAN Chipset	Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2200 Series
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps

PS/2	1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
HDMI	1 x HDMI
USB 3.0	6 x USB 3.0
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	5 Ports

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
Other Connectors	1 x COM Port Header 1 x TPM Header 1 x Power LED header 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin) 4 x Chassis Fan Connectors (1 x 4-pin, 3 x 3-pin) 1 x Power Fan Connector (3-pin) 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector 2 x 8 pin 12V Power Connectors (Hi-Density Power Connector) 1 x HDD Saver Connector 1 x PCIe Power Connector 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector 1 x Thunderbolt AIC Connector 1 x Power Switch with LED 1 x Reset Switch with LED V-ProbeTM: 2 x 7-set of onboard voltage measurement points laid Rapid OC Buttons: +/buttons to adjust OC frequency 1 x Menu Button 1 x PCIe ON/OFF Switch 1 x Post Status Checker (PSC) 1 x Slow Mode Switch 1 x LN2 Mode Switch 1 x BIOS Selection Switch

Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC1150
Audio Channels	7.1 Channels

Physical Spec
Form Factor	ATX
Dimensions (W x L)	12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: N82E16813157502