ASRock Z97 Extreme6

Conclusion:

The ASRock Z97 Extreme6 is a very promising motherboard and one of my favorites for the Z97 Express motherboards I have reviewed thus far. The ASRock Z97 Extreme6 costs well under $200 USD (~$170) and features ten USB 3.0 ports, multi PCI Express GPU support, Ultra M.2 / M.2 SSD connectivity support, SATA Express, eSATA, Thunderbolt AIC, dual BIOS support with easy BIOS flashing not dependent upon DOS/Windows, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and the rear I/O panel connectivity for graphics include DVI, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI. There's really not much more to ask for from this motherboard for most Linux users out there. The ASRock Z97 Extreme6 could make a hell of a SOHO Linux server box with its vast connectivity capabilities or a powerful gaming system.

The ASRock Z97 Extreme6 worked under Linux using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and I encountered no major difficulties during the few weeks I've been using it thus far. The performance of the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 under Ubuntu with the Linux 3.15 kernel was also admirable and faster than the competing Gigabyte and ECS motherboards in several tests.

Stay tuned for more Linux tests of the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 shortly as it will be used in a number of other Phoronix benchmarking articles given the board's vast feature set from ASRock as a great motherboard for current Haswell motherboards and upcoming Broadwell processors. Thanks to ASRock for supplying this review sample for Linux testing even though they "officially" don't support Linux for their consumer products.