This motherboard isn’t particularly revolutionary, but has a few key features that may distinguish itself from competitors as the best choice within its price range. It has 8 SATA3 slots which is well above average for current motherboards and a dedicated water pump header that can support up to 1.5A power. The ASRock Z720 Extreme4 has two steel reinforced PCIe slots that prevent signal interference with graphics cards, as well as ensuring safe installation for particularly heavy GPUs. ASRock’s signature sound solution, Purity Sound, combines hardware and software solutions to deliver “the crispest sound effects,” per their website. This includes the Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, individual PCB layers for right and left audio channels, 120dB SNR DAC, gold audio connectors, and more.

Aesthetically speaking, the ASRock Z270 Extreme4 features a sleek black and white design on par with contemporary motherboards. The metallic matte black board is visually pleasing, paired with copper components and sheer white protective casings. The board itself is made of high density glass fabric PCB that effectively protects the motherboard against electrical shorts due to high humidity.

The onboard RGB LEDs aren’t particularly stunning and they are only featured in three locations. For those that want extra lighting, the motherboard has an AURA RGB LED header to power additional LED light strips. Oddly, if you want to control the LEDs on this motherboard, you must download and install extra software from their site. Alternatively, you can use their integrated “all-in-one live updater and app shop” to achieve the same effect. I’m not certain why a motherboard requires an app shop, as it seems very unnecessary. You can even download internet browsers like Google Chrome, but I personally never would. If you don’t care for the LED lights, you can easily disable them completely in the BIOS with no additional software required.

Other important features include DDR4 memory, overclocking, multi-GPU support, triple display functionality, a graphical mouse-controlled BIOS, USB 3.1, a USB-C connection, Intel Ethernet connection, 3 graphics outputs (D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI), and ASRock’s A-Tuning suite. Although there is no onboard Wi-Fi card, users can install their own M.2 (Key E) adapter for wireless/Bluetooth connection.

If you want to know everything that the ASRock Z270 Extreme4 has to offer, take a look at the specifications page on their website. The motherboard itself is a solid midrange option that offers everything necessary for a high-performance system, without breaking the bank.