This makes the Z97 Extreme9 the best motherboard in our roundup for supporting three or four graphics cards.
In fact none of the other Z97 motherboards we have even feature four PCIe x16 slots.
The Z97 Extreme9 isn’t the cheapest Z97 motherboard to support 4-Way CrossFireX and 4-Way SLI, however.
Getting back to the Asrock Z97 Extreme9, we have much more to talk about than 4-way multi-GPU support.
The fourth port connected to the ASM1061 controller is shared with the eSATA port on the I/O panel.
Asrock achieves this bandwidth by connecting their Ultra M.2 socket directly to the CPU, bypassing the chipset.
For audio, the Z97 Extreme9 is equipped with the ALC1150 codec, Realtek’s premier offering.
Together, the pair can also be used for teaming.
Quality high-speed controllers costs $30 or less, so this is a very viable add-in feature if needed.
By default the Z97 chipset supports six USB 3.0 ports which is generally enough.
The Asrock Z97 Extreme9 looks unbeatable, offering a lot of motherboard for $240.
When it boils down to it, the Z97 Extreme6 is almost the same motherboard as the Z97 Extreme9.
