**Official** Asrock Z68 Gen3 Extreme7 & Extreme4 thread

Asrock Z68 Gen3 Extreme7

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v187/bizket/ex7.png

Thats right, it's that time again :D Just starting to trickle their way into the UK market are the Asrock Z68 Gen3 Extreme7 and Gen3 Extreme4. As with the other Asrock threads I've made, this thread is for Gen3 owners to discuss, share advice, and of course I come in if any problems or bugs are found ;)

You can find the specifications of each board here;
Extreme7 Gen3
Extreme4 Gen3

Extreme7 & Extreme4 UEFI & Driver Package Download:

Download Link

Driver Package Contents:

ASMedia USB 3.0 v1.14.8.0 [E7G3]
Broadcom BCM57781 v15.2.0.4B
Etron USB 3.0 v1.113 [E4G3]
Intel HD Graphics v8.15.10.2761
Intel ME v8.0.13.1502
Intel PCH v9.3.0.1019
Intel RST v11.2.0.1006
Marvell 88SE9120 v1.2.0.1020
Realtek HD Audio R2.70
Lucidlogix Virtu v1.2.114

How to flash the UEFI:

Unzip the UEFI to a USB pen drive formatted to FAT32
Enter UEFI and use the built-in flash program (remember to have your pen drive in a USB2 port for this)
After the flash, enter UEFI and load defaults, save and exit.
Remove power cord, CMOS battery, set CMOS jumper to "clear", press power button 3 times, leave for 5 mins.

And some glimpses of the Extreme 4 Gen 3, mine arrived yesterday.

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...inboard003.jpg

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...inboard007.jpg

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...inboard011.jpg

Extreme4 Gen3 is a nice looking board indeed. Not that it matters to me, but I'm sure theres going to be quite a few users who don't look at the manual to see which DIMM banks are for dual channel and will ask why they only have single channel :p: Too many people are used to colour coded DIMM banks.

LoneWolf can you post please how much volts does it take to get the cpu to 4.5ghz with this board?
some UEFI setting pics would be great too,thanks.
im thinking about exchanging my Asus Evo p67 with this one as soon as theyre available.

I got this board today and having a few probs getting it to run at 4.5GHz with a 2600k, ive disabled all the power saving features but under load running LinX it's actually dropping to 3.3GHz. Any ideas why?

http://i53.tinypic.com/rucyuh.png

Heres my bios settings:

Attachment 118663

Attachment 118664

Attachment 118665

Raise Core current limit(first bios picture) to 250 or 300(it's about TDP).
Also SPREAD SPECTRUM - DISABLED
And let HT activated, 2600K it's not a hot cpu even with HT(at least i think you don't use stoc cooler).
Also from what i know overclocking works even with power saving options and TURBO enabled, so try with them too.

Attachment 118666

I love the colors of the x7 so much... :)
any news about price?

Colors are much better IMO, Might have to give a extreme 7 a try....looks really good.

These boards look great, and they have the slot layout done perfect too for two graphics cards with a 3 slot spacing each plus room for a soundcard!

The all black is awesome, these would be my first choice picks for a Z68 board, and I wouldnt normally ever think of getting an Asrock board.

p67 gen3 is also all black if u prefer it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AAbenson

LoneWolf can you post please how much volts does it take to get the cpu to 4.5ghz with this board?
some UEFI setting pics would be great too,thanks.
im thinking about exchanging my Asus Evo p67 with this one as soon as theyre available.

---

I don't have a K-series CPU (I needed the virtualization tech for my VMWare use, and the K-series doesn't have all of it). 4.1GHz will be the highest I can manage on the standard Core i5-2500. I'm burning my system in first, and then I'll tweak it.

I originally used the Socket 775 mounts that came with my Thermalright TRUE Black, but it's awkward even though the Asrock mainboard supports it. I ordered the 1156 Bolt-Thru kit made for the Venomous-X and Ultra120 series, and set things up a second time this evening. That mounting kit is by far more easy to work with, and does a better job, but I have to let the AS5 thermal interface material cure for a bit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bhavv

These boards look great, and they have the slot layout done perfect too for two graphics cards with a 3 slot spacing each plus room for a soundcard!

The all black is awesome, these would be my first choice picks for a Z68 board, and I wouldnt normally ever think of getting an Asrock board.

---

Normally, I wouldn't either. However, the Z68 Extreme 4 (non-Gen 3) was highly rated, and the more I reviewed the specs of the Gen 3, the more I wanted to give Asrock a try for the first time.

I've used a lot of boards over the past fifteen years -- AOpen, ASUS, Abit, Intel, MSI, and Gigabyte. Everything I see so far says this board can run with the best of those.

Watching for Xtreme7 results :)

Any idea when or if the Z68 Gen3 Extreme7 board will be for sale? Im looking to do a i5 2500K build now. I am hoping the price isnt through the roof though. :shrug:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Altered

Any idea when or if the Z68 Gen3 Extreme7 board will be for sale? Im looking to do a i5 2500K build now. I am hoping the price isnt through the roof though. :shrug:

---

My understanding was that the entire Gen3 line was supposed to be available during August, but I know nothing more than that.

To date in the UK there is only one place I know of selling the Extreme7 and its rather expensive. Once more sites start stocking the Extreme7 I'm sure it'll be able to be picked up for a reasonable price. On the other hand, quite a few places already have the Gen3 Extreme4 in stock and it can be picked up for around £140.

Ive got a major problem thats really starting to do my head in now, i keep getting this BSOD.

Ive ran prime for 4 hours straight today with the blend test then ran it for 5 hours on small fft's then ran occt cpu & linpack for an hour each and a 25 run LinX with no problems.

Ive just loaded up teamspeak and the same BSOD hit me i never get this BSOD when stressing my system anyone any ideas?

Attachment 118770

@ grimpy : I got same problem for my 2500K, up voltage 5 notch and no more BSOD, I'm very sure it's needs more voltage for cpu

Will try that just seems strange that i never got this BSOD whilst benching and under stress.

The idle bsods are quite common on SB, so it's definitely not a motherboard fault.

PS: Ket can we discuss about the p67 x4 gen3 and the z68 x3 too in this thread?

Yep thats fine, this thread is for all Gen3 Asrock boards :up:

First review, by Vortez (a site I've not heard of, but not bad)

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages..._review,1.html

If its reviews you are after, I've been sent a small army of links by one of the guys at asrock ;)

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...onclusion.html
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/36766...3-motherboards
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=31309
http://www.fudzilla.com/motherboard/...n3-motherboard
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...-985972/review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4nEGYvzVbY

I'm a bit stranded when it comes to giving you guys some real hands on experienced in-depth testing as I don't have a Gen3 board at my disposal.

OK I am definitely not forgetting you guys here, let me share a bit of my quick pics.

Preview : Caught in between the 2 Extremes - the Asrock E3 and E7 Gen3 Z68 mobos!

And they came in together just today!

These 2 models represent the highest and lowest ends of the latest Asrock Extreme Gen3 series of Intel Z68 motherboard range. Both sport the new highly attractive Asrock look which means dark stealthy colours offset by gold highlights in the form of 100% Japanese 'Gold' caps used as well as the stylised gold branding letters emblazoned on the heatsinks.

OK, let's rock with Asrock and roll out the preview with some quick pics...


Little Boy & Fat Man?

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/5215c90e.jpg http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/22fac3ce.jpg




Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
ASRock > Products > Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/Z68%2...%20Gen3(m).jpg
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/IO/Z6...%20Gen3(m).jpg

Quote:

---

Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® Quad SLI™
Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Support Intel® Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
Supports ASRock On/Off Play, graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™

---

Quicks pics


Bundle

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/f4e09cd0.jpg



Mobo

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ea9ff49e.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/b48325a6.jpg



Heatsinks & Branding

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/358806a8.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/a4c552ed.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ef54e8e2.jpg



Gen3 support!

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/c233e7f3.jpg


Simply more dash for your cash

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ebc6c65c.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/8768b4ad.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/228d8c08.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/71aaf1a2.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/8c265594.jpg

Z68 Extreme7 Gen3
ASRock > Products > Z68 Extreme7 Gen3

http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/Z68%2...%20Gen3(m).jpg
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/IO/Z6...%20Gen3(m).jpg

Quote:

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Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
NVIDIA® NF200 Chip Onboard (Dual VGA cards at PCI-E x16/x16; three VGA cards at x16 / x8 / x8)
1x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot, 4 PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots, Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™
Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
Multi VGA Output : D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Supports Dual LAN with Teaming function
Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED :love:
Support Intel® Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
Supports ASRock On/Off Play, graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™

---

Mobo slot layout
- dis is ze intercepted top secret internal plan for taking over ze bunker...

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ff16e573.png




Bundle

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/e61d12a0.jpg




Heatsinks & Branding

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/e661e525.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/d1f19c38.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/930ca575.jpg



Mobo
- all screwed down affair for the heatsinks

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/bc34f584.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/5e3df52c.jpg



Wanted to show how tall, thick and heavy these heatsinks are on the E7.

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ddba4bd0.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/a783989c.jpg


Just compare the shipping weights of the 2 mobos, one is about twice as heavy as the other - man, that's really crazy heavy!

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/e376bc9d.jpg http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/dda15b70.jpg




CPU Support area

3 fan headers & flexible LGA775/1155 mounting holes
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/212185e6.jpg

Full house socket caps
http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/ce3f9fae.jpg

Updated 160811 - earlier slot layout was apparently erroneous, corrected layout now in place.

Enough face or phase?

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/80572603.jpg




10 SATA ports

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/8c08c0be.jpg




Convenient front USB3 port header
- just nice for the bundled Asrock design USB3 front panel with integrated SSD bay

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/2f9d68ee.jpg




Nice square buttons
- test lab proven to reset/reboot/rezap faster than round ones..., er wait a minute, is that for real?

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/339b42d5.jpg




Header power incl. PS2

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/4bd5697d.jpg




2 oz Copper
- may be why this mutha is so heavy...

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/d8bafd9a.jpg

Hope you have enjoyed the sharing. :)

Good pics, how do you find all the money for these boards? :p:

yummy! tnx for pr0n

Awaiting Asrock Taiwan's reply on the E3 G3 P1.00 UEFI Vcore settings so now might as well swap over to the E7 G3 since Asrock Support practises a 5 day work week.

This E7 G3 mobo is another very early sample from the factory sporting M0.16 beta which was promptly updated to the final retail P1.00.

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/08eaec42.jpg

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/015c09a1.png


And you guys got to see this E7 G3 startup screen live cos it is stunning! My handheld crooked PnS piccy does not do it any justice... argh! But no matter, I am pestering Asrock Taiwan to share their original highres picture for use as a desktop background screen. :D

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/6a820662.jpg

S3 sleep & resume is all good

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/x...3/a11960ac.png

Pics of my Extreme 4 Gen 3 installed. "The Black Pearl" is now online.

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0257.jpg

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0259.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Pics of my Extreme 4 Gen 3 installed. "The Black Pearl" is now online.

[ IMG]http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc514/lone-wolf15/System%20Build%202011%20-%20The%20Black%20Pearl/DSCF0257.jpg[/IMG]

[ IMG]http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc514/lone-wolf15/System%20Build%202011%20-%20The%20Black%20Pearl/DSCF0259.jpg[/IMG]

---

thanks for the pr0n.

"Black Pearl?" I see red and green in there :p:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

"Black Pearl?" I see red and green in there :p:

---

Where do you see the green?

And yes, there is some red in that black.

http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/...l/DSCF0263.jpg

Asrock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 Desktop background pictures
... are now here, courtesy of Asrock Taiwan. Just do a right mouse click and save to your own PC for use.

1,680 x 1,050 pixels
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1529/background1680.jpg

1,920 x 1,080 pixels
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6...nd19201080.jpg

1,920 x 1,200 pixels
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/111...nd19201200.jpg

2,560 x 1,600 pixels
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/9...ground2560.jpg

As wonderful as the pictures are, anybody having any issues with the Extreme7 or Extreme4? I'm hoping no, but I have seen a few old bugs creep into these boards which were quickly fixed.

I've just installed a new Z68 Extreme4 gen3 and a 2500K.

When I run hwinfo64 (v3.84-1340) I'm seeing suspicious values in sensors for "memory ambient" -> 50 degrees C and "memory channel 0 rank max" goes up to 89 degrees C (channel 1 does the same) under 4 worker prime95 load. When the system is idle the "memory channel 0 rank max" (and channel 1) go down to 50 degrees C.

The 89 sounds dangerously high, but I couldn't find any information. Are these sensor readings for real, or are they garbage data that can be safely ignored. What is the normal/healthy range for these sensors, does anyone know whats going on. Is this the CPU, SB or MB responsible for these readings? (core temps look normal (idle 23-25 degrees C, going up to 47-50 degrees C under linX/prime95 load))

I've had the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 for over a week now (LOVE the black/gold color which looks damn nice) and so far I havent had a problem, though part of it may be due to me not using USB3.0 nor a SSD (still considering which to get, one of those new SandForce SSDs which are super fast but may cause problems or a slower but rock stable Crucial m4) and I havent installed the XFast Lan/USB software neither.
https://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1...Y/C.jpg?psid=1
https://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1...664.JPG?psid=1

I'm still looking for a decent 4.5GHz overclock setting; when changing only the multiplier, LinX w/AVX can fail every other boot (some boots it'll pass, seems like the load voltage isnt always the same); currently on a offset -0.055v LLC level3 setting which seems to be stable with idle 0.880-0.888v and load 1.274-1.288v readings on CPU-Z/HWINFO.
https://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1...020.JPG?psid=1

As for HWiNFO my values for "memory ambient" are the same 50deg C but on load "memory channel 0 rank max" only goes up to 65deg C. But I am using a 2000rpm fan to cool the shxtty CPU cooler; waiting for a Silver Arrow to arrive; and that may be helping those readings. Core temps? Max 87deg C at a room temp of 34deg C :eek: Tryin to save electricity by not using air conditioning, but wasting it by overclocking :p:

With the Z68 Ext4 gen3 stable, I put to rest my 4th pc which I havent fired up for over an year. Was wonderful and loved it.
https://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1...621.JPG?psid=1

Current rig: Asrock Z68 Ext4 Gen3 | Core i5-2500K @ 4.5GHz | DDR3-1600 4GBx4 @ 9-9-9-28-2T | HD6950 | WD15EARS | HCP-750

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ket

"Black Pearl?" I see red and green in there :p:

---

He was talking about the "Hauppauge HVR-1800". As it shows the green pcb when you look at that picture. I ordered one of these boards. So this will be replacing my rampage 3 extreme. Hopefully it goes well.

It will be good to know if anyone is having the dreaded eSATA issue with these boards as they are very similar to the non-Gen3 boards. Anyone?

The hwinfo temperature problem I have for the "memory channel 0 rank max" does not look good.
This was a 46x test, icedtea could you check the values on your rig after running prime95 "in place/maximum heat" for 5 minutes?
Any thoughts?
http://www.wintix.nl/pub/2500k-46x.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ket

As wonderful as the pictures are, anybody having any issues with the Extreme7 or Extreme4? I'm hoping no, but I have seen a few old bugs creep into these boards which were quickly fixed.

---

I have two minor quirks:

The first one, probably everyone will laugh --I have a floppy drive connected, as I still need to work on older systems for others on occasion, and need it for the occasional work with Symantec Ghost or to flash a BIOS. Currently, the floppy drive isn't being recognized properly.

The second --I also have a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 PCIe TV tuner/DVR card, and I cannot get the drivers to install in Windows 7 x64. The install routines cannot identify the card properly. The first time, the card was undetected, so I moved it to another slot. I got two unknown devices in the second slot I tried, and couldn't install the card. I went back to the first slot, and got one unknown device, which I couldn't install the drivers for either.

Admittedly, Hauppauge's driver-install routine is the pits; it runs through every piece of hardware they make, as well as trying all the x86 and x64 drivers regardless of operating system (it just fails each driver that doesn't install and goes on to the next), but I had no issues getting the card installed in my Gigabyte EP45-UD3P. I only had 8GB of RAM in that board (I have 16GB now), but any hardware I've seen have a problem with RAM had the problem with 4GB or more, so I don't think it's an addressing issue.

Aside from those two issues, the board is great.

I've tested as you requested, and the "memory channel 0 rank max" values were up to 75deg C. It may be due to me using cheap memory sticks and running them at a slow 9-9-9-28-2T and 1.455v. How about trying to use a newer beta version of HWiNFO and see how that goes, maybe the software is reading the values incorrectly. I'm using v3.85-1355. Like you, I dont know if those values are valid but since mine arent too high I can just forget about em.

FYI, for anyone waiting on the Extreme7, they're being sold in the States now at Newegg for $289.99. Picked mine up last night, and can't wait for it to get here!! :yepp:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157269

Typical, As i got tired of waiting and just ordered the Gen 3 one. But the $300 dollar price tag puts it up there with the heavy hitters also. Let us know how you like it. Mine should be here monday. Now i have to think about swapping it out or keeping it.

currently looking at this board(extreme 7 gen 3)... does it have any ln2 specific features? any bios bugs?

how does it handle blck changes? (my chip can do 106.5 on my ud7, but my evga p67 ftw can even go past 104 :()

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmartburrito

FYI, for anyone waiting on the Extreme7, they're being sold in the States now at Newegg for $289.99. Picked mine up last night, and can't wait for it to get here!! :yepp:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157269

---

it's 289.99 but 10 bucks shipping :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AzertyNL

The hwinfo temperature problem I have for the "memory channel 0 rank max" does not look good.
This was a 46x test, icedtea could you check the values on your rig after running prime95 "in place/maximum heat" for 5 minutes?
Any thoughts?
http://www.wintix.nl/pub/2500k-46x.png

---

where is my magnifying glass ;), but in regards to the memory temp... it's most likely attributed to software not reading it properly as it's a very new board... had the same problem way back when my old ud4 was new. I don't trust software that much with temperatures. Do you have a temp probe lying around? just use that... much more accurate

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

I have two minor quirks:

The first one, probably everyone will laugh --I have a floppy drive connected, as I still need to work on older systems for others on occasion, and need it for the occasional work with Symantec Ghost or to flash a BIOS. Currently, the floppy drive isn't being recognized properly.

The second --I also have a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 PCIe TV tuner/DVR card, and I cannot get the drivers to install in Windows 7 x64. The install routines cannot identify the card properly. The first time, the card was undetected, so I moved it to another slot. I got two unknown devices in the second slot I tried, and couldn't install the card. I went back to the first slot, and got one unknown device, which I couldn't install the drivers for either.

Admittedly, Hauppauge's driver-install routine is the pits; it runs through every piece of hardware they make, as well as trying all the x86 and x64 drivers regardless of operating system (it just fails each driver that doesn't install and goes on to the next), but I had no issues getting the card installed in my Gigabyte EP45-UD3P. I only had 8GB of RAM in that board (I have 16GB now), but any hardware I've seen have a problem with RAM had the problem with 4GB or more, so I don't think it's an addressing issue.

Aside from those two issues, the board is great.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by badatgames18

currently looking at this board(extreme 7 gen 3)... does it have any ln2 specific features? any bios bugs?

how does it handle blck changes? (my chip can do 106.5 on my ud7, but my evga p67 ftw can even go past 104 :()



it's 289.99 but 10 bucks shipping :(



where is my magnifying glass ;), but in regards to the memory temp... it's most likely attributed to software not reading it properly as it's a very new board... had the same problem way back when my old ud4 was new. I don't trust software that much with temperatures. Do you have a temp probe lying around? just use that... much more accurate

---

I can neither check or verify most of those issues as I don't have a Gen3 board for testing :shrug: All I can say regards the floppy issue, have you checked to make sure the floppy cable and drive are ok? As for the UEFI bugs question, as long as the quality of the UEFI is like that of the P67 and Z68 boards I bug tested, there will be no bugs to speak of.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ket

I can neither check or verify most of those issues as I don't have a Gen3 board for testing :shrug: All I can say regards the floppy issue, have you checked to make sure the floppy cable and drive are ok? As for the UEFI bugs question, as long as the quality of the UEFI is like that of the P67 and Z68 boards I bug tested, there will be no bugs to speak of.

---

The floppy worked fine in my last system; I will need to check the cable I'm using just in case. I don't know why it would be a problem, but I should double-check it.

I'm out of ideas with the Hauppauge card, though I'm talking with Hauppauge tech support. Unknown devices show up in Device Manager, but their install routine doesn't detect the card.

I have three PCIe cards. My Radeon 6970 and my X-Fi Titanium both work. I can't see myself being out of resources in a way that would prohibit the card from being detected properly (especially when my previous board, an Intel P45 chipset one, did fine, and didn't have the PLX chip). My only option left other than tech support (who is telling me the card must just be seated wrong; sorry, tried reseating and switching slots, that isn't it), or to attempt to manually force a driver install and see if that works. Attempting to install via "Update Driver" in Device Manager did not, so I don't know if forcing it will, but it's worth a try. I did have one blue-screen early on trying to install it, so that might happen again.

http://i54.tinypic.com/121bpxe.jpg

The parts finally came in today. I was looking forward to finally being apart of asrock z68 e4 gen3 crew but the computer didn't fire up. I thought it was the PSU at first but it ran fine when i connected it to a PSU tester and fan. Hopefully, the mobo isnt DOA but I'll do some more tests tomorrow.

Have you tried removing the vid cards and just using onboard Intel graphics temporarily to see if it comes up that way?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

I'm out of ideas with the Hauppauge card, though I'm talking with Hauppauge tech support. Unknown devices show up in Device Manager, but their install routine doesn't detect the card.

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I dont have a capture card (I do but its so old there arent any drivers for W7 x64), but since I do have a PCI sound card, an X-Fi Platinum, I put it in to see if there were any problems. Well, when I put the X-Fi in the lower PCI slot I too ran into problems, the driver couldnt find the sound card! Also noticed that the onboard sound, Realtek, was missing from the system when I put the X-Fi in that slot.

Could it be that there is some kind of conflict problem with this PCI slot? When I put the X-Fi in the upper PCI slot (the one closer to the CPU) the X-Fi was recognized by the driver and I could install it without a problem so it seems like its only with the lower slot. I also tried disabling the onboard sound to see if it would help, but it didnt do anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Have you tried removing the vid cards and just using onboard Intel graphics temporarily to see if it comes up that way?

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I figured it out bud, thanks for the reply. The onboard power button needed to needed to be pressed. Im use to having a motherboard giving light indication that its getting power. Since I didnt see any lights kick in, I assumed it wasn't getting any power and never tried the ON button. Once that was pressed, lights, fans and all of the good stuff kicked in. :( :shakes: :clap: Yes. I'm sad, disappointed and happy all at the same time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinjuko

I figured it out bud, thanks for the reply. The onboard power button needed to needed to be pressed. Im use to having a motherboard giving light indication that its getting power. Since I didnt see any lights kick in, I assumed it wasn't getting any power and never tried the ON button...

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Yup, exactly what I wrote in my feedback to Asrock hoping they would implement a lit Power button once power is applied but I think they are trying hard to distinguish themselves from the old parent company...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by icedtea

I dont have a capture card (I do but its so old there arent any drivers for W7 x64), but since I do have a PCI sound card, an X-Fi Platinum, I put it in to see if there were any problems. Well, when I put the X-Fi in the lower PCI slot I too ran into problems, the driver couldnt find the sound card! Also noticed that the onboard sound, Realtek, was missing from the system when I put the X-Fi in that slot.

Could it be that there is some kind of conflict problem with this PCI slot? When I put the X-Fi in the upper PCI slot (the one closer to the CPU) the X-Fi was recognized by the driver and I could install it without a problem so it seems like its only with the lower slot. I also tried disabling the onboard sound to see if it would help, but it didnt do anything.

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I've had my X-Fi in the lower PCIe slot all along. One thing about the PCIe X-Fi cards; Creative has a downloadable patch on their site for this, but they aren't auto-detected on a lot of system boards. Creative seemed to hint this was a Windows 7 thing; I think it is probably something on their end. Once the patch is run though, installing the drivers picks up the card. I had this happen on my previous Gigabyte board.

Maybe I'll try putting the X-Fi in the middle slot and the Hauppauge in the bottom though, just in case.

How do you guys take screen shots of UEFI? I've tried googling, youtube, and looking through the manual but can't seem to find anything on how to do it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinjuko

How do you guys take screen shots of UEFI? I've tried googling, youtube, and looking through the manual but can't seem to find anything on how to do it.

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Use a USB memory stick. Pressing F12 in UEFI will record a screen shot to the stick.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by icedtea

Use a USB memory stick. Pressing F12 in UEFI will record a screen shot to the stick.

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Thanks a lot bud.

Ran prime95 for 8 - 9 hours:

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3415/30811264.th.png

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/851/72793479.th.png

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9540/66913072.th.png

Next, I ran LinX for about 8.5 hours:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6938/27596813.th.png

I left throttling on. My core speed will drop to 1600 while idling as seen in the above pic.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/9...0821085433.png

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/420/110821085540.png

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/563/110821085527.png

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/1...0821085620.png

I used offset rather than fixed mode in the 3rd pic because, while under load, the voltage drops down to 1.21 when the voltage was set at 1.36.

Wonder if I should drop the voltage a little more and keep on testing or start tightning my timings.

edit:

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/700/scorenh.png

Do you think they will raise the ram limit? As 2,133mhz is just to low for me. Hopefully they will up it in a new bios release.

My Silver Arrow has arrived and man is it huge. Hate the fan color but it does cool down the CPU nicely. Since I'm using really cheap mem sticks without heatsinks mem height wasnt a problem, but it was close since my case is also cheap and not really wide. Need to get a larger wider better case next time.

Attachment 119297
Attachment 119298

Hi guys!!

Anybody knows if the Asrock z68 extreme7 gen3 is already on sale in France?
I WANT THIS MOTHERBOARD!!

I saw it in germany but not in italy. Dunno about france, I dont buy from there usually.

Quote:

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My Silver Arrow has arrived and man is it huge. Hate the fan color but it does cool down the CPU nicely. Since I'm using really cheap mem sticks without heatsinks mem height wasnt a problem, but it was close since my case is also cheap and not really wide. Need to get a larger wider better case next time.

---

You do have the option of moving the right hand fan to the left side of the cooler to give your ram some clearance, just make sure the air flow is directed towards the rear of the case.

Having some bad luck with this board. From random no booting to anything other then using the load optimized cpu oc setting. If i set it to 4.8Ghz there, it will boot fine and pass intel burn test. If i try to set it manual and pick anything over a 46x multi. The board doesn't boot, it just sits there. Plus i am having issues with my g19 keyboard with this board also. If i hit "del" more then once the boot screen freezes. I then have to hit reset or power off. Also have to hit the "num lock" twice to get it to activate while int he bios to use the keypad on the right side of the board. Scroll doesn't work with the keyboard or the mouse. When it does happen to boot i get two screens. So it actually cycles two times before going into windows.

Next would be the ram speed. On the website it says this board does 2,400mhz. There isn't even a setting in the bios for 2,400mhz ram. The max it has is 2,133mhz. I'm honestly a long ways from being even remotely impressed with this board right now. The features are good for the price. But i would actually like to get a stable working board though.

So if anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know. As of right now i feel like using this board fro a frisbee. Just honestly not impressed with it. It could just be me, since i am coming from a 1366 to the 1155 socket. Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KILLER_K

Having some bad luck with this board.

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Which board did u get? the z68 extreme4 or 7?

I got the Extreme4 Gen3. And i found out what the issues are now. Seems it really doesn't like my logitech g19 keyboard. Now here comes the good part. If i leave in the add on video card, i can only overclock to 4.6ghz. If i remove it and use the igp, i can hit 5.2 with no issues. Now figure that one out.

I'm probably going with the p67 extreme4 gen3 - it has everything I need and nothing that i dont (like some issues that sometimes virtu still has, hotter northbridge), and stick with ps/2 keyboard - the latter is what I recommend you to do too.

About oc with and without discrete graphic card... it's weird. I hope Ket chime in, a new bios should fix it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KILLER_K

Having some bad luck with this board. From random no booting to anything other then using the load optimized cpu oc setting. If i set it to 4.8Ghz there, it will boot fine and pass intel burn test. If i try to set it manual and pick anything over a 46x multi. The board doesn't boot, it just sits there. Plus i am having issues with my g19 keyboard with this board also. If i hit "del" more then once the boot screen freezes. I then have to hit reset or power off. Also have to hit the "num lock" twice to get it to activate while int he bios to use the keypad on the right side of the board. Scroll doesn't work with the keyboard or the mouse. When it does happen to boot i get two screens. So it actually cycles two times before going into windows.

Next would be the ram speed. On the website it says this board does 2,400mhz. There isn't even a setting in the bios for 2,400mhz ram. The max it has is 2,133mhz. I'm honestly a long ways from being even remotely impressed with this board right now. The features are good for the price. But i would actually like to get a stable working board though.

So if anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know. As of right now i feel like using this board fro a frisbee. Just honestly not impressed with it. It could just be me, since i am coming from a 1366 to the 1155 socket. Thanks

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afaik... 1155, even with boards that have the x24 ram multi... it just doesn't work and will give you a black screen (as i've been told.. have a MIVE tomorrow coming in so i'll check)

See how it handles blck changes... set it to 108 blck and use the 2133 strap to get 2400MHz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KILLER_K

Having some bad luck with this board.

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About the 2400MHz ram, I dont see it on ASRock's website. I do see a 2400 stick on the support list but reads that the 2400 stick will work at 2133. Dont know about the USB problem, mine does seem to freeze ( I have a nobrand Cherry MX black switch USB keyboard ) if I hit DEL too many times, but if I wait for a while; like 10 seconds; it eventually does go into UEFI.

I've also tried setting my board to a 48x multi and it did boot, although having Internal PLL overvoltage, VCore voltages and other settings to default resulted in an obvious crash running LinX. Even though it ran for only a minute or two I saw temps hit 80deg C with a SilverArrow, so 4.5GHz is the liimit for me unless I get some liquid cooling.

- Do not plug USB 2 mice or keyboards into a USB3 port
- The idea of higher RAM dividers has already been looked at. 2133 is your lot, the rest is up to BCLK.

Mine isn't on the usb 3.0 ports. Mine is plugged in right above the ps/2 port. I think i am going to try the extra 12 volt molex for the pci-express lanes. I know it is for sli/crossfire but i would like to see if it is a power draw issue with my gpu. I will report back and see what i find. Thanks for all the ideas.

Thank you Ket for your time also.

Took the plunge and ordered the p67 ex4 gen3 with some other key components so that i can start mounting in 7-10 days.
Hope everything will be fine.

Things should be pretty simple. Doesn't seem to have any serious issues, but at the same time I can't test any Gen3 boards, so there may well be some issues nobody knows about yet.

Okay, here is what i need. Someone that has either a 470 gpu on up or a 580 gpu. And you also need a 2600k for this test. Let me know if your board will do over a 46x multi with either of those cards installed. As it seems to not be able to support the draw with the overclocking along with the pci-e lane. So i just want to make 100% sure that is just not me. I will go borrow a asrock fatality tomorrow and see if it does it on that one also. But i am leaning towards this board not being able to handle the power draw. Thanks

EDIT: I also tried a molex 12 volt straight into the pci-express to see if that would solve the issue. But the issue is still there. But i will know tomorrow without a doubt if it is a board issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KILLER_K

Having some bad luck with this board. From random no booting to anything other then using the load optimized cpu oc setting. If i set it to 4.8Ghz there, it will boot fine and pass intel burn test. If i try to set it manual and pick anything over a 46x multi. The board doesn't boot, it just sits there. Plus i am having issues with my g19 keyboard with this board also. If i hit "del" more then once the boot screen freezes. I then have to hit reset or power off. Also have to hit the "num lock" twice to get it to activate while int he bios to use the keypad on the right side of the board. Scroll doesn't work with the keyboard or the mouse. When it does happen to boot i get two screens. So it actually cycles two times before going into windows.

Next would be the ram speed. On the website it says this board does 2,400mhz. There isn't even a setting in the bios for 2,400mhz ram. The max it has is 2,133mhz. I'm honestly a long ways from being even remotely impressed with this board right now. The features are good for the price. But i would actually like to get a stable working board though.

So if anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know. As of right now i feel like using this board fro a frisbee. Just honestly not impressed with it. It could just be me, since i am coming from a 1366 to the 1155 socket. Thanks

---

get a MIVE, MIVE-Z, or the Gene if you want a stable board with exceptional bios support, Newegg had some open box ones for $250 earlier today.

as for 2400 ram, the divider simply does not work on any of the P67/Z68 boards hence why you see no ram rated at those speeds. GSkill has a 2300 9-11-9 2x4 kit that is all but vaporware but that is the highest clocked ram that I have seen that is designated as sb specific.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

Things should be pretty simple. Doesn't seem to have any serious issues, but at the same time I can't test any Gen3 boards, so there may well be some issues nobody knows about yet.

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oww, no gen3 boards @ your place? ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KILLER_K

Okay, here is what i need. Someone that has either a 470 gpu on up or a 580 gpu.

---

I wish I had liquid cooling and a 580 to help out more, the most I have is a 6950 with a 6970 bios :(
But I doubt its a power draw problem; vid cards dont draw too much power at boot. Also you've said that it'll run at 4.8GHz if you use the optimized cpu oc setting which hints its more likely a UEFI setting problem, but cant be for sure since you've not shown us your settings etc.

Try having a look at this, its for ASUS P67 boards and a bit old but it is a good guide that can be used as reference for any board. I'm sure there's a good guide/sample setting for ASRock boards somewhere in the P67 Extreme4 thread, just too lazy to look through 65 pages.

My wild guess is that you'll have to enable Internal PLL overvoltage, set Turboboost and core power limit to 300, Vcore to fixed at around 1.4-1.45v, adjust load-line calibration to 1 or 2 along with the usual disabling of spread spectrum and so on. That or you just have a faulty board.

Guys I would like to know if someone here had hans on the Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 ?
I'm waiting for this one to get my hans on..Looking for the upgrade

Well the fatality board had no issues with my gpus. But here is the nice response if got back from asrock though.

Quote:

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Hi,
Are you going to help me with the 580 gtx and logitech g19 issues on this board? As now i have tried a 470 gpu and it does the same thing on your board. So it either needs a bios update or i have a defective board. I have a asrock fatality on the way to test and see if it works. So if it works fine on that new board then i know you board is bad then. So i will let you know. If it is bad how long does your company take to get a new one out? Or can i try another board and maybe pay the difference on it. Thanks

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This is the reply i got back.

Quote:

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Re: Z68 Extreme4 Gen3$ Got issues with this board.
Dear KILLER_K;
Please contact your vendor and return your motherboard .

ASRock America Support

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Would have actually been nice to get some help. Instead of contact the place where you purchased the board at. As this makes me think that they honestly do not care.

TBH Asrock is not yet a great company and does not even have a proper forum for help!

These Mobos need to be cheap, £200+ for 2 of their models is approaching stage where you buy an Asus or Gigabyte.

Added to fact they have basically overclocked switches to get PCI-E 3.0 (going by post by Asus rep) and there is no way to know if when PCI-E 3.0 is validated if it will be accepted officially!

He stated that PCI-E 3.0 same as all previous revisions is not just about speed but more power and all modern Mobos should have good enough circuits to carry this higher power as the hardware is now on the Intel CPU not Chipset and hence Asus/Gigabyte/MSI are all doing upgrade to PCI-E 3.0 with a simply Bios upgrade!

Also the model with the NF200 will never be any more than PCI-E 2.0 on the slots connected to it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

TBH Asrock is not yet a great company and does not even have a proper forum for help!

These Mobos need to be cheap, £200+ for 2 of their models is approaching stage where you buy an Asus or Gigabyte.

Added to fact they have basically overclocked switches to get PCI-E 3.0 (going by post by Asus rep) and there is no way to know if when PCI-E 3.0 is validated if it will be accepted officially!

He stated that PCI-E 3.0 same as all previous revisions is not just about speed but more power and all modern Mobos should have good enough circuits to carry this higher power as the hardware is now on the Intel CPU not Chipset and hence Asus/Gigabyte/MSI are all doing upgrade to PCI-E 3.0 with a simply Bios upgrade!

Also the model with the NF200 will never be any more than PCI-E 2.0 on the slots connected to it!

---

First off, I've bought ASUS and Gigabyte. Gigabyte is great stuff. ASUS is often decent, though I haven't bought as much from them recently due to pricing, and what I have heard from reputable friends on customer service experiences. Still, good boards.

I've owned ASUS, Intel, Gigabyte, MSI, Abit, and AOpen over the past fifteen years, starting with 486 processors. This Asrock board is my first by them --but it's every bit the quality those have been. Your "need to be cheap" comment implies that Asrock is still a budget arm of ASUS, which it is no longer. They have been spun off, and they make budget AND enthusiast boards, with features and quality to match.

The ASUS rep is correct in that PCIe 3.0 support is dependent on the processor. Every manufacturer has said in their documentation that an Ivy Bridge processor is required for PCIe 3.0, so I don't see what the issue is here. As for the "overclocked switches" bit, whether it is true or not, the comment sounds like someone trying to disparage their competition. PCIe 3.0 support is there, when the processors come out. Most informed buyers are choosing mainboards with PCIe 3.0 support not because of that feature, but it is a bonus on top of an already good mainboard.

I doubt I'll change your mind --but unless you own one, I don't think you have the ability to say whether their product is good or not, as you haven't experienced their product. I'm happy with mine, and wish you luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

As wonderful as the pictures are, anybody having any issues with the Extreme7 or Extreme4? I'm hoping no, but I have seen a few old bugs creep into these boards which were quickly fixed.

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Ket, I'm still having my issues with the Hauppauge HVR-1800 TV Tuner/DVR card. I've tried every PCIe slot except for the one my graphics card is in, even swapping my X-Fi card around. Neither Windows Update's drivers, nor the Hauppauge ones detect the card correctly. I'm thinking it's probably a minor BIOS bug, as the card is still seen as an unknown device in Device Manager, but I don't have another option to try at this point. Suggestions, or a connection to an Asrock tech (if you know one) would be helpful.

Otherwise, everything is running great, rock solid and stable, and I'm happy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LoneWolf

First off, I've bought ASUS and Gigabyte. Gigabyte is great stuff. ASUS is often decent, though I haven't bought as much from them recently due to pricing, and what I have heard from reputable friends on customer service experiences. Still, good boards.

I've owned ASUS, Intel, Gigabyte, MSI, Abit, and AOpen over the past fifteen years, starting with 486 processors. This Asrock board is my first by them --but it's every bit the quality those have been. Your "need to be cheap" comment implies that Asrock is still a budget arm of ASUS, which it is no longer. They have been spun off, and they make budget AND enthusiast boards, with features and quality to match.

The ASUS rep is correct in that PCIe 3.0 support is dependent on the processor. Every manufacturer has said in their documentation that an Ivy Bridge processor is required for PCIe 3.0, so I don't see what the issue is here. As for the "overclocked switches" bit, whether it is true or not, the comment sounds like someone trying to disparage their competition. PCIe 3.0 support is there, when the processors come out. Most informed buyers are choosing mainboards with PCIe 3.0 support not because of that feature, but it is a bonus on top of an already good mainboard.

I doubt I'll change your mind --but unless you own one, I don't think you have the ability to say whether their product is good or not, as you haven't experienced their product. I'm happy with mine, and wish you luck.

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No you will not change my mind and I have every right to say what I feel even if I do not own one because I was going to buy one but they are still not a Tier 1 company and £200+ is too high for some added features using "overclocked switches" that others are going to do with simple Bios upgrade!

I seriously doubt the Asus rep would make it up as that would make them look bad and you even agree with him!

Right now there is no proper PCI-E 3.0 hardware or certs so nobody can claim official support for it!

Intel are ripping peeps of with 3 sockets in 3 years and these Z68 are basically hybrid mongrels adding PCI-E 3.0 (for now) and USB 3.0 support with add bolt on chips, at least 2 of the SATA 6Gbs ports are native now!

I remember the same long ago when Mobos had SDRAM+DDR slots and USB1.1+2.0 ports!

Every day I look/read and try hard not to upgrade for sake of it as I used to do till 2 years ago!

The Extreme 7 looks nice but lack of heatpipe in SB Chipset worried me as Vortex did review on Extreme 4 and says SB gets pretty hot!

I also have no need for the on-board video outputs (4 on one model) and would prefer Intel made CPU's that were not CPUGPU's where FSB/BLK could once again be clocked!

Any numpty can raise a multi and as you know OC'ing is a hobby.

Is there a way to stop the mouse being inverted in the bios?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grimpy

Is there a way to stop the mouse being inverted in the bios?

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Have you removed the 24 pin and pulled the battery and moved the clear cmos pin? As this is about the only way that i have seen to effectively clear it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

No you will not change my mind and I have every right to say what I feel even if I do not own one because I was going to buy one but they are still not a Tier 1 company and £200+ is too high for some added features using "overclocked switches" that others are going to do with simple Bios upgrade!

I seriously doubt the Asus rep would make it up as that would make them look bad and you even agree with him!

Right now there is no proper PCI-E 3.0 hardware or certs so nobody can claim official support for it!

Intel are ripping peeps of with 3 sockets in 3 years and these Z68 are basically hybrid mongrels adding PCI-E 3.0 (for now) and USB 3.0 support with add bolt on chips, at least 2 of the SATA 6Gbs ports are native now!

I remember the same long ago when Mobos had SDRAM+DDR slots and USB1.1+2.0 ports!

Every day I look/read and try hard not to upgrade for sake of it as I used to do till 2 years ago!

The Extreme 7 looks nice but lack of heatpipe in SB Chipset worried me as Vortex did review on Extreme 4 and says SB gets pretty hot!

I also have no need for the on-board video outputs (4 on one model) and would prefer Intel made CPU's that were not CPUGPU's where FSB/BLK could once again be clocked!

Any numpty can raise a multi and as you know OC'ing is a hobby.

---

I never said you didn't have the right to say what you felt. Nor did I insult you, though it appears you may have taken what I said as a personal attack.

If you're not doing any video encoding or transcoding, I can see where the onboard GPU isn't useful to you. I like Intel's QuickSync technology, which adds a huge boost for this.

By the way, I recently went from an overclocked Q9650 myself. I skipped the first Core i-Series, seeing as my system benched out similarly to a Core i5-750. However, I have found Sandy Bridge to be a considerable increase in performance. Whether that increase is something you want right now, or want to wait for, is up to your needs and your wallet.

As for a heat-pipe, usually the ones direct from vendor are to bridge another heatsink (such as the ones on the MOSFETs); Asrock is not exactly unusual in not having one, and many heatpipe SB coolers have the potential to interfere with expansion cards. I'm sure if you wanted more, you could purchase something third-party from Thermalright. Personally, I've had no issues with the SB heatsink on my Extreme 4, and it isn't nearly as aggressive as the one on the Extreme 7. I just have good case ventilation.

I'm not sure how Intel is "ripping people off with bolt-on USB 3.0 chips". Intel chose not to implement USB 3.0 in the 6-series chipsets. Vendors are taking up the slack because they wish to provide it. We can wish USB 3.0 was part of Intel's 6-series chipset, but in the absence of it, it is nice for vendors to offer an alternative.

If I had any disappointment with Intel, it would be that the 7-series chipsets aren't supposed to offer any more PCIe lanes than the 6-series, nor any additional SATA 6Gbps ports. That made it easy for me to buy a Z68 mainboard now, because the only significant thing I see Intel bringing to the table is integrated USB 3.0.

Attachment 119439

I never said or bite at you "having a go at me" as I was in no way angry at you!

I only pointed out I do not need to own one to comment on it after as much reading as I could find on it and toying whether to buy or not as I can get by on my rig for now and get IvyBridge in 2012 but way Intel are going it will be another half backed upgrade!

There is no way in hell Intel's crappy GPU can encode faster than a ATI/Nvidia IF software was made to fully support them!

At the end of the day we are now at stage it takes no time and be it 10mins or 15mins makes no real difference unless your encoding all day long for a living.

Also reviews have proved the power saving of new ATI/Nvidia GPU's make the so called "power saving" of switching to the Intel GPU during light load pointless!

I would bet most enthusiasts would like to have no internal GPU and have option to clock the FSB/BLK again.

I am not buying a Mobo to need swap its cooling and I know the Ext 7 has a better SB sink but still I have no issues ever with any Asus Mobos effecting any cards fitting my case.

Intel were 1 of inventors of USB and I know they have a new alt for it (think its called Thunderbolt now after name change) but have now said they will support USB 3.0 in 2012 but fact remains all these "bolt on" options are not as good or fast as on-chip (NB or SB) versions that Intel were so good at as you should know!

I am pretty sure I have read Asrock do not use the good NEC USB 3.0 controlers.

The Ext 7 is avail in UK now for about £235 and to me I am better buying an Asus or Gigabyte at £250-300 but want to see if any new Mobos come from them in months ahead (now till say Oct)

Then why bother posting on an ASROCK thread?
Also, ASUS uses ASMedia controllers on their P8Z68Vs, dont use "heatpipes" (personally I think heatpipes mean nothing on mobos since spacing is too limited to add a huge sink) and their heatsinks also get hot, and have three display output ports on the backpanel.

If your looking for dont care about the IGPU you should look at the P67 boards, some are being dumped at really cheap prices. Get one cheap and think about replacing it when Ivy Bridge comes along. Forget about FSB/BLK overclocking, Intel dont want users overclocking those "budget" chips as a cheap alternative they want us to buy those 2500Ks and 2600Ks. Lock multi, limit FSB/BLK and enthusiasts will have no other choice.

Omw to buy the asus p8p67 evo board, but now i found the extreme4 gen3 so going for that instead. What do u think? Will be using a 2500K

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

I am pretty sure I have read Asrock do not use the good NEC USB 3.0 controlers.

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The Renesas controller is no better than others.
Actually the Etron used by Asrock is very good, especially when overclocked (yes :P)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

There is no way in hell Intel's crappy GPU can encode faster than a ATI/Nvidia IF software was made to fully support them!

---

Untrue, if you have read anything about Intel QuickSync, which was devised specifically for video encoding/transcoding. It beats both ATI and nVidia, provided the application supports it. That is certainly its one weakness, but Cybermedia Espresso and several other applications support it. It can also beat any x86 CPU's encoding on its own.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

Also reviews have proved the power saving of new ATI/Nvidia GPU's make the so called "power saving" of switching to the Intel GPU during light load pointless!

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I don't use it for power saving; I use it so I can use the ATI GPU for gaming, and the Intel GPU for encoding/transcoding. As someone else said, if it is not important to you, perhaps a P67 chipset mainboard will be to your preference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

I would bet most enthusiasts would like to have no internal GPU and have option to clock the FSB/BLK again.

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Whether they do or not is besides the point, as this is unavailable. This is a separate argument from whether you like or dislike the video ports on the Asrock board vs what ASUS or Gigabyte boards have to offer, probably better reserved for what you like or don't like about Intel.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

I am not buying a Mobo to need swap its cooling and I know the Ext 7 has a better SB sink but still I have no issues ever with any Asus Mobos effecting any cards fitting my case.

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Which ASUS boards have SB heatsinks with a heatpipe? This was my point, because if you are going to complain about an Asrock board not having it, and then call ASUS superior right after, I would expect you to show me an ASUS board that does this better than the Asrock. I don't believe ASUS does it any worse, but neither do they do this any better. Let's compare the ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe, their $249 Z68 chipset mainboard. Nope, no Southbridge heatsink; in fact, a heatsink less aggressive than the Asrock Z68 Extreme 7.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

Intel were 1 of inventors of USB and I know they have a new alt for it (think its called Thunderbolt now after name change) but have now said they will support USB 3.0 in 2012 but fact remains all these "bolt on" options are not as good or fast as on-chip (NB or SB) versions that Intel were so good at as you should know!

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"As I should know?"

What I do know is that VR-Zone has put together a roundup of USB 3.0 controller chipsets. The Etron controller on the Asrock Z68 Extreme series turns out to be one of the best. There is no guarantee that Intel will be any better. The two advantages of integrated are price (which I doubt will change, just a better profit margin for mobo manufacturers) and driver support from Intel is great. Still, there are USB 3.0 chipsets doing the job now.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/usb-3.0-...dup/13358.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

I am pretty sure I have read Asrock do not use the good NEC USB 3.0 controlers.

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NEC is not the only good USB 3.0 controller chipset on the market. Read the VR-Zone article. In fact, the current NEC chipset is aging, and while it works well, does not support some of the newer standards that the Etron chipset and some others support.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by humeyboy

The Ext 7 is avail in UK now for about £235 and to me I am better buying an Asus or Gigabyte at £250-300 but want to see if any new Mobos come from them in months ahead (now till say Oct)

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With respect, if that is your choice, why are you posting in an Asrock thread? I would encourage you to make the choice you like, without disparaging others for choices they have made after doing some actual research, choices that are at least as valid as yours.

LoneWolf, said it like a gentleman!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by icedtea

Then why bother posting on an ASROCK thread?
Also, ASUS uses ASMedia controllers on their P8Z68Vs, dont use "heatpipes" (personally I think heatpipes mean nothing on mobos since spacing is too limited to add a huge sink) and their heatsinks also get hot, and have three display output ports on the backpanel.

If your looking for dont care about the IGPU you should look at the P67 boards, some are being dumped at really cheap prices. Get one cheap and think about replacing it when Ivy Bridge comes along. Forget about FSB/BLK overclocking, Intel dont want users overclocking those "budget" chips as a cheap alternative they want us to buy those 2500Ks and 2600Ks. Lock multi, limit FSB/BLK and enthusiasts will have no other choice.

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BECAUSE I am FREE to do so as a member of this community and if you cannot accept that then you should not bother visiting!

Also a P67 has even more bolt on crap than Z68, another half baked pointless Intel money cow after long lived 775.

Do you even know WTF your talking about?

The Intel K CPU's still have same FSB/BLK limitation due to internal GPU, its only Multi that is unlocked!

SB-E possibly and IB are supposed to going to give some relief to 100mhz official BLK with some ratios allowing the old method of OC'ing

I am really itching to upgrade but know it will be a mistake to do so right now.

@ LoneWold, trying to pick my post apart and preach to the choir and it is not going to work with me!

ALL my Asus Mobos up to one in sig have had full heatpipes since heatpipes 1st appeared on Mobos.

Once again a far more powerful ATI/Nvidia GPU is well more capable that any Intel GPU at encoding AGAIN IF it is fully supported!

I finally came into this thread to voice my opinion/concerns as I was tempted to buy this Mobo not be picked apart by a fanboy or told I shouldn't post here by a newbie!

Have you even read any reviews on these Mobos or visited forum thread about Bios issues and USB+ other devices not appearing etc?

You have said nothing to me that makes you look as smart as a buddy above thinks you are.

I will end this by telling you not to tell BLATANT LIES as I have not told anyone not to buy an Asrock Mobo, again I posted my opinion accept it or I advise you turn your PC off if you cannot handle it because there is a lot of other's opinions out there you may not like!

Blatant lies?

I'll be happy to listen to where I have "blatantly lied" if you can quote me and show where. I'll also be happy to see any tests you can post that show that ATI and nVidia GPU acceleration outperform Intel QuickSync when all three technologies are properly supported.

Further, I'll post a few studies I've already read, prior to making my statements about QuickSync.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/t...-2100-tested/9

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...0k,2833-5.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...0_9.html#sect0

If these sites are not reputable enough for you, I'm not sure what will convince you. If I hadn't seen all of these tests prior to our discussion, I might have been doubtful too, but the proof is there. Note also that Cybermedia Espresso was optimized for CUDA and ATIStream encoding/transcoding long before QuickSync, so it can take advantage of all three methods --and still, QuickSync wins.

You're also not separating your judgment of Asrock from the problems you have with Intel processor technology or chipset architecture. Many of the problems you say you have amount not to being with an Asrock board, but to something related to the Sandy Bridge architecture or the Intel 6-Series chipset. Those problems are better discussed in a non-Asrock thread because most of them happen with every Intel 6-series chipset mainboard, regardless of who makes it. If you have an issue with an Asrock mainboard, we're all happy to listen.

Also, if you have a picture of an ASUS Z68 chipset board that currently has a heatpipe on its SouthBridge cooler, I'd be glad to see it, and I'll admit I'm wrong. I'm not above that. I have found that the ASUS P8P67 WS REVOLUTION does have one, but it isn't a common occurrence, and if it was necessary, I think every vendor would be doing it all the time.

Your hostility when disagreeing, well, I just don't understand it. To use a term from your side of the pond, you're behaving like a Sixth-Year. You certainly have the right to disagree with me, I just don't know why you seem to be so upset when you haven't been called any names, or treated unfairly.

Are you for real?

Google links all day, I can do the same and it does not make you as clever as your buddy thinks you are.

You made out I am trying to get others not to buy an Asrock Mobo!

Here is your Blatant Lie :"without disparaging others for choices"

I have said ZERO towards anyone else's likes or dislikes of these Mobo's and once again that is what this forum is about, its not all about pro's but con's learn to accept that!

Guys, please try to keep the discussion civil, otherwise this threat will be closed. TIA.

Ive tried Patriot 2400 9-11-9 1.65v it wont boot on MIVE.

Looking for some advice on raid setup. Thanks in advance for any help.

First time playing with raid. After setting up my raid1 with my storage drives (not my OS SSD), I get BSOD for a sec as the Win 7 logo pops up and it reboots itself.

Steps I took to set up the raid:
- Changed SATA mode to RAID in bios
- Ctrl-I to access the raid prompt
- created raid volume
- named it raid1
- set to raid1 (mirror)
- selected my two 2TB HDD samsung spinpoint F4s (formatted and empty)
- exited and restarted computer and got the BSOD
- tried increasing the voltage of cpu up to +.015 with no success
- when I turn off raid mode, win 7 loads up fine

does it have to do something with AHCI?

edit: i think i figured it out. It's because I have one HDD on the intel and the other HDD on the marvell controller.

In addition to my Hauppauge card issue, my system still will not recognize the standard internal Mitsumi 1.44MB floppy drive I installed that worked in my previous system.

I replaced the floppy cable with a new one, and recently replaced the power supply as well, so I'm sure everything should be up and running, but Windows 7 does not detect the drive, even though it lists the controller in Device Manager.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinjuko

Looking for some advice on raid setup. Thanks in advance for any help.

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You have to do the registry hack. Because you installed the os with no raid to begin with. Try this and see what you get.

Quote:

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With RAID disabled, boot into Windows and start Regedit.exe
1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\iaStorV
2. In the right-hand column, you should see a value named Start. Double-click this entry and change the data from 1 to 0.
3. Reboot with RAID enabled – Windows should load just fine. Now install your raid drivers. This time around, it should detect your hardware and install without any issues.

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