**Official** Asrock Z68 Extreme4 thread. Share your experiences, OCs & tech issues!

I got my 2500 k now batchcode: L104A540
I will set my result here with the z68 -pro3

here is the result for now

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9188/unled1yy.jpg

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/5993/unled2bg.jpg


after some tries here is the result

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9670/unledgf.jpg


with the vcc 1.5 from bios
still need more voltage for stable or need some other voltage to mood lik(vtt or pll)
Another question
at this state what should I put the max power for the processor and with what duration


http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3299/110612152008.jpg

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i was wondering if anyone would like to share what criteria led you to purchase this board vs. the other options available?

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1. 775 mounting holes, didn't have to mess with my water block. That is what made the sale, that and...

2. Just like to try new brands. I have done Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, DFI, etc. Just wanted to try it out of curiosity.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

>jpm
-The last (third long) pci-e slot. On Asus if one wants to set it to 4x mode he has to switch off e-sata, some usb ports and pci-e x1 AFAIR. No such restrictions in Asrock's case.
-Asus had a little advantage in P67 concerning usb3 compatibility (Nec chip). But it is no longer valid as they changed usb3 controller in Z68.
-USB3 front panel as a bundle in Asrock.
-surprisingly robust community of Asrock users and faster response with bios updates from their support team.

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thanks piquadrat - am surprised that the NEC USB3 chip is viewed as a better choice? recently the Etron EJ168 (used in the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 board, among others) passed USB-IF certification:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/etron-te...ion/12343.html

the ASMedia USB3 controller (used on the P8Z68-V Pro) has also passed this certification, although this article mentioned a potential Etron advantage over both ASMedia and NEC in that it is fully xHCI 1.0 compliant. has the NEC chip been proven better in practice?

also on the topic of chip selection, i noticed the ASRock board uses a Broadcom LAN chip that i've heard good things about.

I must say with the new Etron driver (v1.1) I was sent by one of my contacts really irons out a lot of the inital teething problems. Very enjoyable board to build a system around, everything just works as it should and so far in testing the latest UEFIs for the board are totally bug free.

jpm,

The only problem I've had with my board is the fact that the eSATA port doesn't work as advertised. This seems to be a common problem with the Marvell controller I believe.

Everything else just works though with no issues. The UEFI contains lots of options and its easy to navigate. It overclocks as well as the Asus and it also has many more features than the Asus, including the front usb 3 panel and the extra PCI-E lanes chip.

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Originally Posted by jpm

thanks piquadrat - am surprised that the NEC USB3 chip is viewed as a better choice?

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It was a better choice but this is progressively changing

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Originally Posted by jpm

also on the topic of chip selection, i noticed the ASRock board uses a Broadcom LAN chip that i've heard good things about.

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What have you heard as I'm still wondering what's the real difference between Broadcom and Realtek LAN chips?

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Originally Posted by EzyRyder

jpm,

The only problem I've had with my board is the fact that the eSATA port doesn't work as advertised. This seems to be a common problem with the Marvell controller I believe.

Everything else just works though with no issues. The UEFI contains lots of options and its easy to navigate. It overclocks as well as the Asus and it also has many more features than the Asus, including the front usb 3 panel and the extra PCI-E lanes chip.

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thanks ezyryder, what issues are you having with the eSATA port?

I believe its a problem with the Marvell controller and not the board itself as other users of other Asrock boards with the same controller have reported the problem.

The problem is basically when you plug an eSATA device your computer will become very laggy, the mouse will almost freeze and the computer will become unusable until you turn the eSATA device off.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

What have you heard as I'm still wondering what's the real difference between Broadcom and Realtek LAN chips?

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marvell LAN chips historically provided lower CPU utilization compared to realtek counterparts, and in some cases higher throughput as well. one relatively recent review demonstrating this is here:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1387/10/

comparing the marvell chip on an Asus board to the realtek chip on an ASRock board, the difference was quite significant. there are also some threads here on xtremesystems confirming the same:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...an-Port-to-Use

although some of the benchmarks you'll find are a bit dated, i don't think much has changed here in the past few years. motherboard manufacturers prefer marvell and realtek LAN chips because they are cheap, and because they can use them on both Intel and AMD motherboards, which simplifies their supply chain, driver management and board designs. a few recent Asus boards are using Intel’s WG82579V PHY chip, which is an interface to the P67/Z68 chipset's built-in network functionality. allegedly this reduces latency, additionally this avoids giving up a PCIe lane to a marvell/realtek controller. but this solution has not been popular with board manufacturers as they can't utilize it on AMD boards.

unfortunately networking benchmarks for the recent Z68 boards have been scarce. hardocp did some benchmarking of the Intel PHY on the Asus board that seem impressive, but there isn't anything to compare them to:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...board_review/4

although i have read positive qualitative comments about the Broadcom BCM57781 (i.e. tom's hardware called the chip "reputable" and an "unusual strength" for the ASRock board), i haven't been able to find any actual comparisons of its performance or CPU utilization.

I'm having the same trouble with finding any useful info about that Broadcom controller. And can't position it in relation to the contenders. Is it Broadcom>Marvel>Realtek or the other way around?

digging further it seems that the Z68 Extreme4 is currently the only mass-produced board on the market using this broadcom chip. until we get some good benchmarks, we do have a spec sheet from broadcom:

http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/57781-PB00-R.pdf

on the optimistic side, ASRock moved to this broadcom chip from the Realtek RTL8111E used on the P67 Extreme4, so we can hope that they did so with better performance in mind.

Hey guys, I am currently deciding on which board to purchase and have been looking at this thread with keen interest in regards to the Asrock-Z68-Extreme4.

Just curious, say your using a GTX 580 will it still use it's normal minimal power even though your say web browsing using the Intel Graphics Chip? how does it work as I haven't found much info in terms of Z68 users like yourselves.

I was going to purchase a Gigabyte Z68 board but just wondering if the additional features of the Asrock would be put to use and actually work well.

So say I were to upgrade would you guys recommend the Z68 Extreme4 or the P67 Extreme6. - I have no real use for the extras provided by the Z68 chipset.

Does the "V16 + 2 Power Phase Design" really make that big a difference when overclocking as compared to the V8 design on the Extreme4?

They are the same price for me at Newegg and I have Shoprunner thing so shipping price is not an issue.

@Ket

Check this thread: http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/4...t-problem.html
Looks like some serious bug in UEFI 1.4

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Originally Posted by EzyRyder

I believe its a problem with the Marvell controller and not the board itself as other users of other Asrock boards with the same controller have reported the problem.

The problem is basically when you plug an eSATA device your computer will become very laggy, the mouse will almost freeze and the computer will become unusable until you turn the eSATA device off.

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I'll chase up the status of this problem, but I won't hear anything from my contacts until Wednesday~ next week.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

I'm having the same trouble with finding any useful info about that Broadcom controller. And can't position it in relation to the contenders. Is it Broadcom>Marvel>Realtek or the other way around?

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AFAIK, Broadcom make some good stuff so the chip Asrock are using should be some good quality stuff, but I don't have any benchmarks for specific comparisons.

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Originally Posted by Nelly

Hey guys, I am currently deciding on which board to purchase and have been looking at this thread with keen interest in regards to the Asrock-Z68-Extreme4.

Just curious, say your using a GTX 580 will it still use it's normal minimal power even though your say web browsing using the Intel Graphics Chip? how does it work as I haven't found much info in terms of Z68 users like yourselves.

I was going to purchase a Gigabyte Z68 board but just wondering if the additional features of the Asrock would be put to use and actually work well.

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Virtu works by letting the IGP take over the tasks of general stuff and video encoding (faster than discrete cards) so your GTX580 uses less power and thus reduces your leccy bill. However, your GTX580 won't actually be "off", it will be in a low power idle state so should you launch a game, your GTX580 will kick to life and take over from the IGP.

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Originally Posted by Zayras

So say I were to upgrade would you guys recommend the Z68 Extreme4 or the P67 Extreme6. - I have no real use for the extras provided by the Z68 chipset.

Does the "V16 + 2 Power Phase Design" really make that big a difference when overclocking as compared to the V8 design on the Extreme4?

They are the same price for me at Newegg and I have Shoprunner thing so shipping price is not an issue.

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This is largely a personal preference choice. The Z68 will see you being more futureproof as you will be able to take advantage of Virtu. As for 8 phase
vs 16 phase both provide more than enough to get a monster OC out of the CPU. The main difference with 16 phase is you might be able to shave a smidge off of the vcore needed for the same OC on a 8 phase board.

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Originally Posted by radier

@Ket

Check this thread: http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/4...t-problem.html
Looks like some serious bug in UEFI 1.4

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Ask that guy to try UEFI 1.4A from the first page in this thread ;)

Cheers Ket - I know you were already chasing the issue :)

Damn, RMA time for me. My motherboard has developed a fault were the system after its been shutdown switches itself back on after 2 seconds. At first I thought it must be a windows issue but now all I have connected is the cpu, 1 stick of ram and the psu (no mouse, keyboard or any systems cables) - and it still restarts itself.

I've tried all the bioses available and pulled the battery for a while to get a full reset. I even tried a different psu to rule that out.

Oh well.. :(

Check WOL (wake on lan).
If you switch off with power button (hard power down), does it restart by itself also?

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

Check WOL (wake on lan).
If you switch off with power button (hard power down), does it restart by itself also?

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I tried toggling all the bios options related to waking the pc up including WOL. I have everything disconnected now so my final tests were using the power button built onto the board - and it still restarts after 2 seconds.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

Check WOL (wake on lan).
If you switch off with power button (hard power down), does it restart by itself also?

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I tried toggling all the bios options related to waking the pc up including WOL. I have everything disconnected now so my final tests were using the power button built onto the board - and it still restarts after 2 seconds.

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Originally Posted by hopester

Damn, RMA time for me. My motherboard has developed a fault were the system after its been shutdown switches itself back on after 2 seconds. At first I thought it must be a windows issue but now all I have connected is the cpu, 1 stick of ram and the psu (no mouse, keyboard or any systems cables) - and it still restarts itself.

I've tried all the bioses available and pulled the battery for a while to get a full reset. I even tried a different psu to rule that out.

Oh well.. :(

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Thats not the board, its your PSU ;)

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Originally Posted by hopester

Damn, RMA time for me. My motherboard has developed a fault were the system after its been shutdown switches itself back on after 2 seconds. At first I thought it must be a windows issue but now all I have connected is the cpu, 1 stick of ram and the psu (no mouse, keyboard or any systems cables) - and it still restarts itself.

I've tried all the bioses available and pulled the battery for a while to get a full reset. I even tried a different psu to rule that out.

Oh well.. :(

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Thats not the board, its your PSU ;)

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Originally Posted by Ket

Thats not the board, its your PSU ;)

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You have me confused now as I tried a different psu?

The only times I've ever known a system to turn itself back on after shutting it down or similar is when the PSU has been dodgy. Deffinately worth checking your system with a known working PSU before taking it apart.

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Originally Posted by hopester

Damn, RMA time for me. My motherboard has developed a fault were the system after its been shutdown switches itself back on after 2 seconds. At first I thought it must be a windows issue but now all I have connected is the cpu, 1 stick of ram and the psu (no mouse, keyboard or any systems cables) - and it still restarts itself.

I've tried all the bioses available and pulled the battery for a while to get a full reset. I even tried a different psu to rule that out.

Oh well.. :(

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are use any program such as InstantBoot
try to remove it first

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Originally Posted by hema

are use any program such as InstantBoot
try to remove it first

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Still reboots with nothing connected except the processor and ram while its sitting on a box out of my tower. Tried a 3rd psu to keep Ket happy but still no change ;)

Replacement board should be with me in a few days.

I have a big problem with my new Z68 Extreme4 board.
I cannot make Extreme4 to boot when my intel 320 SSD drive is connected to any of the motherboard sata ports except Marvel's ones.
The board locks itself with endless boots loop, each time it comes to B3 state, then reboots and so on.
When I disconnect intel ssd drive all goes to normal.
I've tried: updating bios to 1.4, changing controller mode (AHCI, IDE etc.) to no avail.
The crytical thing is that my ssd is hardware encrypted with ATA security password set.
When I stipped off the ATA password all is working OK, no boot loop. But disabling ATA password effectively switching off internal encryption so no more security.
I cannot afford that. It seems the board (intel ATA controller to be more precise) has problems with ATA secured hard drives :(
I'm scratching my head now. I can return the board and pick something else. But have no guarantee that the problem is not the chipset fault so buying Asus or something else will give me nothing.

benchmarks published today comparing the performance of some of the marvell, realtek, and intel controllers:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/z68-show...0/12235-7.html

summary: intel 82579V PHY uses less CPU than the realtek RTL8111E LAN chip; asmedia ASM1042 USB3 controller has better write throughput than the renesas PD720200A by about 15%; and intel's Z68 6Gbps SATA interface crushes the marvell 88SE9128.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

I have a big problem with my new Z68 Extreme4 board.
I cannot make Extreme4 to boot when my intel 320 SSD drive is connected to any of the motherboard sata ports except Marvel's ones.
The board locks itself with endless boots loop, each time it comes to B3 state, then reboots and so on.
When I disconnect intel ssd drive all goes to normal.
I've tried: updating bios to 1.4, changing controller mode (AHCI, IDE etc.) to no avail.
The crytical thing is that my ssd is hardware encrypted with ATA security password set.
When I stipped off the ATA password all is working OK, no boot loop. But disabling ATA password effectively switching off internal encryption so no more security.
I cannot afford that. It seems the board (intel ATA controller to be more precise) has problems with ATA secured hard drives :(
I'm scratching my head now. I can return the board and pick something else. But have no guarantee that the problem is not the chipset fault so buying Asus or something else will give me nothing.

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I have already discussed this with my contacts a while ago, anything that might take advantage of new features on SSDs will take time to implement though I cannot say one way or the other what Asrock will choose to do.

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Originally Posted by EzyRyder

I believe its a problem with the Marvell controller and not the board itself as other users of other Asrock boards with the same controller have reported the problem. The problem is basically when you plug an eSATA device your computer will become very laggy, the mouse will almost freeze and the computer will become unusable until you turn the eSATA device off.

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EzyRyder, do you by any chance use the "M2" SATA port on your board? M2 is shared with the rear-panel eSATA port. wouldn't surprise me if funny things happen when both are connected simultaneously.

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Originally Posted by Ket

I have already discussed this with my contacts a while ago, anything that might take advantage of new features on SSDs will take time to implement though I cannot say one way or the other what Asrock will choose to do.

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My ssd drive works ok with Extreme4 integrated Marvell ATA controller, even when the drive is ATA locked.
My 4-years-old DFI has no problem with encrypted intel ssd also and booting without problem.
I think we can't call this "new features" in this perspective.
Anyway that's something you can add to your bug list. As opposite to "ATA security extension" which is an optional feature indeed this one is a bug. Mobo should not behave like this (endless reboot loop) even when it doesn't support ATA password (my old DFI doesn't either).

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Originally Posted by jpm

EzyRyder, do you by any chance use the "M2" SATA port on your board? M2 is shared with the rear-panel eSATA port. wouldn't surprise me if funny things happen when both are connected simultaneously.

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I know what you mean, but no I don't use that port.

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

My ssd drive works ok with Extreme4 integrated Marvell ATA controller, even when the drive is ATA locked.
My 4-years-old DFI has no problem with encrypted intel ssd also and booting without problem.
I think we can't call this "new features" in this perspective.
Anyway that's something you can add to your bug list. As opposite to "ATA security extension" which is an optional feature indeed this one is a bug. Mobo should not behave like this (endless reboot loop) even when it doesn't support ATA password (my old DFI doesn't either).

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There are many, many, many different hardware configurations and although some people think manufacturers have all the hardware on earth to test with the simple reality is that we don't :( Theres plenty of SSDs that work perfectly fine on the P67/Z68 boards, you just happen to have a drive thats probably not very common (you haven't said what SSD drive you have, which is why I assumed you had a very recent SSD which adds new hardware features) and because its not very common, thats why you have a compatibility issue.

I'll bring your issue up when I next talk with my contacts, but I won't get to talk to them until Tues/Wed next week.

It is: intel 320 Series SSD 80GB (so called G3): SSDSA2CW080G3K5
Thanks for your assistance. Lets see what Asrock's support team has to say.

Just got this board, Just have the problems that everyone else seems to have had since x58, which is, the USB ports and Polling rates, or Hertz on mice, Before on my p965 system, my msi 3.0 ran 500hz flawlessly, now on the usb 2.0 ports, i cant get it to run anything, no matter what i change the port to, it just between 125hz and 22000, which sucks, also, it seems to be making my scroll wheel .. delayed
The usb3.0 port however, shows no such signs, mouse runs as it should, but its stuck on 125hz, which shows in fps games as very choppy gameplay
Ive got 10-120dpc, 400dpc when torrenting and everything, no audio stutters or anything, Also running XP SP3, I know, i know too used to XP =\, But a friend of mine who has the p67 pro3 has the exact same issue :(

Sorry for using this as a help thread, but was hoping someone else had this issue and resolved it

I would see if the manufacturer of your mouse has a updated firmware for it. Most good gaming mice are usually issued with firmware updates of some sort.

They havent, its a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, very old mouse, but yours works fine at 500hz?, also in the usb3.0 port?
If so, Thats all i need to know, ill just see if i can find a DA Black Edition (I hate glossy sides :) ) cheap somewhere

The mouse I use is a wireless logitech and for gaming a Sharkoon Fireglider (black one, looks way better than the crappy one with fire on :D) without any issues. There used to be a polling rate override tool used for XP machines that had polling issues, you could try googling to find it and give that a go.

You mean "usbmrs11.exe" and "Usbrate.exe", right? yeah, i tried those, also the one for changing it on win7, no effect on the USB3.0 polling on either one (Its rock solid on 125hz, wont budge), And the USB2.0 ports are still all over the place, maybe the motherboard just dosent like xp?, can you try plugging your sharkoon into the usb3.0 port and see if it runs on 500hz? if it does, its prolly my xp :)

Also fire is never crap! :D, we all know it makes everything 10x cooler and faster!

lol fire print on any mouse/case looks tacky :p: Have you tried enabling/disabling legacy USB3 support in the UEFI?

ED - You probably are, but if not make sure you are using SP3 and have the latest mobo chipset drivers Clicky

Aye, tried with USB3.0 Legacy enabled and disabled, same for USB2.0, Also running SP3 fully updated, was running INF version 9.2.0.1021, gonna try and see if the 1030 does a difference
Edit here; Nope, It didnt make a lick of difference >>, But yours runs 500hz in the usb3.0 port?

Hey,
Am I missing something? I do not see a download link for the drivers on the first page, just the UEFI. What am I missing?

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Originally Posted by Sined

Aye, tried with USB3.0 Legacy enabled and disabled, same for USB2.0, Also running SP3 fully updated, was running INF version 9.2.0.1021, gonna try and see if the 1030 does a difference
Edit here; Nope, It didnt make a lick of difference >>, But yours runs 500hz in the usb3.0 port?

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I'll have to check when my new mouse arrives my old gaming mouse died earlier :(

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Originally Posted by Utnorris

Hey,
Am I missing something? I do not see a download link for the drivers on the first page, just the UEFI. What am I missing?

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I'll get the link sorted, the upload failed for some reason.

I am having one of the most difficult times I have ever had with this board and it posting to Code 64. I feel like I am chasing a friggin ghost because it seems to be random. I am on BIOS 1.20 and I am getting ready to update to 1.4, hopefully that will fix it. If anyone has ran into this code before and knows anything please let me know.

Update: I updated the bios/UEFI to 1.4a. I am going to play with it for a bit before I say it resolved the issue.

Ok, so if I go and overclock my cpu to say 4.6Ghz and I disable Speedstep and all the CPU C1 states including thermal throttling, under a load such as Intel Burn Test it still throttles down. I also noted that on the MSI mATX Z68 board I was playing with I was getting around 117Gflops on the Intel Burn Test, but now I am getting around 56Gflops. What am I missing? Also, is there a guide that shows what each of the settings in the bios does? Like what is GT Frequency? Just something that shows what needs to be changed to overclock/ Also, I started getting major pausing when overclocking, as though something was running in the background, but nothing was.

1. You need to change Short and Long Power limits, start with 200. You also need to change Core Current Limit, start with setting that to 200 as well.
2. If you are running W7 SP1 you need to get the latest binaries from intel to enable AVX with IBT, that will sort out the GFlops.

I'm having very hard time trying to make my sas controller work on Extreme4.
It seems, that the second long pcie slot is intended only for graphic cards. If you put literally anything other in this slot it becomes undetectable. ROM is not executed, the card is non existent.
The third long pcie slot is supposed to work with 4x but I am not able to get 4x speed with my Highpoint 2640x4 controller. The device is fortunately visible but works only in 1x which gives me around 170MB/s sequential transfer rate, It is 30% of my array capabilities.
I ordered Asus P8Z68 Pro. Lets see what this boy can.

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Originally Posted by Ket

1. You need to change Short and Long Power limits, start with 200. You also need to change Core Current Limit, start with setting that to 200 as well.
2. If you are running W7 SP1 you need to get the latest binaries from intel to enable AVX with IBT, that will sort out the GFlops.

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Can you be a little more specific? Do you mean I should change Short and Long to 200? And what binaries do you mean? A driver? Sorry for sounding stupid, software is not my thing.
Thanks

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

I'm having very hard time trying to make my sas controller work on Extreme4.
It seems, that the second long pcie slot is intended only for graphic cards. If you put literally anything other in this slot it becomes undetectable. ROM is not executed, the card is non existent.
The third long pcie slot is supposed to work with 4x but I am not able to get 4x speed with my Highpoint 2640x4 controller. The device is fortunately visible but works only in 1x which gives me around 170MB/s sequential transfer rate, It is 30% of my array capabilities.
I ordered Asus P8Z68 Pro. Lets see what this boy can.

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I had a similar issue with my PERC card on the P67 Extreme6 and the Asus Deluxe. Try swapping the graphics to slot 2 and put the RAID card in the first slot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utnorris

Can you be a little more specific? Do you mean I should change Short and Long to 200? And what binaries do you mean? A driver? Sorry for sounding stupid, software is not my thing.
Thanks

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1. See pic ;)
2. Clicky For customised version of IBT that includes the new intel binaries for AVX.

Maybe i should just bite the bullet and install win7 x64 sp1, seems like a little waste to run xp x86 sp3 with this comp O_O, anyone else had the mouse polling issue ive had though, lots of talk about it on esr

Thanks Ket for all the help. The screenshot helps and so does the link. I reinstalled W7 so I can figure out what software is causing the pausing. I figure it's either the Lucid, AIDA64 or DVDFab, the latter 2 have given me issues in the pass, particularly AIDA64, but I was getting pauses even with it not running which is why I suspect maybe one of the other two. I may just not be able to take advantage of the Quicksync, but we will see. Kinda sucks since it was one of the reasons I went Z68 over P67.

Ok, so I did a fresh install and only installed the drivers needed, i.e. intel chipset, lan, etc. The only real software I have installed is BF2142. I do have Realtemp, CPUZ, MSI Afterburner and Microsoft Essentials installed, none of which caused me any issues on previous builds. I do have 2 x BR DVD players on the Marvel ports and all 6 Intel ports filled. Two GPU's and then the 2500K. I still get a pause, where the machine seems to freeze for a few minutes like it locked up. System is not overclocked. I am using the 1.4a bios. Anyone have any ideas of what might be happening? I am going to install a MSI board later to see if I get the same issue. It's just really weird, at first I couldn't get it to boot and was getting the 64 code for CPU, not sure if that was resolved with the new bios or me swapping out water blocks, but it hasn't happened yet. However if I do restart the box from Windows it will pause at 62 as though it locked up and then continue on. Really frustrated with this.

Its never a good idea jumping straight into a new build on a beta UEFI. From pure DOS flash to UEFI 1.4 and use that as a base. I don't have any SSDs but I have run UEFI 1.4 through its paces with various hardware configs and its deffinately a solid base to build on.

Well, I cannot even get it too post now, keeps stopping at AE or A6. I put the MSI in and it came right up, however I still get a pause as though the system is locking up. I am going to swap out the chip and see if that fixes the issue. I have already tried swapping the memory and that didn't help on either board. As far as flashing goes, I will try that once I get the new chip to see if the results are better.
Thanks again for the help.

I hope this question is acceptable. I'm considering between asrock extreme 4 and gigabyte ud3h-b3. My usage is a bit different than the other folks on this site as I will not be overclocking; rather what is driving me towards these two boards is the requirement of having display port and 7+ sata ports.
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These boards are very similar but the gigabyte has alc-889 and the asrock alc-892 for audio. Not sure if there is a big difference between those two parts. Also I know a few folks have had issues from reading this thread but I'm not sure if there has been anything significant in general.
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This is for a linux box and one thing that is appealing with the 2500k is usage of the igp (display port is required for high resolution). Anyways outside of overclocking has there been much of a diference between these boards and does anyone know the difference (beyond basic specs) between the 889 and 892 ? (the 889 seems to have 6 hardware dac and hte 892 4 but I'm not sure if that makes much of an audio difference).

I can't comment on the Gigabyte board, don't have one. I do remember various people complaining about Turbo mode on Gigabyte boards not working properly though so they wern't getting the Turbo speed they were supposed to. As for the Asrock board, for me its been very solid.

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Originally Posted by anewbie

I hope this question is acceptable. I'm considering between asrock extreme 4 and gigabyte ud3h-b3. My usage is a bit different than the other folks on this site as I will not be overclocking; rather what is driving me towards these two boards is the requirement of having display port and 7+ sata ports.

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Note that you cannot build raid between disks connected to intel and Marvell controllers. And 9120 on Extreme4 does not support RAID at all.

Thankfully I will be using linux software raid so that should not be an issue; though I might get better performance if I connect the raided volumes to the same controller.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

Note that you cannot build raid between disks connected to intel and Marvell controllers. And 9120 on Extreme4 does not support RAID at all.

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is there any one here suffer from blue screen after resume from S3 with this mobo.
I have this prob. with my z68-pro3
I think we need anew bios to solve this prob.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...8asrock-P67%29
ket any news from your contact about this

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anewbie

I hope this question is acceptable. I'm considering between asrock extreme 4 and gigabyte ud3h-b3. My usage is a bit different than the other folks on this site as I will not be overclocking; rather what is driving me towards these two boards is the requirement of having display port and 7+ sata ports.
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These boards are very similar but the gigabyte has alc-889 and the asrock alc-892 for audio. Not sure if there is a big difference between those two parts. Also I know a few folks have had issues from reading this thread but I'm not sure if there has been anything significant in general.
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This is for a linux box and one thing that is appealing with the 2500k is usage of the igp (display port is required for high resolution). Anyways outside of overclocking has there been much of a diference between these boards and does anyone know the difference (beyond basic specs) between the 889 and 892 ? (the 889 seems to have 6 hardware dac and hte 892 4 but I'm not sure if that makes much of an audio difference).

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i don't own the gigabyte board, but have done some reading about it and the impression i get from reviews is that either board should be a solid choice for use at standard clock. overall feature set is similar with the asrock board having the edge in several small ways. presumably asrock's broadcom chip is better than gigabyte's realtek (but this remains yet to be proven). asrock's 1394 chip is PCIe vs. gigabyte's PCI, which should provide better isolation (avoid interference with other devices due to PCI bus sharing) but costs you one of your PCIe lanes (mitigated by the presence of the PLX PCIe bridge). regardless, both chips are made by viacom, another peddler of cheap low-grade silicon, so neither will have great performance or compatibility. similarly i wouldn't worry too much about the difference between realtek's ALC892 vs. ALC889; all of realtek's motherboard audio chips are designed to boost specs at the lowest possible cost. lastly, asrock has a new UEFI BIOS with a more modern look and feel, whereas gigabyte has built some sort of "Hybrid EFI" BIOS, meaning you get the functionality of EFI (specifically the ability to use 3TB+ drives) but with the same old award BIOS UI slapped on top of it.

when it comes to overclocking, i think the asrock has a significant advantage with a 12-phase voltage regulator vs. this gigabyte board's 7. broadly speaking this means that the asrock board should be able to stabilize at a higher clock with less voltage, and the current reviews out there confirm this. but if you have no plans of overclocking i expect your overall experience with both boards will be the same. with that in mind, i would point out that the gigabyte board is significantly cheaper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anewbie

Thankfully I will be using linux software raid so that should not be an issue; though I might get better performance if I connect the raided volumes to the same controller.

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unless performance is completely irrelevant for you, i would avoid software RAID altogether, and i would definitely avoid trying to span RAID across multiple controllers, even if the software somehow allows it. if you don't need a RAID array larger than 6 disks then using the built-in intel RAID controller is definitely the best option with this board, for both performance and reliability.

Alright then, i installed Windows 7 x64, and now the USB2.0 port is nice and smooth at 500hz, after doing the little usb tweak :]

Now, to get used to 7 after being on xp for so long (also, it uses 800mb ram idle?!, sure i got 4gigs..but man thats alot =\)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jpm

unless performance is completely irrelevant for you, i would avoid software RAID altogether, and i would definitely avoid trying to span RAID across multiple controllers, even if the software somehow allows it. if you don't need a RAID array larger than 6 disks then using the built-in intel RAID controller is definitely the best option with this board, for both performance and reliability.

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Soft raid in Linux is better than almost all fake raids you can find on todays motherboards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hema

is there any one here suffer from blue screen after resume from S3 with this mobo.
I have this prob. with my z68-pro3
I think we need anew bios to solve this prob.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...8asrock-P67%29
ket any news from your contact about this

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Disable Internal PLL Overvoltage in the UEFI, see if that stops the BSOD.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sined

Alright then, i installed Windows 7 x64, and now the USB2.0 port is nice and smooth at 500hz, after doing the little usb tweak :]

Now, to get used to 7 after being on xp for so long (also, it uses 800mb ram idle?!, sure i got 4gigs..but man thats alot =\)

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Start>Run>services.msc ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

Disable Internal PLL Overvoltage in the UEFI, see if that stops the BSOD.



Start>Run>services.msc ;)

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is there any sound of anew bios
may be we need new one to solve this prob. and also to unlocked the limitation of cpu on the new z68 board
(unlike the P67 u can use cpu voltage up to 1.6 but with z68 only 1.55 at max.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

Disable Internal PLL Overvoltage in the UEFI, see if that stops the BSOD.



Start>Run>services.msc ;)

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did that, im down to 26 services in all when show all is checked, still high as all hell for some reason >>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by piquadrat

Soft raid in Linux is better than almost all fake raids you can find on todays motherboards.

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the performance characteristics are mixed so i guess i should shy away from making blanket recommendations... but i was trying to keep things simple.

motherboard "fake raids" do have some minor advantages over OS-specific software RAIDs. since the motherboard RAIDs are recognized by the BIOS you can boot from the RAID array. also the format of the array is not OS-specific, and since intel provides drivers across platforms this enables access to the RAID array across operating systems.

that said, RAID functionality for motherboard chipsets such as intel's ICH10R are ultimately implemented in the OS driver, so they are functionally the same as an OS-specific software RAID, the question is who has the best software. i've seen a number of good things written about intel's implementation. for basic read performance, particularly in RAID 0 or 1, intel's controllers actually outperform some well-respected discrete cards. (reference)

but once you start using RAID5/6, which requires constant XORing, especially in the case of a degraded array, a good dedicated controller will win over any software solution.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jpm

but once you start using RAID5/6, which requires constant XORing, especially in the case of a degraded array, a good dedicated controller will win over any software solution.

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Yep.. on my cheap low-end HighPoint 2640 controller (and it has only hardware assisted, not full hardware engine) rebuilding four drive raid-5 volume takes about 20 minutes. On intel ICH10 it takes two hours (the same setup).
And if anyone opting for soft raid with advanced redundancy (like raid-5) the linux approach is the best by far. But I agree with you basically. Especially booting and os independency arguments.

Now I have Asrock Z68 Extreme4 and Asus P8Z68-V Pro right before me. On Asus:
- no problem with booting with password protected drive connected to the motherboard
Still have to investigate compatibility with my SAS controller working in PCIe 4x mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sined

did that, im down to 26 services in all when show all is checked, still high as all hell for some reason >>

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Reason is Windows 7, it wants more ram then XP but because it uses more necessarily doesn´t mean that it´s bad


If you want some more free memory you can disable "Superfetch" but even though it´s still hard to get below 800MB of ram use.

With my Asrock test rig I get ~775MB after a reboot with ~45 processes running, I have notice that after a typical fresh install of Win 7 by me (with Superfetch disabled), it use a bit more ram but after a few days a running it get a bit lower before it settles for ~800MB.


What do you get with your 26 services running?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hema

is there any sound of anew bios
may be we need new one to solve this prob. and also to unlocked the limitation of cpu on the new z68 board
(unlike the P67 u can use cpu voltage up to 1.6 but with z68 only 1.55 at max.)

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Early batch CPUs didn't support PLL Overvoltage which is why some systems wake to a BSOD when its enabled, it has nothing to do with there being a bug in the UEFI.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sined

did that, im down to 26 services in all when show all is checked, still high as all hell for some reason >>

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Even with a bunch of stuff running in the background my system isn't seeing more than 30% mem usage. If you are using something like AVG that thing is a massive resource hog and would go a long way to explaining your memory usage. I used to be a die-hard fan of AVG but their new version is slow, resource hungry and it pissed me off all the false positives it kept complaining about. I now use the free version of Avast, equally as good and isn't a resource hog or keep banging on at me about all those false positives.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ghostleader

Reason is Windows 7, it wants more ram then XP but because it uses more necessarily doesn´t mean that it´s bad


If you want some more free memory you can disable "Superfetch" but even though it´s still hard to get below 800MB of ram use.

With my Asrock test rig I get ~775MB after a reboot with ~45 processes running, I have notice that after a typical fresh install of Win 7 by me (with Superfetch disabled), it use a bit more ram but after a few days a running it get a bit lower before it settles for ~800MB.


What do you get with your 26 services running?

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Just after reboot, its at 735mb, just before i rebooted it was at 1.53gb
edit here; Oh yeah, im on 4gb ram (2x2 corsair vengeance ones)

The reason I use linux software raid is so that I can easily move the raid volume from one machine to another. No concern with regards tot he new hardware. Also the volume is raid 1; and the bit rate off the volume is close enough to what the disk can theoretically support I'm not overtly concern about potential gain from hardware or intel raid.
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Since there is not much computation taking place here I'm not overtly concern abuot cpu load.
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Just hope linux supports suspend ok.

The reason I use linux software raid is so that I can easily move the raid volume from one machine to another. No concern with regards tot he new hardware. Also the volume is raid 1; and the bit rate off the volume is close enough to what the disk can theoretically support I'm not overtly concern about potential gain from hardware or intel raid.
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Since there is not much computation taking place here I'm not overtly concern abuot cpu load.
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Just hope linux supports suspend ok.

Everything seems to be working fine for me. I tried out 1.4a bios yesterday and i kept getting problems, it wouldn't boot properly. So i had to go back to 1.4 and everything was all good
System resume from sleep works fine for me also. I recommend updating to bios v1.4. It was the first thing i did when i first got this extreme4

Here is an update of my overclock and the voltages I'm running. Hope this will help other people when it comes to overclocking for them.
Attachment 116583

Well I ended up ordering the asrock over the gigabyte; not sure why. Newegg sent me one of those $20 off motherboards coupons and so I had to make a snap decision :)
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Btw is the bios that comes with the board solid or do I need to upgrade it first thing? This is a linux build (not sure if anyone here uses linux). The system will be up 24/7 so I would like normal sleep modes to work.

If the board doesn't come with UEFI 1.4, I strongly recommend updating to it to take advantage of any bug fixes / improvements. Apart from that things should be fairly straightforward the board has been exceptionally reliable for me. By far the most trouble-free (as in to say, no problems at all) board I've worked with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

If the board doesn't come with UEFI 1.4, I strongly recommend updating to it to take advantage of any bug fixes / improvements. Apart from that things should be fairly straightforward the board has been exceptionally reliable for me. By far the most trouble-free (as in to say, no problems at all) board I've worked with.

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Agreed. Same goes with me, no problems what so ever.

Attachment 116614
My new 4.7ghz oc :D

New Virtu Driver Available guys, grab it HERE :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by noddi

Attachment 116614
My new 4.7ghz oc :D

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Nice going :up: Some UEFI screenshots would be more helpful for people though ;) To get UEFI screenshots just insert a FAT16/32 pen drive into a USB2 port and hit F12.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hopester

Damn, RMA time for me. My motherboard has developed a fault were the system after its been shutdown switches itself back on after 2 seconds. At first I thought it must be a windows issue but now all I have connected is the cpu, 1 stick of ram and the psu (no mouse, keyboard or any systems cables) - and it still restarts itself.

I've tried all the bioses available and pulled the battery for a while to get a full reset. I even tried a different psu to rule that out.

Oh well.. :(

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Supplier confirmed the fault and I received my replacement board today. This one is working as it should so far :)

Apparently BIOS update 1.50 was released today. Any release notes?

I know the CPU Microcode has been updated, I've asked for the full changes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EzyRyder

Hi Ket,

Great news!

As per the other thread I would appreciate if you could test an eSATA drive with yours to see if you get the atrocious mouse lag and slowdowns I get with mine which I still haven't been able to resolve.

Thanks!

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Asrock have just released UEFI 1.5, can you try it and let me know if your eSATA issue is resolved? Ta :up:

ED - Everybody should give UEFI 1.5 a shot! Testing overclocking has proven to be very worthwhile on this new UEFI version. With the same vcore as for 4.5GHz I'm currently (apparently successfully) testing 4.7GHz no problems! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

Asrock have just released UEFI 1.5, can you try it and let me know if your eSATA issue is resolved? Ta :up:

ED - Everybody should give UEFI 1.5 a shot! Testing overclocking has proven to be very worthwhile on this new UEFI version. With the same vcore as for 4.5GHz I'm currently (apparently successfully) testing 4.7GHz no problems! :D

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Hey Ket, for your 2500K, do you need to enable PLL overvolt to reach 4.7GHz?

I have PLL Overvoltage enabled regardless, though I did try it disabled once when playing around with my 4.5GHz OC and that was ok as well.

i'm just about to order an extreme 4 with a 2600k. gonna sell my i5 750 + gigabyte board and some stuff. need more encoding performance and power efficiency. damn it's getting so hot over here! every watt will help. :)

btw, how's the audio chip on the board? i am having driver issues with the x-fi xtremegamer, so thinking of getting rid of it with the current stuff.

p.s. why not update the links to 1.5 bios on the first page? ;)

p.p.s i'm thinking of using my existing hard drive setup: vertex 2 RAID-0, samsung F3 1TB RAID-0 (of course have to rebuild both arrays), samsung F4. i want to install windows using a flash drive. no probs, right?

It's taken me a while to do among getting it done with other tasks but here is my Asrock Z68 Extreme4 review! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anusha

i'm just about to order an extreme 4 with a 2600k. gonna sell my i5 750 + gigabyte board and some stuff. need more encoding performance and power efficiency. damn it's getting so hot over here! every watt will help. :)

btw, how's the audio chip on the board? i am having driver issues with the x-fi xtremegamer, so thinking of getting rid of it with the current stuff.

p.s. why not update the links to 1.5 bios on the first page? ;)

p.p.s i'm thinking of using my existing hard drive setup: vertex 2 RAID-0, samsung F3 1TB RAID-0 (of course have to rebuild both arrays), samsung F4. i want to install windows using a flash drive. no probs, right?

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1. Sound is what you would expect from a Realtek chip. You can make audio sound quite good though by customising the Equalizer for your speaks.
2. I'm getting around to that ;)
3. I don't have a RAID/SSD setup so can't really say but I doubt you will run into too many issues.

why i was specifically asking about installing windows using a flash drive was because i couldn't get it to work with my current Gigabyte P55 board. to boot into the flash drive, i had to set it as the first drive, but then i couldn't install windows because the system boot files would go into the flash drive since it is the first drive. weird! i didn't have such a problem with the old asus P965 board i had before that.

anyways, i put the order last night. hope they ship within today. XD

You should have fun :up: UEFI 1.5 gives some real lovin for me. +200MHz at same vcore thanks to the updated CPU Microcode.

Overclocking is number 1.
I need a substantial boost from my i5 750 @ 3.8GHz. Of course not in games, but in encoding for the most part. And I needed a trouble free mobo!

You know, this thread is what made me buy this mobo (This msg should go to Asrock XD). I was going for a Gigabyte UD3H or an Asus P8Z68-V before seeing all the support this mobo was getting through you and this thread. For me, it was like getting the other boards without warranty and the Asrock with warranty. :) This is the most I have spent on a board, and I hope I will have 0 issues with it. :)

Anyways, I'll get to you guys when I get hold of the mobo. ;)

Asrock genuinely care about making a product as good as it can be, thats not something you can say is true of some manufacturers :)

just got mine up and running but haveing a hard time trying to get 4.6 stable, LinX is failing alot where prime95 seems fine. 12 hours and no fail from prime versus anywhere from 5 mins and failing to a full run in LinX :(

also at noddi how have you managed to get the bus speed to show as 100.00 in cpu-z mine is always 99.8 :(

Disable Spread Spectrum, use IBT with the new intel binaries for AVX.

Hi Ket

i tried disabling spread spectrum and i think it corrupted my current settings as it refused to boot after with failed overclock, even enabling it again didn't allow it to boot again, even changing the multiplier and voltage back to stock, had to do a cmos reset :(

thinking i might just have a poor chip and will not hit 4.6 fully stable will try 4.5 today

i know it's a very minor thing but has been anoying me alot do you think the 99.8 bus speed issue is a reason to rma also, again i know it's minor but it's like ordering a 100 channel TV package and only 99.8% of them will work

just tried fully stock settings and disabling spread spectrum caused the system to fail with overclock settings also

am on bios version 1.50 also

So what setting for the Load line calibration do you guys use?? I currently have it on level 3.....

2600k @ 4800mhz so far at 1.344vcore under load. Not stability tested yet, just 10mins on prime95.

OK I got my board. Haven't played much with the overclocking. But having a problem with Virtu. It doesn't automatically switch to my HD5870 in Crysis 2. :(
I have added the exe to Games list too.
The Virtu logo is displayed in-game. But it doesn't go away in a few seconds as I have told it to.
If I disable it manually by right clicking the system tray icon, the game uses the video card.
Could this be game specific? Or could I be doing something wrong?

Also, with UEFI 1.5, I have set Vcore to 1.325V, but when running LinX CPU-Z is showing it as 1.320-1.344V. LLC at level 1 (extreme?). Any way to make it stable at 1.325V?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by orb

just got mine up and running but haveing a hard time trying to get 4.6 stable, LinX is failing alot where prime95 seems fine. 12 hours and no fail from prime versus anywhere from 5 mins and failing to a full run in LinX :(

also at noddi how have you managed to get the bus speed to show as 100.00 in cpu-z mine is always 99.8 :(

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I set mine manually 100.00... maybe of you add .2 to yours you get 100 (since you/re only 0.2 off). Check what your asrock xtu shows and make sure its reporting to same thing as ur cpu-z.
I'm gonna try take some screenshots of my UEFI now and post that up.

Had to redo my OC after the 1.5 bios update, but i can't seem to get the +200mhz that Ket is getting :(
almost 12 hours prime stable
Attachment 116708
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