Asrock Z77 Extreme4 & Extreme6. Report issues, overclocks, and related stuff here!

[Ket]

I think the same, but with 2600k you don't get last enthusiast feature like PCI 3.0, cpu optimizations, quick sync 2.0 (more, more fast encoding).
It's some bad vs some bad choice...

You think that you can get more MHz with Extreme6 vs Extreme4? I think at MOSFET heatsink. Under the plastic, seem the same... or not?


Fantastic! Default was 1.5v?


Amazing! I'm looking on shops.

- Nope, default for the kit is 1.6v
- PCI-E 3.0 doesn't offer much atm so its a moot thing, same goes for the other features of the IB CPUs. No doubt IB will eventually be good, just not atm. Let all those crappy 1st batch, possibly 2nd and 3rd batches too, work their way through the chain. I'd expect to see a more "mature" IB in another few months. (By mature, I'm talking refined nm process, new stepping, etc)

[Church]

Imho pcie3 might offer more for sli setups, with two pcie3 x8 slots having similar bandwith to two pcie2 x16. Though even pcie2 x8 is not exactly bottleneck, true. As for IB .. i somewhate doubt in improved future steppings .. my guess that intel will release next year haswell platform with different socket/chipset/cpu and won't bother with IB. From current platforms only new one probably will be lga2011 IB-e for X79 boards. Hence probably SB looks as best bet for O/C, or as alternative IB with DIY changed TIM between IHS & core.

[Ket]

IB CPUs will get better, all CPUs go through a process of being "updated" whenever a manufacturing process improves. This is done because ultimately it saves money for the company. I'm quite looking forward to picking up a 3570K in a month or two, maybe a 3770K, depends what prices are like at the time. If you want to see PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0, do a google search. In all but the most extreme conditions the difference is practically non existent at this time. All you really need is a mainboard capable of PCI-E 3.0 so when it does become practical you just need to drop in a IB CPU.

[papatsonis]

You are not going to see a newer stepping with IVY... just like you didn't see one with SB... half a year from now Haswell will be "at gates"... waste of time to do a respin to IVY.. especially when they clock liek crasy (on proper cooling...) . period..

[Ket]

Ivy runs hotter than SB because of leakage issues, those leakage issues are due to the immature manufacturing process, thats the aspect I'm talking about which will in due time be improved and hence IB will be "updated". A more mature manufacturing process saves intel money because of better yields, and so will probably get a new stepping as a indirect result just to aknowledge the more mature process.

[Olivon]

you are not going to see a newer stepping with ivy... Just like you didn't see one with sb... Half a year from now haswell will be "at gates"... Waste of time to do a respin to ivy.. Especially when they clock liek crasy (on proper cooling...) . Period..

qft

[st0ned]

IB's are colder then SB's the only problem is the TIM

[Ket]

I've seen plenty of temp charts to suggest with 1st batch IBs at least the problem was more than just TIM, pointing at a immature manufacturing process. That process will naturally get better, but I won't be spending £200-300 on a new CPU while there is a chance I might get sent a remnant from the first IB batches. I'm not against IB, I just think it could, and should, be better. Namely, sort the leakage issues out, if intel have already then no issues, if not, its like you are paying full price for a faulty product.

[Betaboy]

Hey guys, im running on Asrock Z77 Extreme4 and 2500k with gskill 2x4 1333 cl7 1.5v sticks.

No problem overclocking 4.5ghz 2500k and 1600 cl8 1.55v, but im getting too much blue screens or freezings issues during on desktop, internet surfing or listening to music. But theres no problem with gaming or stabilty tests.

Bios version is 1.6


I'm thinking maybe my ram sticks are dead?

I'm actually experiencing very similar hangs during intensive multi-tasking (eg. listening to music, opening media files and downloading at 2Mbyte/s over wifi simulatenously) lately, even while running everything at stock. I get the slow-mo music playback and then it completely grinds to a halt.

I have Gskill RAM too... interesting. I haven't had time to investigate yet, but I think it will come down to doing trial and error part substitutions... my wallet is hurting just thinking about it.

RAM will probably come first as it's cheap, followed by the motherboard if the issue persists.

[st0ned]

I've seen plenty of temp charts to suggest with 1st batch IBs at least the problem was more than just TIM, pointing at a immature manufacturing process. That process will naturally get better, but I won't be spending £200-300 on a new CPU while there is a chance I might get sent a remnant from the first IB batches. I'm not against IB, I just think it could, and should, be better. Namely, sort the leakage issues out, if intel have already then no issues, if not, its like you are paying full price for a faulty product.

Well I've one of the 1st IB retail batches and it isn't hot at all, with proper TIM that is.

[radier]

Z77 Extreme4 1.90 7/12/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Add "No-K OC" function.

Z77 Extreme6 1.80 7/12/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Add "No-K OC" function.

Z77 Pro3 1.40 7/12/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Improve Internet Flash.
4. Add "No-K OC" function.

Z77 Pro4 1.30 7/12/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Improve discrete VGA card vBIOS compatibility.
4. Improve Internet Flash.
5. Add "No-K OC" function.

http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?cat=BIOS

[Ket]

Well I've one of the 1st IB retail batches and it isn't hot at all, with proper TIM that is.

Well, you probably got one of the IBs that come out alright. I'm not saying every IB has/had leakage issues, just that a lot of them (1st batches at least) didn't come out "quite right". Thats why required voltage on a lot of IBs was about the same as SB CPUs. If you have a IB CPU that will run stock full speed clocks at around 1.050v - 1.1v, that sort of area, then you got a IB that "came out right" from what I know.

Z77 Extreme4 1.90 7/12/2012


Z77 Extreme6 1.80 7/12/2012


Z77 Pro3 1.40 7/12/2012


Z77 Pro4 1.30 7/12/2012


http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?cat=BIOS

Sods law, I get a few weeks behind testing and flash to UEFI 1.7 yesterday and Asrock bring out a 1.8 UEFI

[Ket]

Good news readers I've finally settled on a replacement for megaupload, links will be up shortly.

[xIronCrossx]

For the Extreme6...

Can you run two monitors off of the motherboard/CPU? (with an i7 3770K)

That would be nice since my GTX 570 still doesn't downclock all the way with more than one monitor, and it can't drive 3.

Also, other than the non-native USB 3.0, are there any real problems? Reading through the thread, it seems it doesn't like very tight memory timings, although not an issue for me since I wouldn't be OC'ing the memory.

And lastly, how is the onboard sound for this? Is it good enough to not have to get a sound card or is it mediocre?

[Ket]

No onboard sound is really spectacular, but as far as onboard sound goes its certainly no worse than other onboard audio solutions. I'm not certain but I think the memory issue has been looked at and has had something done. As for dual monitors I've never tested but I don't see why not. If you mean you want to sync all the monitors though that could be a different story.

[radier]

ASRock is just crazy


Z77 Extreme4 2.00 7/17/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Add "No-K OC" function.

Z77 Extreme6 1.90 7/17/2012

1. Update VBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Add "No-K OC" function.

Z77 Extreme9 1.40 7/17/2012

1. Update vBIOS.
2. Update RAID ROM.
3. Add "No-K OC" function.
4. Improve discrete VGA card vBIOS compatibility.

And many more... http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?cat=BIOS

[Ket]

Looks liike the UEFI team has been doing some overtime

[radier]

If you are curious what ASRock No-K OC function means:

http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/index....0;attach=1523

[Sadhana]

Any user here with Z77E-ITX? I have one with SB i5 2500k but not power on, yet. Want to see how good the tiny mobo can OC with SB and 8gb kit ram.

[Ket]

From what I've seen of the no-k feature putting it simply it seems like Asrock found a way to hack some CPU registers or something very similar to that. I'll look at the feature in more detail when I have a chance and provide a more detailed answer for those curios.

[Church]

My guess that no-k overclock is automated overclock of intel not-K cpus with fixated ratio using turboboost ratios when seening those relatively low overclocks mentioned in that pdf. Imho nothing above what you could already do manually before.

[Ket]

Yup, probably. I'd think it would still involve hacking some CPU registers / flags though to get the CPU constantly running at its turbo boost frequency.

[mastabog]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been posted before. I just bought the Z77 Extreme6 with a 3700K and 4x8GB = 32GB of Geil Evo Corsa 2400 MHz CL 11-12-12-3, the one here: http://www.geil.com.tw/products/showSpec/id/328

Nothing is overlocked. The problem is that I get lots of crashes, freezes etc when using the rated 2400 MHz. I have to manually select the XMP profile 1, otherwise Auto sees it as 1333 MHz CL9. When selecting XMP, it correctly sees 2400MHz, 1.65v and CL 11-12-12-30.

Memtest86+ fails quite quickly, see screenshot. Prime 95 with large FFTs fails instantly in less than 1 second.

Reading around, there seems to be problems with the Extreme6 and larger memory kits. Anandtech complains too in their Extreme6 review:

Neither BIOS was entirely happy with my memory choice - my kit for Ivy Bridge reviews is a G.Skill 16GB DDR3-2400 9-11-11 kit (F3-19200CL9Q-16GBZMD), which works in most Z77 motherboards without an issue. With a few motherboards, I have to raise VTT from automatic to 1.3 volts. I had to do that with the Z77 Extreme6, but even then the system would fail to boot or BSOD every now and again. All the testing was complete at XMP for this kit, albeit in batches when it was working.

Other people using 4x8GB rated at 2400 MHz from G.Skill have very similar issues. It seems the mobo doesn't set correct timings or is unable to work with 4 modules: http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10786

Several people in that thread reported this issue. In there, a G.Skill rep stated that ASRock Z77 Extreme series had issues with larger modules: http://www.gskill.us/forum/showpost....0&postcount=12

A reply from ASRock said "Some memory requires more detail setting for the memory. Example : tWR, tFRC, tRRD, tWTR, tRTP etc.. Please contact G skill for detail setting about this particular memory."

I've been in contact with Geil who have provided me with a beta bios from ASRock, version M1.90A which has a plethora of DRAM options compared to 1.90 and seems to apply timings for the XMP profile that are closer to what AIDA64 reports. The problem is still there though. Prime95 still craps out instantly.

I'm quite taken aback since nothing is overclocked. I would have thought companies got it right by 2012. I don't want to say I'm sorry for switching away from ASUS but I so hate the hassle.

Anyone know of a fix for this issue? A particular set of timings I should use or try?

EDIT: I'm now testing one stick at a time and surprise: with only one stick in slot B2 it seems to work. Prime95 has been happily munching for the past 15 minutes. I'll test the other 3 slots with this stick to see itf it's the mobo and then the other 3 sticks individually. If they are all fine individually then I guess the sticks are fine ...

Anyone with similar experience that managed to find a fix?

Cheers

p.s. at 1333 MHz, things are fine when using all 4 sticks ... but I sure as hell won't accept that given the premium I paid for 2400 MHz (I actually need it for research, not for overclocking).

[Demo]

Is the extreme 6 a good motherboard for someone going 3x GTX670's with a i7 2600k ?

[psychok9]

Hello!
I was about to buy the "DDR3 1866Mhz PC15000 8GB G.Skill ARES 8GAB 1.5V CL9 (2x4GB)" memory, code F3-1866C9D-8GAB, with an AsRock Extreme6, but it doesn't seem to be compatible http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%2...e6/?cat=Memory.
The G.Skill Ripjaws memory is not available. Any advice?

The "DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 1.5V CL9 (2x4GB) CML8GX3M2A1600C9" seems cheap but not on AsRock site. The database It's updated?

In reverse, http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=484&c1=1&c2=3 G.Skill seem say that AsRock Extreme6 is "Qualified Motherboards List".
Ket any advice? I want use XMP profile without mess around...
Thank you.