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

[SoMBrA]

Put the PCI soundcard between the two first cards and it will easily leave the bottom PCI-e slot free mate, as such :

Thanks!!

Do you know anything about the Tri-GPU setup I'm planing?

I want to use slots 2 - 4 - 6 instead of 1 - 4 - 6 so I can use the same type of watercooling bridge (just for the looks really), do you know if there is any problem with that?

Thanks

[impaelas]

If temps bother you that much theres a few things you can do to try and lower them;

- Arctic Cooling MX4 (probably best TIM you can buy ATM)
- Coolermaster Sickleflow fans (high CFM, low noise)
- Keep CPU area free of cables and general clutter
- Remove any fan grills you may be using
- Set LLC to Level 1, lower vcore

Hi Ket, i've been experimenting alot with these, LLC was on 1 all the time, inside is very tidy, fans are super fast and super annoying. I've also checked bottom plate of the cooler and it seems perfect with no anomalies. Can it be that it's somehow this board to blame for the heat? Seeing other people driving their i5 250'k on 4.5 and higher voltage with up to 20C lower temps makes me nuts... To make it worse, seems i really got a good CPU here as it goes great on 4.4 with voltage at 1.270..

I've noticed that the gtx 570 heats up ALOT and the problem might be that its very close to CPU but how to avoid that?

[Ket]

I think Asrock just measure temps differently. Other manufacturers likely report surface IHS temps in their UEFI/software, whereas Asrock report the actual core temperature.

[impaelas]

I think Asrock just measure temps differently. Other manufacturers likely report surface IHS temps in their UEFI/software, whereas Asrock report the actual core temperature.

hm, i was using Real temp to measure temperatures, both asrock software and real temp are showing the same temps under load.

[SabreWulf69]

Sort of in a similar board decision as you may have been Ket, got the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 like you have / had, and don't know which board next to get for PCI-E 3.0 support. I have an ASUS Xonar Xense for audio so one of the bad things I read about the Fatal1ty board (sub-par audio) is rendered moot. The Fatal1ty also has dual-gigabit ports but some have said for a 'almost ROG' product it lacks some overclocking features people were expecting to go nuts with. Then again I absolutely LOVE the look of this board and the new 2011 one by ASRock coming out. I want to stick with Ivy Bridge so 2011 isn't really a big deal for me as I like things that are very 'bang for your buck' in value, and the allure of TriGate Transistors has me enthralled. Any help with my decision that you may offer or anyone else?

[Ket]

hm, i was using Real temp to measure temperatures, both asrock software and real temp are showing the same temps under load.

The only explanation I have for the apparently higher CPU temps compared to other people is that Asrock measure actual core temp, if not that, its where sensor calibration is way out but I can't see it being out to the tune of 20c.

Sort of in a similar board decision as you may have been Ket, got the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 like you have / had, and don't know which board next to get for PCI-E 3.0 support. I have an ASUS Xonar Xense for audio so one of the bad things I read about the Fatal1ty board (sub-par audio) is rendered moot. The Fatal1ty also has dual-gigabit ports but some have said for a 'almost ROG' product it lacks some overclocking features people were expecting to go nuts with. Then again I absolutely LOVE the look of this board and the new 2011 one by ASRock coming out. I want to stick with Ivy Bridge so 2011 isn't really a big deal for me as I like things that are very 'bang for your buck' in value, and the allure of TriGate Transistors has me enthralled. Any help with my decision that you may offer or anyone else?

I don't have a Gen3 board but would certainly look at the Gen3 Extreme4 if buying socket 1155 parts now. I personally wouldn't pick a fatality board for a number of reasons, primary being the cooling used is not as good as on the Extreme boards. Just looking at it you can see its meant more for "bling", but at the end of the day its the buyers decision.

[krele]

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?

I can confirm that I have exact problem you explained with my ASRock Z68 extreme4 gen3 eSATA controller. Transfer starts ok, but then the speed goes way too slow and then whole system freezes until I turn off external drive. Or sometimes the drive disconnects itself. I tried two more ext4gen3 boards and it was all the same problem again. My external HD is 3,5" 2TB WD green caviar in ICY DOCK case.
Also i have a problem with USB3 writing (from hard disk to usb stick) speed. It's always about 20 MB/s. Read speed is around 80 MB/s.

Please if anyone can help me with these two things. Thanks.

[Ket]

Tried the latest Etron drivers? (Clicky)

[zoomee]

Looks like my problem with heat was a poor 2600k. Got me a 2700k today which is running happily @ 4.6 with 1866 ram on only 1.28volts using the standard Turbo 4.6 profile on this board. Sorry asrock pls forgive me lol

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[krele]

Tried the latest Etron drivers? (Clicky)

i tried versions 104, 105 and 105.394.1. will try the other ones. could it be that my hard drive is limiting with its read speed? i have wd green caviar 7800 rpm and seagate 320 GB.

[Ket]

WD Green and Seagate drives aren't exactly great, but as I don't have either of those I can't comment on their actual performance. WD Black drives on the other hand are excellent.

[bat4]

Let's face it. The Etron USB 3.0 Controller sucks. Someone has even suggested to disable USB 3.0 support to avoid getting random BSOD.

[zoomee]

Anyone using a crucial c300 with these boards? Im getting really poor performance which i didnt used to get on a crosshair iv occasional stuttering seems to be the issue....

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[nakata24]

Still thinking to buy the extreme 4 gen 3 board, but theres something im not really understanding.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...-gen3-review/5

In this review u see ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 (Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps), is that rite?

Why is the sata3 score so bad?

[MayhemNJ]

Still thinking to buy the extreme 4 gen 3 board, but theres something im not really understanding.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...-gen3-review/5

In this review u see ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 (Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps), is that rite?

Why is the sata3 score so bad?

Thats one of the things that worries me. I have read quite a few reviews complaining about how slow sata 3 is. Doesnt make sense.

[davefran]

Still thinking to buy the extreme 4 gen 3 board, but theres something im not really understanding.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...-gen3-review/5

In this review u see ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 (Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps), is that rite?

Why is the sata3 score so bad?

Thats one of the things that worries me. I have read quite a few reviews complaining about how slow sata 3 is. Doesnt make sense.

You've obviously not read through this thread then, as I've already posted on here #169.
Can't believe people are still reading Bit-Tech reviews.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post4948448

[natech]

When I'm testing my overclock with IntelBurnTest V2, my multiplier isn't what is should be. I have set the max multiplier to 46 in bios. But when I run IntelBurnTest, and it shows 100 % load on all cores, I only have 33-36 multiplier. And it occasionally goes to 46, but it isn't 46 all the time. Is this right? I thought that when there were need, it would bump the multiplier to maximum at once.

Edit:
Got it. Adjusted the maximum power draw manually. Now everything works like it should. Of course I should have tested that before I posted the question.

[TEDY]

what is the difference between

ASRock Z68 Extreme4, Z68 (dual PC3-10667U DDR3) and ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Z68 (dual PC3-10667U DDR3)

[nakata24]

You've obviously not read through this thread then, as I've already posted on here #169.
Can't believe people are still reading Bit-Tech reviews.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post4948448

Thanks for that. If u go to the asrock site, in spec of the extreme 4 gen 3 it wont say the sata 3 is on the z68 chipset and in the bit tech teview u see that the sata is on a p67 chipset, that is so confusing.

[nakata24]

No gold caps and no pci-e 3.0 support

[zoomee]

ket, any idea when we get to see a newer bios for the Xtreme4 G3 please?
I'm just not happy with the fact both my 2600k and 2700k needs stupid volts to get above 4.6 - Auto settings don't work until I've enabled PLL overvoltage and manually set things like Turbo and cpu power limits.... thanks.

Interested if anyones got any settings I could try for 4.8+. My 2700k is currently running 4.6 @ only 1.28v! 100% IBT Max and Prime stable. Neeed moar powar!

[radier]

ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen3 UEFI 1.21D

Changelog:

Fixes problems with some USB devices in the UEFI

http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/intel...d_15227.0.html

ASRock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 UEFI 1.10G

Changelog:

Fixes problems with some USB devices in the UEFI

http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/intel...g_15226.0.html

[Ket]

Let's face it. The Etron USB 3.0 Controller sucks. Someone has even suggested to disable USB 3.0 support to avoid getting random BSOD.

When I tested USB3 performance (when I did the Z68 review, so a much older driver was used compared to now) I didn't have any issues with the performance while transferring around 2GB of data consisting of small and large files to a pen drive. I'm also making sure I stay on top of any devices Etron break support with, which is why there is now the 1.105.394.1 beta driver.

Anyone using a crucial c300 with these boards? Im getting really poor performance which i didnt used to get on a crosshair iv occasional stuttering seems to be the issue....

Make sure your drive is A: Connected to a SATA3 port, and B: you are using a intel SATA3 port (best performance)

what is the difference between

ASRock Z68 Extreme4, Z68 (dual PC3-10667U DDR3) and ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Z68 (dual PC3-10667U DDR3)

Main difference: PCI-E 3.0 on the Gen3.

[bat4]

When I tested USB3 performance (when I did the Z68 review, so a much older driver was used compared to now) I didn't have any issues with the performance while transferring around 2GB of data consisting of small and large files to a pen drive. I'm also making sure I stay on top of any devices Etron break support with, which is why there is now the 1.105.394.1 beta driver.

Do you remember when I was complaining about my external HDD enclosure with JMicron chip not working properly with the Etron controller?
The funny thing is that this issue has been resolved exactly in the 0.104 drivers which broke support for other USB devices as yourself reported. (The changelog also mentions fixing the JMicron issues in driver version 0.104)
I'm quite sure that fixing the JMicron issues have created the problems.
Whatever I connect to my rear ports it is not recognized. Front USB 3.0 ports work correctly. Note that I use Windows 7 32 bit. In case of Windows 7 64 bit users it is exactly the opposite situation. The rear ports are working correctly and the front ports are having problems.

As far as 1.105.394.1 is concerned, Gigabyte has applied the same pressure on Etron as Asrock did to resolve the bugs. You can find exactly the same complaints on Gigabyte forums about the Etron controller.

The best driver remains the 0.101. I will revert to 0.101.

I have read somewhere that disabling HPET in UEFI resolves some issues with the Etron controller (file copy operation not being smooth, lag during file copy operation, disconnects). I can't verify this right now. Can someone confirm?

[zoomee]

Make sure your drive is A: Connected to a SATA3 port, and B: you are using a intel SATA3 port (best performance)

Yep defo on the Intel SATA3 slots mate, seems intermittant though - Sometimes its ok (benches on AS SSD at 649 score and sometimes 449)

On the positive side though - think I'm finding my way around all these settings! - Using 250, 250 on power limits, vcore of 1.38v (offset), Level 3 LLC, and unfortuantely with PPL overvoltage I get this on my 2700k:



I just noticed the newer BIOS on page 1 KET - Is this ONLY to fix the problems mentioned or does it give us more stability / features etc? thanks