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

**anewbie** · 06-22-2011, 04:19 AM

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

-
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.

**Ket** · 06-22-2011, 03:43 PM

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.

**noddi** · 06-22-2011, 09:50 PM

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.

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

**noddi** · 06-23-2011, 03:28 AM

Click image for larger version.

Name: Stable Overclock i5 2500k 4.7ghz.jpg
Views: 1195
Size: 343.0 KB
ID: 116614

My new 4.7ghz oc

**Ket** · 06-23-2011, 05:55 AM

New Virtu Driver Available guys, grab it HERE

**Ket** · 06-23-2011, 05:59 AM

Originally Posted by noddi

My new 4.7ghz oc

Nice going

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.

**hopester** · 06-23-2011, 02:11 PM

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..

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

**sixthsense** · 06-24-2011, 03:50 AM

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

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 05:50 AM

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

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 06:09 AM

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!

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

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!

**richierich** · 06-24-2011, 07:20 AM

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

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!

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

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 07:46 AM

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.

**Anusha** · 06-24-2011, 10:14 AM

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?

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 11:34 AM

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

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 11:39 AM

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?

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.

**Anusha** · 06-24-2011, 04:50 PM

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

**Ket** · 06-24-2011, 06:10 PM

You should have fun

UEFI 1.5 gives some real lovin for me. +200MHz at same vcore thanks to the updated CPU Microcode.

**Anusha** · 06-24-2011, 06:42 PM

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.

**Ket** · 06-25-2011, 01:55 AM

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

**orb** · 06-25-2011, 09:21 AM

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

**Ket** · 06-25-2011, 11:49 AM

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

**orb** · 06-26-2011, 12:57 AM

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

**Hipcrostino** · 06-26-2011, 01:46 AM

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.

**Anusha** · 06-26-2011, 01:59 AM

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?

**noddi** · 06-26-2011, 03:05 AM

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

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