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

[extremsparen]

@anewbie

Your CPU temps are above 35C as well when turning on the computer? Does the BIOS report the real core temperature or is the value specific for every mobo and not to compare with others (like the differences between all the software tools)?

[LoneWolf]

IT'S HERE!

NewEgg has the Z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 in stock, only $10 more than the original Extreme 4:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157264

Just ordered one. I've owned a lot of mainboards in the past eighteen years, but this will be my first Asrock. I hope it turns out to be everything my current Gigabyte board has been.

It will be another week before I can order a CPU --probably an i5-2500, though the i7-2600 would be tempting. I already have my RAM (G.Skill Ripjaws 1866, two 8GB kits) and my new case (Corsair 650D).

[Ket]

Once the Extreme4 and Extreme7 work their way into the retail channels in the UK I'll make a thread for them, don't worry

[LoneWolf]

Once the Extreme4 and Extreme7 work their way into the retail channels in the UK I'll make a thread for them, don't worry

No worries. I figured you'd lump the Gen 3 Extreme4 into this thread, seeing as they're closely related (makes sense to me). Unless of course, a "Gen 3" Asrock thread makes more sense.

I was just excited, as it took me awhile to find a board I was really interested in. I'm glad to see Asrock has come a long way from the "budget-line" company they started out as.

[Ket]

There are some differences with the Gen3 boards so its best they get their own thread so no info gets muddled up

[Fyooree]

Hi everyone, new user here I wanted to say thanks for all the great information and guides. I built my own PC for the first time a few days ago and now trying my first overclock. I have a silly question: after overclocking, is it normal that when I open CPU-Z, the processor runs at the overclocked speed (4GHz currently) non-stop, even when not in use, instead of clocking down to the 16x multiplier to save energy, like it was initially? I followed Ket's instructions and screens pretty much for all the UEFI settings. Is this because I disabled power saving? Is it worth letting the CPU "rest" when not in use, or should I just leave it 4GHz permanently when overclocking? Thanks!

[jpm]

Hi everyone, new user here I wanted to say thanks for all the great information and guides. I built my own PC for the first time a few days ago and now trying my first overclock. I have a silly question: after overclocking, is it normal that when I open CPU-Z, the processor runs at the overclocked speed (4GHz currently) non-stop, even when not in use, instead of clocking down to the 16x multiplier to save energy, like it was initially? I followed Ket's instructions and screens pretty much for all the UEFI settings. Is this because I disabled power saving? Is it worth letting the CPU "rest" when not in use, or should I just leave it 4GHz permanently when overclocking? Thanks!

make sure the speedstep UEFI setting is enabled.

[anzial]

There are some differences with the Gen3 boards so its best they get their own thread so no info gets muddled up

So, in a nutshell, could you list the major differences? Because as far as Extreme 4 gen 3 goes, it seems to be the same as vanilla Extreme 4 with the addition of pci-e 3.0. What am I missing?

[Fyooree]

Hello. OK so speedstep in UEFI is enabled and my CPU still shows 4.4GHz permanently when I open CPU-Z. I even tried disabling speedstep, restarting, and then enabling it again, but no go. So even when overclocked, the processor should go down to 1.6GHz automatically when not under load? How worried should I be :P

[Anusha]

Hello. OK so speedstep in UEFI is enabled and my CPU still shows 4.4GHz permanently when I open CPU-Z. I even tried disabling speedstep, restarting, and then enabling it again, but no go. So even when overclocked, the processor should go down to 1.6GHz automatically when not under load? How worried should I be :P

it could be a combination of power options. i always turn them ON. i always try to overclock stuff without losing any of the good features of the CPU. i suggest that you do the same, and for 4.4GHz that should not be a problem.

[Fyooree]

OK guys, thanks for the advice. I will try it out as soon as I get home!

[jpm]

Hello. OK so speedstep in UEFI is enabled and my CPU still shows 4.4GHz permanently when I open CPU-Z. I even tried disabling speedstep, restarting, and then enabling it again, but no go. So even when overclocked, the processor should go down to 1.6GHz automatically when not under load? How worried should I be :P

i was able to get a solid OC configuration without disabling any of the fancy features of the CPU. all my CPU-related settings in UEFI relating to hyperthreading, power saving, etc. are at the UEFI default settings. the only "feature" i had to disable was dynamic vcore, and that was because i decided to go with a fixed vcore as i believe this is a much easier configuration to stabilize (and verify the stability of) compared to the alternatives.

[Fyooree]

OK I'm good! I went through the settings one by one. Everything on the "OC Tweaker" page doesn't matter for my downclocking problem, so I left those settings like Ket's overclock screenshots. What did make a difference were the "CPU Configuration" settings under "Advanced". Basically, I had to enable all the States on this page - Enhanced, CPU3, CPU6 on enabled, and Package C on Auto. When I enabled only Enhanced Halt State, the processor would clock down to 1.6GHz in idle, but ocassionally spike up to 4.4 again. So I enabled all the states, but I left Thermal Throttling disabled because it seems some folks have issues with this one.

Here is my hardware for the record: ASRock Z68 Extreme4 board, i7 2600k CPU with a Corsair H60 cooler, 8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, ASUS Matrix GTX580 graphics, Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD (which has issues, but Corsair is dealing with it), WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD, Corsair HX 1050Watt PSU, and Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

And I have two more questions I've been googling this for a while and no luck - my USB speeds are terrible. I plug in my USB key or external hard drive into either USB2 or USB3 and the transfer speed is pathetic. I got Windows 7 Pro 64bit, the latest drivers from ASRock. Some people said to disable legacy USB support. In the UEFI I went into Advanced>USB Settings and disabled USB Legacy Support, but then my keyboard and mouse don't work :s The only USB devices I have are the mouse and keyboard, and a printer. My speeds were fine on my old machine, also under Windows 7. Is there anything specific maybe to the ASRock Z68 boards or USB controllers?

Second one is about overclocking - I got to 4.4GHz relatively easily, but I'm still testing stability. Currently I'm giving it 1.320mV. I cannot get to 4.5GHz though - the machine won't even go into UEFI when I switch to a 45 multiplier and I have to shut down several times (or reset the board with that CMOS button) before I can actually get the ASRock splash screen and restore UEFI settings. The most Vcore I dared set was 1.390 because I thought it was unusual that 4.4 was OK and then 4.5 boom. I'm happy with 4.4GHz and before I start playing with the settings again, I wanted to ask if it's possible that my chip just hits a hard wall at 4.4 and I should make my peace with it?

[Fyooree]

By the way, thank you very much for the help.

[anzial]

Ket - any chance for the diagnostic LED to show cpu temp when the system is in windows? Kinda shame that it goes dark once the boot is over, could be useful to see temps

[Fyooree]

Sorry to be swarming this thread; I'll stop talking after this. I thought this was kinda important. So after playing in UEFI and getting my CPU to clock down to 1.6GHz in CPU-Z when idle (see above), I did some more tests and immediately saw that my CPU speed was fluctuating wildly in Real Temp, like constantly changing from around 2.3GHz to around 4.4 GHz. I googled it and many people said to just trust CPU-Z on this, but I found a few good comments about how CPU-Z ignores this fluctuation and Real Temp picks up on it accurately because it monitors the current etc. (I did not save the link, stupidly). One person tested this with games and saw again that his frequencies were fluctuating and harming performance. The conclusion was that once you manually set your multiplier (and maybe Vcore, not sure if it's also related) the C States settings (which control this downclocking and powersaving feature) interfere with your overclock and your processor starts switching between the manual speed and the C State idle speed. I don't know if this harms the CPU in any way, but I decided to just disable all States again and let it run at 4.4GHz. Quoting one of the comments I found: "To hell with power-saving."

[radier]

EtronTech USB3 Treiber (EJ168) 1.00.0000.0104 WHQL

http://www.pctreiber.net/2011/etront...0104-whql.html

[Ket]

OK I'm good! I went through the settings one by one. Everything on the "OC Tweaker" page doesn't matter for my downclocking problem, so I left those settings like Ket's overclock screenshots. What did make a difference were the "CPU Configuration" settings under "Advanced". Basically, I had to enable all the States on this page - Enhanced, CPU3, CPU6 on enabled, and Package C on Auto. When I enabled only Enhanced Halt State, the processor would clock down to 1.6GHz in idle, but ocassionally spike up to 4.4 again. So I enabled all the states, but I left Thermal Throttling disabled because it seems some folks have issues with this one.

Here is my hardware for the record: ASRock Z68 Extreme4 board, i7 2600k CPU with a Corsair H60 cooler, 8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, ASUS Matrix GTX580 graphics, Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD (which has issues, but Corsair is dealing with it), WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD, Corsair HX 1050Watt PSU, and Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

And I have two more questions I've been googling this for a while and no luck - my USB speeds are terrible. I plug in my USB key or external hard drive into either USB2 or USB3 and the transfer speed is pathetic. I got Windows 7 Pro 64bit, the latest drivers from ASRock. Some people said to disable legacy USB support. In the UEFI I went into Advanced>USB Settings and disabled USB Legacy Support, but then my keyboard and mouse don't work :s The only USB devices I have are the mouse and keyboard, and a printer. My speeds were fine on my old machine, also under Windows 7. Is there anything specific maybe to the ASRock Z68 boards or USB controllers?

Second one is about overclocking - I got to 4.4GHz relatively easily, but I'm still testing stability. Currently I'm giving it 1.320mV. I cannot get to 4.5GHz though - the machine won't even go into UEFI when I switch to a 45 multiplier and I have to shut down several times (or reset the board with that CMOS button) before I can actually get the ASRock splash screen and restore UEFI settings. The most Vcore I dared set was 1.390 because I thought it was unusual that 4.4 was OK and then 4.5 boom. I'm happy with 4.4GHz and before I start playing with the settings again, I wanted to ask if it's possible that my chip just hits a hard wall at 4.4 and I should make my peace with it?

1. Make sure you are using the latest Etron Driver (v1.1) you can grab it from the link in the first post.
2. No hardware is created equal. Just because a lot of people get 4.5GHz on average, its not a guarantee your CPU will hit 4.5GHz
3. Theres no need to connect a keyboard and mouse to the USB3 ports, connect them to USB2 ports and you won't get a problem with them regardless of if legacy USB is enabled or disabled.

[Ket]

New Lucid Virtu driver available, grab it HERE.

[LoneWolf]

Just a little fun imagery for all of you, prior to any new dedicated thread for this:

EDIT: Moved to the Gen3 thread.

[Ket]

The Z68 Gen3 thread is already up

[jpm]

Ket - any chance for the diagnostic LED to show cpu temp when the system is in windows? Kinda shame that it goes dark once the boot is over, could be useful to see temps

your dr. debug LED goes blank after booting? mine stays at "AA" after a boot from being off, or "30" after a resume from suspend. information on these codes has actually been a bit tough to find (the manual lists both of these codes as reserved and refers to another table that doesn't exist), but i was able to find some some posts elsewhere that suggest these codes are normal.

[jpm]

Sorry to be swarming this thread; I'll stop talking after this. I thought this was kinda important. So after playing in UEFI and getting my CPU to clock down to 1.6GHz in CPU-Z when idle (see above), I did some more tests and immediately saw that my CPU speed was fluctuating wildly in Real Temp, like constantly changing from around 2.3GHz to around 4.4 GHz. I googled it and many people said to just trust CPU-Z on this, but I found a few good comments about how CPU-Z ignores this fluctuation and Real Temp picks up on it accurately because it monitors the current etc. (I did not save the link, stupidly). One person tested this with games and saw again that his frequencies were fluctuating and harming performance. The conclusion was that once you manually set your multiplier (and maybe Vcore, not sure if it's also related) the C States settings (which control this downclocking and powersaving feature) interfere with your overclock and your processor starts switching between the manual speed and the C State idle speed. I don't know if this harms the CPU in any way, but I decided to just disable all States again and let it run at 4.4GHz. Quoting one of the comments I found: "To hell with power-saving."

the rapid multipler stepping that sandy bridge supports is one of its more compelling features. saving power isn't of particular importance to me, but reducing heat is, and the SB speedstep implementation is very effective at keeping the chip cool at lower load levels and idle.

[anzial]

ket, I'm curious, did you ignore my questions on purpose?

[Ket]

What questions?