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

[Milamber]

SATA Controllers died.

Intel SATA Controller is the only one that works, all others have died... tested each controller with individual cables and hard drives

[bigmac11]

SATA Controllers died.

Intel SATA Controller is the only one that works, all others have died... tested each controller with individual cables and hard drives

Man that sucks Seems odd that all of them would go at the same time. Good luck and let us know how the RMA goes.

[RealTelstar]

Well, when enable RAID, hot swapping is disabled for me.

Also, as far as drivers go, can you use Asrock Z68 Extreme4 drivers posted in the other sticky?

Hmm i didnt try hotswap, but i use ahci.
I used the drivers on the website for the p67 gen3, but u can go straight to intel and install the latest.
I would use the IME version that matches the bios microcode, though.

[RealTelstar]

sorry i have p67 which doesnt support this feature (and i dont need it).

[SoMBrA]

Hello everyone!

If you go Tri-SLI / Tri-Fire setup and watercool them, do you think there is room to attach a PCI sound card between 2 GPU's?

I've seen only some non-watercooled setup and there is no space but I was thinking that maybe with watercooling that could be done

The reason is a Asus Xonar Essence ST, and with SLI it's OK but the problem is with 3 cards I guess...

Any tips?

[Ket]

I wouldn't advise sticking anything between GPUs itll only cause them to heat up by a good +10c or more. PCI-E soundcards are the way forward and have been for well over a year

[Ket]

I've only just found out about this, but by golly does it look good and its FREE to AsRock customers! The Suite includes;

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- Music Maker Silver (160MB)

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- Photo Manager 10 (68MB)

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You can download this software HERE

[SoMBrA]

I wouldn't advise sticking anything between GPUs itll only cause them to heat up by a good +10c or more. PCI-E soundcards are the way forward and have been for well over a year

Thanks! Will do that

Still have another question in regards Tri-Sli setup...
Motherboard manual says that should use slots 1 - 4 - 7 for TRI-GPU configuration, but I was thinking maybe 2 - 4 - 6 so I have the same separation between the cards and can use the same type of "Water SLI Bridge" to connect them... Any known "problem" in using 2 - 4 - 6 instead of the recommended configuration by ASRock?

Also going 2 - 4 - 6 I plan to use the PCI-e soundcard at last slot... that would be perfect fit for me

[Ket]

I don't have any Gen3 boards, so you will need to wait for somebody who does to comment on that one.

[SoMBrA]

Thanks Ket, I've just posted on ASRock support forum see if I get any reply...

[impaelas]

I was playing around with my ASRock Extreme4 Gen3/i5 2500k today and got these results with minimal tests done (will leave it cooking this evening). It seems stabile, also tried some Bad Company 2 with no problems but the temperatures are a bit high... Cooling the CPU with Venomous X (140mm+120mm fans) but temps go over 80C. I did buy the fans to be the most silent ones so they spin around 990 rpm. should i be worried about these? i don't like the idea of a boiled i5

[RealTelstar]

yes, temps are too high, try to keep under 75 at full load (replace fans maybe).

[Seeker-]

I'm pretty disappointed with my i7-2600k temps on this board. I might revert the BIOS to an earlier version.

at 4.9Ghz I need 1.47v and it loads at close to 80c - custom water (240mm + 280mm)
4.8ghz is much more tolerant as it only needs 1.41v. Maybe I need to increase voltages elsewhere, but I kept getting 000000101 BSOD's until I increased the vcore to this point.

Maybe I just got a 2600k that doesn't overclock too well. I've reseated the waterblock a few times which didn't help either.

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/P1020405.jpg

What settings apart from vcore are you guys adjusting to get to 4.9+? I've found that I havent needed to adjust PLL yet - maybe I could lower vcore and raise PLL to prevent the bsod's

[Ket]

I was playing around with my ASRock Extreme4 Gen3/i5 2500k today and got these results with minimal tests done (will leave it cooking this evening). It seems stabile, also tried some Bad Company 2 with no problems but the temperatures are a bit high... Cooling the CPU with Venomous X (140mm+120mm fans) but temps go over 80C. I did buy the fans to be the most silent ones so they spin around 990 rpm. should i be worried about these? i don't like the idea of a boiled i5

You are stressing the system a LOT there.. using almost 7GB of RAM. I wouldn't worry about those temps too much in real world heavy duty tasks its unlikely the CPU will get much beyond about 65c. I use IBT w\AVX when testing and set 7GB+ of RAM to be used, my CPU hits around 94c and thats even with a well ventilated case and with the CPU cooler reseated various times to ensure it was indeed seated correctly. You must remember torture tests like IBT are meant to stress the CPU to a quite unrealistic amount so you can be fairly certain your OC is stable.

[Ket]

I was playing around with my ASRock Extreme4 Gen3/i5 2500k today and got these results with minimal tests done (will leave it cooking this evening). It seems stabile, also tried some Bad Company 2 with no problems but the temperatures are a bit high... Cooling the CPU with Venomous X (140mm+120mm fans) but temps go over 80C. I did buy the fans to be the most silent ones so they spin around 990 rpm. should i be worried about these? i don't like the idea of a boiled i5

You are stressing the system a LOT there.. using almost 7GB of RAM. I wouldn't worry about those temps too much in real world heavy duty tasks its unlikely the CPU will get much beyond about 65c. I use IBT w\AVX when testing and set 7GB+ of RAM to be used, my CPU hits around 94c and thats even with a well ventilated case and with the CPU cooler reseated various times to ensure it was indeed seated correctly. You must remember torture tests like IBT are meant to stress the CPU to a quite unrealistic amount so you can be fairly certain your OC is stable.

[AAbenson]

the Venomous X likes higher spinning fans,it needs lots of pressure to move air through it since its plates are so close to each other and its rather thick.
i have mine with push-pull 120mm fans between 1250rpm-1400rpm.
if you want extremely heavy cpu load and low spinning fans youre better adviced with SuperMega,the Arachon or Noctua D 14

[AAbenson]

double post somehow

[SoMBrA]

Hello again guys... any idea if there are any plans for full waterblock to cool Extreme 7 Gen 3 board?

I can't find any

[zoomee]

I'm pretty disappointed with my i7-2600k temps on this board. I might revert the BIOS to an earlier version.

at 4.9Ghz I need 1.47v and it loads at close to 80c - custom water (240mm + 280mm)
4.8ghz is much more tolerant as it only needs 1.41v. Maybe I need to increase voltages elsewhere, but I kept getting 000000101 BSOD's until I increased the vcore to this point.

Maybe I just got a 2600k that doesn't overclock too well. I've reseated the waterblock a few times which didn't help either.

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...1/P1020405.jpg

What settings apart from vcore are you guys adjusting to get to 4.9+? I've found that I havent needed to adjust PLL yet - maybe I could lower vcore and raise PLL to prevent the bsod's

I'm in exactly the same boat mate
Hitting stupidly high temps on water at anything above 4.6Ghz+. This board kicks out allot of heat into the system as my system temp (measured by a seperate probe from my Aquaaero 5) shows. IBT on standard ALWAYS goes upto 80Degrees C no matter the volvts I've used so far - 1.32 > 1.52 which is quite wierd.

PLL is always at 1.8v on this board. I'm pretty depressed my 2600k can't even do 4.6Ghz without sooo much heat especially under water!!!

what settings you using for 4.9?

I personally think its this board (Xtreme 4 Gen 3) - All other users just have to adjust vcore and multi to get average overclocks - This board requires load of bloomin tweaking

[zoomee]

Hello everyone!

If you go Tri-SLI / Tri-Fire setup and watercool them, do you think there is room to attach a PCI sound card between 2 GPU's?

I've seen only some non-watercooled setup and there is no space but I was thinking that maybe with watercooling that could be done

The reason is a Asus Xonar Essence ST, and with SLI it's OK but the problem is with 3 cards I guess...

Any tips?

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

[impaelas]

the Venomous X likes higher spinning fans,it needs lots of pressure to move air through it since its plates are so close to each other and its rather thick.
i have mine with push-pull 120mm fans between 1250rpm-1400rpm.
if you want extremely heavy cpu load and low spinning fans youre better adviced with SuperMega,the Arachon or Noctua D 14

alright i tried to reinstall venomous x black again with better thermal paste distribution, added two 1.800 rpm fans and lowered temps by 10C. during linx tests they peak at 74C which is still high and the noise is untolerable...

i also have a OC question. i've set the Core voltage to a fixed value 1.265 but during tests i notice in cpu-z that the value is going up to 1.28V. this is still within 'normal' limits but why is it doing so when set to fixed voltage? i'm currently testig with multiplier 43 which makes these temperatures even worse..

new finding: venomous is almost cold under fingers, i suspect heat transfer is for some reason bad and cooler isnt doing its job (probably my mounting is bad). im using arctic silver mx-2 paste

[impaelas]

You are stressing the system a LOT there.. using almost 7GB of RAM. I wouldn't worry about those temps too much in real world heavy duty tasks its unlikely the CPU will get much beyond about 65c. I use IBT w\AVX when testing and set 7GB+ of RAM to be used, my CPU hits around 94c and thats even with a well ventilated case and with the CPU cooler reseated various times to ensure it was indeed seated correctly. You must remember torture tests like IBT are meant to stress the CPU to a quite unrealistic amount so you can be fairly certain your OC is stable.

thx Ket, this eases my mind abit but i was under impression that temperatures shouldn't be as high as they are right now. i will be getting a new set of vents at 1.400 rpm (gentle typhoons) which should help out.

[Seeker-]

I'm in exactly the same boat mate
Hitting stupidly high temps on water at anything above 4.6Ghz+. This board kicks out allot of heat into the system as my system temp (measured by a seperate probe from my Aquaaero 5) shows. IBT on standard ALWAYS goes upto 80Degrees C no matter the volvts I've used so far - 1.32 > 1.52 which is quite wierd.

Yep I feel the exact same way.. The way the temperatures jump up just isn't normal.. I haven't seen anything like it on water, even with a much hotter i7 920. I even lapped my 2600K and am going to swap the waterblock this weekend to an EK supreme is also lapped (I'm currently using the nickel plated HF). Heat dissipation isn't a problem, the water doesnt even become lukewarm and neither do the radiators..

I will probably go insane and remove the IHS on this chip by next weekend if I don't get anything good out of it.

multi: x49
PLL overvoltage: on (PLL voltage is standard and hasn't improved my OC)
load line calibration: level 2
offset mode to equal 1.44v under load

idle: 35
load: 85

[Ket]

thx Ket, this eases my mind abit but i was under impression that temperatures shouldn't be as high as they are right now. i will be getting a new set of vents at 1.400 rpm (gentle typhoons) which should help out.

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

[zoomee]

My problems get even wierder!!

I was booting a couple of days ago no probs with 1.38v @ 4.8 and stress testing the system. I also managed to do a couple of 5Ghz runs and heres one as evidence:



Cooling I've managed to resolve (I think) as my fans on my rad wern't spinning up to full speed - sorted now.
HOWEVER - I can not for love or money boot my system above 4.5Ghz!!! - what gives?

Keep getting the same debug error code: 70 (translates to South Bridge DXE Initialization is started) This happens as soon as I select a Multi or OC profile above 4.5Ghz - system just fails to post. i've tried more or less everything including disabling controllers etc.
I've tried googling and its look like its been mentioned in a couple of other forums but no fix found.

Anyone help please before I return this board and go for something more stable? Shame really as the feature set on this board is great - I just think the bios needs some work...

EDIT: sig updated btw