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

[fullerms]

USB 3.0 Read Test



USB 3.0 Write Test



Tested by moving a install.wim file (3.xx GB) from SSD to USB drive and back. Are these speeds any good?

HD Tune benchmark Screen shots






Using driver version 0.5.394.1 dated 28 Sep 2011.Are these results any good?

[vulture_g7]

I believe they're very good speed-wise, yes!

[apatch]

If you wonder what changes L1.15 bios have :

"USB3.0 port support “USB Keyboard/Mouse Power Onclosing” function

[fullerms]

Anyone got a high res image / logo of the Extreme4 Gen3 to use as a desktop wallpaper?

[zoomee]

Hey guys,

So I sold my 5850 graphics cards. I've been 'trying' to use the onboard graphics on my mainboard since with not much joy.
Basically I keep getting flickering and often the screen just goes completely blank altogether. Some advice please - heres what I've tried already:

Bear in mind no overclocking is enabled on anything at all, and it all worked fine with my 5850's. Full system spec is in my sig barr the X-Fi Elite soundcard I have plugged in.

A)- Completely removed ATI drivers
B)- Installed both latest Intel and Asrock drivers for Intel HD.
C)- Reset CMOS completely (pulled battery for 15 minutes).
D)- Upgraded and downgraded to all BIOS revisions (1.0, 1.10, 1.15)
E)- Complete format and reinstall of windows from scratch.
F)- Tried upping iGPU +0.50mv (next step in BIOS) to no avail (made it worse!)
G)- Tried with and without iGPU VDroop (setting in BIOS)

Heres a video showing the problem - as you can see its pretty much unusable as a result!

http://youtu.be/9T25po1MU-s

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[zoomee]

looks like its the displayport connection that causes this.
Changed to DVI and it works perfectly fine.

Anyone else get this issue with the displayport connection?

[Church]

After spending some time around digging info i somewhat settled on Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 for motherboard choice for my build (black mobo with black slots;pcie3 with ivy bridge and normal uefi unlike with gigabyte;more or less good reviews for stable o/c; reasonable pricing).
I hit problem when i tried to find LC solutions for it (at least for mosfets/vrm part). While i found mosfet blocks fit for Extreme3 Gen3, nothing for Extreme 4 Gen3 or Extreme7 Gen7.
So i'd really appreciate if someone from Extreme4 Gen3 owners can post picture of board with heatsinks removed, so that EK WB's guys can check block compatibility. Maybe even for Extreme7 as well, while that's not the board i plan to buy, but knowing what may fit for LC builds may help with fitting waterblock search for others. I posted also support request on asrock's site for that, but so far got only automated response, no pics. :/

[apatch]

Man, I see you got some HP monitor, mine is HP LP2475w and problems with DisplayPort appeares even in my old AMD/Gigabyte rig even with HD4870, now with Intel/Asrock and HD6850/Integrated GPU is all the same. So I think that it's not only DP problem but HP+DP. In my case it's not blank out of picture but rather lack of initialisation of picture after boot, if you got more than 1 display connected to your pc (I got 3 sometimes) then even worse for you.

[zoomee]

Man, I see you got some HP monitor, mine is HP LP2475w and problems with DisplayPort appeares even in my old AMD/Gigabyte rig even with HD4870, now with Intel/Asrock and HD6850/Integrated GPU is all the same. So I think that it's not only DP problem but HP+DP. In my case it's not blank out of picture but rather lack of initialisation of picture after boot, if you got more than 1 display connected to your pc (I got 3 sometimes) then even worse for you.

I have the HP ZR24w mate. Its not the monitor because it worked fine with both my 5850s. It just doesnt seem to like the onboard DP port

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[jpm]

looks like its the displayport connection that causes this.
Changed to DVI and it works perfectly fine.

Anyone else get this issue with the displayport connection?

i have a z68e4 (non g3) with an hp zr30w over displayport that does have a blanking issue, but it is different in that it happens at specific times. when i see flickering and random blanking i tend to suspect a signal problem - have you tried changing the displayport cable?

in my case i do suspect displayport is the culprit, but i can't switch to DVI because my zr30w runs at 2560x1600 and for some reason these boards don't support that resolution over DVI. so i'm stuck with it since i actually want to stay with the integrated video for heat/airflow/noise reasons. but i did find a minimally acceptable workaround in software that allows me to wake up the screen when it blanks, so it's become tolerable.

[zoomee]

hmmm sounds like a common issue then.
Pretty sure its not the displayport cable as its only a couple of weeks old and worked perfectly fine plugged into my 5850's...

[The Watcher]

i am done with this board, nothing but trouble since day 0 till lately find out the onboard sound is also defective...... thank you to all who was so kindly help me.

[reaver_shado]

Not to be callous, but has ASRock forgot/ignoring their customers whom have bought their products within the last 6 months?

I waited for Z68, then took a leap of faith and tried out a extreme4 back in may. was relatively satisfied din't use it long enough to be 100%. But when i saw the Extreme7 with all it's PCIE slots, i guess i got to excited. Bought it shortly after available, arrived DOA (ok it happens), replacement good. But i've had intermittent problems....

1. Bios usually freezes at B2 code when first boot, quick off/on gets through issue. PITA have to do it every time.

2. Every time I wake from sleep within an hour (depends on what doing) get a BSOD from some video driver, was VIRTU driver at first (with trail and error realized 3 video drivers was max for windows so uninstalled VIRTU), but now i get ATI driver BSOD, every time i resume from sleep (hybrid sleep/ hibernate is disabled)

3. Not 100% sure why but tonight i noticed that after a resume, it took forever, if at all for any application to load (CCC.exe would not load) and when i tried to restart computer seemed to freeze at black screen

I bought a second Sapphire card for crossfire after i got the board because it had the extra slots, and i enjoy having the intel video and don't want x79.

Did i make a mistake investing in this company?

Does anyone else have these issues and/or will ASROCK every release an official bios update? (nothing since end Sept!)

[reaver_shado]

I have the HP ZR24w mate. Its not the monitor because it worked fine with both my 5850s. It just doesnt seem to like the onboard DP port

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

I had problems with DP on my z68 extreme4. haven't tried my extreme7. I use DVI to a secondary monitor via Onboard GMA

[Deuzsta]

I have noticed a few people with the Z68 Extreme 7 are having problems... I for one couldn't be happier it runs my whole setup flawlessly. Overclocking with this board was so simple and and only 1.35 vcore need for 100% stable 4.8 ht on 2600k sound is good and everthing else is working great. Just so you know i'm running 1.3 bios and 1.21d interface full parts list is in my sig

[Glow9]

And some glimpses of the Extreme 4 Gen 3, mine arrived yesterday.

Can you pop the tops of the heatsinks off so more air can flow through?

[natech]

Can you pop the tops of the heatsinks off so more air can flow through?

Yes you can. I have done that to my extreme 4 and it looks much better now imo.
They just used some two sided tape to stick those tops on and little bit bending. But those things came off really easily.

[Utnorris]

Has tech support improved for the U.S. and do you still have to go through the place where you bought it if it needs to be RMA'd?

[Glow9]

Biostar let me down with 1155's so
Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
or
P67 EXTREME4 GEN3

Z68 + for SSD's
P67 + for USB's
Am I missing anything else that seperates the two? I don't care about onboard video.

[ricardomollik]

Help Please

My MB does not recognize 16GB MEM, I have the 16GB Mem Kit G. SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 F3-Model-14900CL9Q 16GBXL and so is accepting 8GB and only in slots A1 and A2 and B1 and B2 not My configuration: Asrock Extreme 7 GEN3 i7 2700K

thank you

[BlindFreddie]

Guys, perhaps I've missed something, but in Asrock's AXTU Windows tweaking utility, there's a setting called "GT frequency".
What the fornic8 is this? Is it the IGP clock? Professor Google doesn't seem to know either - the only hits there seem to be (1) Asrock's propaganda about being able to overclock it in their Sandy Bridge boards, and (2) Intel's abbreviation for billions of bus transactions per second.

BTW, I want to underclock the IGP, or better still, disable it & power it off. My Z68 Pro3-M/2600k is usually just used to crunch numbers for WCG 24/7, and I access it via remote desktop from another machine. Or does the IGP automatically power off when the display/monitor turns off when it has not been recently used?

Anyone out there know anything about this?

[reaver_shado]

Help Please

My MB does not recognize 16GB MEM, I have the 16GB Mem Kit G. SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 F3-Model-14900CL9Q 16GBXL and so is accepting 8GB and only in slots A1 and A2 and B1 and B2 not My configuration: Asrock Extreme 7 GEN3 i7 2700K

thank you

Sorry I'm having difficult fully understanding what you've tested.

The Extreme7 is known to have some issues with mem slots, guess there was a few batches of bad boards.

Please try the following:
Confirm all sticks work individually and try a single stick in each slot.

Also try identifying each stick (i.e. label them with a piece of tape) and trying different sticks in different slots.

For Example (stick/slot): 1/A1 & 4/B1, 4/A2 & 3/B2, etc.

[reaver_shado]

Guys, perhaps I've missed something, but in Asrock's AXTU Windows tweaking utility, there's a setting called "GT frequency".
What the fornic8 is this? Is it the IGP clock? Professor Google doesn't seem to know either - the only hits there seem to be (1) Asrock's propaganda about being able to overclock it in their Sandy Bridge boards, and (2) Intel's abbreviation for billions of bus transactions per second.
Anyone out there know anything about this?

I only use the software for fan control, but I suspect your assumtion is correct. GT freq (AXTU) = IGP freq

[reaver_shado]

Biostar let me down with 1155's so
Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
or
P67 EXTREME4 GEN3

Z68 + for SSD's
P67 + for USB's
Am I missing anything else that seperates the two? I don't care about onboard video.

It's been over a week and a no reply to your or my questions, and this is the "official thread". My next step is to try and contact ASROCK directly but i haven't heard good thing.
Last board i buy from them unless i get some questions answered. It's a shame they have some nice "looking" board

I currently have no faith or hope in this company or it's supporters

[vulture_g7]

Yes the GT frequency controls the intel gpu clock. You can disable it from the BIOS iirc.

Guys, perhaps I've missed something, but in Asrock's AXTU Windows tweaking utility, there's a setting called "GT frequency".
What the fornic8 is this? Is it the IGP clock? Professor Google doesn't seem to know either - the only hits there seem to be (1) Asrock's propaganda about being able to overclock it in their Sandy Bridge boards, and (2) Intel's abbreviation for billions of bus transactions per second.

BTW, I want to underclock the IGP, or better still, disable it & power it off. My Z68 Pro3-M/2600k is usually just used to crunch numbers for WCG 24/7, and I access it via remote desktop from another machine. Or does the IGP automatically power off when the display/monitor turns off when it has not been recently used?

Anyone out there know anything about this?