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

[Ket]

Asrock Z68 Extreme4



Details for the Z68 Extreme4 can be found on Asrocks official page along with pretty pictures and driver download links and so forth Or, if you want to find out about all of the Z68s features in detail heres the Asrock site dedicated to the Z68!

As some of you may of read over in the P67 Extreme4 thread after chatting with one of my contacts Asrock will be sending me a Z68 Extreme4 to bug-test like some of you Z68 owners have been requesting me to do so rest assured it will get the same thorough diagnosis I gave the P67 Extreme4

This thread is for any Z68 Extreme4 owners to share their experiences, overclocks, and of course to report any problems they are having which I will then check out, report them to my contacts and give the best possible advice I can

Z68 Extreme4 UEFI & Driver Package Download:

Download Link

Driver Package Contents:

Broadcom BCM57781 v15.2.0.4B
Etron USB 3.0 v1.113
Intel HD Graphics v8.15.10.2761
Intel ME v8.0.13.1502
Intel PCH v9.3.0.1019
Intel RST v11.2.0.1006
Marvell 88SE9120 v1.2.0.1020
Realtek HD Audio R2.70
Lucidlogix Virtu v1.2.114

Please remember any overclocking done is done at the users own peril and neither Asrock or me are responsible for any damages.
With that said, Live long, and overclock!

[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!

[Ket]

What eSATA drive are you using?

[EzyRyder]

What eSATA drive are you using?

I am using a Samsung F3 1TB on this enclosure...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/newli...b-20-enclosure

I am still on the release Bios (1.1) I wonder if upgrading to the latest BIOS will make any difference.

[Ket]

As UEFI 1.34 does something for SRT, I'd say its worth a shot as its kinda in the ballpark of your problem

[EzyRyder]

Will do and report back!

[Ket]

Fair dos if you don't have any joy I'll add it as the first problem to check when the Z68 arrives. If I can't replicate the problem I'll ask one of my contacts if they have your specific drive to try.

ED - Out of curiosity did you notice any UEFI bugs when OCing your system?

[EzyRyder]

Fair dos if you don't have any joy I'll add it as the first problem to check when the Z68 arrives. If I can't replicate the problem I'll ask one of my contacts if they have your specific drive to try.

ED - Out of curiosity did you notice any UEFI bugs when OCing your system?

I haven't really overclocked the system "properly" yet . I just changed the multiplier to 42 and voila it works! I haven't upped the vcore yet but I will in the future as I try to reach 4.5Ghz and more. Problem is I am married and got a kid too so free time is at a premium as you can imagine

It is likely I will just follow your guide once you receive the board so I don't have to spend hours tweaking the whole thing!

The only other issue I've had has been with the wake from sleep, which doesn't work (even with no voltage alterations) but I heard is a problem also present in the P67 boards.

[Ket]

You would be correct sir the waking from sleep bug is a problem in intels own firmware code, last I heard intel were aware of the problem and exploring possible options for a fix.

[nijel]

Ket, please, don't spreed this bs about Intel SB sleep bug. With your reputation here people trust you. Asus and Asrock are the ones having sleep problems with SB. If that's coming from your Asrock contact tell him to check with Gigabyte about that.
No offence, man.

[Ket]

I am just saying based on the information available to me - in this case a technical support response from Asus a user on the forum was kind enough to share. According to that response the problem lay somewhere in intels firmware code and it effects all boards as a result. If Gigabyte took initiative and found a fix before intel, good for them they should let intel know, but I hadn't heard that and I've seen nothing to suggest the problem isn't with intels firmware code to date.

I may seem like some kind of all-knowing being at times, but I assure you thats not the case I'm still human. I haven't evolved into homolaptopicus yet

[MacClipper]

IThe only other issue I've had has been with the wake from sleep, which doesn't work (even with no voltage alterations) but I heard is a problem also present in the P67 boards.

[Ket]

Is that with any OC or stock settings?

[aicjofs]

I've been impressed with the board the first 5 days. Wish I could contribute to the sleep issue but I'm just not a sleep kind of guy.

The UEFI was pretty fluid(Was it in the UEFI it says no dual boot issue, or maybe the manual, thought that was funny). Put a 2600K in under water. 4.8Ghz at ~1.4v. 20 loops of LinX, and has folded big adv work units the last 5 days, with a 460GTX folding at same time.

Honestly pretty simple to setup and use. Set power and current limit to 200, ratio to 48, level 2 LLC. Thought PLL was a little high at stock settings, 1.85v or thereabouts. Dialed it back to 1.79v. Disabled the C-states. Left the rest at default. Used fixed offset Vcore to find stablity voltage for 4.8Ghz. Switched to offset mode, think I needed .07 offset. Voltage responds just how I want for Speed Step changes from idle to 100% and back.

Vcore was a little jumpy but acceptable. No chance to play with DRAM config yet, just 1333 7 CAS for now, will venture there later.

[Ket]

Glad the board is doing well for you

[MacClipper]

Is that with any OC or stock settings?

Can't remember but I very rarely run stock.

Anyway, here's a better newly taken screenshot.

[EzyRyder]

Can't remember but I very rarely run stock.

Anyway, here's a better newly taken screenshot.

How did you manage to get the 1.00 Bios version? The only ones available are 1.10, 1.30 and 1.34.

[MacClipper]

How did you manage to get the 1.00 Bios version? The only ones available are 1.10, 1.30 and 1.34.

Came with the mobo, probably an early sample from Asrock itself.

Anyway, took some pics of the mATX Asrock Z68 Pro3-M motherboard. Just click on this pic if you guys are interested in more.

[Ket]

@ Mac, can you post your full hardware specs? I'll try to match them best I can when I get the Z68 Extreme4 sample and test its ability to wake from sleep. Thanks for the Pro3-M pics

[MacClipper]

Ket, think prob. no need to worry about S3 sleep on recent Asrock mobo/BIOS. I have tested a few of their P67/Z68 models and I can see that they do put in much effort making sure S3 sleep functions work (didn't check out the CPU Int. PLL issue though cos I don't use it).

But no problem, just PM me if you still need the specs or can't make S3 resume work when you get your Z68 E4 sample.

[Ket]

No worries then. I was just going to check the sleep function as some users are saying it doesn't work, but as you have checked it on some boards we'll leave it at that for now. Must be a slightly unstable OC with the users saying sleep doesn't work.

[MacClipper]

As I was just saying, Asrock pays attention to S3 functions.

S3 Resume is OK even when overclocked!

[Ket]

Thats fine, I was saying the users saying sleep doesn't work must have a slightly unstable OC.

[EzyRyder]

As I was just saying, Asrock pays attention to S3 functions.

S3 Resume is OK even when overclocked!

Mate, that its great but it doesn't work for me on an Asrock Z68 Extreme 4 with the CPU overclocked to 4.2Ghz (no voltage change or anything just a change of multiplier).

Can I see your BIOS settings?

[Ket]

Have you tried increasing vcore a bit? Not waking from sleep properly when OCd sounds suspiciously like a unstable OC to me