ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 - Who has it?

[Ike0069]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

I am really tempted to get this board for a new build. I have everything picked out or already in possesion but the MB. CPU will be 2500K.

It does have USB 3.0 but not a header; though that is not something I was actively looking for. It's also Ivy Bridge compatible, so I guess that's a plus.

Some of the things that concern me:
BIOS -- I realize it's the inital BIOS, but from the few reviews I can find the BIOS is extremely buggy for some if you change anything. Not sure how quick ASRock is with BIOS updates.
SATA positioning -- It's not the only board that has the SATA connectors facing to the side, but I don't like it. I've read several complaints from users who have SATA connectors aranged this way. Not sure exactly how big of an issue this is though.
Price -- Why so cheap? It's $60 cheaper on Newegg than the Extreme 4 board that is nearly identical. Did they use lower quality materials to manufacture?

I am looking for feedack from others who own the board or from what you have read/heard from other users. The only ASRock board I've ever owned was the Dual SATA II board that had AGP and PCI-e. Still using this board today with an OC'd Opteron and a HD2900 PRO for my kids PC. Great board and maybe this board can be too.

 

[camo_billbine]

I have owned the board for about a week now, and I like it. I had the Asus p8z68-v previously, and I must say that this board is comparable(no usb 3.0 header or bluetooth) and cheaper(about $40 less).

On the overclocking side I've only done the auto overclock. I'm running my 2600k at 4.4 with voltage set to auto. It hits 1.24v max at full load.

Concerning the side sata connectors, I have a Fractal Designs Arc Midi so that makes the sata connectors easy to connect. Be aware that since the video card sits on the 3rd and 4th expansion slots it will cover the first two sata connectors if your card is as long as my 470.

 

[Lotheron]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

I am really tempted to get this board for a new build. I have everything picked out or already in possesion but the MB. CPU will be 2500K.

It does have USB 3.0 but not a header; though that is not something I was actively looking for. It's also Ivy Bridge compatible, so I guess that's a plus.

Some of the things that concern me:
BIOS -- I realize it's the inital BIOS, but from the few reviews I can find the BIOS is extremely buggy for some if you change anything. Not sure how quick ASRock is with BIOS updates.
SATA positioning -- It's not the only board that has the SATA connectors facing to the side, but I don't like it. I've read several complaints from users who have SATA connectors aranged this way. Not sure exactly how big of an issue this is though.
Price -- Why so cheap? It's $60 cheaper on Newegg than the Extreme 4 board that is nearly identical. Did they use lower quality materials to manufacture?

I am looking for feedack from others who own the board or from what you have read/heard from other users. The only ASRock board I've ever owned was the Dual SATA II board that had AGP and PCI-e. Still using this board today with an OC'd Opteron and a HD2900 PRO for my kids PC. Great board and maybe this board can be too.

I've had the board for two weeks and it's keeping my 2500K stable @ 4.5ghz just fine.

The bios is pretty much the same as any other ASRock UEFI bios. It's not buggy to my knowledge.

The reason the SATA connectors are that way is because people want them that way so they can hide the SATA cables easier.

The only issue that I've had with the board wasn't' an issue. One time I turned it on only to hear 5 or 6 beeps but then it booted fine and was just as stable even during a gaming session. It has only happened once so I'll treat it like an isolated incident.

I have owned the board for about a week now, and I like it. I had the Asus p8z68-v previously, and I must say that this board is comparable(no usb 3.0 header or bluetooth) and cheaper(about $40 less).

On the overclocking side I've only done the auto overclock. I'm running my 2600k at 4.4 with voltage set to auto. It hits 1.24v max at full load.

Concerning the side sata connectors, I have a Fractal Designs Arc Midi so that makes the sata connectors easy to connect. Be aware that since the video card sits on the 3rd and 4th expansion slots it will cover the first two sata connectors if your card is as long as my 470.

You might find you hit less voltage setting those manually as the Turbo mode seems to up the voltage unnecessarily high.

 

[Bryf50]

SATA positioning -- It's not the only board that has the SATA connectors facing to the side, but I don't like it. I've read several complaints from users who have SATA connectors aranged this way. Not sure exactly how big of an issue this is though.
.

SATA connectors should always be arranged like that imo. Otherwise you run the chance of obscuring them by a long add in card. The last 2 boards i had were set up like that and they were fine.

 

[RobertR1]

The different between the Extreme 4 and Extreme 3 seem to just be:

4 SATA3 vs 2
1 displayport connection on Extreme 4
Different LAN controller
2 vs 0 USB3.0 internal ports (these are what I'd use for the front panel usb support on cases, right?)

Unless you wanted USB3.0 on the case and more Sata3 ports, there is no reason to get the Extreme4?

 

[Ike0069]

I've been scouring the net the last few days looking for user reviews on this board and most reviews are quite positive. I typically have stayed away from new boards to let the user reviews pile up and have a BIOS update or two released. However, I think I will go ahead and get this board now. For the price, it appears to be the best available Z68 board right now.

 

[MadScientist]

The Extreme 3 was not out yet when I purchased the Extreme 4. If it was I would have gone with it.

 

[Ike0069]

Went ahead and purchased this board and a 2500K last night - then I get a coupon code in my email this morning for $10 off Z68 boards - figures.
Will probably have to wait until next weekend to build so maybe they'll have a BIOS update by then.

 

[Eliseo21]

Going to buy this mobo in a couple of days. Anyone else think the Extreme 3 looks better than the Extreme 4???

 

[peonyu]

This is a good board, im running a I5 2500k at 5ghz now with 1.35 vcore. Its stable, and the BSOD's i did receive while trying to get this speed were easy to identify as to why they happened [usually to low of vcore].

I reccomend going with a fixed voltage if you plan on overclocking though, as the auto setting is far to lenient with handing out the volts...on auto at 4.5 it was giving 1.42v, which was way to much. I think i have a good I5 chip since alot of people are using 1.45+ to hit 5ghz.

Also, turning off the IGP if you overclock is a good idea. Most of the bugs/bsods with the board [when overclocking] eventually find their way back to the IGP.

 

[peonyu]

I left this out, my one negative with this board [and it is a biggy if you are scared of physically messing around with a mobo or are clueless with cooling and why a heatsink might not be doing its job], is the retention bracket that "locks" the cpu down [on my board atleast] was not even at all. I have a Noctua U12-P heatsink, and I was getting idle temps of 70c until I bothered to try and remount it and see what the problem was..Well, low and behold it turned out the retention bracket had a bulge on it that prevented half of the heatsink from contacting the CPU.

A torx screwdriver is all that is needed to remove the retention bracket from the motherboard. Most boards might not have that issue but this is the first motherboard I have owned where out of the box, your cooling is screwed by a poorly made retention bracket. And for anyone with "odd temps" and this board, I reccomend checking that out.

 

[ransomlist]

This board is the devil to get hold of in the UK, but looks to be the best featured budget z68/gen3 board about.

My concern before i hit the button is does build quality suffer from extreme 4 to 3? Are things screwed in or do they use adhesives? Is the NB heatsink beefy enough?

 

[frowertr]

I'm glad you asked this question as I was wondering the exact same thing! After reading the reviews, I think I am going to pull the trigger on it. As far as I can tell the only real difference between this and the Extreme4 is this board doesn't have USB 3.0 headers and it only has two SATA3 ports.

Think I'm going to buy it today!

 

[ransomlist]

Good luck! I'm probably going to wait out some 3rd party BD retail benches, by which time i hope the extreme 3 gen 3 and its big brothers will have been in peoples hands long enough to discount any issues with build quality that might have them going bang after a month + of running reasonable 23/7 overclocks.

I'd love to know what voltages people are putting through sandy i5's on this board with stable overclocks if there are enough people here with ext. 3 gen 3's that i can convince myself its a statistically significant sample

 

[peonyu]

Its a high quality board, I owned quite a few boards and this one is up there quality wise. It has effective heatsinks on all of the components and everything is screwed in via Torx screws.

Just beware of the retention bracket as I said before...put some cheap white thermal paste on the cpu then do a test mount with your heatsink to make sure that the bracket is good and not bad like mine was. Other than that it is a extremely good board, especially for the price.

 

[AlucardX]

working on specing out a new build for upcoming BF3, thinking about buying this same board. I often times buy a mobo with features I never use, so a cheaper budget board that OC's is all I need.

newegg reviews has a few quirks like issues with the mouse in the UEFI bios, issues with using a usb keyboard in anything other than the first ports above the ps/2 port, and crummy utility software for OC'ing in Windows. These aren't deal breakers for me, but I'll keep poking around. The one potential issue I saw was that the mosfet heatsinks are close to the edge of where the CPU heatsink gets installed so I have some concerns about that. I plan on using my existing Thermalright Ultra extreme 120 with new mounting brackets for the 1155, but I doubt I'll be able to find anyone that has this same setup to confirm ahead of time that it will fit.

edit - Can anyone confirm what type of SATA cable is included? I'm trying to verify if a SATA III (3gen) is included or if it's a 2nd gen. I've went through newegg reviews, google, and the ASROCK PDF manual.

 

[Ike0069]

I have the board and will be building and testing starting tomorrow (Friday). There are enough similar user reviews that I feel confident this board will at the very least meet my expectations. Few minor issues but none that give me pause at all.

Can anyone confirm what type of SATA cable is included? I'm trying to verify if a SATA III (3gen) is included or if it's a 2nd gen. I've went through newegg reviews, google, and the ASROCK PDF manual.

Comes with two SATA cables and the package states "Designed for SATA3 6Gb/s".

 

[AlucardX]

I have the board and will be building and testing starting tomorrow (Friday). There are enough similar user reviews that I feel confident this board will at the very least meet my expectations. Few minor issues but none that give me pause at all.



Comes with two SATA cables and the package states "Designed for SATA3 6Gb/s".

perfect, thanks!

 

[Ike0069]

OK, so I unboxed this board and inspected everything. Seems to be a very nice board and well built. No initial concerns with build quality.
I installed my 2500K with the CM Hyper212+ cooler and the install went fine. I had to raise the fan about 1/4" to get over the first stick of RAM, but that was simple as it can slide up and down on the 212+. Put it in my case - connected everything up - and pushed the start button.
Everything started perfectly. Loaded Windows in no time, then started installing the basic programs.
After that I started OC'ing. Started at 4.0 and had no issues on a short PRIME run. Went to 4.2 but raised vCore to 1.3 first, again no issues. Went to 4.3, no issues. Very pleased so far, so I went to 4.5 and the system would refused to boot (I'm guessing not enough vCore). Tried the power button two times, but nothing came up. Pressed the CMOS reset button on the back, restarted and it was back to default values. Reset CMOS without even removing the cover - very nice.

Right now I'm at 44 multiplier with vCore at 1.35 fixed. Now I will be testing to see if it's stable at current settings.

 

[ransomlist]

You are all making it hard to hold off on a new build until after BD hits (but thanks, its all good to know)!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

haha. im holding back till i get money!

 

[AlucardX]

fyi - http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1106486-asrock-z68-extreme3-does-not-overclock-6.html

this is keeping me away from this board, sounds like they've got some UEFI / bios bugs to work out.

 

[Ike0069]

fyi - http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1106486-asrock-z68-extreme3-does-not-overclock-6.html

this is keeping me away from this board, sounds like they've got some UEFI / bios bugs to work out.

That's very interesting.
I couldn't get mine to boot past 44 multiplier either. Didn't try too much as I dont have time for much testing during the week, but will play with it again this weekend and see if I have the same issue.

 

[Lotheron]

For what it's worth, I'm overclocked to 4.5ghz on my 2500k with just a very little voltage +offset and I believe no change to LLC.

 

[zlejedi]

I'm receiving mine from the shop today The great price for all the features it has convinced me to bite the bullet and stop hopelessly waiting for BD which might or might not work in Asus Am3 mobo.