ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 - Who has it?

[Ike0069]

Seems my 2500K may just not be a good chip.
At 4.4 I bluescreen in < 1 minute at 1.35vcore.
At 4.3 I bluscreen in < 5 min at 1.34vcore.
I am am stable at 4.3 and 1.35 vcore. That's about two hrs of prime.

There is something screwy with the BIOS. In addition to refusing to boot at anything above 44 multiplier, mine refuses to boot with LLC at 2??? Works at 3, 4, and 5, (never tried 1 as I never plan to use that setting).

None of these are major issues to me as I'm satisfied with 4.3. Not looking for any major OC's, but I am a little surprised that it is taking 1.35v to keep it stable at 4.3.

Maybe this explains why it is $60 cheaper than the extreme4.

 

[frowertr]

Seems my 2500K may just not be a good chip.
At 4.4 I bluescreen in < 1 minute at 1.35vcore.
At 4.3 I bluscreen in < 5 min at 1.34vcore.
I am am stable at 4.3 and 1.35 vcore. That's about two hrs of prime.

There is something screwy with the BIOS. In addition to refusing to boot at anything above 44 multiplier, mine refuses to boot with LLC at 2??? Works at 3, 4, and 5, (never tried 1 as I never plan to use that setting).

None of these are major issues to me as I'm satisfied with 4.3. Not looking for any major OC's, but I am a little surprised that it is taking 1.35v to keep it stable at 4.3.

Maybe this explains why it is $60 cheaper than the extreme4.

I just think they have mucho bugs to work out yet. I mean it is the initial version of the Bios. Have you ever used an initial version of a Bios in any motherboard? Ever? I know I haven't. I have always upgraded to a newer version when they came out with one.

 

[zlejedi]

I got mine 4 days ago.

Have you guys tried installing Win 7 Prof from USb pendrive or external DVD writer ?
I got weird error saying that installer needs some kind of driver for them, but it can't be the reason as Vista home premium with any service packs installed perfectly fine.

Other than that it runs so far without any problems but I haven't tried overclocking yet since i can't find 1156 backplate for my Zalman Quiet and so far it works with box cooler

 

[zlejedi]

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.

Using asrock tuner software i went with offset+0,005V all other voltages set manually to default value i went from x40 multi to x46 windows and only had BSOD at x47 after few iterations of Intel Burn Test.

At the moment i'm running it x42 till current primegrid challenge finishes

 

[Ike0069]

I got mine 4 days ago.

Have you guys tried installing Win 7 Prof from USb pendrive or external DVD writer ?
I got weird error saying that installer needs some kind of driver for them, but it can't be the reason as Vista home premium with any service packs installed perfectly fine.

Other than that it runs so far without any problems but I haven't tried overclocking yet since i can't find 1156 backplate for my Zalman Quiet and so far it works with box cooler

I did not install either. Sorry.

I am still running stable at 43x at 1.35v and LLC at 3. I still like the board and for the price, it's tought to beat.

 

[mrjoltcola]

I did not install either. Sorry.

I am still running stable at 43x at 1.35v and LLC at 3. I still like the board and for the price, it's tought to beat.

Ike, I and a few others didn't have any luck getting past 4.4 with manual approach on these boards, but using the Optimized OC presets gets me to 4.8 right away with no major voltage. So I used that as a starting point. Now 4.6 is rock stable with Prime95, 4.8 will get a little hot (90C+), so not testing again until I replace the H60 cooler with the H100. For what its worth, mine will post at 5.2Ghz and run Windows fine, just blows up immediately on Prime95 or SuperPi at much over 4.9Ghz. Some of my problem might be heat, but mostly I think the wall on my CPU is ~4.8. Considering I started at 4.4Ghz manually, it shows there is a lot in the M/B.

You might try the auto OC settings to at least see if it'll boot, etc. I bet it'll get you to 4.6+. Mine boots and runs standard apps at 4.8 @ low vCore (1.35ish), but gets past 1.4v when I put load on it so I don't want to run on that config. At least it will prove whether you have a decent chip or not. The M/B is top-notch in my book. I bought it on features alone, didn't care about brand, I could have bought the $300 ASUS but just heard good things about the ASRock Extremes.

Cheers.

 

[Imported]

Mine just came in today.. Hope to install this weekend with an i5 2500k. Anyone try the 1.1 bios that was released on Tuesday?

 

[arredondo]

This may be the board for me. I'm looking forward to more impressions.

 

[kalrith]

From the previously linked thread, here's someone who tried the new bios and liked it: http://www.overclock.net/15190600-post97.html.

I'm leaning heavily towards this board too. Another plus for it is that it should accept my Thermalright Ultra Extreme heatsink according to this post: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32220433&postcount=7

 

[arredondo]

^^^ That link is talking about 775 socket holes on the ASrock P67 Pro3 board. This thread is about the Z68 Extreme3 board.

 

[kalrith]

^^^ That link is talking about 775 socket holes on the ASrock P67 Pro3 board. This thread is about the Z68 Extreme3 board.

I know that specific post is talking about the P67 board, but ASrock has something called "Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)" that they put on all (I think) their new motherboards. It basically allows some LGA775 heatsinks to fit on the new sockets. I linked that thread, because it confirms that the TRUE fits into the category of some and will very likely fit on this motherboard.

Edit: Both the ASrock website and Newegg page confirm that the Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 has CCO.

 

[michal1980]

my thermal right ultra exterme 120 does not fit with the stock lga775 bracket. The cpu socket support underneath is to big.

 

[Imported]

I got mine in and its running smoothly. Looking forward to OCing it later..

 

[Corporate Thug]

I got mine in and its running smoothly. Looking forward to OCing it later..

please keep us updated with results. I have this sucker added to my cart and just waiting to pull the trigger.

 

[zlejedi]

Small report from oc front:

All voltages hard set at stock values, only offset manipulation:
4500 Ghz at offset +0,005V so around 1,26V stable for few days already (doing PrimeGrid all the time or playing DE3/WOT)
4600 Ghz at same settings 50 intel burn test stable
4700 boots but bluescreen after few iteration of IBT

with PLL overvoltage enabled and offset +0,05V (CPU-z shows slihtly below 1,3V)
4700 (booted from uefi) stable for 50 iterations of IBT
4800 set my asrock tuner but bluescreens after few iterations of IBT

At 4700 hottest cores reached 71degrees (cooled by Mugen 2 with slowed down fan in Raven 2 case)

And Yes Extreme 3 has two sets of holes one for 1156 and one for 775 coolers. But watch out for 775 coolers with solid backplate as 1155 mobos have mini backplate under cpu area of their own.

If i have spare moment I'll try to make a suicide run to see what multiplier can be bootable with mine.

I'm tempted to pick second GTX 470 and see how it works in SLI.

 

[Corporate Thug]

zlejedi, so you're at 4700 stable right now? pretty good for a quick and dirty OC.

 

[zlejedi]

zlejedi, so you're at 4700 stable right now? pretty good for a quick and dirty OC.

I returned to 4500 since I find it hard to justify another 0,05V just for 100-200 Mhz more.

I'll slowly try reducing offset into - values to see where I lose stability with 4500.

 

[newbieclocker]

they really need to make this a combo deal board with the 2500k dammit...

 

[zlejedi]

It costs 125$ on newegg already ?

 

[kalrith]

In case you didn't check the Hot Deals forum today: $115 shipped AC @ Superbiiz

 

[arredondo]

I've been waiting for a deal on this board. Thanks!

 

[ultimate_ed]

I've been narrowing down options on a board for the last week and had been leaning toward this one. $115 is just too good to pass up. Thanks for the link.

Any one have recommendations on RAM to use with this board. Or even RAM to avoid using with this board? I'll put at least 8GB, but may go with 16GB.

 

[Elfear]

Does this board use the Intel raid controller for Sata 3? I want to make sure I can raid a pair of SSDs on the 6GB ports before I jump.

Also, will Intel's Smart Response work with the Sata II ports?

 

[arredondo]

The product page says:

- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, Intel&#174; Rapid Storage and Intel&#174; Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions (SATA3_1 connector is shared with eSATA3 port)

...also:

- 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, Intel&#174; Rapid Storage and Intel&#174; Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions

 

[Elfear]

The product page says:


...also:

Thanks for finding that. I better jump on the Superbiz deal.