Z68 Extreme4 Gen3

Surveyor · 15 Oct 2011 at 19:53

Kraven said:
Could anyone tell me the difference between the Extreme4 and Extreme7 of this board?

One of the biggest differences is the inclusion of an NF200 chip on the Extreme7.

The Extreme4 can run TriFire with 3 cards at x8/x8/x4 and SLI at x8/x8.

The Extreme7 can run TriFire with 3 cards at x16/x8/x8 and Triple SLI with 3 cards at x16/x8/x8.

If you want to run 3 graphics cards the Extreme7 is the one to get.

Kraven · 15 Oct 2011 at 20:36

Surveyor said:
One of the biggest differences is the inclusion of an NF200 chip on the Extreme7.

The Extreme4 can run TriFire with 3 cards at x8/x8/x4 and SLI at x8/x8.

The Extreme7 can run TriFire with 3 cards at x16/x8/x8 and Triple SLI with 3 cards at x16/x8/x8.

If you want to run 3 graphics cards the Extreme7 is the one to get.

Thanks for the reply, I guess Extreme4 is the way to go as I doubt I will SLI a set of cards let alone Tri SLI.

Meloco · 15 Oct 2011 at 23:03

scousegit said:
just bought one of these beauties along with a 2500K and 8GB Ram

My question is that Im going to be fitting my 2 6950's on this board, and noticed there is a hard drive power connector on the board, it states to connect one to the board if using 2 cards or more.

Is this just a question of having to use a spare 4 pin molex connector off the PSU?

I'm running CF 6950's and didn't connect them to the board... Is this a grave error? I thought the manual stated only if the card needed it should be plugged in?

I'm on a OCZ 1000W psu btw.

Goose · 16 Oct 2011 at 15:31

Would anyone be willing to give me a quick guide on how best to OC my 2500k on this board? I've only ever OC'd once before and that was on my C2D E8400. I'm a bit unsure as to what settings i should be altering in the Asrock UEFI bios.

Thanks

Kipper67 · 16 Oct 2011 at 17:25

Think someone posted their overclock bios settings a few pages back in this very thread

Bucko89 · 17 Oct 2011 at 10:33

Quick question, can you install SLI and a STX soundcard on this mobo? Or would I need the Extreme 7?

scousegit · 17 Oct 2011 at 13:53

Meloco said:
I'm running CF 6950's and didn't connect them to the board... Is this a grave error? I thought the manual stated only if the card needed it should be plugged in?

I'm on a OCZ 1000W psu btw.

I just read it as if using more than 1 card then to use the 4 pin connector.

Im using a 880watt at the moment, and will probably still use the 4 pin connector to be on the safe side.

Meloco · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:29

scousegit said:
I just read it as if using more than 1 card then to use the 4 pin connector.

Im using a 880watt at the moment, and will probably still use the 4 pin connector to be on the safe side.

So did you use the converter that came with the card? I'm just thinking if the card is powered directly from the cpu this must be better than from the motherboard?

Also which card do you plug in to the motherboard, the main gpu or 2nd?

Meloco · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:31

Bucko89 said:
Quick question, can you install SLI and a STX soundcard on this mobo? Or would I need the Extreme 7?

Yes but it is a tight fit. Make sure you get a cpu fan/cooler that actually fits on properly as well.

Bucko89 · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:31

Bucko89 said:
Quick question, can you install SLI and a STX soundcard on this mobo? Or would I need the Extreme 7?

Anyone? As I'm ordering my system today.

Meloco · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:31

Goose said:
Would anyone be willing to give me a quick guide on how best to OC my 2500k on this board? I've only ever OC'd once before and that was on my C2D E8400. I'm a bit unsure as to what settings i should be altering in the Asrock UEFI bios.

Thanks

I just used the auto clocks (4.4 - 4.8) and set spectrum spread to disabled.

Bucko89 · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:32

delete

Bucko89 · 17 Oct 2011 at 14:33

Would it be worth paying an extra £70 tho? As far as i'm aware its just another PCI-e slot for tri sli and both 16x slots?

Rofflay · 17 Oct 2011 at 15:34

djkav said:
I solved the problem with the keyboard. The back usb2 sockets don't like the razor blackwidow in the bios. I plugged the keyboard into my case front usb2 and the keyboard worked great in bios.

This board don't feel as rock solid as my old p5k premium . This just feels flakey, hoping it gets thru its boot process without a black screen freeze.

Damm i have a black widow ultimate too and i dont plan on using front usb sockets, ever :mad:

how the hell do i go about overclocking then haha? did u try the usb 3.0?

Meloco · 17 Oct 2011 at 16:39

Bucko89 said:
Would it be worth paying an extra £70 tho? As far as i'm aware its just another PCI-e slot for tri sli and both 16x slots?

It's upto you if you think you will need them? I'm running CF 6950's with great performance at x8, x8, respectively. If you think you will ever run a TRI setup then go for the extreme 7. If not, extreme 4

.

Meloco · 17 Oct 2011 at 16:40

Rofflay said:
Damm i have a black widow ultimate too and i dont plan on using front usb sockets, ever

how the hell do i go about overclocking then haha? did u try the usb 3.0?

Once you isntall drivers for your keyboards / mouse you will find you can use the back sockets again

djkav · 17 Oct 2011 at 17:08

Meloco said:
Once you isntall drivers for your keyboards / mouse you will find you can use the back sockets again

How would that solve the BIOS UI then, windows isn't even on the boot list at this point?

The problem i had was the keyboard was not working with the BIOS UI when plugged into the boards back USB sockets. It does work however, when plugged into the case front USB sockets that are connected to the mainboard.

djkav · 17 Oct 2011 at 17:10

Rofflay said:
Damm i have a black widow ultimate too and i dont plan on using front usb sockets, ever

how the hell do i go about overclocking then haha? did u try the usb 3.0?

I could use the mouse to select the preset OC options from the list (4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8)

Its when I went to manually enter the CPU ratio, it just defaulted to 16. You could't type anything in using the keyboard

qbazdz · 17 Oct 2011 at 20:43

Can anyone confirm if a Xonar STX can be used with two graphic cards?
Is any of the PCIE ports still usable then?

Thanks!

Surveyor · 17 Oct 2011 at 21:04

qbazdz said:
Can anyone confirm if a Xonar STX can be used with two graphic cards?
Is any of the PCIE ports still usable then?

Thanks!

There's a x1 PCI-E slot above the first x16 PCI-E slot so it will fit.