AsRock z77 Extreme6 Overclocking

[Beelzebub11]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to OC, but I thought I'd give it a try. My Specs are:

mobo: AsRock z77 Extreme 6
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k
CPU cooler: Noctua D14
PSU: bequiet! 530w +80
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB

My problem is I can't seem to get my CPU past 4.4. I've tried the automatic feature from the Bios, and I tried setting it manually with the voltage at 1.24v, to achieve 4.6. But nothing has worked. The temps under load at 4.4 don't go higher than 55C. Can anyone help?

[parsec]

Not much information in your post, does your PC BSOD when you try to go past 4.4GHz, or what, it won't boot, or POST?

What UEFI version are you using? You cannot use the IES power saving feature in AXTU.

Does your power supply have an eight pin or four pin CPU power connector?

Do you have CPU power saving options enabled?

The manually set voltage may be the limitation, I would try it on Auto for testing. What is your CPU Load-Line Calibration set to?

Ivy Bridge CPUs do not OC as well as Sandy Bridge CPUs do. Also, every CPU is different, some OC better than others, you may have a not so good CPU for OCing.

Don't use the automatic OC feature. Set the Turbo Ratio to All Cores, and set the multiplier to 45 for a start.

Set the CPU LLC to level 2 or 1. Set CPU voltage to Auto, but monitor it with something. It will likely go to ~1.4V, which is high for IB CPUs, but if you want a high OC, you take risks. Watch the CPU temp closely, but the CPU will throttle itself if it is to hot.

Forgot to say, do NOT change BCLK, leave it on Auto, or 100.

[Beelzebub11]

Thanks for the help!!

When I set it to 4.6 it game me bsod while windows was loading. I have an 8 pin cpu connector and my Uefi version is: z77 extreme6 p1.40.

I turned off Power saving mode, and I applied all the changes you said. I ran 4.5 stable with 1.13v and at around 60c. But when I tried to set it 4.6 it did the same thing. If it wont go higher than 4.5 thats fine I just want to know if thats normal. Thank you again for the help.

[parsec]

You have a older version UEFI, it's at 2.50 now, which has had some fixes, including a fix for LLC. It's not hard or risky to update the UEFI using the ASRock Instant Flash. Just download the latest version of the UEFI, unzip the file, and copy it to a USB flash drive. Put the USB drive into a USB 2.0 port on the rear I/O panel, and reboot the PC. Enter the UEFI the usual way, and select Instant Flash, at the bottom of the Advanced Menu. Just follow the prompts and it will finish fine, I've done it many times on two of these boards, never a problem. All the UEFI settings will be set to defaults after you change to the new UEFI, so be prepared to get into the UEFI to reset any settings. If you save UEFI profiles with the AXTU feature, "OC DNA", you should be able to use it restore your settings quickly.

You can also try a few other things to OC higher. In the Advanced, CPU screen in the UEFI, set "Intel Virtualization Technology" to Disabled, if you don't use that.

Since you don't use the CPU's onboard graphics, set the LLC for the GPU to 5, the lowest level, and set its voltage to Offset Mode, and set the GPU offset to -0.200V. I could not set the GPU lower than that, the PC would not boot even though I am not using it.

If there are any features you don't use, like the Serial port, Infrared port, ASMedia chipset, etc, disable them in the UEFI.

I assume when you OC, you have the CPU power saving options (SpeedStep, C1E, C States) disabled. You could try enabling them, which will change the CPU speed to 1.6GHz under low load, but set the Turbo Multiplier to 46, and see if it boots and runs stable.

[Beelzebub11]

You have a older version UEFI, it's at 2.50 now, which has had some fixes, including a fix for LLC. It's not hard or risky to update the UEFI using the ASRock Instant Flash. Just download the latest version of the UEFI, unzip the file, and copy it to a USB flash drive. Put the USB drive into a USB 2.0 port on the rear I/O panel, and reboot the PC. Enter the UEFI the usual way, and select Instant Flash, at the bottom of the Advanced Menu. Just follow the prompts and it will finish fine, I've done it many times on two of these boards, never a problem. All the UEFI settings will be set to defaults after you change to the new UEFI, so be prepared to get into the UEFI to reset any settings. If you save UEFI profiles with the AXTU feature, "OC DNA", you should be able to use it restore your settings quickly.

You can also try a few other things to OC higher. In the Advanced, CPU screen in the UEFI, set "Intel Virtualization Technology" to Disabled, if you don't use that.

Since you don't use the CPU's onboard graphics, set the LLC for the GPU to 5, the lowest level, and set its voltage to Offset Mode, and set the GPU offset to -0.200V. I could not set the GPU lower than that, the PC would not boot even though I am not using it.

If there are any features you don't use, like the Serial port, Infrared port, ASMedia chipset, etc, disable them in the UEFI.

I assume when you OC, you have the CPU power saving options (SpeedStep, C1E, C States) disabled. You could try enabling them, which will change the CPU speed to 1.6GHz under low load, but set the Turbo Multiplier to 46, and see if it boots and runs stable.

Thank you again for the help
So I updated the Uefi but the newest version I found was 2.30, which was uploaded on 11-14-2012. I tried doing everything you said again and its still BSOD at 4.6. I'm fine with 4.5. But now I have a different problem, I can't seem to get the speedstep function to work anymore. I even used cmos to restore the Bios, and I set everythign to auto that it was at before. When I check the speed on cpu-z it still shows x44 multiplier and a blck of 100. Now the voltage does change from 0.8v to 1.6 when under stress. So my only question now is, is that ok? Do you have any Idea why it wont shift back to 1.6? I read that made be the power saver profile on windows has something to do with it but I changed that even.

[parsec]

In OC Tweaker, set SpeedStep to Enabled. In Advanced - CPU Configuration, set C1E to Enabled. Usually, both of those must be enabled for SpeedStep to work, and drop the CPU speed to 1.6GHz. On my board, with the High Performance Windows power plan selected, SpeedStep works fine.

You could also enable C State support, and both C3 and C6 in CPU Configuration, which will likely lower your CPU temperature at idle.

Your Vcore goes up to 1.6V at times? That is really high. I would reduce the LLC to level 3 and see if the maximum Vcore you see is reduced. Are you using any CPU offset voltage? It did not sound like you are from your description.

Oops, I forgot you have a Extreme 6, I was talking about the Extreme 4, my mistake.

[Beelzebub11]

Ok, so I finally got it to work by deinstalling the extreme tuner. I don't know why this helped but after I rebooted everything worked. Now my CPU goes to 1.6 when not used and back to 4.4 when in use. also it was a typo before my voltage is 1.16. Thanks so much for your help again.