X79 Extreme4 overclocking fails with any Bios newer than 2.1

[M76]

I've just got myself this board and an I7-3820 CPU and after looking at the reviews from all the major sites I expected to get a great OC board.

As an enthusiast I flashed the latest beta bios into the board (even the asrock site says its intended for overlcloockers) Which to my surprise had .1MHz BCLK setting ability. I was expecting to own the world at this point. Boy was I in for a shocker.

OFC with this cpu the only way to go is changing the BCLK/Strap, but I saw reviews where they said it was as easy as changing the BCLK from 100 to 125 and it worked right away with this board.

Well I went through hell and back and couldn't get the board to boot even at BCLK 105 not to mention 125. I tried everything and it failed miserably. The most I got is 106, but only by going in 1MHz increments from 100. Which is more than appalling. I was expecting high 4000s and what I got is 3816? No way.

I went to the latest non-beta bios, but the results were the same. No boot on any BCLK setting other than 100.

So I went archaic with the v1.90 bios. To my shock with this it was really as easy as setting the bclk to 125 and it lived. Which is 4500Mhz I could live with that and I won't feel that the whole thing was a waste of money. But it remains to be seen if I can get it to be stable at this setting. The signs are not optimistic however. Because if I set the BCLK to even 126 (this bios has only 1Mhz increments) the board boots but windows won't load regardless of the Voltage settings. I even went extreme with it but it would still freeze during loading so I decided its an inherent problem with the mobo and not due to the cpu.

But the problems are not just with cpu overlclocking. I have 4x Kingston Hyprex 1600 memory modules. That worked flawlessly in my Gigabyte X58 board well at least 3 of them - I bought four modules a year ago because I was expecting to upgrade to x79 at some point And I couldn't get the board even to boot at 1600 with either bios version, even at default cpu settings it fails to boot if I set the DDR frequency to 1600. It only works at 1333. Which is another huge disappointment.
I tried three ways:

1. With XMP profile,
2. without xmp profile, and manually setting the timings.
3. And even with XMP profile + manually setting the timings regardless.


The only reason I choose asrock over other manufacturers are the extra SATA connectors. Because others at this price range only offer the 6 connectors from the x79 chipset. Which is no good for me.

All in all this board is a terrible disappointment so far.

And WTF are they doing at ASROCK's bios development team anyway?

[- wardog -]

Have you taken note of what the BIOS was setting the DRAM Voltage to??

[M76]

yep

[- wardog -]

I have 4x Kingston Hyprex 1600 memory modules. That worked flawlessly in my Gigabyte X58 board well at least 3 of them - I bought four modules a year ago because I was expecting to upgrade to x79 at some point And I couldn't get the board even to boot at 1600 with either bios version, even at default cpu settings it fails to boot if I set the DDR frequency to 1600. It only works at 1333. Which is another huge disappointment.
I tried three ways:

1. With XMP profile,
2. without xmp profile, and manually setting the timings.
3. And even with XMP profile + manually setting the timings regardless.

"That worked flawlessly in my Gigabyte X58 board well at least 3 of them - I bought four modules a year ago"
Three X58 boards, or three modules? Guessing three modules. Modules bought individually, or as matched dual/quad kits? Guessing individually.
If it was three modules that only worked @ 1600, read below.

At 1333, as they seem to run here at 1333, use a program such as CPU-z to check that all four modules timings/specs are the same across all four modules.

It would seem you maybe have one module that it's SPD programming isn't matching the other three modules you have.

[M76]

They're four modules and two types. Two of them bought as a dualkit, and two of them were bought individually but they're exactly the same series and type. And Three of these rams worked as Triple Channel in an X58 board.

But I'm more interested in why doesn't the board boot up with the newer bios versions?

[- wardog -]

Have you attempted changing the Mutli(max 43) and BCLK to get where you want?

[parsec]

IMO, you can't expect to transfer your memory from your X58 board into your X79 board, unless the exact model number of your memory is listed in your ASR board's memory compatibility list. The memory controllers in SB/SBe CPUs are more picky about the memory they can use, I've had no luck using memory with my SB CPU that was not listed in the board's memory compatibility list. Your DIMMs are not a matched set, sold in one kit of four, even if they are the same model. Unmatched DIMMs may or may not work, pure luck, and usually they won't work.

Your CPU should work with the 125MHz BCLK setting. Does your board do that with a CPU clock multiplier (1.25 x 100 = 125) or by adjusting the BCLK directly? With a SB CPU, one step above a certain BCLK level (104 - 105) is the difference between booting and not booting. You should have some flexibility with the multipliers

Still, the flaky new BIOS compared to the Beta BIOS you used is not good. Your i7-3820 is the newest SBe CPU, which may explain the poor BIOS support, not that that is Ok, the BIOS needs to be fixed. They do list the 3820 as supported since BIOS 1.20 and 1.60, depending on the stepping.

[M76]

It seems what the 1.9 bios I can get somewhere. I can also change the multipler without problems. So I got it to run stable at 38x125 which is not bad at all. I'm still interested why the newer bios versions don't work well OC wise.

As for the RAMs I knew that there are no guarantees, I was just hoping that they'd work. As for getting rams that are on the supported list is out of the question. The list was last updated not long after the release of the board. Many of the modules listed there are not available anymore while others were never distributed where I live. The best I can do is to get a Quad kit and hope.

[M76]

This board still seems a bit erratic to me. Some bios settings change on their own without my input. For example the computer works fine one day, I turn it off safely. The next day it freezes all the time. Without apparent reason. I check the bios, and I see that the core voltage reading is less than what is set by a mile. Of course the computer is unstable. Next time I noticed that the ram settings changed to something completely different. It jumped from 1333 to 1666 and the latency went from 9 to 11 completely on its own. Just between two normal power cycles.

[- wardog -]

^^

That's not a good sign. With that happening I'd maybe be considering an RMA!