Intel Z77 Motherboard Review with Ivy Bridge - ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI
by Ian Cutress on May 7, 2012 7:40 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- Z77
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 - In The Box
Driver CD
User Manual
IO Shield
2 locking SATA cables
3-slot SLI bridge
Uncharacteristically from ASRock, we do not have a lot to shout about regarding the contents of the box. Previously with the P67 products we had a USB 3.0 bracket, but this time we are limited to just a pair of SATA cables. This is unfortunate, but perhaps was required to hit a price point.
Voltage Readings
Using OCCT we monitor the voltage change of the motherboard under load. This represents the direct correlation between the Load Line Calibration and how the processor/motherboard deals with voltage requests while under load. This is not to be confused with the quality of power delivery, but more an indication of how aggressive the default LLC settings are on a motherboard.
The CPU voltage at load for the ASRock board seems to vary more than the other boards in this review, which may be a result of the price difference. Nevertheless, this is not a series of massive jumps to be concerned over.
Overclocking
Note: Ivy Bridge does not overclock like Sandy Bridge. For a detailed report on the effect of voltage on Ivy Bridge (and thus temperatures and power draw), please read Undervolting and Overclocking on Ivy Bridge.
As the first explanation of overclocking results on a platform, I would highly suggest you read my article on overclocking performance on Ivy Bridge. As the successor to Sandy Bridge, people may expect similar to Sandy Bridge. However, there are a number of key differences, especially in terms of heat generation and applied voltages.
Auto Overclocking: ASRock comes with several automatic overclocking features, however these are all in the BIOS – ‘Enhanced Turbo 30’ and ‘Optimized CPU Setting’. Enhanced Turbo 30 initially calls upon preloaded settings – 4.7 GHz on the CPU, 1600 MHz on the iGPU, +0.085 volt offset on the CPU and CPU load line calibration (LLC) set at ‘Level 1’. This setting did not do anything to the memory, and made the machine run rather hot – 92ºC during OCCT causing it to stop, and 97ºC during PovRay. Both of these temperatures were on the test bed outside a case, so I would not recommend them inside a case!
The Optimized CPU Settings offers CPU speeds in 200 MHz increments. When selected, it adjusts the CPU multiplier but leaves all else on automatic.
- At the 4.4 GHz setting, this gave 1.112 volts on load, 72ºC during PovRay and 70ºC for Blender.
- At the 4.6 GHz setting, this gave 1.192 volts on load, 85ºC during PovRay and 86ºC for OCCT.
- At the 4.8 GHz setting, this gave 1.240 volts constant at LLC Level 1. This caused the blue screen of death on boot.
Manual Overclocking: Given the overview of overclocking on Ivy Bridge, choosing your maximum voltage to aim for a speed is critical. The best combination I achieved on the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 was 4.7 GHz at 1.175 volts, using LLC Level 1. This gave 86ºC during both PovRay and OCCT, which is essentially near the limit as to what I would suggest on Ivy Bridge.
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bojaka - Thursday, June 28, 2012 - link
Hi,On Gigabyte's homepage it says:
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
regarding supported/recommended memory for this mainboard...
How come 1.65V memory is used and what are the (possible) consequences?
Should 1.5 or 1.65V memory be used?
Best regards // BoJaKa
Neoprimal - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
Builders with more than a keyboard and mouse may have some issues with the UD3H. I recently got one because of some good reviews I read and the price/value of the board and I was on the cusp of exchanging it for something else because the board was just so unfriendly re: the VIA USB 3 ports.You need to populate the Intel ones before the VIA ones - not an issue. But the second you start populating the VIA ones you stand to get pretty frustrated. Each BIOS revision seems to fix the problem little by little (the saving grace thus far).
The board also doesn't seem to like Sandforce. I am hearing Everest 2 is giving some folks problems as well. After the long term, I had a Solid 3 that kept causing issues. Granted, most folks would say that this is because the Solid 3 is simply a 'crappy SSD', but it did work on other systems so crappy or not there's something to be said about the pairing of it and the UD3H.
The VIA audio didn't play well with my G930 headset. It would literally keep dropping out whenever I reboot and what this in turn did was set the G930 as default...that got annoying fast as I'd have to set the VIA back to default every, single, time. My fix was to unplug the USB key for the G930, a less than elegant response.
Before unscrewing and repackaging the board for return to Newegg since everyone was telling me it was defective, I decided to try one more thing (based on how well things seemed to work when my G19 was on the front USB 2 port); I purchased a USB 2 bracket (4 port) and attached it to the 2 USB headers I had left. I then plugged my 2 hubs (housing my printer, gamepad, flash drives, etc) on the USB 2 ports, put my G19 keyboard on a VIA USB 3 port (as these are the only ports that work 100% pre-boot) and put my 2 USB 3 hard drives on the Intel USB 3 ports where I pretty much leave them. This is the only way I have been able to run the board stable.
It was a lot to go through but things now work. If this were my first board I'd have been in trouble. Initially you don't experience the issues. It's when you move beyond a keyboard and mouse that you start seeing problems.
I wish reviewers did more than just stuck a keyboard and mouse on these boards. I get that the review process can be grueling but most people nowadays have more than a KB and Mouse and a review should put a board through more paces than just overclocking. These manufacturers put so much into 'tweaking' the boards for OCing they are getting lazy with the rest of stuff. It seems a lot of boards experience USB problems, despite the various chips they use.
I don't know if I'll ever use all of the onboard ports, I know that I don't DARE change anything, lest I go back to the reboots and crashes that occurred before I found my fix.
xs7v3n - Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - link
So i see almost everyone here is dealing with the slow post time.Most of the time my post time is around 8 seconds (sometimes its around 4 seconds), while Dr. Debug lcd on mobo is showing a "99" post then it loads up the windows 7 loading screen (but sometimes after the post a blank screen with that "_" [underscore] appearance like when u open cmd which takes like at least 8 seconds also).. I have a Corsair Force GT 240gb and i want to get the most speed out of this system on boot up.
xs7v3n - Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - link
Actually it wasn't 8sec it was more like 24seconds LOL and so sometimes its 8 seconds... Why is that taking that post so long to disappear?Raikku - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
Why I don't have that auto-oc option in my Ext4's bios/oc-tweaker screen?Nanology - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Great review, it's cleared up a lot for me.It's been around 5yrs since I have updated my gaming rig.
I would like to be able to run a variety of games at med. settings and also stream games!
Also use a lot of Adobe products, video editing etc, and some 3d level design, but nothing to crazy!
Budget upgrade:
Intel i5-3570k
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3 2133
Can't decide on one of these motherboards...
I currently have a CM Gemini II LGA 775 heat sink, which the ASRock board supports = saves money!
Do all these boards support a LGA 775 heat sink?
I was looking at the ASRock z77 pro4 for around $109, but really like the ASRock ex4
The 555 is nice and I would actually use it.
Can someone please help me sway my decision?!?!??!?!?!?
jonjonjonj - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - link
im seriously thinking about thie asrock extreme4 but the 2 PCI slots bother me. PCI-e came out in 2004. its 2012 time to ditch the PCI slots. if your getting a Z77 board and still use a PCI card its either time to upgrade that card or since you insist on using a 10 year old card stick with your old board.