ASRock X79 Extreme11 Review: PCIe 3.0 x16/x16/x16/x16 and LSI 8-Way SAS/SATA
by Ian Cutress on September 3, 2012 10:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- X79
- LSI
- PLX
ASRock X79 Extreme11 Overclocking
Experience with ASRock X79 Extreme11
Overclocking with this board has mirrored a lot of the overclocking experiences of ASRock boards of late. The automatic overclock settings are often stable with just a smidge of extra voltage to ensure stability, while manual overclocking can suffer from overheating VRMs causing declocks. We get a similar scenario here.
Manual overclock options are all in the BIOS – unlike Z77 options, we only get the ‘CPU EZ OC’ option here which offers 4.0 GHz to 5.2 GHz on our i7-3960X processor in 200 MHz steps. Each option provides a CPU voltage and Load Line Calibration appropriately, with a failed overclock either BSOD at boot or not even passing POST, requiring a ClearCMOS.
Overclock options are all essentially in the BIOS as well – the options via software are limited at best. In the BIOS we are free to change the CPU ratio and multiplier in the main OC Tweaker menu, but voltages, LLC and memory are in other menus. Each is easily navigable from the main OC Tweaker menu.
Methodology:
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+).
Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air. We also are using Intel's All-in-one Liquid Cooler with its stock fan. This is a 120mm radiator liquid cooler, designed to mimic a medium-to-high end air cooler.
Automatic Overclock:
With the CPU EZ OC setting options, each of them were selected one by one, then booted and stress tested. Here are our results:
At the 4.0 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 5 (low) and VCore on Auto. This led to a load voltage in the OS of 1.200 volts, with peak temperatures reaching 59°C during PovRay and 60°C during OCCT.
At the 4.2 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 5 (low) and the VCore to a +0.040 volt offset. This led to a load voltage in the OS of 1.256 volts, with peak temperatures reaching 62°C during PovRay and 65°C during OCCT.
At the 4.4 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 5 (low) and the VCore to a +0.080 volt offset. This led to a load voltage in the OS of 1.288 volts, with peak temperatures reaching 67°C during PovRay and 68°C during OCCT.
At the 4.6 GHZ setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 3 (medium) and the VCore to a +0.130 volt offset, as well as enabling PLL Overvoltage. This led to a load voltage in the OS of 1.400 volts, with peak temperatures reaching 79°C during PovRay and 73°C during OCCT.
At the 4.8 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 1 (high) and the VCore to a fixed 1.440 volt offset, as well as enabling PLL Overvoltage. This setting was not stable, resulting in a BSOD during boot.
At the 5.0 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 1 (high) and the VCore to a fixed 1.460 volt offset, as well as enabling PLL Overvoltage. This setting was not stable, resulting in the board failing to POST.
At the 5.2 GHz setting, the BIOS set the CPU LLC to Level 1 (high) and the VCore to a fixed 1.500 volt offset, as well as enabling PLL Overvoltage. This setting was not stable, resulting in the board failing to POST.
Manual Overclock:
For our manual overclock testing, we start with PLL Overvoltage enabled by default (as required by Sandy Bridge over a certain OC) as well as Load Line Calibration set to Level 1 (high) to ensure stable voltages. We start with the CPU multiplier at 46x and a BIOS voltage of 1.350 volts. Here are our results.
At 46x, the BIOS setting of 1.350 volts was stable, giving 1.344 volts in the OS at load. This gave peak temperatures of 71°C during PovRay and 74°C during OCCT.
At 47x, the minimum stable voltage came from a BIOS setting of 1.375 volts, giving 1.376 volts in the OS at load. This gave peak temperatures of 76°C during PovRay and OCCT.
At 48x, the minimum voltage stable came from a BIOS setting of 1.450 volts, giving 1.456 volts in the OS at load. This gave peak temperatures of 84°C during PovRay and OCCT.
Beyond this speed, the system kept throttling down to 46x during load. Even when options were changed in the BIOS – CPU Thermal Throttling was off and Power Limits were raised, the system still reduced the clock speed at load.
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Azethoth - Monday, September 3, 2012 - link
"a SAS". "an" is for words starting with vowels like "an error", "a" is for words starting with consonants like "a Serial Attached SCSI" or "a Storage Area Network" or "a SAS"*. It rolls off the tongue better when you don't have adjacent vowels.*Your particular English implementation may have different rules, these were the ones I grew up with. I find them simple and easy to apply.
lukarak - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link
That's not entirely true.It would be an 'a' if you read it as 'a sas'. But with SAS, we usually pronounce it as S A S, and then it goes with 'an'.
ahar - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link
Who's "we"? It doesn't include me. Why use three syllables when one will do?Do you also talk about R A M, or R A I D arrays, or an L A N?
Death666Angel - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link
Like lukarak said, that is not true. The English language uses "an", when the word following it starts with a vowel sound. That doesn't necessarily mean it has a vowel as the first character (see hour).As for abbreviations, there is no rule for it. Some people pronounce them like a single word, others don't. I use LAN, RAM, RAID as a word, but pronounce SAS as S.A.S. and SATA as S.ATA for example and SNES as S.NES. You can't appease both groups. So I think the writer of the article should go with whatever he feels most comfortable with, so that he avoids flipping between things unconsciously.
Death666Angel - Monday, September 3, 2012 - link
"If you believe the leaks/news online about an upcoming single slot GTX670, or want to purchase several single slot FirePro cards, then the ASRock will give you all that bandwidth as long as the user handles the heat."I'd probably slap some water coolers on there. Insane setup :D.
tynopik - Monday, September 3, 2012 - link
Is it even confirmed that this Ivy Bridge-E is coming out?shunya901 - Monday, September 3, 2012 - link
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ypsylon - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link
But little is delivered.1. Primitive RAID option. Without even small cache it is as useful as Intel Storage Matrix RAID. Of course for R 1/10 parity calculations are not required so lack of XOR chip isn't an issue, but believe me even 128 MB of cache would improve performance greatly.
2. They bolted 8 SATA/SAS ports to the board instead using standard server oriented SFF-8087 connector. You get one cable running 4 drives not 4 separate cables for each separate drive. Very clumsy solution. And very, very cheap. Exactly what I expect of ASR.
3. If someone wants RAID buy a proper hardware controller, even for simple setups of R1/10 - plenty of choice on the market. When you change the board in the future you just unplug controller from old board and plug it into new one. No configuration is needed, all arrays remain the same. Idea of running RAID off the motherboard is truly hilarious, especially if somebody change boards every year or two.
4. Fan on south bridge (or the only bridge as north bridge is in the CPU now? ;) ). Have mercy!
5. They pretend it is WS oriented board yet they equip it with lame Broadcom NICs. Completely clueless, that kind of inept reasoning is really typical of ASRock.
6.And finally why persist with ATX. At least E-ATX would be better choice. Spacing some elements wouldn't hurt. Especially with 7 full PCI-Ex slots. Impossible to replace RAM when top slot is occupied, and with really big VGAs it really is tight squeeze between CPU, RAM and VGA. Why not drop top slot to allow air to circulate. Without proper cooling in the case there will be a pocket of hot air which will never move.
To sum up. Bloody expensive, dumb implementation of certain things, and cheaply made. Like 99% of ASRock products. Cheap Chinese fake dressed like Rolls-Royce. In short:stay away.
dgingeri - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - link
1. Many server manufacturers equip their small business servers with a low end chip like that because of cost. Small businesses, like those who would build their own workstation class machines, have to deal with a limited budget. This works for this market space.2. I don't see any sign of a SFF-8087 port or cable. I see only SATA ports. Honestly, I would have preferred a SFF-8087 port/cable, as my Dell H200 in my Poweredge T110 II uses. It would take up less real estate on the board and be more manageable. I know this from experience.
3. Yeah, the Dell H200 (or it's replacement H310) has plenty of ports (8) and runs <$200 yet any hardware raid controller with a cache would run $400 for 4 ports or about $600 for 8. (I have a 3ware 9750 in my main machine that ran me $600.) Depending on your target market, cost could matter. They get what they can with the budget they have.
4. I'd have to agree with you on the fan, but there's also the little matter of keeping clearance for the video cards top populate the slots. Take off the decorative plate and make the heatsink bigger, and they could probably do without the fan. Unfortunately, there are lots of stupid people out there who buy things on looks rather than capability.
5. Broadcom NICs are vastly superior to the Realtek or Atheros NICs we usually see on DIY boards. I would be happier to see Intel NICs, but Broadcom is still the second best on the market. I have 2 dual port Broadcom NICs in my Dell T110 II machine (which I use as a VMWare ESXI box to train up for certification and my home server.)They work quite well, as long as you don't use link aggregation.
6. Many people wouldn't be able to afford a case that would handle E-ATX, especially the target market for this board.
For the target market, DIY part time IT guy for a small business trying to make a decent CAD station or graphics workstation, it would work fairly well. I'm just not sure about the reliability factor, which would cost a small business big time. I'd say stay away just on that factor. Do with a little less speed and more reliability if you want to stay in business. Dell makes some nice IB workstations that would be perfectly reliable, but wouldn't be as speedy as a SB-E machine.
08solsticegxp - Sunday, June 9, 2013 - link
You have to realize, this board is not a server board. If it was designed for that, I'm sure they would have two sockets. Also, it is much cheaper to add the LSI chip to the board than have it as an add-on card. If it was an add-on card... where do you expect it to go when using 4 Video cards?I think the board is designed very well for what it was intended for. You may want to consider looking at design as it relates to the intended purpose... Not, some other purpose.
I will agree to say I would have liked to see a Raid 5 option on the RAID controller. However, looking at the price of an LSI (who are noted for being a high quality RAID controller) it is pretty pricey when you start getting to the controllers that have RAID 5 as an option.