Search the Community

For the last 5 years, my system has had 8gb of ballistic ram (ddr3 1600mhz CAS 9) (2x4gb). I found some extra Samsung 4gb sticks lying around (ddr3 1600mhz CAS 11) and decided to throw them in there. Upon booting into windows the system only recognized 8gb. So I checked bios and the motherboard is only reporting 8gb available memory but does detect that all 4 slots have 4gb memory sticks in them. So then I decided to check each stick individually in each slot and the system booted without failure. I can mix and match ram pairs too, 1 ballistic in a1 or a2 and 1 samsung in b1 or b2, the system boots fine and even indicates dual channel mode is active. But for some reason, it only recognizes RAM in slots a1b1 or a2b2 when all 4 slots are taken. I tried inserting only 3 sticks but once again it only recognized 2. Has anyone ran into this issue before? I looked into the mobo manual and it says to use ram slots in pair a1b1 or a2b2 when using only 2 sticks and to use identical sticks. Here I can mix and match RAM but only a max of 2 get detected. I have updated my bios and cleared CMOS but nothing seems to get the system to utilize more than 2 slots. The system has also never failed to boot. Specs Windows 10 pro Asrock a77 Extreme 4 i5-3570k gtx 970 CX750m 240GB crucial ssd 1tb WD blue 2 4gb ballistic 2 4gb samsung Update: After a few hours of searching I found a couple of other posts with the same issue from a few years ago. They never found any resolution. I messed with the voltages and speeds but no luck. It appears some z77 boards only recognized 2 dimm slots either a1b1 or a2b2, they would never use 4 at once. Very frustrating.

Hi, I run into kind of an issue after buying a new MoBo (Biostar TZ77XE4) for my old PC to play a bit with overclocking it (yes, I know it's basically reviving the already dead but I got a nice deal on a board and cooler and I'm on a tight budget). Sorry if the question was asked here before but I couldn't find a definitive answer. So the thing is that I can't change the multiplier on my CPU without checking the "Fixed CPU Ratio" option which makes it run at full speed all the time which is far from optimal because of idle temps and power drain. If I do not apply this option I can only change Turbo multiplier which, from what I heard isn't preferred for overclocking (basically everywhere I checked they say to outright disable Turbo). So the question is basically: is it normal or did I mess something up?

firstly hi all. im finished my setup and buy second quadro k4200 for sli. normally nvidia web site say "its possible and sabertooth was sli ready motherboard." im working on it yesterday and today but i cant find any firestarter for sli. only first try i see little window and say plug nvlink/sli other pin or directly plug sli bridge, i dont remember correctly. now im waiting for magic. yes all! i need help.

sorry to bring up a dead horse, although I am wondering what would be the best course of action! I have a hankering to build a computer although not take mine apart and put it back together. I am wondering what should I do since my i7 2700k is clocked at 4.8/9 with turbo on and had reached according to HW monitor 5.6 Ghz max clock and max temps on the cpu around 80-90c at a push and depending if England is experiencing a heat wave, so I don't really want to change my cpu out since it is going belting what would you guys say is the top amd/nvidia gpu I could get without experiencing some sort of cpu bottleneck anything over like 5%-10% performance loss over a new pc build? FYI my pc is i7 2700k, cooler Noctua NH-D14, 24GB ddr3 1600 Mhz (running at 1333 Mhz cpu limited), Zotac GTX 590, Hdds, ssds, ect... I only intend to game on my pc, web surf, office work, light 720p streaming & light photoshoping.

Hi guys, I purchased an used i7 3770k to replace my 2600 non-k, today it arrived so first thing I did was: removing the old cpu installing the new one, applied some artic silver thermal pasted, mounted the corsair AIO and turned on the machine a screen appared telling me a new cpu was installed press f1 for bios to set-up, so I did and then pressened F10 and saved changes (i didin't knew what else to do) After it booted I ran Aida64 with stress test, it ran like 2 minutes at 100% with 75º (corsair pump in performance and fans at performance) then it crashed I was NOT overclocking just stock settings and boom blue screen of death Restarted the PC and ran PUBG, it ran well for 3 minutes before going to the plane phase it crashed again blue screen of death I will run it again to take a picture of the error, I'm sorry I don't have it yet but will update ASAP please help! I never heard of a broken CPU EDIT 1: Opened Aida64 to stress test again to take the picture of the blue screen error and saw this in the program:

Been troubleshooting for a while with no solution so I figured I'd ask to see if there's something I'm missing. My brother's desktop has 16GB of RAM but only 8GB is showing in the BIOS, Task Manager and System Properties. However if I look at each DIMM slot in the BIOS it shows that each slot is populated and CPUZ shows that all slots are populated and there is 16GB running in dual channel. His PC used to display 16GB in the BIOS but recently has only been showing 8GB. The BIOS has been updated to the latest release. He has an MSI Z77A-G41 motherboard and 4x4GB sticks of Corsair 1600MHz RAM. They are two different kits of sticks but since they worked before I don't think that should be an issue. Things I've tried so far are: Reseating the RAM, including various configurations of sticks so I'm sure the sticks are working. Cleaning out the DIMM slots. Resetting CMOS via jumper on motherboard. Making sure there is no memory cap in msconfig. Running x64bit Windows 10 Pro. Attempting to link, delink, and set to auto the DRAM timings, voltage, etc. Attempting to run with and without XMP Attempting to run a lower speed than the stock 1333MHz I think the last thing to check is reseating the CPU? Any thoughts on something I could be missing?

Hey guys, I've got a good "old reliable" i7-3770k that's being really good to me but it seems that my motherboard is showing signs of ageing. Its very hard to find a compatible z77 motherboard at a reasonable price in Canada. Got any tips for me? I'd like to keep my overclocking capabilities and have 4 ddr3 slots, as well as usb 3. Thanks!

Hello everybody, recently I watch this video about "The FASTEST SSD Technology Explained - M.2, U.2, and MORE" from Linus Tech Tips. Since I have an older System with an ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS Mainboard and an i7-3770k I wanted to get to know more about M.2 and the compatibility towards older mainboards. After searching the Internet for some time, I found out that most older mainboards BIOS were not updated to support NVME drives as bootdisc, even if you go the adapter way, those boards will only recognize your M.2 drive as storage device and not as boot device. After this conclusion I really wanted to know if there was any possibility in upgrading my Z77 board to support M.2. via modding the BIOS. That was the moment when I found this thread on another platform: http://www.overclock.net/t/1571271/tutorial-how-to-add-nvme-support-on-any-ami-uefi-bios-with-an-intel-chipset which gives you a complete tutorial on "how to mod your BIOS" accordingly to your intel chipset. My question now would be, has anyone ever tested this scenario? Is there any possibility Linus Tech Tips would do a video on this, because I am not that much into BIOS modding & I don`t really want to brick my board because the above mentioned thread is bullocks ? In my opinion this modification and possibility to do such a huge upgrade on your Z77 board would be awesome for many people. Thanks for your help & comments spT

Hi, I have a i5 3470, and I was looking for a motherboard to use. I was hoping to get one used (preferably z75 or z77). Is there a motherboard that is usually cheap second hand for around 50-80 dollars? Thanks.

Hey guys. So, I currently have a p8z77-v lx which is good enough, but doesn't support sli. I'd like a board that's a decent OCer (on par with the p8z77-v lx, I have my cpu at 4.7, stable) and supports sli, I wanna dink around with sli and custom bios'. Regrettably i don't have time to thrall through all the boards available, so if you guys could throw some names out and I'll have a list to go through cheaper then better tho. It's easier then going from zero. Thanks

Hey, just got an ASUS P8Z77 WS board last week to replace my temporary H61 board and I've been having problems with the GPU driver. My basic specs are as follows: ASUS P8Z77 WS i5 3570K (no OC right now) Corsair H90 AIO Cooler EVGA GTX 770 Classified 8GB Kingston HyperX 1866MHz Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 720W 2 monitors......1 on DVI and 1 on DP Nvidia driver version 372.90 Everything runs fine, until there's a random crash and it locks up my screens or just renders random crap on my screen. Generally happens when I've been running a game for a while. After a restart it doesn't recognise my graphics driver anymore and I have to uninstall the Nvidia driver in safe mode using DDU, then reinstall the driver again. The crashes sometime happen after 5 mins in a game, sometimes 2 hours....it's pretty much random like I said. All parts were working fine using the H61 board. Any help would be great, as I'm losing precious gaming time!

I have a £120 budget for a short term CPU upgrade. I can buy a Z68 mobo to overclock for £30 if someone finds a unlocked CPU for £90. I was originally going to get a 3570k for £85 and a Z68 for £30 to overclock. What's the best CPU I can currently buy, used or new i dont care, that's 1155. I already have a 1155 H61M mobo. My rig is: i3 3220 GTX660 6GB RAM CX430

Does Motherboard Matters? I need to complete my rig this week! I have i5 2500 and it requires a Lga 1155, im thinking to go with z77 or H67 Motherboard, i cant find z77 in Ph, only H67, but i want to get the best Performance of i5 2500.. H67 vs Z77 do they have similar Performance i can get? Or just tell me what Motherboard i can use with i5 2500 that performs very well (No z77 Mobo's)... Ty ty

I Dont know if my PowerSupply is Compatible with my Desired Asrock z77 Extreme4 Motherboard, i Have CircleCT p4 Atx 400w Power Supply and i dont know if its Compatible to Z77 Motherboard, I have no problem on my wats, because i have enough wats to power my other components. Im just wondering if my Power Supply P4 Atx Wires/Connectors are Compatible with Asrock z77 Extreme4.. Im not that good at Computers, Especially if its Compatibility. Every Reply is Appreciated Ty Linus ... And.. Tell me What is Wrong Connectors in my PowerSupply.. My Power Supply Specs: Cable/Connector 400 Wats Max AT X 20pin (20pin) AT X + 4pin (4pin) AT X 12V CPU (4pin) SATA Cable

It's pretty much in the title I guess. Will a system running a 2700K on a Z77 chipset in any significant way bottleneck or limit specs needed for VR? If it makes any difference I am going for Oculus. If it does not introduce any issues I would rather spend my money on a 980ti, instead of spending it on a Skylake i5 chip, new motherboard and a lesser graphics card.

I recently got a new cooler for my CPU for the intention of doing a little over clocking however when I went to install I found that my current RAM is too tall to allow clearence. One thing that is making this a little more difficuly is that I am also for either black or white (preferably white) RAM to match a GPU I recently painted white to go with a black and white theme. My current kit is 8GB but if there is an option that is more I wouldn't mind the extra boost. Could anyone recommend something? Thanks in advance

Have 2 Intel 510 SSD on the board gigabyte z77x UP4 TH. Follow the setup on the manual but no matter how I hit ctrl-I, the system refuse to get in the raid setup.

Ok, i know the Asus Sabertooth Z77 has been released wayback and most likely, i wouldn't find a brand new unit. Here's the thing, i have an Intel Core i7 3770 that's only 3 months old after we bought it and used it (actually using it right now) and was wondering what good motherboards are good for LGA 1155 processors until i came across the Sabertooth Z77. It is quite perfect since it has USB 3.0 ports, supports RAID 0, has 2 PCI-E 16x slots, supports SLI and some other good stuff. It piqued my interest, yet have been frustrated lately that i can't find one, even used units. I have seen some rigs that has that specific motherboard that they still use up to now and wouldn't give it up, haha... Now here's my question..........DOES ANY ONE OF YOU STILL HAVE IT IN GOOD CONDITION, COMPLETE ACCESSORIES AND JUST LYING AROUND SOMEWHERE IN YOUR HOUSE? haha, you can feel my desperation on that all caps sentence... yes, I AM desperate to find one because im thinking of having the thermal armor painted white to fit my black and white theme build. I don't know how to go about this if you have one, i think i can do Paypal then have it shipped here... or if you're really generous, i can handle the shipping and handling fee. .....................................either that or i'm stuck with the crappy Asus H61M-K, lmao!

Hey, I've never used an amp/dac before but I use a pair of Sennheiser HD598s and I think they don't need a AMP/DAC. Correct me if I'm wrong please. On a side note however, what does using an amp/dac feel like? I think my audio sounds brilliant right now with the audio driver built into the mobo. I don't listen to anything too loudly and feel like my headphones are loud enough... so is that a reason not to get an amp/dac?

If i buy a z77 motherboard, can i do decent overclocking with a k series cpu and good cooler? Also is z77 old cos I'm trying to do a budget build.

I recently bought a p8z77-V LE off ebay, one of the pins in the sicket was bent but I bent i back to look like the others. I have installed everything into my case (i have a 3770 non k). I click the power button and nothing happens at all. the case is new and the switch worked with my old mobo. What could the problems be? Full specs: CPU: i7 3770 mobo: P8Z77-V LE RAM: 16GB Hyper X Fury Cooler: H100i GTX OS: windows 10 64bit GPU: HD7990

So I'm giving it another go. tl;dr After two failed builds and 3 years of RMA'ing and stress, I'm trying to salvage something usable from the wreckage. The question is: Do I down/sidegrade back to some old parts I have (less costly and more sensible) or do I stick with my upgrade? If you don't want to read, just scroll down to see the two parts lists below that I have to chose between. Currently, I have an i5 2500K and an i5 4690k. I was considering, if I can get a refund for the 4690k, about going back to the 2500k and overclocking it. A lot of comparisons/reviews/threads have said that it's not a worthwhile upgrade if you overclock your 2500K (I know I should have read this at the time) and that it's worth skipping this gen if you already have one. So this leaves me with a choice between the two CPU's I have currently, the 2500k and a new Z77 board or the 4690K with a new Z97 board. The only issue there is, the Z77 boards now aren't any cheaper than Z97 and are really rare here in the UK. However I've narrowed one down that I can get from the US on Newegg that's only £100 and I've got an alternative Z97 replacement for the Asus Maximus VII Hero that I RMA'd. So I got a refund on the motherboard. As well as my Corsair H100i, which IMO was not worth the money. The rad had bubbles so it made weird clicking noises and the fans whined/whirred noticeably, and temps weren't the massive change I expected. Instead I'll go back to my old trusty Hyper 212 EVO or, even more likely, upgrade to a Noctua NH-D14. So here's my part list for the two builds. Some of which I already have (RAM, PSU, Hyper 212 EVO, 2500K and 4690K) or can sell other parts/get refunds from to pay for (Ignore the total cost, as I said have bought the above already). Also I currently have an EVGA GTX 770 SC and I would probably only get an upgrade to the 970 (in the list below) if I sell my 770 and go for the cheaper i5 2500K build. What do you all think? Which route should I go? 2500K OC'd and maximum money back, or stick with 4690K? OPTION 1 - 2500K BUILD PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£56.90 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£113.79 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£259.98 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£82.99 @ Amazon UK) Total: £576.65 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-16 13:38 GMT+0000 OPTION 2 - 4690K BUILD PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.45 @ Amazon UK) CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK) Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£113.49 @ Amazon UK) Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£62.99 @ Amazon UK) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£113.79 @ Amazon UK) Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£259.98 @ Amazon UK) Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£82.99 @ Amazon UK) Total: £827.68 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-16 13:33 GMT+0000 A bit of backstory, in short (as possible), I had my first custom build (2500K build) fail on me two years ago. It started with the GPU and then the motherboard and hard drives went later. I ended up going through 5 GPU's from EVGA, I spoke personally to their European Support Manager, Dominik, on a private incoming call it got that bad. In the end I went from a failed 580 to a 770 SC thanks to EVGA support. Which wouldn't be a bad deal at all if it wasn't for the nervous breakdown it caused. I ended up getting so miffed and angry that I RMA'd or sold the parts. And then from that money I built a new rig, started afresh, even called it Black Phoenix (the case was black). Unfortunately, the motherboard on this new build (an ASUS Maximus VII Hero no less!) was "faulty" (USB issues and pins on board separated from the board itself) and I've had to RMA it and am now left without a motherboard and so no working PC. On top of that my mouse has been RMA'd twice (Razer Deathadder) as the sensor went. I've spent 3 years of my life RMA'ing goods. I could and should just review companies support and RMA processes I'm that well versed in them. I still enjoy building rigs, I want to play games more and they're my only respite really from daily stresses and problems. Plus, I'll always need a PC anyway. For other stuff... you know? Let me know if I missed anything. And thank you to anyone that reads and/or responds <3

Hey Guys I recently tried to overclock my PC for the first time and it went ok got good temps at a decent overclock. However in games like Rainbow Six Siege it caused a BSOD. I immediately turned off the overclock and set my BIOS back to default. CPU-Z says everything is back to normal but I still get BSODs. In normal use I don't have a problem but it seems when I play taxing games like R6S or ARK it results in a BSOD. I tried updating my BIOS and this actually worked a little while. I actually managed to load into the actual game in R6S and play a round but then I got another BSOD. It says system service exception win32k.sys. My specs are ASUS Z77 Sabertooth i7-3770k Corsair H80 watercooler 8GB G.Skill Sniper RAM 390 Nitro I've gone into my BIOS and tried messing with the settings to see what the problem is. My temps are fine in game. I've updated my BIOS and I'm out of ideas. How do I fix this? My BSOD stuff the forum asked for are in this link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uk3zdhI2obbFNXNGdPWnAzcWc/view?usp=sharing If there is anything you need clarified or I should try please let me know. I just want to get this fixed. EDIT: The blue screens have the message System_service_exception. Windows32k.sys

Hi, just bought an old computer Im trying to breathe some new life into, and I could use some leads Its a pretty decent system, Im guessing about 5 years old. It has an i7 2700k and a Radeon 7950 Boost (aka R9 280), a mix of memory that seems to be working and an mATX motherboard does not quite do the other components justice. It has a "broken" UEFI BIOS, everything shows up jumbled all over the screen, but a software update would probably fix that. The thing i have more issues with is the fact that i have a 2700K on a non-oc chipset, and that there is only one SATA III conector while half of the remaining SATA II are blocked by the graphics card. So, the first point on my fix-list is the mobo. In a perfect world this is the features i am looking for, higher on the list is more important: 1155 Socket (obviously) PCIe for GPU At least two SATA III ports, for SSDs in RAID 0 USB3 support mITX (mATX is acceptable but not preferable) Z77 chipset for OC (or another chipset with support for OC on 1155) Two more SATA ports for HDDs in RAID 1 (does not have to be III) Preferably around 100$ or less If on mITX mini-PCIe for WiFi, or if on mATX mini-PCIe or PCIe that wont be blocked by the GPU (WiFi is a bonus, not a must) I need something that will ship to Norway, If anybody has anything used that is also fine (ship via ebay?), but I would prefer to buy from a retailer. Thanks alot for any help

Heya everybody. I'm currently running an ASUS Sabertooth Z77 together with a 3570k but recently noticed that my CPU is probably going to die soon after 3 years of running on 4.7Ghz. Alrighty, no problem so far, 3 years is a good lifespan for this much OC'ing i think. So i'd love to upgrade to the 4790K and Z97 platform and wanted to go for the Z97 Sabertooth because, well, once i had that thermal armor i just can't go back, lol. I've noticed that it's not available anymore in the store where i usually buy parts. (Alternate) Soo.. i've been looking for alternatives and found one from Biostar, which always was more of a cheap brand back in the days and i don't really know how good they are nowadays so i could use your help. Does anybody here have feedback or maybe a somewhat trustworthy review of the "Biostar Gaming Z97X" ? It's the closest board to the Sabertooth i think since the Maximus 7 is around 160€ more expensive. Here's a picture : Thanks in advance