WWPD (or, What Would Parsec Do..) Z97 Extreme6 ?'s

Hi All - well, ok, entirely possible more than just parsec can answer; however, from some other forum past posts, looks like back in the protozoic (aka, late 2014), looks like parsec had the same mobo as my build and has experience/expertise to resolve some questions I don't know & haven't been able to search out answers for.

Story is, was gonna build pc around this time last year, but, broke foot, didn't find time to get on the project 'til now!  This is kinda like long-time listener, 1st-time caller... first ever pc build, but not a total stranger to pc's; 1st pc was an IBM XT in 1985.  Not much up on the pc world for awhile now, stopped paying attention when print version of PC Magazine went away some 8-9 yrs. ago; so, at this point, more noob than not.

Build:

ASRock Z97 Extreme6, bios 1.40
i7-4790k LGA1150 4ghz 8mb cache
Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2133mhz 4x8gb, 32gb kit: pn#:CMY32GX3M4A2133C11
Noctua NH-D15 cpu cooler

4x256gb SSD's for RAID10: Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1
HD: Seagate 4tb sata 6.0gb/s 64mb cache pn#: STBD4000400
Optical: LG Black blu-ray burner sata 4mb cache pn#: WH16NS40

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW 4gb GDDR5
PS: EVGA 1000 P2 pn#: 220-P2-1000-XR 80 PLUS Platinum

Case: Rosewill Thor V2, white
Corsair K95 Keyboard
Gigabyte GM-Raptor mouse
Monitor: 28" Asus PB287
Will use speakers I already have

64-bit MS Win 7 Ultimate SP1

If you're wondering why no M.2... didn't even know what it was when I bought the board last year, just found what it was in the last week of getting into the assembly and looking more up in detail.  Chose the ASRock mb because of reading so many reviews of other brand's boards that were d.o.a., seemed less of that in ASRock reviews.  Certainly what I'm hoping for too, no d.o.a.!

Parsec's post here has been informative: http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/59421-questions-about-building-new-system-asrock-z97-extreme-6-a.html

Ok - so, on the what-goes-where side -

Couldn't find anything in the mb manual specifically pointing out which are the ASMedia sata connectors, but, deducing from the specs & parsec's comment in the linked post , presumably they're the 4 with the "A" in label, SATA3_A1 thru A4, guessing A to indicate ASMedia.  Presumably, from parsec's comment in the other post about ASMedia, the ASMedia ports should be shunned like lepers, so I haven't connected any of the drives to what-are-presumably those.

Since the manual isn't absolutely clear and it takes looking at the board itself to see arrows indicating which ports are which, I pieced together the following pic from the manual for clarity's sake, hopefully have things correct here -



So, first question - what sata ports to use for the 4 SSD's for RAID10?

Should it be:

SATA3_0,1,2,3... (SSD's connected to top row, and bottom right of the Intel ports, leaving 4 & 5 for the HD & optical)

or...

1st SSD: SATA3_0
2nd SSD: SATA3_3
3rd SSD: SATA3_1
4th SSD: SATA3_4

which leaves 2 & 5, the last ports on the left open, for HD & optical

or.. something else?

Whichever two are left, does it matter which to connect the HD or optical to?

Next question - the case has 4 chassis fans, one smaller 140mm at the top rear, three 230mm, one in front of the drive bays (bottom front), then top rear, and left side.  The front bottom fan has a power switch button in the front case.

Does it matter which fan gets connected to which mobo connector?  I wouldn't want the one with the switch to pose a risk of some type to the mb, for instance.  The only answer I could search out on the question is whether it's better to use manual fan controls if available vs. connecting to mb, I'm going on the assumption it's better to let the bios manage fan speeds.

At the moment its:

Smaller 140mmto CHA_FAN3,  since that's the closest connector to it. (the Noctua CPU cooler is aligned w/ this fan, at the moment have the cpu fans' airflow going towards this, which hopefully is the same airflow direction of the cooler fans)
Top 230mm to PWR_FAN1
Front 230mm to CHA_FAN1
Side 230mm to CHA_FAN2

Next question - the case front panel has an eSATA port, I have to assume the single SATA connector from the case's panel wires go to that (case info/manual says nothing).  All 6 Intel SATA ports on the mb are spoken for, so the only thing to connect that to is any of the remaining ASMedia ports.  Since A4 is inop if the rear eSATA is connected, I defaulted to A1, but I don't even know if that means anything since there's nothing in the mb manual for this particular scenario of my case.  Front panel eSATA to A1, yes, no, works?

I plugged the panel header USB 3.0 plug to mb USB3_4_5 on the guess that lower in the chain is better, even though I'm also guessing USB3_6_7 works fine also, and it doesn't really make any difference which is used.

I think that handles the hookup connections -

At the moment, except peripherals of mouse, keybd, monitor, everything except HD is connected up to the mb.  Haven't turned on the power yet, figured to seek further guidance before that step.

So - any reason to risk updating the bios of the mb, (or the SSD cards, which also have a firmware update available)?  Or, should I plug in the monitor, kb, & mouse, & see if it fires up, recognizes what's connected, and try to get into the UEFI and start fiddling with settings there?

If a BIOS update is warranted, is that best done using a USB stick flash drive and the USB1 connector on the motherboard?  Something I've never done, so specifics appreciated, or steering towards previous posts on the topic also appreciated.  Perusing posts, seems someone got hosed using the update via the UEFI, so hoping to avoid such disasters & make the get-running process successful.  If it-aint-broke-don't-fix-it, leave-well-enough-alone, & don't-poke-the-hornet's-nest is better than the consequences, I'm ok with that if that's what it takes to get things going.

Not very clear on the setup & then windows-install process... got the bit about setting bios to desired RAID settings & leaving AHCI.  What should be specified as the boot drives in that part, or changed?  Is it that once UEFI is set, exit that, and install Windows, and then, install or update device drivers?  Windows formats the drives during it's install, UEFI does that, or what?

Once MS Win is installed, then it's shut-off, connect up the HD, and presumably Windows formats that, etc, yes?

When/if should connecting to internet be part of the whole process?

Any further guidance appreciated, sorry for long post!

Thanks much! 

WWPD? I didn't know I was famous or a role model... OMGosh if you really knew...

MORE than I could answer? Nice technique for getting my attention, I like it!

You've identified the ASMedia ports just fine. You seem to know you can't use those for your RAID array, which is right.

About your first question: It really does not matter which numbered or order of the Intel SATA III ports you use for your RAID 10 array. Any RAID array on an Intel system is not tied to any particular Intel SATA ports when it is created. The Intel SATA ports could be changed to others not in use, or the data cable swapped randomly between Intel SATA ports, without any problems.

The only caveat to that would be when using an older Intel chipset board, such as a Z77 or earlier, that has a mix of SATA II and SATA III ports. Mixing the use of the two SATA port types would reduce the performance to SATA II, even if only one SATA II port was used. This is not an issue on a Z97 board.

To keep things orderly, you may choose any combination that makes sense to you, like 0, 3, 1, 4. But that is only for your sense of order or aesthetics. You don't need to worry about using SATA port 0 or whichever is considered first. There really is no hierarchy of which SATA port must be used, such as port 0 or 1 for the OS drive, or for an optical drive. That has even less meaning when multiple ports are used as in a RAID array.

About the optical drive, wardog's suggestion is a good idea. But some mother board manufactures don't suggest using the ASMedia or Marvell ports with optical drives. All you can do is try using the ASMedia port with your optical drive, and if it works fine, you're done.

The only considerations for your fan connections to the board depends on the control options for each fan header, and the power requirement of each fan. If the fan has a maximum power usage or more than 0.5A/6W, you may need to use a manual fan controller. If the fan control options are too simple on a particular header, you might look for other options.

I'm out of time now, off to work yet again. More later on your first post, and if you post more questions.

OOmph. That's not good. Downright ugly actually, sorry to say.

I myself don't see anything or anybody fixing that pin. That's mangled.


See what the others have to say when they get here.

In no particular order:

When you are seeing A6 on the Dr Debug display, you are using the UEFI UI, right?

If so, that is normal and not a problem. The last thing POST checks are the SATA and IDE devices. If you have a small POST beep speaker and the beep enabled in the UEFI, when POST completes successfully, you would hear the single POST Ok beep.

But if you start/go into the UEFI UI, you won't hear the POST beep. Why not? If you change any option(s), or simply select Save and Exit after just looking around, POST will be executed again. After changing some settings, POST might fail, due to some inappropriate memory settings, for example. But all the UEFI knows is you selected Save and Exit, at that point. So the UEFI/BIOS standard is to not announce that POST has completed successfully until it is impossible to enter the UEFI UI.

Some users would be confused if they heard the single POST Ok beep, but then were allowed to go into the UEFI/BIOS, change things, and when finished POST fails due to inappropriate settings.

Since POST did not "complete" when we enter the UEFI/BIOS UI, the last POST process code is displayed, normally A4 or A6. It may even be displayed after the POST Ok beep for a while. Sorry for the long explanation over this small detail, just trying to help you understand why it is not a problem, and make some sense of why you see that POST code.

I see you followed the instructions for POST code 55 to the letter. Sorry you found the bent pin, I can confirm that pin D34 is a VSS, or ground pin, one of many ground pins.

BUT I'm not sure that pin really is D34. I think it may be E34, which is a Vcc or CPU power pin. I think you started counting the 'B' row as the 'A' row. Picture below:



Your extreme close up picture shows two rows of indented gold pads, but if you look at your less zoomed in picture, and my picture, there is another further indented row, 'A', aligned horizontally with the triangle in the lower right corner of the picture. I might be wrong, but I think you are calling row 'B', row 'A'.

Again all of this may make no difference, if the Vcc pins are shared and comprise one Vcc input made of multiple Vcc pins. I suggest leaving that pin alone for a while at least, to see if you can get a clean start with at least 16GB of your memory.

I can't find any Corsair CMY memory in your board's Memory Support List, although Corsair states it is compatible with Intel 4th Generation processors like yours.

UEFI version 1.40 is old now, I know that came with your board. How can you update if you can't get into the UEFI? Well you can get into the UEFI with one DIMM? You could then update to UEFI 2.50 using Instant Flash that should have better memory compatibility. That could help wit h your memory problem.

Did you try using two DIMMs, one in A2 and B2, for dual channel memory? Be sure to clear the UEFI/BIOS EVERY TIME you switch memory around, that is a must!

The video card problem is odd, and may be related to the memory problem. The default video source is PCIe, or video card. When you try using the video card, you must have no cables connected to the I/O panel's video outputs. When you change video sources, another UEFI clear is needed!

Thermal paste should never be re-used but instead an new application applied every time the HS is pulled away from the CPU.

If not you stand a very good chance of creating an air pocket trapped between the two. Air, as you know, isn't a good thermal transfer medium and so a big open pocket of air between them would usually show up in high temps on the CPU.