Z170 Extreme 7 first time asrock user questions

Hi all!

In a few days I will have the asrock extreme 7+, the I7 6700 and 2x 16GB kits of Gskill 3200!
No RAID setups just yet.  Will be just using a few SSD's and a dvd drive for the windows installs.

First time Asrock user as I have been an Asus fan for 15 years now but could not pass up the deal I got for the extreme 7

Few questions if ya don't mind

1:  I have to use my windows 7 license to do the free upgrade to windows 10.  Do I just enable ps2 emulation in the BIOS and boot off the windows 7 DVD?  I will install windows 7, install all the drivers, disable ps2 emulation, then run all windows updates including the windows 10 upgrade.

After windows 10 is installed and working I plan on burning the 10 ISO and doing a clean from scratch windows 10 install so as not to have the 7 stuff lingering there.

Does that sound ok?^  Are those the right steps or am I missing something?




2:  At what point do I switch to UEFI mode?  Or do I even need to?  I have been a windows 7 user for years and this is my first step in upgrading past windows 7 and am still slightly confused as to what even UEFI does?




3:  Regarding the Gskill ram.  Has anyone gotten the 2x 16gb gkill kits to work?  It was much cheaper to get 2x 16gb kits rather then the single 32gb kit but was hoping that because I ordered the 2 at the same time it would be compatible.


Thanks for any info everyone!


Edited by apachehavok - 09 Apr 2016 at 10:54pm

apachehavok wrote: Hi all! In a few days I will have the asrock extreme 7+, the I7 6700 and 2x 16GB kits of Gskill 3200! No RAID setups just yet.  Will be just using a few SSD's and a dvd drive for the windows installs. First time Asrock user as I have been an Asus fan for 15 years now but could not pass up the deal I got for the extreme 7 Few questions if ya don't mind 1:  I have to use my windows 7 license to do the free upgrade to windows 10.  Do I just enable ps2 emulation in the BIOS and boot off the windows 7 DVD?  I will install windows 7, install all the drivers, disable ps2 emulation, then run all windows updates including the windows 10 upgrade. After windows 10 is installed and working I plan on burning the 10 ISO and doing a clean from scratch windows 10 install so as not to have the 7 stuff lingering there. Does that sound ok?^  Are those the right steps or am I missing something? 2:  At what point do I switch to UEFI mode?  Or do I even need to?  I have been a windows 7 user for years and this is my first step in upgrading past windows 7 and am still slightly confused as to what even UEFI does? 3:  Regarding the Gskill ram.  Has anyone gotten the 2x 16gb gkill kits to work?  It was much cheaper to get 2x 16gb kits rather then the single 32gb kit but was hoping that because I ordered the 2 at the same time it would be compatible. Thanks for any info everyone!

I can't speak for MSoft and how they handle the free upgrade to Windows 10. If all I had to do was use a Win 7 key to activate a fresh Win 10 installation, I would have never bought the Win 10 keys I now have.

IMO, you cannot use a Win 7, 8, or 8.1 key to activate a new Win 10 installation from a free ISO download.

I would be thrilled to be proven wrong, but I'll need more proof than "it should work...". Such as the page on MSoft's website that describes how it is done. I checked into that last year, and as I recall, it's not that simple or possible.

The upgrade installation of Win 10 from an existing, qualifying Windows product, is tied to the mother board of the PC as usual. At no point are we provided with an activation key during the upgrade. The so called tools for retrieving Windows activation keys are not to be trusted IMO.

The upgrade to Win 10 works, and so will a fresh installation of Win 10 on the same mother board. During the fresh Win 10 installation, you have the option to Skip entering the key, and do so. Once the installation is complete, Win 10 will automatically activate as long as you have a working network connection.

I must ask what you mean by "changing to UEFI mode"? I know what it means to me, but please be more specific.

The requirement to use "UEFI mode", which for most users means configuring the UEFI/BIOS before a Windows 8 - 10 installation to cause the Windows installation program to use the EFI bootloader, is only required if you are using a PCIe SSD as the OS drive.

That is, any of the Samsung M.2 PCIe SSDs, XP941, SM951, or 950 Pro, and Intel PCIe SSDs, the 750s or any of the DC P3000 series.

Since you bought the Z170 Extreme7+, I assume you will be using at least one of those SSDs.

Any SATA drive used as the OS drive can be used in UEFI mode, but that is not necessary.

If you mean you want to enable the Secure Boot option, which will automatically configure the UEFI settings to boot in UEFI mode, then that must be done before the OS installation.

There a few other things you would need to know if you plan on or need to install Win 10 in UEFI mode, but I'd like to know what you meant in using that term.

Mixing two kits of memory is much less of a gamble when they are ordered at the same time, I will agree with that. But there is still some luck involved when doing that, and no 100% guarantee they will work together. I've had and have seen both success and failures doing that. The faster the DDR4 memory is (at and above 3000), and the greater amount of memory being used, the less likely it will be a success.

Are your kits each 2 x 8GB DIMMs? What is the full model number of that G.SKILL memory? Your choice of 3000 is good, as the amount of memory that can be used begins to drop off as the speed increases above 3000. Check the Memory Suppor list for your board here:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z170%20Extreme7+/?cat=Memory

parsec wrote: I can't speak for MSoft and how they handle the free upgrade to Windows 10. If all I had to do was use a Win 7 key to activate a fresh Win 10 installation, I would have never bought the Win 10 keys I now have. IMO, you cannot use a Win 7, 8, or 8.1 key to activate a new Win 10 installation from a free ISO download. I would be thrilled to be proven wrong, but I'll need more proof than "it should work...". Such as the page on MSoft's website that describes how it is done. I checked into that last year, and as I recall, it's not that simple or possible. The upgrade installation of Win 10 from an existing, qualifying Windows product, is tied to the mother board of the PC as usual. At no point are we provided with an activation key during the upgrade. The so called tools for retrieving Windows activation keys are not to be trusted IMO. The upgrade to Win 10 works, and so will a fresh installation of Win 10 on the same mother board. During the fresh Win 10 installation, you have the option to Skip entering the key, and do so. Once the installation is complete, Win 10 will automatically activate as long as you have a working network connection.

Hi Parsec, you may want to take a look at this . The additional activation methods have been present since the Fall Update (Build 1511) . Any bootable iso created with the Windows Media Creation Tool should support this mechanism.

Awesome thanks everyone!!

YES I just read that if you download the windows 10 media creation kit and use your windows 7 key it *should* install.  Next week when the parts come in I will try it and report back here.

The ram I will be using is this.  I purchased 2 of these kits:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231902

^Hopefully they will work.

Also have any of you used the in BIOS update utility?  Its the first thing I plan on doing once it boots for the first time.  If this board has 2 lan ports, which one do you use or do both work?

Thanks all!!

apachehavok wrote: Awesome thanks everyone!! YES I just read that if you download the windows 10 media creation kit and use your windows 7 key it *should* install.  Next week when the parts come in I will try it and report back here. The ram I will be using is this.  I purchased 2 of these kits: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231902 ^Hopefully they will work. Also have any of you used the in BIOS update utility?  Its the first thing I plan on doing once it boots for the first time.  If this board has 2 lan ports, which one do you use or do both work? Thanks all!!

Regarding the function of your memory, check this review of your memory at a well known e-Tailer... it's not so much the review I want you to see, but the response to it from a G.SKILL representative. It's the review dated 2/25/2016, as of today the second review on the first page:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231902

There are other comments from G.SKILL rep's in other reviews you may also find useful (I don't recall a memory manufacture being this honest about their products.)

One very important thing to take from the rep's comments, when mixing two (or more) different kits of memory, don't mix DIMMs from different kits in a single channel. The comment states use one kit only in the same color slots, which means one channel. That will increase the chances the two kits will work in your board.

That makes sense, particularly given another part of the comment that surprised me. That is, "... the XMP profile is programmed for each kit, so it will not work with multiple kits installed.".

This comment may be a generalization about all the kits of a specific model during its production lifetime. As I've read, the memory chips in a specific model of memory can be different at the beginning and end of its production cycle. That would clearly make it possible for some of the XMP profile data to be different.

What might happen is for each DIMM that is built, it is tested, and its XMP data programmed to match its capabilities. Kits of multiple DIMMs are then created out of DIMMs with matching XMP profiles/capabilities.

I've noticed in the UEFI/BIOS of several of my ASRock boards, that the DRAM Tweaker feature that allows you to manually populate multiple memory options using XMP data, allows you to choose which slot/DIMM to take the XMP data from. The reason for letting you choose which slot/DIMM to use, I've never understood, until (possibly) now.

Since all the memory settings are the same for every DIMM in the board, the DRAM Tweaker option apparently will let us see if (some) of the XMP data is the same or different for each DIMM in the board. An interesting part of this feature, if that is one of its intents.

You may have trouble trying to start/POST if you put both kits in the board at the same time. I would certainly never attempt to use them the first time with the XMP profile enabled. Whatever you do, be sure you somehow identify which DIMMs belong to each kit, don't mix them up.

When trying to use both kits, use one in one channel, and the other kit in the other channel.

I've used the Internet Flash option a few times, it works fine. If you use it, you should put a USB flash drive in one the the USB ports on the board's IO panel. Internet Flash will copy the UEFI update file to the flash drive for use if the update fails for some reason, once the PC is started again.

Both network ports work, both are Intel so only one driver installation program to run. Win 10 has given the Intel networking driver some problems, the teaming feature is broken and still not fixed after five releases of the Intel networking driver.   Either port can be used, I actually have both active.