Z77 Extreme4 Questions

[ChromeBeauty]

Hi
When PC is off the Green LAN light is on and the Orange LAN light is blinking should it be this way? Can I turn it off?

Also I miss 114MB memory that are reserved for hardware, could this be the XRam feature?
But I didn't set anything for it in the AXTU.
Or is the onboard graphic of the Ivy?
Or something that is set in the BIOS?
I'm running W7 64 so there shouldn't be missing any memory like you see it under 32bit.

Can someone tell me where the MB temp sensor is placed?

[Darkammo]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Concerning your light question, my lights turn off when I power down. Did you install Intel Smart Connect? When your computer is in sleep, it's supposed to reconnect to update your social networking stuff and e-mail or some such.

The reserved RAM I believe is normal. I have the exact amount you have reserved. The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

No Smart Connect installed, at least not the drivers, I check if the BIOS Option is really disabled but I think it is.

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Yes Smart Connect is off, I thought it could something like Wake on LAN but all those options are off too.

Can anyone tell me where the PCH temp sensor is placed? Isn't it the sensor for the MOSFETs?

[parsec]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

It's not unusual for a mother board's network chip or a separate network card to remain active when the PC is shutdown. My Z77 EX 4's network chip activity LEDs are on when the PC is shutdown. That is not a problem or indicates something is wrong. Check the Device Manager entry for the Broadcom network chip, and check for a Power Management tab, you might find a setting to power it down with the PC. I'm using a separate network card (whose LEDs stay on when the PC is shutdown) so I can't check the Broadcom device entry now. They were on when the PC was shutdown, when I was using it. The Windows Power Plan you are using may also affect the network chip.

The PCH on this board is the Z77 chipset, the Platform Controller Hub. It has a built in thermal sensor, it's part of the chip.

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Thanks I will check that.

Looking at the motherboard layout(p.13 in the manual) I guess it would be #10.
No wonder it gets warm, seems to get hot air from the graphic card, I wonder if temperatures would improve without the strange metal cover, did anyone try to remove it?

[HardwareFailureGuy]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Thanks I will check that.

Looking at the motherboard layout(p.13 in the manual) I guess it would be #10.
No wonder it gets warm, seems to get hot air from the graphic card, I wonder if temperatures would improve without the strange metal cover, did anyone try to remove it?

Very Bad Idea. The metal cover is most likely there for electromagnetic shielding. Remove it, and you open the can of worms known as "interference."

[parsec]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

The cover on the heatsink of the Z77 is all for show IMO, very common now, a bare heatsink would not be pretty. It might cool a little better with it off, but you can't just pry that cover off with the heatsink attached to the Z77, since the heatsink is not attached to the board very solidly. I would just leave it, and try to get some more airflow through the case to cool it. What temperature are you seeing for your PCH?

Actually, most Intel chipsets run rather warm, and their maximum temperature is at least 100C. Some of the old 4 series Intel chipsets did not even report a temp below 50C.

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Well while gaming it gets into the upper 50's.

[parsec]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

The upper 50's is not bad, and should not compromise the chip. My case has a side fan mount that blows air directly on the chipset area of the board, and at idle and a cool room (ie, not summer), my PCH temp is 43C - 47C.

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Good to hear that, thanks.

Now back to my first post, if the PCH is the Chipset temp, than what and where is the Motherboard temp taken?

[parsec]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Good question, I don't know. The manual does not show where that sensor is. Some boards have their "mother board" temperature sensor somewhere in the lower right hand corner of the board, as you look at it mounted in a case. That would be by the CMOS chip, or near the Dr. Debug display, but that is a guess.

[ChromeBeauty]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Ok now some driver/tool questions:
After checking thru them and deciding what I need and don't need I'm stuck at the "Intel Management Engine" driver and the "Intel Rapid Storage", what is that for?

AFAIK "Intel Rapid Storage" is for the AHCI controller but MS has already a build in, do I still need the Intel driver?

And "Intel Management Engine" doesn't tell me anything and search didn't offer a clear explanation, what is it for?

[parsec]

Re: Z77 Extreme4 Questions

Intel Management Engine, or IME, is a mix of several things, hard to explain, here's what you see after its installation:



If you have an Ivy Bridge CPU, some of it's features won't work without IME. Open Device Manager and see if you have anything displayed with yellow '!' marks on them, which indicates a problem. You might be able to live without it, but I would install it.

Intel Rapid Storage, or IRST, is the AHCI and RAID driver for Intel chipset boards. You don't need it if you use the standard AHCI driver from Windows 7, msahci.