server upgrade using Z77 Extreme3

[CRRacer]

Doing a server upgrade, whs2011, I bought the Extreme3 thinking I might be using that board, but now I might swap it out with the client PC that is using the Extreme4 so that I could have the extra two Sata ports in the server.

This board is brand new, just arrived a week ago from newegg, did an out of box boot with an i7-3770, Samsung 830 128 GB SSD and 8 GB of Gskill sniper 1866 ram. I was amazed that it took a cloned drive of my server os that is currently running on an AMD apu and effortlessly updated hardware drivers and boots to whs2011 in about 10 seconds. This board arrived with BIOS version 1.10, this BIOS is not listed on ASRocks website. They show 1.0, 1.2-1.5. I'm curious why this BIOS isn't listed on their website and why a board that has been in production for so long has and older BIOS. I like the BIOS, it allows me to OC that non k processor to 4.2GHz and leave everything else on auto. It also doesn't have that gawdy 555 boot-up screen.

I'm the type of person that usually wants to stay up to date on the BIOS, but I'm hesitant to change since I see no way to backup the existing BIOS and if I don't like a newer BIOS, I can't go back to what I've got.

Would this i7-3770 ivy bridge processor OC'd to 4.2GHz perform better than my i7-2600K OC'd to 4.4GHz?

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Re: server upgrade using Z77 Extreme3

Let's see, the Z77 EX 3 board was a later model than the rest of the Z77 EX series of ASRock. Comparing the first BIOS version dates, it was released six months after the Z77 EX 4.

Who knows about the "missing" BIOS version 1.10, maybe it is a very small update over 1.00, or actually identical to 1.10, since all of the other ASR Z77 boards I checked have version 1.10 as the first version. I tend to believe that 1.00 is the same as 1.10.

The Z77 EX 3 may have existed for a long time, but who knows how well it sold. As a late addition to ASR's line, sales may have been low. IMO you have an early production example, or perhaps there was only one or two production runs. Newegg may have not sold many, as the price difference between the EX 3 and EX 4 is $10, given the retail price listed by Newegg. The EX 3 has 116 reviews vs 912 for the EX 4, which indicates the sales were much lower for the EX3 IMO. The price difference between the two is $5 right now at Newegg.

The reason you were able to switch the WHS 2011 easily between the two systems is likely a WHS thing, since the drivers for WHS products tend to be more generic.

I'd say the two CPUs on the boards at those speeds would be close or equal, you'd need to test them to find out.

If you'll be using WHS on the board, the BIOS updates won't do much for you, I wouldn't worry about it. Are you sure you can't flash to an earlier version if you just save a copy of the BIOS file?

[CRRacer]

Re: server upgrade using Z77 Extreme3

Upgrade went without a hitch

As for saving the current BIOS, I didn't see and option to do that. I just stayed with the 1.10 BIOS that came on the board.

I checked the reviews on newegg between the extreme 3 (oldest review is sept of 2012) and the Extreme 4 (oldest review is April 2012), didn't realize it was released later then the Extreme 4.

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Re: server upgrade using Z77 Extreme3

I'm talking about saving the UEFI/BIOS file used to update to a specific version. I use Instant Flash, and the BIOS image file that it uses I just save on a USB flash drive, and on a disk drive. The file are ~4.5MB, so no big deal to save.

The same files on a USB flash drive will all be listed by the Instant Flash utility as choices when it is run. Choose the one you want to use, and it will be flashed.

[CRRacer]

Re: server upgrade using Z77 Extreme3

OK, I will give that a try.