ASUS ROG MAXIMUS IX HERO with 6700k overclock?

I hear ya Alaric, I def do. Even with my MSI z170 SLI Plus, I had no problems updating the bios and that board had a lot more fixes and it was throughout a longer time period too. This boardnobky came out in January. It came with a 0222 bios and as soon as I updated to the first one which is 0701, the Internet worked right away. I just can't skip a bios right and go straight to the latest one but instead, update to the next one first? The last time, I had to keep resetting my drive because after windows installed, I kept going to the flash drive and hitting " setup" and I ended up having like 200gb of windows on that drive. This time once it was installed, I removed the flash drive so now it's in its own partition on the 960 evo.Also, I went back and checked the flash drive and it seems I forgot to download the 0801 and went from the 0701 that I'm on now straight to 0906. I could have swore I had all 3 bios on that drive but I had 2 copies of the 0906 instead.

JordanF75 said:

Just figured id have better/more stable OC results, that's all.

Also, now that windows 10 is updated, can i now shut down my PC, install my gtx1080 and then install the drivers? I havent put the gtx1080 in since ive installed the new 960 evo and the windows 10 pro install.

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Yes sir. Have at it!

"The Nvidia graphics driver is not compatible with this version of windows". That's what I got from nvidia when i tried to install the driver after installing the gtx1080......hmmm

JordanF75 said:

"The Nvidia graphics driver is not compatible with this version of windows". That's what I got from nvidia when i tried to install the driver after installing the gtx1080......hmmm

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I'm going through the same damn thing. You aren't on the latest version. Google windows creators edition. Download the updater and install. Then go back into windows after it's finished and it should install fine.

I didn't even know the creators update was out but regardless, it did make sure my windows is up to date to download it once it does come out and I'm not even close to the most updated version. I just went to settings and update but the notices on my z170 6700k, it tells me what version of windows imnon which is 1602 and on my new build it doesn't say what build or anything so I knew my windows wasn't up to date. I just didn't know what I was missing but thanks for the advice because once I downloaded the Microsoft update assistant, it said I'm not up to date on my windows so it started downloading the updates and it said it would take about 90 minutes, that sounds more like it now. I restarted and it was updating, got to 23% and restarted again. I'm just gonna leave it and hope it updates fine.

It worked! Now im on Windows Version 1703. I went to device manager after downloading the nvidia graphics driver and that went fine, but on device manager, i see my gtx1080 and the built in gpu on the mobo, the intel hd graphics 630. Should i uninstall that or disable it, or what? On my z170 6700k, it only shows my gtx1050.

Thanks R_Pierce. That update really really helped.

JordanF75 said:

I didn't even know the creators update was out but regardless, it did make sure my windows is up to date to download it once it does come out and I'm not even close to the most updated version. I just went to settings and update but the notices on my z170 6700k, it tells me what version of windows imnon which is 1602 and on my new build it doesn't say what build or anything so I knew my windows wasn't up to date. I just didn't know what I was missing but thanks for the advice because once I downloaded the Microsoft update assistant, it said I'm not up to date on my windows so it started downloading the updates and it said it would take about 90 minutes, that sounds more like it now. I restarted and it was updating, got to 23% and restarted again. I'm just gonna leave it and hope it updates fine.

It worked! Now im on Windows Version 1703. I went to device manager after downloading the nvidia graphics driver and that went fine, but on device manager, i see my gtx1080 and the built in gpu on the mobo, the intel hd graphics 630. Should i uninstall that or disable it, or what? On my z170 6700k, it only shows my gtx1050.

Thanks R_Pierce. That update really really helped.

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You can leave the on board driver. It won't hurt anything.

And sometimes the drivers are a real pain. I had never had such problems until I went to the 10 series cards.

Glad it all worked out for you!!

R_Pierce said:

You can leave the on board driver. It won't hurt anything.

And sometimes the drivers are a real pain. I had never had such problems until I went to the 10 series cards.

Glad it all worked out for you!!

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Yep, will do. Ill just make sure to not have any display cables connected to the mobo. I have my display connected to the gtx1080 right now instead of the motherboard, so ill leave the onboard gpu as is. Im sure it wont be used unless i plug an hdmi cable into the mobo. Thanks again. My new build has a more updated Windows then my z170 6700k build lol. Ill update it eventually. But since its still at one of the newest versions of windows, it should be fine.

Just an update. Everything is good and working. Windows 10 is updated with the creators update, version 1703. Both my PCs now have the new creators update. My gtx1080 is installed and drivers installed without any problems. Just finished modding my noctua fans since they have a brown and black color scheme, i changed it so its red and black now. Got the 140mm noctua 3000rpm rear exhaust fan for the back of the PC, just finished everything last night, took my 1tb HDD drive from my old pc with all my movies, pics, doocuments, and music. Also installed a 256gb SSD for backup. Had it laying around and wasnt using it, its a samsung PM851, similar to a 850 evo. Just doing some cable management as the braided bitfenix cables i bought are kinda bigger than the stock evga psu cables and i want the back panel to go on smoothely without having to stuff it in there.

Only thing im not sure what its about is my PC case, in the front theres a yellow/orange light, its connected to the hdd led front panel header, that keeps blinking every few seconds. Even when i only had the 960 evo m.2 drive in, it was still blinking so i dont know why cause ive read if its blinking, that means the hard drive is about to go or crash?

Another light thats blinking is on the motherboard, right nextt to the sata ports, its a yellow/orange light, it says HD_LED next to it. Its behind my gtx1080, but i just want to make sure its nothing wrong or anything.

I will post pics by tomorrow. Gotta grab some zip ties and twist ties after work to finish up the cable management. Also thinking about installing an ODD/CD/DVD drive instead of an external one that i got. it uses 2 usb to power it but i heard its not really meant for using much because the usb cant give it enough power. Its an Asus external slim dvd-rw, got it for about 25-30 bucks from microcenter. I like watching movies on my PC so I do prefer to have an ODD installed. And i have 2 extra dvd-rw anyways just sitting in a box in my closet lol.

Also received my refund from amazon for the 960 evo, that was what messed it up last time and made it so i couldnt install windows. Im sure it was my fault, but whatever, got a new one and did it correctly this time, it think. Just want to strart overclocking

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Will post pics tonight or tommorow, when im done with cable management.

The HD light blinking infrequently is normal, it just means there is HD activity. Looks like you received some bad parts overall this build.

yes, the lights are normal.

wingman99 said:

The HD light blinking infrequently is normal, it just means there is HD activity. Looks like you received some bad parts overall this build.

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Oh ok sounds good. And yes, the RAM set was a pain considering it took 4 sets to finally get a working set, but the 960 evo nvme drive, i screwed that up myself by installing windows multiple times onto the drive and having to keep ressetting the PC, so I cant blame that on amazon, if thats what you mean by receiving bad parts. In the end, it all worked out so its alright. If i ever build a PC again, ill be getting parts from newegg and microcenter for the important stuff like CPU, hard drive, even the windows 10. It was a brand new winfows 10 still shrink wrapped but yet my old product ID is on both my PCs and my old PC came with a windows 10 64 bit full version CD disc not usb drive, so i dont even know how my new build got the product id. Like RPierce said, ill just ride it out. It works fine and its updated to its newest version so ill keep it.

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And do you mean, i have bad parts on the new build, or did you mean with the ram and 960 evo and having to return them for a new one?

M$ is close to desperation in wanting W10 on machines. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out almost anyone can install it for free.

JordanF75 said:

Oh ok sounds good. And yes, the RAM set was a pain considering it took 4 sets to finally get a working set, but the 960 evo nvme drive, i screwed that up myself by installing windows multiple times onto the drive and having to keep ressetting the PC, so I cant blame that on amazon, if thats what you mean by receiving bad parts. In the end, it all worked out so its alright. If i ever build a PC again, ill be getting parts from newegg and microcenter for the important stuff like CPU, hard drive, even the windows 10. It was a brand new winfows 10 still shrink wrapped but yet my old product ID is on both my PCs and my old PC came with a windows 10 64 bit full version CD disc not usb drive, so i dont even know how my new build got the product id. Like RPierce said, ill just ride it out. It works fine and its updated to its newest version so ill keep it.

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And do you mean, i have bad parts on the new build, or did you mean with the ram and 960 evo and having to return them for a new one?

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Yes I was talking about the memory and 960 EVO. You did not do anything wrong with the 960 EVO, sounds like it was just defective. How did you know the 960 EVO was defective, what troubleshooting did you do for diagnosis?

wingman99 said:

Yes I was talking about the memory and 960 EVO. You did not do anything wrong with the 960 EVO, sounds like it was just defective. How did you know the 960 EVO was defective, what troubleshooting did you do for diagnosis?

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Oh ok whew...lol. It worked fine at first when i was trying to set up windows but after a few resets, hard resets where it said it would take hours to delete, it was stuck on 99% for about 2 hours, and i just restarted it and after that, the PC wouldnt boot past bios and POST. It said the hard drive or storage could not install windows and that i had to switch to raid mode but i only had the 1 960 evo installed so i couldnt raid it anyway. Im pretty sure the partitions got messed up from me resetting the PC before it went to 100% when i did the hard reset, not positive though. But yeah, definitely shouldnt have done that but after installing windows multiple times, i was just so frustrated and sick of seeing the asus boot logo, etc.

For the m2 hard drive, my device is set on x2 bandwidth. I was tyold x4 bandwidth would have better/faster performance and it would disable sata 5 and 6 which is fine as i only need 2 sata ports for my 1tb HDD and 256GB SSD. What exactly is the differnece from x2 and x4, do you know by any chance?

JordanF75 said:

Oh ok whew...lol. It worked fine at first when i was trying to set up windows but after a few resets, hard resets where it said it would take hours to delete, it was stuck on 99% for about 2 hours, and i just restarted it and after that, the PC wouldnt boot past bios and POST. It said the hard drive or storage could not install windows and that i had to switch to raid mode but i only had the 1 960 evo installed so i couldnt raid it anyway. Im pretty sure the partitions got messed up from me resetting the PC before it went to 100% when i did the hard reset, not positive though. But yeah, definitely shouldnt have done that but after installing windows multiple times, i was just so frustrated and sick of seeing the asus boot logo, etc.

For the m2 hard drive, my device is set on x2 bandwidth. I was tyold x4 bandwidth would have better/faster performance and it would disable sata 5 and 6 which is fine as i only need 2 sata ports for my 1tb HDD and 256GB SSD. What exactly is the differnece from x2 and x4, do you know by any chance?

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2x is two lanes at a total of 16Gb/s and 4X is four lanes at a total of 32Gb/s.

Got it, so its faster at x4. I switched the settings so its at x4, and sata 5 & 6 are disabled. Thanks wingman and r_pierce and everyone whos helped me. Ran userbenchmark.com and everythings over 100%. Gamings at 102%, workstations at 140%, and desktops is around 120%, i dont remember exactly for the last one, just know that theyre all at over 100% and workstation is at 141%. It seems like i can do something to optimize the 960 evo speed as well as the gpu and cpu speed. Obviously overclocking the cpu will raise the benchmark as well as OCing the GPU, but what else can i do to increase performance for the 960 evo nvme drive? I do have about 260 bucks in an amazon gift card balance that i cant turn to cash so i was wondering if getting another 960 evo 500gb would be worth it to raid the 2 drives or would that not yield much faster speeds? I also prefer to have 1 super fast drives rather than having 2-3 differreent hard drives. If i could, i would have just bought a 1tb 960 evo at the time. With windows 10, its a hassle setting everything. Its easier to just click "My PC" on the folders and all my files, apps, documents, pics, videos, music, etc, everything in one drive. And I would juist use my extra 256gb PM851 ssd as a backup drive and thats it. Just not a fan of miultiple hard drives.

I don't like multiple drives either. I have one main drive and a automatic backup drive using windows 10 backup services. Two 960 evo in raid won't help much because the chipset DMI bus to the Processor is almost saturated with one 960 evo X4.

wingman99 said:

I don't like multiple drives either. I have one main drive and a automatic backup drive using windows 10 backup services. Two 960 evo in raid won't help much because the chipset DMI bus to the Processor is almost saturated with one 960 evo X4.

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Gotcha, I'll just save the $260 gift card credit for the future. I'm also just using my 500GB 960 evo as my boot drive and for apps etc, and my 1tb Toshiba HDD for pics, movies, documents, everything else. the 256gb samsung ssd is a good drive but its just another extra drive that doesnt really benefit me and will just be anotyher drive. 1tb is more than enough for my movies, pics, etc.

Ive been reading up on stress testing as you guys were mentioning prime isnt that great since it stresses the cpu ALOT and puts more heat on it, and most of the places that ive been reading up on show charts of temps with prime95, realbench, XTU, aida, etc. I would like to get 5gh but it seems like prime95 is a hell of a stress test and i probably wouldnt get past 4.7-4.8ghz and also prime uses alot of power. It's suggested not to go past 1.35v for the cpu using prime. I was thinking of using rog realbench instead. Do you still use prime95 for stress testing? I really dont know how to use the others. Prime95 is a pretty simple app and has worked for me for years, so im skeptical about switching to a new app. for my q6600, q9550, and 6700k, i always used prime95, the newest version available. My 6700k got to 4.5ghz. q6600 got to 3.0ghz. And they ran prime for at least 24 hours. I figure if it can stand prime95 at 24 hours straight, then id say its stable, IMO. What do you suggest in terms of stress testing. Ill also have HWMonitor running to check temps, and CPUZ. Thats basically it as far as monitoring. I remember using just 3 apps in the past, prime95, hwmonitor and something else that i cant remember. These are the only aapps ive used since i first started OCing with my q6600. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.

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and i do realize the boot time is even faster at X4 than at X2 for the M.2 bandwidth. Not that X2 was slow, but i do notice it boots up even faster lol.

Also ran realbench real quick at the stock 4.2ghz cpu speed, and it let me use all 32gb of ram, it says i have 32,666mhz of ram so good to know since my 6700k has 16gb but the system was always using some of the ram so i couldnt stress test it at 16gb, had to go to 8gb. On realbench, i just see a bunch of process running and all the letters are GREEN then regular black letters, im assuming if i overclock and somethings not stable, then it will turn RED instead of GREEN?

If you don't like the heat of Prime95 using RealBench is fine, Prime95 won't damage the CPU it has self protection. RealBench will tell you there is a failure when stress testing. Glad to hear the Boot times are faster with 4X 960 EVO.

wingman99 said:

If you don't like the heat of Prime95 using RealBench is fine, Prime95 won't damage the CPU it has self protection. RealBench will tell you there is a failure when stress testing. Glad to hear the Boot times are faster with 4X 960 EVO.

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I tried 5.0ghz at 1.34v with realbench. At 1.34v, the temps were low 70s, didn't go past 74 Celsius. After about 5 minutes, my screen would go black and I'd have to do control alt delete. I think it was stress testing the gpu as well as my gpu led are set on temperature so idk if that's a factor as it's connected to a 1080p 60hz monitor. I don't mind the heat for prime as long as it's safe. Now that I know it has self-protection, I'll go back to that.

Also I had the mode on manual, not adaptive like most suggests. Started at 1.28, then 1.30, 1.32, and 1.34. Each time it booted up fine without problems, just couldn't get past 5 minutes of realbench without the screen going black and me having to do control alt delete and restarting. Even when the screen went black, the processor and my pc was still being stressed test as I hear the fans at high speeds and the mobo and gpu lights were red as it goes with the temperature. As soon as I restarted, the mobo and gpu are back to green so I know that function works. I always have the gpu set to go with temps. So idk exactly if it failed but I do know the screen did. I don't think prime stresses my gpu. I haven't gotten to hooking up my 24" Asus 1080 144hz 1ms monitor, as the dvi to dvi cable is in a box somewhere since I moved.