I7-2600k Motherboard?

[PMad]

So nearly two years ago i purchased the Intel i7-2600k CPU and the ASUS P8P67 LE motherboard... Here's my setup, excluding what i just mentioned:

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
Video: XFX ATI Radeon HD 6950 2GB (x2 Crossfired)
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi (PCIe 1x)
HD1: Seagate 2TB SATA6
HD2: Seagate 1.5TB SATA3
PSU: OCZ ZX 1250W
+Lots of bells and whistles...

So at first i've always had an issue booting my SATA6 drive. Its the primary drive and is rarely detected by the BIOS. I have to do a full power cycle, as in completely shut off the comp, then turn it back on. Eventually, after 3-??? boots (i've done this for two hours once) it would finally detect the drive, so i'd have to go into the bios and set it as primary and reboot. Sometimes after doing so, within a few minutes of booting up, i'd get a blue screen which i believe was 0x000000F4 (im guessing) which took me to the internet and found its typically a hard drive issue, telling me that the bios lost its connection with the hard drive. Well after about a year, turning on the computer would result in the motherboard shutting off after a couple seconds and turning back on, a never ending process.. Couldnt even see anything on the screen (later found it was the bios detecting the PSU voltages incorrectly, and the surge protection was shutting the comp off)!

So I had wanted a new motherboard ever since i found that i couldnt use my sound card and crossfire GPU's at the same time, it was one or the other so i was using stock audio while using the LE board. Happily, i purchased the Pro version of the motherboard. A nice upgrade! Or so i thought... Nightmare begins here!

This motherboard had the same problem with detecting the SATA6 drive. SATA3 drive was always detected perfectly fine every time! So at this point i thought the problem was my hard drive, and tested it out in my server, my daughters computer, and my mothers computer. All computers detected it perfectly fine every time! So for the first month of this happening i also noticed another issue. My secondary GPU's fan's would jump to 100% speed during boot up and other random times when that card wasn't even in use! I knew something was up... So I RMA'd the board with ASUS, and after getting my board back, i began getting TONS of blue screens to the point i couldnt even login before i got the BSOD (same error each time, tracked it to video, removing 1 GPU solved the problem), and i still had the issue with the SATA6 drive. Over the next year i RMA'd my board every 1 to 1.5 months, and was returned the same board with the same issues, nothing ever fixed. All in all, for JUST the new motherboard, i spent over $400 for the board and all the shipping costs to ASUS.... All for nothing...

So now, im terrified to play games because of the blue screens, terrified to turn the computer on because im scared of how long it might take to get the damn thing to work right, terrified to do anything on the comp once its up in fear of it freezing and corrupting files, and in no f*ing way am i going to send it back in to ASUS so they can do nothing again and send it back... Plus, my warranty is up if its a 1 year warranty, never checked on that...

So here's the question, im beyond terrified to purchase any motherboard at this point. Everywhere i go, everybody tells me to get the boards that i already have that are worthless excuses for motherboards, or Gigabyte which i've never heard anything good about... So which way do i go? Is this SATA6 problem a P67 issue, just my issue, a Sandy Bridge issue, what? I'm scared of getting a new board and having the same issues, or let alone any issues at all!

So i'm hoping that somebody else with a SATA6 drive and a setup similar to mine can post back any information regarding these issues and motherboard choices... Typically when I look for a new motherboard, i check in the $100-$150 price range, but most that i find dont seem to have all the features i need, and i end up having to go to the $200-$300 range...

Anyway, sorry it was so long, but its been a nearly 2 year long nightmare, i just want to get it right this time and feel that wont happen if its not fully understood by those responding.. I've scoured the internet for information the past few months and cant seem to find anything that even hints anything about what may or may not work...

 

[ko888]

Does your motherboard have Revision B3 of the P67 chipset?

The earlier revision of the P67 and H67 chipset motherboards were recalled due to the SATA bug on the 3 Gb/s ports that would appear over time.

Is your Seagate 2TB SATA6 plugged into a 3 Gb/s or 6 Gb/s SATA port?

 

[PMad]

yes, it says "Rev 3.0 - New P67 B3 Revision" on the box.

I heard about the chipset problem, found that before getting the Pro version.

I have the 1.5TB SATA3 drive plugged into the 3Gb/s port, and the 2TB SATA6 drive plugged into the grey Intel 6Gb/s port. I've tried all 6Gb/s ports, including the Marvel ports (all 4 ports total) with the same results.

 

[ko888]

yes, it says "Rev 3.0 - New P67 B3 Revision" on the box.

I heard about the chipset problem, found that before getting the Pro version.

I have the 1.5TB SATA3 drive plugged into the 3Gb/s port, and the 2TB SATA6 drive plugged into the grey Intel 6Gb/s port. I've tried all 6Gb/s ports, including the Marvel ports (all 4 ports total) with the same results.

Judging by the Customer Feedback at Newegg.com for the ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0), sorted by lowest rated, the horrendous number of DOA's certainly indicates that specific budget model had a lot of quality control problems.

Time for a new motherboard.

 

[PMad]

Definitely where im headed, but scared to run into this issue again.

With everyone everywhere recommending yet more ASUS motherboards, im scared to go for it in fear of this happening again... Typically when people arent recommending ASUS, they are recommending Gigabyte or MSI. Gigabyte i havent ever heard anything good about, maybe that will begin to change now? And MSI i've never had any luck with...

Any recommendations? At this point, i've spent nearly 2 years.. yeah thats right.. TWO YEARS dealing with this crap series of motherboards. Spent a ton of money on a super nice system on to still be unable to use it 2 years later... Wasted my money...

 

[ko888]

What I usually do is to never buy the entry level models.

I always choose from ASUS' mid-level models or better and haven't experienced any quality or stability issues yet.

I overclock my CPU so a high quality CPU power supply circuit on the motherboard is critical to achieving a stable overclock using lower voltages. The entry level ASUS motherboards don't meet that requirement. The entry level models have an LE or LE PLUS or LK or LX in their model name.

I've bought GIGABYTE and MSI motherboards previously and have only experienced stability problems with an MSI motherboard.

If I were to buy a new motherboard today I would be looking at the following:

ASUS P8Z77-V
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77

GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH

 

[jaquith]

Curiosity here, which 'SATA3' port(s) for the boot drive - Marvell or Intel? Did you move the boot drive from Marvell to Intel or visa versa?

Marvell don't show-up in the BIOS and instead have their own ROM, only use the Marvell for 'data HDD's', fill Intel first, and never as the boot drive or the ODD (DVD/BR) drive. SATA2 vs SATA3 on a mechanical HDD does nothing to improve speed. Actually, (2) Intel SATA2 ports are faster (300MB/s * 2 = 600MB/s; full bandwidth and DMI 2.0) than (2) Marvell SATA3 ports (PCIe x1 = 500MB/s / 2 (shared = 250MB/s max)), and third party chipsets add latency...

Also, use the latest BIOS and flash using ASUS EZ Flash 2 and a USB Flash Drive (only black USB 2.0 ports). Flash BIOS v3603 - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289507-30-what-flash Reading the notes, update the BIOS twice then Clear the CMOS using the Jumper - unplug the PSU for 5 minutes, move the Jumper for 5+ seconds and then back again, boot into the BIOS press (F5) to Load Optimized Defaults and press (F10) Save & Exit = Yes then boot into Windows; see video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdHH9KrceR0

Next, folks often look at SSD Firmware but rarely HDD firmware which can be equally as important especially with larger HDD's ; see - http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/

Many DOA's are induced by user error, and often the initial change over from IDE to AHCI caused many issues that only 'seemed' as a DOA. Across the spectrum unless there's a legitimate building 'batch' issue there's a 2%~3% real DOA problem.

Just to rule-out a IDE to AHCI issue run 'FixIt' or manually verify the registry keys as seen in this link - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
Problem by default the Marvell are IDE whereas the Intel are AHCI and switching them back and forth can cause both the incorrect driver to be installed and/or the wrong registry settings i.e. corruption. Once all updated schedule and run SFC (both options) for all drives; see - http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/Scan-Drives-Windows-7.jpg
AHCI e.g. - http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/AHCI_Start_0.jpg

Further, as suggested the lower-end MOBO's are not great choices for long-term OC's and ideally on a SB I prefer MOBO's with 12 or more phases to the CPU. Agreed the ASUS P8Z77-V is a good mid-grade OC'ing MOBO; specs - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77V/#specifications

 

[PMad]

ko888: Looks like you buy motherboards in the same fashion as I. I never buy the low end models, i usually stick to the mid to high end models. The one im using, the ASUS P8P67 Pro I would consider to be between mid and high end. I only originally had the LE version because it was given to me when i purchased my processor. I typically look through benchmark sites that have benchmarked my processor and see what all they did and how the motherboard faired, as well as its overclocking and stability pro's and cons and use that as well as end-user reviews from sites like newegg and forums like this one. After the LE board died, i did that research and it seemed like everybody and their mothers recommended the Pro version of that board, which because it was a much better board that I was using, it had more support for everything so i was able to for example use my PCIe 1x sound card AND crossfire two video cards which i couldnt do on the LE version. I was looking around through those boards you listed and they all seem quite nice, but, im still finding it difficult to pick haha, but you've helped me narrow it down to ASUS (again) or Gigabyte.

jaquith: My main hard drive is the Seagate 2TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200rpm. I have it connected to the grey Intel SATA6 port. I've tried it on the second Intel port and both of the Marvel ports. What happens when the problem occurs is that on the boot screen where it shows your CPU, RAM, and Drives, i see everything except the 2TB drive. If i let it go, i get a boot error because it cant find an operating system on my second hard drive, which is a 3 Gb/s 1.5TB drive. If i hit the reset button, it will never detect the SATA6 drive, and if i go into the BIOS and check my drives, its not there. I had to do things a bit differently when using the Marvel ports since as you said, it has its own ROM. So out of all 4 Intel and Marvel ports, ive used them all with the same results. Sometimes the SATA6 drive shows up, but usually it doesnt.

As for the BIOS, i've got the newest one installed, i always flash it 3 times, reset the bios settings, reboot, then set them up myself.

When i first started having the issue, i blamed it on the hard drive. They had me update the firmware and do all sorts of tests and everything and I had the same results. They had me RMA the drive and sent it back. Upon finding the same problems, i called them and they told me that they did everything they could to the drive, couldnt reproduce the issue, and all their tests showed the drive was fine. I put it in my server and two other computers and it never had any issues in those. The second it was back in my desktop, problems happened again. At that point i knew it was the motherboard.

 

[jaquith]

Again, USE ONLY THE INTEL SATA PORTS! MARVELL ARE DATA ONLY - I.E. UNBOOTABLE!

Pretend your Marvell ports don't exist, so don't use them. Worst is switching them back and forth, your going from AHCI to IDE to AHCI and corrupting the registry and loading the wrong drivers (BOOT ERROR).

Now if there's no data on the other drives or they've never been formatted in the 'Disk Management' then they won't show-up in Windows until they're formatted. See - http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/Intel%20RSTE%20RAID%20Repiar/Intel-RSTE-Step-12.jpg

Assuming the 'AHCI to IDE' problem, boot in to the BIOS and change the Intel SATA -> IDE (from AHCI). If you can now boot into Windows run 'FixIt', verify the Registry values manually, and then boot into the BIOS, press (F5) 'Load Optimized Defaults' & (F10) Save & Exit = 'Yes' then boot into Widows.

Now, I'm a tad confused here, but if you have multiple drives with multiple OSes then I hope that only (1) drive was connected when you install the OS, because otherwise bits and pieces are the OS is scattered in the other OS drive i.e. dependency.