Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 + ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA + ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[imported_RedTide]

Hey Guys, I'm new 🙂

I want to get this motherboard to upgrade from my current Pentium 4 HTPC system, I have a AGP HD3650 I'll use. I'm planning on using a Celeron Dual Core E1500, how well do you guys think it'll OC with this board? Thanks

 

[imported_RedTide]

Also, I have a question to the members that OC this board within the BIOS, does this board has SATA corruption? I had a problem with another VIA board not recognizing my DVD drive when I was overclocked.

 

[Zeppelin Heaven]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin Heaven
I flashed my 775Dual-VSTA BIOS to 3.19a through Winflasher 4.22.

My ATI HD 4890 is working better, but now I have the bad CMOS checksum problem!

I change the BIOS settings, but it never saves them.

For all those who are going to flash their motherboard don't use winflash (windows) because it will not work well!

Make a bootable disc instead and flash the BIOS via DOS. After that, my checksum problem went away and all is good! 🙂

My HD4890 runs smoothly now. 😀

 

[Microsystem]

I am using E5200@fsb290@1.5V
Overclocking capacity is excellent using this mobo(4core dual sata2 rev1) and volt mod for FSB 800 CPUes.

what you think about Q7600 overclocking on this mobo?
what is yor idea about overclocking Q7600 to 3915Mhz (290*13.5) using 1.5V?

 

[ramstein]

this board is not an OC type board. it will OC a bit, but it is very very limited. It was meant to be a cheap baord that delivers decent performance and can use both AGP and PCI-e video. Nothing more.

 

[ramstein]

btw, my Sapphire HD3870 PCI-e is working, not as good as I would like but it is working. it has a very difficult time with corruption with most Catalyst driver versions. I can't do anything more with it but hold on till the next major upgrad ein a few months..

Whatever went bad this ASRock 4CoreDual Rev 2 motherboard (bios 2.10) still has a problem. But at least it works with occaisional BSOD's. But it works good enough for a while longer..

Next time I will do what I always did before this and will go with a higher end ASUS motherboard and a decent video card. I stil say the Radeon 2900 pro beat the snot out of the HD3870 as far as veo graphics go and had better performance. Period.


using WinXP. Have also used Win7 on it with Dual boot, but not recently.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Mr. Vain,

Thanks for the resurrection. Still happily using my 4CoreDual-VSTA. Given the dated nature of this chipset and VIA's exit from the chipset business, I wonder how long it will still be before they agree to release the chipset datasheets (so we can get on with tweaking some of those more arcane BIOS settings).

H.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: ramstein
btw, my Sapphire HD3870 PCI-e is working, not as good as I would like but it is working. it has a very difficult time with corruption with most Catalyst driver versions. I can't do anything more with it but hold on till the next major upgrad ein a few months..

Whatever went bad this ASRock 4CoreDual Rev 2 motherboard (bios 2.10) still has a problem. But at least it works with occaisional BSOD's. But it works good enough for a while longer..

Next time I will do what I always did before this and will go with a higher end ASUS motherboard and a decent video card. I stil say the Radeon 2900 pro beat the snot out of the HD3870 as far as veo graphics go and had better performance. Period.


using WinXP. Have also used Win7 on it with Dual boot, but not recently.

Try the latest bios from PC Treiber for your board 2.17a.

http://www.pctreiber.net/filebase.php?fileid=3230

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Hlafordlaes
Mr. Vain,

Thanks for the resurrection. Still happily using my 4CoreDual-VSTA. Given the dated nature of this chipset and VIA's exit from the chipset business, I wonder how long it will still be before they agree to release the chipset datasheets (so we can get on with tweaking some of those more arcane BIOS settings).

H.

Let?s hope soon.


😀

 

[28gdavinci]

This is my first post and sorry for my bad english.I flashed my 775Dual-VSTA BIOS to 3.19a and upgrade my cpu to INTEL CORE 2 DUO E7600 and everthing is working perfect.Watch the pictures in this site http://img30.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=59200920132.png I play a lot of games like the new wolfenstain, far cry2 for many hours with no problem at all.This motherboard is all the money


if you flash your motherboard to v.3.19 via Windows
with the AVUWIN.exe 4.22 make sure that you check
the option "programm all blocks" !

The first time i did not and got an error-message at
the booting-process saying "CMOS checksum error".

After flashing again via windows with "programm all blocks" on
everything was fine .

 

[Ileader36]

For everyone's information, the latest version of Everest correctly measures the +12v rail on the 4coreDual Sata II
Not sure about the Vsta model.

 

[blueslinky]

Hi Guys,

Can someone advise me on a hopefully easy request. I am running a Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 but only with x2 1g sticks of Ram. Vista is running incredibly slow and I believe I need to upgrade to to x2 2gig sticks of Ram. The issue is I cannot seem to find any.. Can anyone point me the right direction please?

Thanks

D

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Originally posted by: blueslinky
Hi Guys,

Can someone advise me on a hopefully easy request. I am running a Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 but only with x2 1g sticks of Ram. Vista is running incredibly slow and I believe I need to upgrade to to x2 2gig sticks of Ram. The issue is I cannot seem to find any.. Can anyone point me the right direction please?

Thanks

D

Sites like Crucial.com will not list 2x2GB sticks for these boards since on release they did not support more than 2GB total (2x1GB). However, if you search for 2x2GB DDR2 on the site and choose sticks that are rated for 1.8v, they should work (example). Make sure you have updated your BIOS to a version that supports 2x2GB before installing.

Perhaps another poster with your board (mine is the VSTA) can list the sticks he/she has working.

 

[imported_SaRi]

Hi all!

I have a 775dual-vsta mobo myself and Anandtech forum have helped me alot. Please remember, i am not trying to be rude to anyone at this topic about 775dual-vsta mobo and other similar mobos, but i think many have gone blind trying to push this mobo to its limits and forgotten the fundamentals about this card. I am not an expert in anyway, but as I understand it 775dual-vsta is a combined mobo with an All-in-one chipset. And if i got all right All-in-one chipsets have a hell of a lot of work to do like running the AGP bus, network , sound, disk etc. and therefore more sensitive than other chipsets.

Many people overclock their mobos and use more and more powerful components like graphic cards. For example; many people get issues when they swap the old grafic card for Radeon X1950. I have read on some forum that disabeling things in Bios, like onboard sound etc., solves most problems. The comments afterwards are usually that there is a conflict between the grafic card and something on the mobo. But almost no one reflect over that the conflict between the components might be that the poor little All-in-one chipset have got "overworked" or overheated. So disabeling something in Bios, like the onboard sound, make the work for the All-in-one chipset much easier. On one forum I read that some people had issues playing WoW with new (more powerful) grafic cards, but when they opened the chassi and played with the chassi opened it went well. I think this might be a typical "overworked" or overheated All-in-one chipset.

What i am trying to say is that to many people are overclocking the system and therefore focusing on the FSB/DRAM-ratio to get their system stable. Then they add or change to some more powerful components like a new grafic card and get issues on a previous well working mobo. Why? Coz u get a "overworked" or overheated All-in-one chipset thats makes the system unstable.

Sorry for all the writing and i hope i haven't bored you out. But as I wrote in the beginning, when you get problems with 775dual-vsta or any other mobo, try to look at the fundamentals of the mobo. 🙂

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@SaRi,

Welcome to the forums. I do agree that the PT880 chipset-based boards are not good overclockers, and when pushed can fail, but the chipset itself is IMO not too bad, with features no other could offer for the P4-socket775 transition. You are also correct that disabling onboard sound and using a dedicated sound card can improve stability, especially in CPU-intensive games (e.g. Oblivion), as onboard sound requires CPU cycles and taxes the system more than a dedicated card. Adequate case and component cooling is a must on any board. That said, I still overclock (mildly) and experience few problems when taking proper care.

H.

 

[imported_SaRi]

Thank You for your reply Hlafordlaes! 🙂

I just wanna make it clear that I am not in anyway against overclocking or pushing a mobo to its limits. If someone buys a mobo its up to him/her what he/she wanna do with it, he/she can use it or smash it. :laugh: But i don't understand people that first overclock their mobos to the limit and brag about it. Then they change/add a powerful component (in most cases a graphic card) and get suprised and dissapointed over the mobo, when it fails. I mean whos fault is it, the mobos or the user who is exceeding the mobos specifications.

Overall I love 775dual-vsta and think it's a really great mobo. The only thing I am missing on 775dual-vsta is a PCI-express slot, and i don't mean one for the grafic card. I found a great sound card and it fits only for PCI-express slots. 🙁

Do anyone know if there is any kind of a converter from PCI to PCI-express or must i look for a sound card thats fits in the PCI-slot? And do anyone know of a good sound card for PCI-slot with a frontpanel for inputs and volym regulator?

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@SaRi,

I have not tried it myself (my sound card is PCI), but why not attempt to install your sound card in the "graphics" PCIe slot. IIRC, this is a 4x slot and might accept a x1 card. It's an issue I have been ignoring until my next board, and all I remember right now is reading mobo reviews that sometimes mention that a long x16 PCIe slot on that particular mobo accepts x4 and x1 cards.

OTOH, do some googling around or check the sound card mfgr website to see what might be said about which slot to use. I don't want to encourage you too much since my own knowledge is verrry sketchy, but if it were me I'd try it!

 

[MKD]

Contemplating upping my system a bit in anticipation of Windows 7.

Built it in Dec 2006 and increased the memory from 2GB and silenced video from 6600GT
ie:
Motherboard: 775Dual-VSTA
Firmware: 3.19 per CPU-Z
(ie the 3.19a from the brilliant http://www.pctreiber.net/filebase.php?cat=22)

CPU: Core 2 Duo 6300 @ stock 1868MHz (Conroe 65nm)

RAM: 2 x 2GB at default/SPD 266MHz 4-4-4-12-2T (per CPU-Z)
Graphics: XFX GeForce 7600GT (Silent!) 256MB

I thought about treating myself to an i5-750 etc but decided it was £300+ I didn't really want to spend on a new CPU/motherboard/RAM.

So focussing instead on a simple CPU upgrade. I've looked at the list of supported CPUs in the Archive section of ASRock website and not been impressed, however rummaging through the old (but perfectly good) thread and this new thread here it seems that people have found that newer 1066 CPUs should also work on the 775Dual-VSTA with a recent 3.1x BIOS, ie:

• Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.8GHz/1066/2MB cGBP55

• Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8GHz/1066/3MB- around GBP80

• Core 2 Duo E7600 3.06Hz/1066/3MB - around GBP100 (Thanks to 28gdavinci for his details/graphics about this one!

Anyone any particular pro/con for any of these on the board/BIOS or any alternative?

Prima facie I'm thinking PDC E6300 looks great value - anyone validated the PDC E6300, I saw one of the slower and now more expensive E5400 ?

This was an interesting read re PDC E6300:
http://www.madshrimps.be/?acti...tpage=4206&articID=945

I found this ability to compare the 4 on the Intel website
http://ark.intel.com/Compare.a...1493,41495,36500,40478,

Thanks for any views
MKD

 

[Hlafordlaes]

MKD,

You don't mention the intended use. If not gaming or using some other stressful app, I'd go for the E6300. Of course there's the juicy performance of the E7600 (and with higher multiplier, better OCing on these FSB-limited boards), but the price! Both support VT so good for Win7 XP Mode. Only one Intel ordering code version of the E7400 does, and that shares the same stepping with 2 that don't, so might be hard to source. Given that, I'd reject it for Win7.

 

[imported_ANGELo]

@AuxPwrUsr & @Ileader36
thanks for information, too bad ... its very hard to find a HD3850 or HD3870 here 🙁
i found some PCIE HD3850 but its more expensive than a HD4670... My PSU only Acbel 420Watt so
I think about HD4670 PCIE (AFAIK there are only HD4650 with AGP slot, no HD4670 in AGP slot right?)
my friend have a Saphire HD4670, thinking about borrow it and try that card on my computer ....
if it's work than I'll buy one....
i hear this mobo don't work with Nvidia card ?


My proccesor only standart E6300, can't OC at all. I think it will still bottlenecking a HD4670.... but it still big jump
from a 6600GT AGP right ? 🙂 i have change my monitor from Dell 17" CRT (1280x1024) to Benq G2020HD (1600x900) it make my
card older than before now ...
I must try with standart bios from Asrock site, then compare it with modded Bios from Pctreiber ? or what ?

thanks

 

[MKD]

Thanks Hlafordlaes for the response.

I decided to plump for the PDC E6300 at GBP 57 delivered, based on such explicit support of it in the PCTreiber BIOSes and the Virtualization for Windows 7.

MKD

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@MKD,

Let us know how the build goes!

@All,

Just received a very polite letter from VIA stating that even under NDA the chipset datasheets are not for release to non-mfgr's. Darn. We may be mothballing the boards before we know how to tweak some of those juicy yet arcane bios settings.

 

[Deanodarlo]

Does anyone know if the 45nm E5200 works on this motherboard (4coredual-VSTA, NOT SATA2 although I think they are almost identical).

It's not listed on the main webpage, but I've read conflicting reports around the internet. I have the opportunity to get this motherboard for dirt cheap and use as a secondary system.

I'm reading that the 800 FSB core2's are the best to use, since you can clock the FSB back up to 266/1066 pretty easily.

That means that a E5200 should be ideal, if it works, as it can run pretty high speeds.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@Deanodarlo,

The M0 stepping of the 45nm Wolfdales was added at least by pc-treiber BIOS VSTA version 2.33c, and E0/R0 included in the latest 2.39a. You will not find any of these on the Asrock list. You key concern if just now buying the mobo is that you will need access to one of the CPUs that *are* on the Asrock page in order to flash the BIOS. Until that`s done, only the official Asrock lists are valid. Any old CPU on the list will do.

Yes, going from 200FSB to 266FSB on the VSTA works fine with 800MHz CPU. I use one.

 

[Deanodarlo]

That's excellent news Hlafordlaes! 🙂

I'll get hold of an old P4 to flash it with. There are loads of cheap ones floating around the place.

Looks like I might be joining in this new thread a little more in the future.