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

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Hlafordlaes

Senior member
May 21, 2006
271
2
81
Which Asrock motherboard do you recommend?

If you need AGP, the Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 is the best among the boards in this thread. It is no longer listed by ASRock, but by searching you should be able to find one for sale. The only AGP board still actively sold by ASRock I could possibly suggest is the 775i65g v3.0, but that is a DDR1 board and makes sense only if you have all the other parts and just need the mobo.

Otherwise, the X97 and X99 boards are what are hot among Intel options. No idea about AMD boards since I know much less about their CPUs.

I particularly like the X99 Extreme 6 and the Z97E-ITX/ac boards among what ASRock has at the moment.

Then again, why do you ask? What's the mission for your build?
 

edygee

Junior Member
Nov 19, 2014
1
0
0
Latest generations I can see working are GTX 460 and HD 5770/5830 (?)
Hi!
I can confirm that ZOTAC GeForce GT 630 Synergy Edition is actually working with 4 core dualsata2 rev.2 mobo!
I'm talking about this specific card:
http://www.zotac.com/products/graph...er/DESC/amount/10/section/specifications.html
I don't know about other brands but very important seems that particulary spec.:
"PCI Express 2.0 x16 (Compatible with 1.1)"
The computer that includes the 4 core dualsata2 is used as HTPC
CPU: E1200
Bios: 2.20a
Memory-DDR2 2X1Gb Kingmax at 667Mhz(will be upgradeed to 2x2Gb 800MHz)
I previously had a HD 3650 AGP which I coudn't use with a HDTV because the lack of HDMI capability(bad colours and image via DVI conected to a Philips 40PFL3008 TV). That problem was solved with a HD 4650 (borrowed from a friend).
The GT 630 was originally purchased for another (newer) system with i3 CPU. Luckily the Intel HD was more than enough for that system purpose( multimedia) so i gave that card a try based on what I've read on that board about backward compatibility PCI ex. slot specs which is a must have for that mobo with PCIExX4.
I will post some CPUZ sreensots later.
 

ToddK1971

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2014
13
0
0
Just as an FYI to anyone out there wondering if the 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 boards will run Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit. It will. I have this board, an Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 Wolfdale overclocked to 3.60Ghz, 2x2GB Patriot Gamer DDR2-800 memory, Creative Sound Blaster Live PCI sound card, an old Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM SATA HD, a Radeon HD 4870 1GB video card, a Lite-on DVD 20X burner, and a P225F Viewsonic 22" CRT. I had to do a google search to find a video card driver that would work correctly, but that was really all I did. The install went fairly quickly. I have one item in my device manager that Windows did not find, and I think it is either the on-board sound or the game controller port built onto the Creative Sound Blaster Live card. I will say that I hate the Windows 8.1 Metro interface, but I just install start menu 8 or some other classic menu application to get this to function like Windows 7. This is for anyone wondering.
 

Hlafordlaes

Senior member
May 21, 2006
271
2
81
I have my 4Core temporarily mothballed and am now on an X99 Extreme6. Of course there are some amazing differences, but I continue to be impressed by the performance and longevity of these boards. After all, this thread was started in 2009 to keep the boards 'alive,' as they were already long in the tooth by then.

I plan to put the 4Core in another room. I am really enjoying Win8.1 (Pro), and have amazed myself by actually learning the new UI. Lots of tweaking available in gpedit.msc, with no extra tools. Good to know Win8.1 is viable for when I put it back into service, this time with a little SSD sauce (4Core is only SATA-I, but even then there should be a major boost.)
 

Jeebus87

Junior Member
Mar 6, 2015
2
0
0
Its now 2015 and guess who is joining the club of this magnificent board :awe:

I bought a used 4CoreDual-Sata2 board 2 months ago because I have IDE hard drives and IDE DVD drive, AGP cards, also have DDR400 RAM laying around and a 20 pin 350w PSU so I went for it. Board was like $30 and found an Q6600 for $19. I felt like my DDR ram was slow so I got 2x2GB DDR2 667Mhz for $21. Its got the bios 2.20a that allows me to use 3.2GB of RAM.

Originally it came with an e6300 CPU and I noticed I hit a limit of 299FSB. I assume this is the limit without volt tweaks? I don't plan to do any volts, this old gal would probably start a fire if I did lol

Currently I have an AGP HIS 4650 1GB GDDR3 on it (main reason I even considered getting this board since my card is so rare, you see used DDR2 models for sale for over $150 on ebay but not DDR3). Anyone want to buy my DDR3 card for $150? haha It works for Windows 7 but I wanted to get 8.1 x64. Anyone know what would be best driver for it?

Also wanted to ask if anyone have list of compatible PCI-E x4 cards for this board. I see in the recent pages someone mention HD6670. That happens to be a PCI-E 2.1, does that mean other PCI-E 2.1 cards work?

Anyone tried an HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 on the 4CoreDual-Sata2 2.20a??

What would be the best PSU for this type of board? My current PSU is starting to worry me it has a 15a on the 12v rails. Q6600 + 4650 + 5 case fans + 2 HDDs + 1 DVD drive = kaboom? :hmm: I over did it with fans because I was going to OC the hell out of it, since it was a $30 board but couldn't get far...
 

nightspydk

Senior member
Sep 7, 2012
339
19
81
Well I had a few different gtx 460 PCIe run on the board with some bios update and
PCIe VC1 Request Queue" [Disabled]
PCIe Downstream Pipeline [disabled]
It can be brandspecific.

As far as the rams concerned some are hardware reserved, so it depends on the video etc how much you can allocate.
Dont think I could get more ram running that those 4gb i expect you have as well.

Hope it helps a bit. :)

//edited in a bit.
 
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Jeebus87

Junior Member
Mar 6, 2015
2
0
0
Well I had a few different gtx 460 PCIe run on the board with some bios update and
It can be brandspecific.

As far as the rams concerned some are hardware reserved, so it depends on the video etc how much you can allocate.
Dont think I could get more ram running that those 4gb i expect you have as well.

Hope it helps a bit. :)

//edited in a bit.

Thanks, then in that case I shall hunt for a GTX 460. I don't need it right now but as we all know Windows 10 is around the corner and I will need a graphics card with compatible drivers to use it. My current AGP card has no support for 8.1/10 :(

Anyone installed the Windows 10 Preview on this board? Since Win 8.1 works. I would imagine 10 does too. Anyone know for sure?

One more question about RAM. If I were to have 800Mhz RAM instead of 667Mhz would it allow me to go past the 299FSB?
 

nightspydk

Senior member
Sep 7, 2012
339
19
81
I can see the one installed in the box pt is a gainward 256 bit memory width 1gb card, so that should be doable.
The other was just a cheap almost identical card since I ran it sli at some point in another box.

As for the bus I cant say. I tried get some faster ram going, but strangely it wouldn't run dual, so gave it up. Better get an expert on that.

Hope you have fun :)
 

ToddK1971

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2014
13
0
0
Hey jeebus87,

That 350w power supply will be a problem if you are trying to run anything like a GTX-460 or Radeon HD 5850. I was able to get the Radeon HD 5850 to work with Windows 8.1 Pro X64, but I also have a 630w Rosewill single 12V rail PS. It doesn't really matter what ram you run on this board, the memory benchmarks and throughput always suck. I have some DDR2-800 CL5 ram that only runs at DDR2-533 (DDR2-640 speeds with the over-clock) speeds because that is where I have the least amount of issues. If I set it to DDR2-667 speeds I get random lockups and restarts. If you want to over-clock this board I suggest cranking the AGP voltage to high and see how far you get. I was able to take a Pentium E5700 3.0Ghz Dual Core up to 3.6Ghz just by cranking up the FSB to 240 from 200. My temperatures run at about 38ºC at idle and 55ºC or so while gaming. The PCIe VC1 Request Queue" [Disabled] and PCIe Downstream Pipeline [disabled] is also recommended for stability.
Good luck.
 

B-Riz

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2011
1,482
612
136
Holy guacamole this thread is still alive.

My original ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, bought after reading the AnandTech write-ups, is still going strong as the home file server, with a Q6600 and 2 GB DDR2.

It has Win XP on it, not sure when I will get around to replacing that.

I do have a revision 2 in storage, just because...

It has outlasted the i7 920 X58 (sold) and i5 2500k P67 (sold) gaming setups.
 
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B-Riz

Golden Member
Feb 15, 2011
1,482
612
136
I have my 4Core temporarily mothballed and am now on an X99 Extreme6. Of course there are some amazing differences, but I continue to be impressed by the performance and longevity of these boards. After all, this thread was started in 2009 to keep the boards 'alive,' as they were already long in the tooth by then.

I plan to put the 4Core in another room. I am really enjoying Win8.1 (Pro), and have amazed myself by actually learning the new UI. Lots of tweaking available in gpedit.msc, with no extra tools. Good to know Win8.1 is viable for when I put it back into service, this time with a little SSD sauce (4Core is only SATA-I, but even then there should be a major boost.)

I put an SSD on my 775Dual-VSTA, no issues so far, been running for a year or two with it? on XP even...

http://poweredbymushkin.com/catalog/item/11-chronos/771-chronos-60gb-7mm

Sad to say I did it because the 36.7 GB Velociraptor was filled to the brim.
 

WT

Diamond Member
Sep 21, 2000
4,818
59
91
I officially retired my 939Dual-SATA2 last month- sad to see it removed from the workbench area, but it was still on Win XP and served no purpose anymore.

I had a CPU upgrade card running an AM2 5000+ BE @ 3.01 and an Nv 7950gx2 card just because it was such an oddball mix of hardware. It remains my favorite board due to all of its upgrade paths - CPU, GPU and RAM - and they jusy don't make boards that offer that today.
 

Hlafordlaes

Senior member
May 21, 2006
271
2
81
After extensive testing, it is clear my dear 4CoreDual-VSTA is dead. The reason is that I swapped in an HIS HD 4670 IceQ AGP card that I bought off eBay and which was not giving me any signal on the board it was intended for, my ASRock 775i65G. Both boards were fried by the card! The HIS card had arrived in apparently pristine condition, which now seems to indicate it had probably fried the seller's board on first try and was sold on eBay (Spain) instead of RMA'd. It took finding an old PCI testing card, since I was getting a black screen on boot and could not solve that in or out of the cases. The tester immediately indicated my two boards were indeed fried (tester is known to work; checked in another system). Far too late to go back and pester my ebay seller, from a purchase made in October 2014.

The other board it killed, the ASRock 775i65G, is a nice mATX board which had just gotten a memory upgrade, and was sitting in a decent HTPC case. The vid card was to add HDCP support. This was for my wife, and the upgrade was the last touch. The remnants of my gear from the dead boards are being dumped into a Gigabyte GA-G41M-Combo, which gets the E7600, 4GB DDR2 and GTX460 PCIe vid card from the 4Core, all going into the now-fateful HTPC case. Still destined for the missus' home office.

The year 2015 would mark the end of AGP for me, but I have more boards around. Just finished a rebuild of a PIII (Tualatin 1.4GHz) machine (only AGP 4x), and a monster for old Win98SE and DOS games. The board has a single ISA slot for my HPIB connector to old HP drives and systems, which is why I need this particular setup. It also hosts my combo 3.5"/5.25" diskette drive, and a Colorado Jumbo 250MB QIC tape drive, giving access to my oldest media.

I will now be taking my trusty and true Abit VP6 out of mothballs, my favorite board of all time. It will get the 7600GT AGP I was replacing with the HIS card. Dual PIII sockets, AGP 4x, 1.5GB SDRAM, and RAID for PATA disks. Properly tweaked, I used to play Oblivion on this board. (It was originally replaced by the dearly departed 4CoreDual-VSTA.) It will now be a Win7 file server and XP playground. This one will also host two DVD burners.

So modern games are on my ASRock X99 Extrem6 (Win8.1), a modern HTPC (ASRock Z97E-ITX_ac) is in the living room with BluRay support, XP games on the Abit VP6, DOS games on the PIII Tualatin, and really, really old stuff on my MS-DOS 3.2 HP150 Touchscreen computer. All interconnected. NAS for business backup, and the VP6 for all old system backups. The wife will remain on Win7 and do her own thing on the new Combo board. That's six systems and a NAS; me nuts!!

When all the hub-bub dies down, I plan to get back to my core objective of resuscitating my HP150 (1984 vintage, 8088 CPU), using some new methods (HPIB flash drive on USB, HPDrive emulator on PC, and direct ISA card connect to old drives.)

(I am not rich, don't get the wrong idea! Creating my collection has taken 30+ years of patiently mothballing old junk for rainy days.)
 
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ozymandious

Junior Member
Jun 6, 2011
6
0
0
Hi,

What are the most recent drivers (lan, via etc) for the:

Asrock 4corecual Sata2 R2?

And where is the best place to download them?

I'm running Windows 7

Thanks
 
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ToddK1971

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2014
13
0
0
Just a quick note for everyone. The 4coredual-sata2 is also compatible with Windows 10 Professional 64-bit as well. I had to choose the PCI slot as the first video choice, but after that the display driver gets installed for my HD 4870 and all works very well. I could not choose the display options/resolution I wanted, so, I went to the device manager to have a quick look-see. Sure enough there was an exclamation point next to the PCIE root port reading there were no resources for this device. Once I did a search for that online, somebody already had a fix. The Windows 10 interface is a vast improvement over 8.0 or 8.1. I am still trying to get used to it, but I think they headed in the right direction this time.
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Just a quick note for everyone. The 4coredual-sata2 is also compatible with Windows 10 Professional 64-bit as well. I had to choose the PCI slot as the first video choice, but after that the display driver gets installed for my HD 4870 and all works very well. I could not choose the display options/resolution I wanted, so, I went to the device manager to have a quick look-see. Sure enough there was an exclamation point next to the PCIE root port reading there were no resources for this device. Once I did a search for that online, somebody already had a fix. The Windows 10 interface is a vast improvement over 8.0 or 8.1. I am still trying to get used to it, but I think they headed in the right direction this time.

Hi ToddK1971
Can you please provide the link to fix the device resources issue?
Cheers
 
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masterofunivers

Junior Member
Aug 24, 2015
4
0
0
Hi ToddK1971
Can you please provide the link to fix the device resources issue?
Cheers

Solution:
1. In BIOS set primary graphics adapter to PCI

2. Open the Start menu and type cmd in the search box
Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator
In the command window, type
bcdedit /set pciexpress forcedisable
Reboot your computer
 

masterofunivers

Junior Member
Aug 24, 2015
4
0
0
I am still using this board and a NVidia GeForce GTX570 is also running fine on this board: http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=1450
You just loose one IDE-connector because of its length.

So the GTX460 is not the fastest running on this board !

All Cards with PCI-Express 2.1 and higher definitely do not work.

But you loose about 20-30% performance in some games,
but my Palit just cost me 50€ and is also the rare 2GB-version.
But combined with a Intel E7600 and 4GB also many actual games are running fine and old games look good with DSR.
But for modern games i have my Intel 4670, 16GB and a Sapphire Tri-X 290 OC:biggrin:


Regarding ATI i can confirm that the 7000 series does not work because of PCI Express V2.1, but everything below works fine.
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Solution:
1. In BIOS set primary graphics adapter to PCI

2. Open the Start menu and type cmd in the search box
Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator
In the command window, type
bcdedit /set pciexpress forcedisable
Reboot your computer

Thanks for that info Masterofunivers.
I followed your instructions and it all worked out well, I got AMD 4770 card drivers installed and the kids are playing their favourite games again on this 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 rig with Windows 10 64bit. I also tried out my other card AMD 6870, it worked OK also on this motherboard with Win 10 64bit.
Cheers
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
But for modern games i have my Intel 4670, 16GB and a Sapphire Tri-X 290 OC:biggrin:


Nice One Masterofunivers!
 

ToddK1971

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2014
13
0
0
Thanks masterofunivers!!!!!!! I haven't been on in a while, but that is spot on. I only did the CMD instructions on one of my 4coredual-sata2 motherboards. It sorted itself out after I went to the BIOS and made the change to the PCI device as the first video choice. I rebooted and all was well. I was able to choose a more reasonable resolution for my monitor after the reboot. I am getting the start menu and notifications not working after I run Boostspeed or Ccleaner registry cleaner. I guess I shouldn't run those softwares, but I have forever and never had any issues.
 

ToddK1971

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2014
13
0
0

Mr Vain, Do you have any experience with the Radeon HD 6950 or HD 6970 with this motherboard? My guess is that if the HD 6870 works then either of those should work too. What do you think?