Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
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ASRock updates its popular motherboard 4CoreDual-VSTA with a new south bridge.
The new South Bridge is the VIA 8237S and supports SATA II.
This motherboard just gets better with every new generation; you still get the AGP and PCI-e support with the added bonus of SATA II.


http://www.asrock.com/mb/enlar...?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2

Has anyone seen one for sale yet?


:D

  1. Thread closed due to its age. Feel free to start a new thread with any new subject regarding this board.

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    lopri
 

Shion Uzuki

Junior Member
Jun 23, 2007
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Yes, I saw that yesterday also. Didn't expect that coming. I thought the Dual series was long dead...

Also, I haven't seen anything about PCIe x4 speed, even in their user guide, I wonder if they managed to push it to x16. Even though I doubt thats even possible... the limitations is at the PT880 Ultra chipset.

Now the only question remains... is this going to support the 45nm Penryn CPUs w/SSE4? I sure hope so... AGP + SSE4 *droll*
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
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Originally posted by: Shion Uzuki
Yes, I saw that yesterday also. Didn't expect that coming. I thought the Dual series was long dead...

Also, I haven't seen anything about PCIe x4 speed, even in their user guide, I wonder if they managed to push it to x16. Even though I doubt thats even possible... the limitations is at the PT880 Ultra chipset.

Now the only question remains... is this going to support the 45nm Penryn CPUs w/SSE4? I sure hope so... AGP + SSE4 *droll*


I would love to see VIA upgrade the PT880 Ultra chipset but I very much doubt it, they have forgotten the enthusiast & overlockers as their latest chipset VIA PT890 would indicate as it runs only in single channel. The Cheap side of town is where they are heading these days unfortunately.
This mobo is an upgrade to the older 775Dual-VSTA so I doubt Penryn support perhaps we will get a new upgrade to the 4CoreDual-VSTA that will support Penryn CPU?s.

:beer::D
 

Shion Uzuki

Junior Member
Jun 23, 2007
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Wait... isn't this SATA2 board an upgrade to the 4CoreDual-VSTA? The NB is the Ultra right?

Penryn is like Conroe all over again. Same socket, but may need an updated VRM. However, there are rumors saying Penryn won't need a new VRM upgrade. I sure hope so.

But then, the Ultra can't handle 1333MHz without overclocking the NB...
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
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<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Shion Uzuki
Wait... isn't this SATA2 board an upgrade to the 4CoreDual-VSTA? The NB is the Ultra right?

Penryn is like Conroe all over again. Same socket, but may need an updated VRM. However, there are rumors saying Penryn won't need a new VRM upgrade. I sure hope so.

But then, the Ultra can't handle 1333MHz without overclocking the NB...</end quote></div>





It says that the north bridge is a VIA® PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra Chipsets.
I can?t understand that, it should be one or the other or is it a mixture of both?

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2

On this products page it shows the 4CoreDual-SATA2 in the same plain as the 775Dual-VSTA as a new version of that motherboard, it?s not on the 4Coredual-VSTA Plain.


http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=Intel

:confused:
 

Shion Uzuki

Junior Member
Jun 23, 2007
4
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That makes no sense whatsoever.... why would they choose the 800MHz FSB nb in this time and age. o_O

P.S. VIA is never the real enthusiast choice. Very bad reputation when it comes to VIA chipset drivers and low bandwidth between the NB/SB.

However, my recent build with the 4CoreDual-VSTA says otherwise... I think its even more stable than the nForce 4 I've built (with the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D). When I first built the nF4 there were lots of driver problems. Like the NCQ data corruption problem they took forever to fix.

These days I am turning to VIA... looking to replace my stupid old P4 1.8GHz when the Penryn comes around...
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
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Originally posted by: Shion Uzuki
That makes no sense whatsoever.... why would they choose the 800MHz FSB nb in this time and age. o_O

P.S. VIA is never the real enthusiast choice. Very bad reputation when it comes to VIA chipset drivers and low bandwidth between the NB/SB.

However, my recent build with the 4CoreDual-VSTA says otherwise... I think its even more stable than the nForce 4 I've built (with the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D). When I first built the nF4 there were lots of driver problems. Like the NCQ data corruption problem they took forever to fix.

These days I am turning to VIA... looking to replace my stupid old P4 1.8GHz when the Penryn comes around...

It must be overclocked again.
 

eplebnista

Lifer
Dec 3, 2001
24,150
36
91
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Has anyone seen this board for sale yet?


:roll:

I emailed ASRock and they said it should be available to purchase in stores in the US by the end of this month.
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Has anyone seen this board for sale yet?


:roll:

I emailed ASRock and they said it should be available to purchase in stores in the US by the end of this month.

Thanks for the information eplebnista.

:D
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,337
253
126
Originally posted by: Shion Uzuki
That makes no sense whatsoever.... why would they choose the 800MHz FSB nb in this time and age.

P.S. VIA is never the real enthusiast choice. Very bad reputation when it comes to VIA chipset drivers and low bandwidth between the NB/SB...
PT880 Ultra officially supports 1066MHz bus. I don't know why ASRock continues to use the 'Pro/Ultra' designation. All 4CoreDual-XXXXX boards have the Ultra chip. Even late-production 775Dual-VSTA was using the Ultra chip instead of the Pro.

VIA was among the first to have a high-speed I/O hub link between the NB and SB (SIS was the first, IIRC). V-Link 8x = 533MB/sec and Ultra V-Link = 1GB/sec. It was a long time before NVIDIA and Intel matched the Ultra V-Link bandwidth. The only reason NVIDIA's current interconnect (HT) supports 8GB/sec is due to the implementation of PCI-E lanes in the SB to support SLI. Routing a PCI-E x8 or x16 card through a 1.6GB/sec interconnect like that found on nForce4 (non-SLI) would be a deal-breaker for SLI performance.

VIA doesn't implement PCI-E lanes in its VT8237 SB family (the VT8251 only had two PCI-E lanes), so there would be little benefit from a faster interconnect.

VIA decided to pull-out of the premium enthusiast segment due to NVIDIA's refusal to license SLI even though VIA demonstrated its PT894/PT900 worked just fine with SLI and performed just as well. I'm not sure if VIA sought a CrossFire license from ATI, but given how long it took ATI to deliver a viable CF product line, it probably would not have been enough to change the momentum of its decline among enthusiasts by hitching its wagon to ATI.

As for VIA having driver issues, this is true, but I seem to recall some other notorious issues: ActiveArmor, NAM, NCQ, SATA and IDE corruption...
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
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Originally posted by: tcsenter
Originally posted by: Shion Uzuki
That makes no sense whatsoever.... why would they choose the 800MHz FSB nb in this time and age.

P.S. VIA is never the real enthusiast choice. Very bad reputation when it comes to VIA chipset drivers and low bandwidth between the NB/SB...
PT880 Ultra officially supports 1066MHz bus. I don't know why ASRock continues to use the 'Pro/Ultra' designation. All 4CoreDual-XXXXX boards have the Ultra chip. Even late-production 775Dual-VSTA was using the Ultra chip instead of the Pro.

VIA was among the first to have a high-speed I/O hub link between the NB and SB (SIS was the first, IIRC). V-Link 8x = 533MB/sec and Ultra V-Link = 1GB/sec. It was a long time before NVIDIA and Intel matched the Ultra V-Link bandwidth. The only reason NVIDIA's current interconnect (HT) supports 8GB/sec is due to the implementation of PCI-E lanes in the SB to support SLI. Routing a PCI-E x8 or x16 card through a 1.6GB/sec interconnect like that found on nForce4 (non-SLI) would be a deal-breaker for SLI performance.

VIA doesn't implement PCI-E lanes in its VT8237 SB family (the VT8251 only had two PCI-E lanes), so there would be little benefit from a faster interconnect.

VIA decided to pull-out of the premium enthusiast segment due to NVIDIA's refusal to license SLI even though VIA demonstrated its PT894/PT900 worked just fine with SLI and performed just as well. I'm not sure if VIA sought a CrossFire license from ATI, but given how long it took ATI to deliver a viable CF product line, it probably would not have been enough to change the momentum of its decline among enthusiasts by hitching its wagon to ATI.

As for VIA having driver issues, this is true, but I seem to recall some other notorious issues: ActiveArmor, NAM, NCQ, SATA and IDE corruption...

Pro/Ultra designation means that its an PT880 Pro chip overclock to the same speed as the Ultra, it must be cheaper than using the Ultra.

:roll:
 

eplebnista

Lifer
Dec 3, 2001
24,150
36
91
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Has anyone seen this board for sale yet?


:roll:

I emailed ASRock and they said it should be available to purchase in stores in the US by the end of this month.

Thanks for the information eplebnista.

:D

No problem.

Is ASRock's site down for anyone else? Because all I am getting is a connection has been reset error message.

Instead of the 4CoreDual-SATA2 board I decided to go with ASRock's 4CoreDX90-VSTA board instead. I am hoping the TwinMos PC3200(with PCS chips) I have is compatible with it.
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Has anyone seen this board for sale yet?


:roll:

I emailed ASRock and they said it should be available to purchase in stores in the US by the end of this month.

Thanks for the information eplebnista.

:D

No problem.

Is ASRock's site down for anyone else? Because all I am getting is a connection has been reset error message.

Instead of the 4CoreDual-SATA2 board I decided to go with ASRock's 4CoreDX90-VSTA board instead. I am hoping the TwinMos PC3200(with PCS chips) I have is compatible with it.

Let us know how that single channel board board overclocks as I can not find any reviews on it.

:beer:
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
I can't believe that ASRock came out with yet another Via PT880-based mobo, instead of releasing their Conroe865PE mobos stateside.

All they would have to do is add BIOS vcore support, and perhaps bump the BIOS FSB cap up to 333 from 300, and they might even be able to support the newest E6x50 CPUs with 1333 FSB.

Yes, I'm whining, on behalf of 865 chipset fanatics.
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
I can't believe that ASRock came out with yet another Via PT880-based mobo, instead of releasing their Conroe865PE mobos stateside.

All they would have to do is add BIOS vcore support, and perhaps bump the BIOS FSB cap up to 333 from 300, and they might even be able to support the newest E6x50 CPUs with 1333 FSB.

Yes, I'm whining, on behalf of 865 chipset fanatics.

I personally believe that you have more options with the Asrock Intel Dual Series PT880 Motherboards.

:D
 

eplebnista

Lifer
Dec 3, 2001
24,150
36
91
Just to let anyone that is interested know what capacitors are on the ASRock's 4CoreDX90-VSTA, here they are:

Panasonic FJ's (near the mosfets area)
JPCON TK's (near the mosfets area)
OST RLP's and RLS's (near the ram and pci slots)
 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
708
1
81
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Just to let anyone that is interested know what capacitors are on the ASRock's 4CoreDX90-VSTA, here they are:

Panasonic FJ's (near the mosfets area)
JPCON TK's (near the mosfets area)
OST RLP's and RLS's (near the ram and pci slots)

Have you had the opportunity to overclocking it yet?


Edit. There is a new Rev2.0 model out I don?t know what the difference is.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...=4CoreDX90-VSTA%20R2.0
 

eplebnista

Lifer
Dec 3, 2001
24,150
36
91
Originally posted by: Mr Vain
Originally posted by: eplebnista
Just to let anyone that is interested know what capacitors are on the ASRock's 4CoreDX90-VSTA, here they are:

Panasonic FJ's (near the mosfets area)
JPCON TK's (near the mosfets area)
OST RLP's and RLS's (near the ram and pci slots)

Have you had the opportunity to overclocking it yet?


Edit. There is a new Rev2.0 model out I don?t know what the difference is.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...=4CoreDX90-VSTA%20R2.0

I am still waiting on the e4400 CPU to arrive. I planned on assembling the system this weekend. I noticed the rev 2 also and compared the pics. The only difference I saw is that the rev 2 may be RoHS compliant while rev 1 may not be(the RoHS label was not on the rev 1 PCB).

Well there is one more difference I saw but forgot about. It is that rev 2's do not come with the serial com port bracket like the rev 1 does.
 

Budarow

Golden Member
Dec 16, 2001
1,917
0
0
Other than SATA II, are there any other "improvements" with this board over the previous model?