Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[brokencase]

Originally posted by: opus20745
Just for info, my HD Tach scores are now 141MB/s Average Burst, 61MB/s Average Read, and 13.1ms seek time. Before, with the VIA Hyperion SATA driver they were 122MB/s, 66MB/s and 19.3ms respectively.

With HDTach and the latest VIA drivers I get 176MB/s Average Burst 69.7MB/s Average Read, 12.6 ms random access time.

This is a Western Digital WD2500AAKS (250.1GB). I have it's jumper set for SATA II (not sure how much difference that makes).

Now, I believe I have the latest VIA SATA driver installed.
Under device manager I see "VIA Serial ATA Controller - 5372"
It is version 6.06000.230

I don't know opus20745, I think you are needlessly blaming the VIA driver when it may be some other problem that you are having.

 

[brokencase]

Strange, Just ran HWINFO32 again and now it does not see the SATA drive.
HWINFO32 must have a bug in it.

 

[Tantalum]

I was just reading up on the VIA PT880 Ultra chipset. Specs from VIA says max memory is 4GB. Does anyone know why we are limited to 2GB on this board? Granted 2GB sticks are still pretty pricey, but that will change in time. I just installed XP 64bit, and I'm liking it!

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: SurraaPurraa
Hi there and welcome to anandtech (including me)

You have same processor and same motherboard as i do, and i DID have same problems as you are having right now.
FIX is simple: raise your PCIE FREQUENZY to 107-110 and u dont need adjust voltages, and you can overclock it more.

Just keep in mind, these boards DOEST LOCK PCI ABOVE 266FSB!! Thats why some people cannot overclock it near 300FSB.
I've overclocked to 282FSB and checked with sisoft sandra for busses, PCI BUS HAS RAISED TO 35-36Mhz.

But remember, when u overclock that mobo, always check PCI BUS for safe frequency, keep it below 36-37 and you have stable overclock settings

I have emailed asrock about this pci-lock and havent got replay, yet.....

I have a E4400/4coredual-sata2/7800gs setup, which, after Vcore and Vagp increases, runs fine with FSB overclock at 320MHz (CPU at 3.2GHz) ---> and "Everest" shows PCI to be running at its 33MHz bios default.

So not sure why you or "sandra" would believe there is problem with PCI lock on this mobo ---> and maybe why Asrock have not responded to you ?

And yes, raising PCI-E on an AGP setup does help with FSB overclocking ---> PCI-E at 119MHz works best for my 320MHz overclock !

Plus, since Vagp is actually "northbridge" volts, when overclocking it is also advisable to have bios's Vagp option at "HIGH".

 

[SurraaPurraa]

"So not sure why you or "sandra" would believe there is problem with PCI lock on this mobo ---> and maybe why Asrock have not responded to you ?

And yes, raising PCI-E on an AGP setup does help with FSB overclocking ---> PCI-E at 119MHz works best for my 320MHz overclock !

Plus, since Vagp is actually "northbridge" volts, when overclocking it is also advisable to have bios's Vagp option at "HIGH".

"






Because i began raising my FSB from 200. maybe there's your reason?
BSEL mod might help but im not doing it. I tried every possible solution to keep my pci-bus locked but no success.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: Tantalum
I was just reading up on the VIA PT880 Ultra chipset. Specs from VIA says max memory is 4GB. Does anyone know why we are limited to 2GB on this board? Granted 2GB sticks are still pretty pricey, but that will change in time. I just installed XP 64bit, and I'm liking it!

Its probably because of the way Asrock implemented the DDR1 and DDR2 setup. We do have 4 slots for memory, but only 2 can used at a time due to the memory type differences.

What particular applications are you using that give an advantage in 64bit ?

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: jimmor

Originally posted by: SurraaPurraa
Hi there and welcome to anandtech (including me)

You have same processor and same motherboard as i do, and i DID have same problems as you are having right now.
FIX is simple: raise your PCIE FREQUENZY to 107-110 and u dont need adjust voltages, and you can overclock it more.

Just keep in mind, these boards DOEST LOCK PCI ABOVE 266FSB!! Thats why some people cannot overclock it near 300FSB.
I've overclocked to 282FSB and checked with sisoft sandra for busses, PCI BUS HAS RAISED TO 35-36Mhz.

But remember, when u overclock that mobo, always check PCI BUS for safe frequency, keep it below 36-37 and you have stable overclock settings

I have emailed asrock about this pci-lock and havent got replay, yet.....

I have a E4400/4coredual-sata2/7800gs setup, which, after Vcore and Vagp increases, runs fine with FSB overclock at 320MHz (CPU at 3.2GHz) ---> and "Everest" shows PCI to be running at its 33MHz bios default.

So not sure why you or "sandra" would believe there is problem with PCI lock on this mobo ---> and maybe why Asrock have not responded to you ?

And yes, raising PCI-E on an AGP setup does help with FSB overclocking ---> PCI-E at 119MHz works best for my 320MHz overclock !

Plus, since Vagp is actually "northbridge" volts, when overclocking it is also advisable to have bios's Vagp option at "HIGH".

I think Sandra does a simply calculation to report agp/pci bus speeds. Not sure what
Everest does. Had the same problem with nforce2 boards. The only way to accurately determine the agp and pci bus speeds is with that pricey hardware card.

IIRC, someone else did email Asrock tech support, and they said the busses are locked.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: brokencase
Strange, Just ran HWINFO32 again and now it does not see the SATA drive.
HWINFO32 must have a bug in it.

:laugh:

 

[martianmisfit]

i've been trying for a few weeks to get my Q6600 to run at 2.4 GHz (currently @ 2.2 GHz) with some of the setting you guys have posted in the thread and every time i go to SAVE and EXIT the pc just hangs & won't reboot. my lit keyboard, lit mouse & monitor display all turn off but the pc lcds & fans are still running.

the only conclusion so far is my ram is not too combatible with the motherboard.
it's rated DDR2 667 and in the bios it's running at 533 @ 266 MHz ???
also that particular ram is PC5400 & i noticed i believe on the asrock website it states PC5300. would that make much of a difference. oh the timmings are 4 4 4 12.

can some recommend me so good ram and/or some help.
thanks

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: SurraaPurraa

"So not sure why you or "sandra" would believe there is problem with PCI lock on this mobo ---> and maybe why Asrock have not responded to you ?

And yes, raising PCI-E on an AGP setup does help with FSB overclocking ---> PCI-E at 119MHz works best for my 320MHz overclock !

Plus, since Vagp is actually "northbridge" volts, when overclocking it is also advisable to have bios's Vagp option at "HIGH".

"






Because i began raising my FSB from 200. maybe there's your reason?
BSEL mod might help but im not doing it. I tried every possible solution to keep my pci-bus locked but no success.

I also started overclocking from 200 !

Which in other words means; since my E4400 is also based on a 200FSB, and I don't appear to have a "PCI locking problem", i'm not sure why you should think that your particular PCI "not locking" problem is related to using a 200FSB type cpu ?

Throughout my personal experience of 4coredual-vsta/4coredual-sata2 mobos (although only with E4xxx cpu's), I have not yet come accross a situation where having a BSEL mod or not has in any way caused the mobo's PCI lock to fail.

However, also because of experience with this mobo type, I would always recommend the 1066 BSEL mod to anyone wanting to overclock a "800" type cpu beyond 266MHz ---> more especially to those appearing to have overclocking/memory/chipset stability issues !

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: martianmisfit
i've been trying for a few weeks to get my Q6600 to run at 2.4 GHz (currently @ 2.2 GHz) with some of the setting you guys have posted in the thread and every time i go to SAVE and EXIT the pc just hangs & won't reboot. my lit keyboard, lit mouse & monitor display all turn off but the pc lcds & fans are still running.

the only conclusion so far is my ram is not too combatible with the motherboard.
it's rated DDR2 667 and in the bios it's running at 533 @ 266 MHz ???
also that particular ram is PC5400 & i noticed i believe on the asrock website it states PC5300. would that make much of a difference. oh the timmings are 4 4 4 12.

can some recommend me so good ram and/or some help.
thanks

Your problems are more likely Q6600 related rather than any memory issues !

Unfortunately, for whatever failure of mobo design reason, the 4coredual series of mobos don't appear to like Quad core cpu's. And like it or not, a 266MHz fsb level is essentially an overclock of this mobo's chipset and therefore must be treated accordingly. Which basically means that the "default" preset bios settings can cause issues ?

However not knowing what you have already tried and failed with, I can only offer the following in the hope that I may identify something new for you to try:-

1) Always use latest mobo bios. And remember to Clear the CMOS after flashing a new bios.

2) Manually set Mobo Bios Settings,

CPU config tab:

Overclock Mode - CPU,PCI-E, Async.
CPU Freq. - 266
PCI-E Freq. - 100
PCI Freq. - 33.33
Spread Spectrum - AUTO
Boot Failure - Enabled

Max CPUID Val. - Disabled
CPU Thermal Thr. - Enabled
No-Execute Memory. - Disabled
Intel Speedstep - Disable


Chipset settings tab:

Dram Freq. - 266
Flexib.- Disabled
Cas Latency - 4
Interleave - 4-Way
Trp - 4
Tras - 12
Trcd - 4
Bus Select.- Dual
Command Rate - 2T

DRAM Voltage - Normal or High
AGP Voltage - High

V-Link - fast
V-Link Auto Dis. - Enabled

PCI delay Transaction - Enabled
IDE Drive Strength - High or Ultra High
PCI-E Downstream Pipeline - Disabled


And everything else at original defaults except for whatever is wanted for SATA/EIDE, Floppy, USB, etc !

 

[martianmisfit]

^ thanks. i will give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

i'm interested on how brokencase was able to obtain a 2.7 GHz with this MoBo & Q6600...

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: martianmisfit
^ thanks. i will give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

i'm interested on how brokencase was able to obtain a 2.7 GHz with this MoBo & Q6600...

The "brokencase" mobo is probably modified (ie, maybe increased Vcore and Vagp?). And high overclocking of a Q6600 is probably also dependent on whether you are using a G0 or B3 version ?

 

[JWalker55]

Originally posted by: cpmee

Originally posted by: JWalker55
I just recently rebuilt my system with this board and am having some lockup issues in XP.

My system is:
Asrock 4CoreDual-Sata2 Bios: 1.60
Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale
1 GB (2x512 MB) PC3200
eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256 MB PCIe (Forceware 169.21)
Creative SB Audigy 1 w/front bay (onboard audio is disabled)
160 GB Seagate IDE
80 GB Hitachi IDE
40 GB Western Digital Sata
Samsung 16x DVD burner
Cyberhome 16X DVD burner
Enermax 460 Watt PSU

So far lockups seem random. It's only happened twice so far, but I know it will happen again in the future if I don't figure out the cause. The first lockup was in the middle of a game (NASCAR 2003). The 2nd was after I brought BeyondTV out of fullscreen mode back into windowed mode, then hit Live TV. In both instances I heard strange static/popping for a few seconds, then the system completely froze. One thing that concerns me is that I have noticed that the 12v rail is down in the 11.4 range, and occasionally dips down to 11.3, according to speedfan. BIOS shows 12.076v

Aside from those issues, performance seems pretty good. I have run this board in Vista, but didn't run it long enough to see any issues. I may just end up getting a different board along with memory.

Random lockups can point to memory. Have you run memtest86+ for at least a few hours ?

Yes, Speedfan voltage readings are off from bios readings and from meter readings. CPUIDs new Hardware monitor reports voltages that are close to meter readings.

Did you also disable the onboard midi and onboard gameport ?

The memory was taken from a perfectly stable system, but i've yet to run memtest on it.
I'll probably get some DDR2 eventually.

onboard midi and gameport are disabled.

 

[johnkdev]

I just got this board earlier this week and I've been experiencing some reboot problems. I was going to post questions to this thread looking for help, but I think I have things figured out and thought I'd share my experience (sorry for the length of the post).

Components:
ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz, 800 MHz FSB
Crucial Ballistix Tracer (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2-6400)
WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R, Model DH-20A3P-08
420 Watt Power Supply

AGP Video Cards Attempted:
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600
Diamond Viper II Z200

At random times, usually within 15 minutes of bootup (after XP is loaded and I'm doing things at the desktop), the PC reboots. I'm not playing games or doing anything intense, just copying files, setting up XP, trying driver updates, etc. Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of a blue screen. Most of the time after the first reboot, it will reboot again while still loading XP and repeat a few times before XP loads completely again. Safe mode with or without networking does the same thing. I found a handful of people in various forums that seemed to have the same problem.

I tried every version of every driver from ASRock & VIA, different BIOS versions, different video cards, disconnecting non-essential components to decrease power consumption - then I started investigating the RAM a little deeper.

With only one stick of RAM (mobo defaults to single channel mode), the reboot problem went away. Then I discovered memtest86+, and ran that a bunch of times. The results:

Ran memtest86+ on both sticks of RAM installed together (#1 in DDRII_1, #2 in DDRII_2)
- 70 errors, all in Test #5
- Ran overnight, 20 passes, 1558 errors in Test #5

Ran memtest86+ on RAM #1 in first slot (DDRII_1)
- PASS

Ran memtest86+ on RAM #2 in first slot (DDRII_1)
- PASS

Ran memtest86+ on both sticks of RAM - swapped this time (#2 in DDRII_1, #1 in DDRII_2)
- Average of 2-3 errors in Tests #3 & #4 each
- ~1.5 million errors in Test #5

At this point I was convinced the motherboard had something wrong with its Dual Channel Mode functionality. I tried setting the BIOS to force Single Channel Mode with both sticks installed, but memtest86+ immediately started showing errors on what looked like almost every read/write, so I didn't run the full test.

Then I found and enabled the "Flexibility Option" in the BIOS. Memory speeds reported by memtest86+ were ~15% slower (i.e. 2092 MB/s vs 2449 MB/s) but all tests PASSED! Both in Single and Dual Channel Modes.

I also noticed that my RAM was only being recognized as DDR2 533, so I forced it to DDR2 667 in the BIOS. It didn't affect the speed reported by memtest86+, but it still passes the tests.

Based on everything above, does anyone have any helpful insights? (i.e. other things in the BIOS that I should tweak, other tests I should run, did I merely mask a greater problem, etc)

I've seen some posts in this thread where people are against using the Flexibility Option - why? Do you have any other ideas how to get around my problem?

 

[Tantalum]

Originally posted by: cpmee

Originally posted by: Tantalum
I was just reading up on the VIA PT880 Ultra chipset. Specs from VIA says max memory is 4GB. Does anyone know why we are limited to 2GB on this board? Granted 2GB sticks are still pretty pricey, but that will change in time. I just installed XP 64bit, and I'm liking it!

Its probably because of the way Asrock implemented the DDR1 and DDR2 setup. We do have 4 slots for memory, but only 2 can used at a time due to the memory type differences.

What particular applications are you using that give an advantage in 64bit ?

The system just seems to be a lot snappier overall than it was with Win2000 Pro. Maybe a few updates and service packs will fix that! I noticed a fresh install of Win 2000 on my old computer also flew before the patches and updates were installed.

 

[ranmaniac]

I ordered the ASRock + E2160. I'm upgrading from a P4 3ghz (478), and am swapping my BFG 7800 GS OC AGP until I can afford a 8800 GT etc.

My new system will be:

ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2
E2160
2x1G Kingston DDR2 667 (PC2-5300)
WD1600 160GB AAJS 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
7800 GS OC AGP 256MB
ASUS 16x DVD-ROM IDE
Linksys 802.11 PCI
450 Watt PSU (generic)
USB keyboard, mouse, and external 160GB hd

I don't plan on overclocking, and I don't run my system 24/7, so I reckon my system should be ok, but I know I'll have to upgrade the PSU if I plan on quadcore and 8800GT.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: martianmisfit
^ thanks. i will give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

i'm interested on how brokencase was able to obtain a 2.7 GHz with this MoBo & Q6600...

In addition to what Jimmor said, run memtest86+ for at least a few hours to rule out any possible memory issues.


Also what psu do you have ?

 

[martianmisfit]

^ ZALMAN ZM600-HP ATX12V 600W Power Supply 100 - 240 V

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817379003
it was recommended to me by a poster in this thread.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: Tantalum

Originally posted by: cpmee

Originally posted by: Tantalum
I was just reading up on the VIA PT880 Ultra chipset. Specs from VIA says max memory is 4GB. Does anyone know why we are limited to 2GB on this board? Granted 2GB sticks are still pretty pricey, but that will change in time. I just installed XP 64bit, and I'm liking it!

Its probably because of the way Asrock implemented the DDR1 and DDR2 setup. We do have 4 slots for memory, but only 2 can used at a time due to the memory type differences.

What particular applications are you using that give an advantage in 64bit ?

The system just seems to be a lot snappier overall than it was with Win2000 Pro. Maybe a few updates and service packs will fix that! I noticed a fresh install of Win 2000 on my old computer also flew before the patches and updates were installed.

Yeah, fresh install systems always few snappier. That and turning off unnecessary services. Just like with 32bit Win95 slower versus 16bit Win3.1, 64bit systems have more overhead and will be intrinsically a bit slower. Faster hardware takes care of that though.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: martianmisfit
^ ZALMAN ZM600-HP ATX12V 600W Power Supply 100 - 240 V

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817379003
it was recommended to me by a poster in this thread.

Yep, thats a good one, made by Fortron (FSP) I believe. Unless its defective, its more than enough.


I have to ask the basics, cause a lot of people try to use generic psus that came with the case on a system like yours and then wonder why their boomerang doesnt come back. :laugh:

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: JWalker55

Originally posted by: cpmee

Originally posted by: JWalker55
I just recently rebuilt my system with this board and am having some lockup issues in XP.

My system is:
Asrock 4CoreDual-Sata2 Bios: 1.60
Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale
1 GB (2x512 MB) PC3200
eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256 MB PCIe (Forceware 169.21)
Creative SB Audigy 1 w/front bay (onboard audio is disabled)
160 GB Seagate IDE
80 GB Hitachi IDE
40 GB Western Digital Sata
Samsung 16x DVD burner
Cyberhome 16X DVD burner
Enermax 460 Watt PSU

So far lockups seem random. It's only happened twice so far, but I know it will happen again in the future if I don't figure out the cause. The first lockup was in the middle of a game (NASCAR 2003). The 2nd was after I brought BeyondTV out of fullscreen mode back into windowed mode, then hit Live TV. In both instances I heard strange static/popping for a few seconds, then the system completely froze. One thing that concerns me is that I have noticed that the 12v rail is down in the 11.4 range, and occasionally dips down to 11.3, according to speedfan. BIOS shows 12.076v

Aside from those issues, performance seems pretty good. I have run this board in Vista, but didn't run it long enough to see any issues. I may just end up getting a different board along with memory.

Random lockups can point to memory. Have you run memtest86+ for at least a few hours ?

Yes, Speedfan voltage readings are off from bios readings and from meter readings. CPUIDs new Hardware monitor reports voltages that are close to meter readings.

Did you also disable the onboard midi and onboard gameport ?

The memory was taken from a perfectly stable system, but i've yet to run memtest on it.
I'll probably get some DDR2 eventually.

onboard midi and gameport are disabled.

Yeah, run memtest86+ for a few hours. Ram can be picky. Just because it runs flawlessly on one system doesnt mean it will on others.

In both instances I heard strange static/popping for a few seconds, then the system completely froze.

See if you can isolate where that noise is coming from. PSU maybe ?

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: johnkdev
I just got this board earlier this week and I've been experiencing some reboot problems. I was going to post questions to this thread looking for help, but I think I have things figured out and thought I'd share my experience (sorry for the length of the post).

Components:
ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz, 800 MHz FSB
Crucial Ballistix Tracer (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2-6400)
WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R, Model DH-20A3P-08
420 Watt Power Supply

AGP Video Cards Attempted:
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600
Diamond Viper II Z200

At random times, usually within 15 minutes of bootup (after XP is loaded and I'm doing things at the desktop), the PC reboots. I'm not playing games or doing anything intense, just copying files, setting up XP, trying driver updates, etc. Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of a blue screen. Most of the time after the first reboot, it will reboot again while still loading XP and repeat a few times before XP loads completely again. Safe mode with or without networking does the same thing. I found a handful of people in various forums that seemed to have the same problem.

I tried every version of every driver from ASRock & VIA, different BIOS versions, different video cards, disconnecting non-essential components to decrease power consumption - then I started investigating the RAM a little deeper.

With only one stick of RAM (mobo defaults to single channel mode), the reboot problem went away. Then I discovered memtest86+, and ran that a bunch of times. The results:

Ran memtest86+ on both sticks of RAM installed together (#1 in DDRII_1, #2 in DDRII_2)
- 70 errors, all in Test #5
- Ran overnight, 20 passes, 1558 errors in Test #5

Ran memtest86+ on RAM #1 in first slot (DDRII_1)
- PASS

Ran memtest86+ on RAM #2 in first slot (DDRII_1)
- PASS

Ran memtest86+ on both sticks of RAM - swapped this time (#2 in DDRII_1, #1 in DDRII_2)
- Average of 2-3 errors in Tests #3 & #4 each
- ~1.5 million errors in Test #5

At this point I was convinced the motherboard had something wrong with its Dual Channel Mode functionality. I tried setting the BIOS to force Single Channel Mode with both sticks installed, but memtest86+ immediately started showing errors on what looked like almost every read/write, so I didn't run the full test.

Then I found and enabled the "Flexibility Option" in the BIOS. Memory speeds reported by memtest86+ were ~15% slower (i.e. 2092 MB/s vs 2449 MB/s) but all tests PASSED! Both in Single and Dual Channel Modes.

I also noticed that my RAM was only being recognized as DDR2 533, so I forced it to DDR2 667 in the BIOS. It didn't affect the speed reported by memtest86+, but it still passes the tests.

Based on everything above, does anyone have any helpful insights? (i.e. other things in the BIOS that I should tweak, other tests I should run, did I merely mask a greater problem, etc)

I've seen some posts in this thread where people are against using the Flexibility Option - why? Do you have any other ideas how to get around my problem?

A common cause of errors in memtest test #5 is power supply issues.

 

[brokencase]

Originally posted by: jimmor

Originally posted by: martianmisfit
^ thanks. i will give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

i'm interested on how brokencase was able to obtain a 2.7 GHz with this MoBo & Q6600...

The "brokencase" mobo is probably modified (ie, maybe increased Vcore and Vagp?). And high overclocking of a Q6600 is probably also dependent on whether you are using a G0 or B3 version ?

Brokencase .....
...has made no modification to his board.
...boots daily with the bios set at 277 fsb ~= 2.5Ghz
...can achieve 2.7Ghz only by using the softfsb utility as discussed earlier in this thread. It is Prime95 stable when at 2.7Ghz.
...has posted his bios settings much earlier in this thread and will not do so again unless he discovers something new and interesting.
...is running 2 gigs PC5300 4-4-4-12 memory.
...and has a Q6600 G0 cpu.
...along with a AGP ATI AIW 9000 video card.
...and his bios rev is 1.50

 

[brokencase]

Originally posted by: johnkdev
I just got this board earlier this week and I've been experiencing some reboot problems. I was going to post questions to this thread looking for help, but I think I have things figured out and thought I'd share my experience (sorry for the length of the post).

Components:
Crucial Ballistix Tracer (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2-6400)

Then I found and enabled the "Flexibility Option" in the BIOS. Memory speeds reported by memtest86+ were ~15% slower (i.e. 2092 MB/s vs 2449 MB/s) but all tests PASSED! Both in Single and Dual Channel Modes.

I also noticed that my RAM was only being recognized as DDR2 533, so I forced it to DDR2 667 in the BIOS. It didn't affect the speed reported by memtest86+, but it still passes the tests.

Based on everything above, does anyone have any helpful insights? (i.e. other things in the BIOS that I should tweak, other tests I should run, did I merely mask a greater problem, etc)

I've seen some posts in this thread where people are against using the Flexibility Option - why? Do you have any other ideas how to get around my problem?

You bought too fast memory for this board, and it does not like it.
You would have been better off with just PC-5300 memory and the flexibility option turned off.
This board runs better at DDR2-533 bios setting.