ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - Socket 939 with PCI-E and real AGP and Socket AM2 upgrade path

[Araemo]

Which clips are you talking about? The ones that are hinged, and a separate peice of plastic, or the integrated ones you just bend out of the way? Or is your board missing any type of clamp at all?

I think my board has a real clip on the PCI-e 16x slot, and a bendy clip on the AGP. I bet they just buy batches of sockets(the plastic part) from the cheapest bidder, so you can't be gauranteed a clip of any specific type.

 

[teiresias]

OK, I didn't realize there were "bendy" clips as none of my other motherboards have ever had them, so to me it just looked like the clip was actually missing. As I said, it doesn't really matter, so I probably won't worry about it.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Just as a FYI in case you weren't aware, the "official" BIOS 1.8 (and presumably 1.9 too) also has the earlier "274 lock" overclocking limitations removed, if you didn't want to mess with unofficial/beta releases.

Is it common among these boards to go over 274 without any special mods? I can't boot over 270 fsb

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Just as a FYI in case you weren't aware, the "official" BIOS 1.8 (and presumably 1.9 too) also has the earlier "274 lock" overclocking limitations removed, if you didn't want to mess with unofficial/beta releases.

Is it common among these boards to go over 274 without any special mods? I can't boot over 270 fsb

And you're using a new (1.80 or newer) BIOS version? I've only used the one motherboard that I have, but from what I gather, 1.80+ did remove the 274 limitation for everyone. However, there are still factors that could prevent booting at 270+...you might be running your RAM too fast, CPU might be set to run too fast (this will especially be an issue if you haven't voltmodded, and especially on a chip with a 10x or higher multiplier, assuming you haven't lowered it...overclocking a chip from 2.0 to 2.7GHz is probably in the upper ranges of what's reasonably attainable with air cooling on most chips, and by no means guaranteed).

What CPU do you have and what settings are you trying to run? What's the maximum final CPU speed you can reach? I used to not be able to boot over about 265 FSB myself, but recent BIOS releases have fixed that (didn't get me a whole lot of headroom though, 2.7 is about my max). If you're using a recent BIOS though, you are probably just running into the limits of your chip (and the voltage available, if you haven't modded - I could only hit 2.4-2.5 on the default 1.4V that you get with the board).

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
And you're using a new (1.80 or newer) BIOS version? I've only used the one motherboard that I have, but from what I gather, 1.80+ did remove the 274 limitation for everyone. However, there are still factors that could prevent booting at 270+...you might be running your RAM too fast, CPU might be set to run too fast (this will especially be an issue if you haven't voltmodded, and especially on a chip with a 10x or higher multiplier, assuming you haven't lowered it...overclocking a chip from 2.0 to 2.7GHz is probably in the upper ranges of what's reasonably attainable with air cooling on most chips, and by no means guaranteed).

What CPU do you have and what settings are you trying to run? What's the maximum final CPU speed you can reach? I used to not be able to boot over about 265 FSB myself, but recent BIOS releases have fixed that (didn't get me a whole lot of headroom though, 2.7 is about my max). If you're using a recent BIOS though, you are probably just running into the limits of your chip (and the voltage available, if you haven't modded - I could only hit 2.4-2.5 on the default 1.4V that you get with the board).

I'm using bios 1.90. I basically tried following Zebo's guide on overclocking. So to eliminate ram and CPU as limiting factors, I set my memory to 133 and lowered my CPU multiplier and tried going as high as possible with the FSB. At a little over 270 it wouldn't boot properly.

I suppose it doesn't really matter too much because at vcore 1.45, my CPU wouldn't go above 260 FSB anyway.

You wouldn't happen to know, if I upgrade my memory to DDR500, whether I would see any significant performance boost?

system:
A64 3000+ (venice, 1.8@2.3Ghz)
2x512MB DDR400@DDR333 (corsair value)
Radeon 9800np (now full of artifacts because I foolishly tried to flash it to a 9800pro )

 

[SynthDude2001]

Unless you're really finding your current RAM to be insufficient (in capacity), I'd say don't bother with DDR500. You won't get a whole lot of performance for the money spent. I'm actually running my 4x512MB a bit below 200MHz because it was having issues higher, and it's still faster at 2.7GHz CPU with slower RAM than it was at 2.6GHz with the RAM about 30MHz faster.

I'd not heard of people still having problems reaching 270+ with 1.80+ BIOS versions, but admittedly I didn't really research it a whole lot, since it worked for me.

 

[Araemo]

Flashbacck: how much did you lower your CPU mult? I've noticed my board will not boot more than 1 multiplier lower than stock. And I agree about DDR500 - unless you build the whole system to the same level, it's not going to help much, and even when you do, the difference is near 5-10% for the whole system.

Although Synth: I'm another one who can't overclock well on 1.80+.

I actually had to downgrade back to 1.50 to even get 167x9.

 

[Double Echo]

Has anyone gotten the AM2 expansion board yet? Mine's coming Wednesday/Thursday (With a Orleans 3500+ AM2 chip), and if anyone's interested I can give a short review on it (ease of installation, technical problems, problems fitting it in the damn case, etc)

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: Araemo
Flashbacck: how much did you lower your CPU mult? I've noticed my board will not boot more than 1 multiplier lower than stock. And I agree about DDR500 - unless you build the whole system to the same level, it's not going to help much, and even when you do, the difference is near 5-10% for the whole system...

IRC, I lowered it to 5 or 6x. I had problems w/ the board not setting the multiplier to 7 or 8x correctly, but that may have been before I updated to 1.90.

thanks for the input on getting DDR500. I'll put my money into a new graphics card instead.

Originally posted by: Double Echo
Has anyone gotten the AM2 expansion board yet? Mine's coming Wednesday/Thursday (With a Orleans 3500+ AM2 chip), and if anyone's interested I can give a short review on it (ease of installation, technical problems, problems fitting it in the damn case, etc)

I'd like a small review on this. Did you measure whether it'd fit in your case? Asrock has the width dimension listed on their site. It's something like 144mm.

btw, what are you using to cool your venice 3000+? Any vcore mods?

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: Double Echo
Has anyone gotten the AM2 expansion board yet? Mine's coming Wednesday/Thursday (With a Orleans 3500+ AM2 chip), and if anyone's interested I can give a short review on it (ease of installation, technical problems, problems fitting it in the damn case, etc)

I'd like a small review on this. Did you measure whether it'd fit in your case? Asrock has the width dimension listed on their site. It's something like 144mm.

btw, what are you using to cool your venice 3000+? Any vcore mods?[/quote]

Check this hokey crap out. The new PSU, DDR2 RAM and CPU are being shipped from New Jersey (I'm in PA). The daughter card gets shipped from California. Here's the tracking info for the daughter card (reads earliest to latest of course)

07/12/2006 07:55:00 IN TRANSIT TO PHILADELPHIA, PA, US
07/12/2006 04:54:00 DEPARTURE SCAN OAKLAND, CA, US
07/11/2006 21:00:00 ARRIVAL SCAN OAKLAND, CA, US
07/11/2006 20:09:00 DEPARTURE SCAN SAN JOSE, CA, US
07/11/2006 19:37:00 LOCATION SCAN SAN JOSE, CA, US
07/11/2006 15:01:00 UNLOAD SCAN SAN JOSE, CA, US
07/11/2006 15:00:00 ARRIVAL SCAN SAN JOSE, CA, US
07/11/2006 04:50:00 DEPARTURE SCAN ONTARIO, CA, US
07/11/2006 01:22:00 LOCATION SCAN ONTARIO, CA, US
07/10/2006 21:03:00 ARRIVAL SCAN ONTARIO, CA, US
07/10/2006 20:00:00 DEPARTURE SCAN BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
07/10/2006 19:59:00 ARRIVAL SCAN BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
07/10/2006 16:41:00 ORIGIN SCAN BALDWIN PARK, CA, US
07/10/2006 19:54:13 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED BALDWIN PARK, CA, US

So it went from California, to Ontario, Canada, to San Jose, to Philadelphia (I'm in Pennsylvania)? What in the hell? I really hope they mean Ontario, California. But it sucks that they couldn't ship that AM2 board all in the same shipment.

So now I'm getting all my parts EXCEPT for the daughter card today, so I have to wait until probably tomorrow. If it doesn't fit in the case, I guess it'll be an excuse to buy a ATX server case with the right dimensions huh?

I'm using stock cooling on my Venice 3000+, and the temps haven't gone above 110 ever, even under load. No VCore mods, because I'm paranoid about frying the board.

 

[betasub]

Uh, all those tracking locations are CA, US (California, United States) until it leaves Oakland, CA for Phily, PA.

As for your Venice temps, what are they in real money please (i.e. degreesC)?

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: betasub
Uh, all those tracking locations are CA, US (California, United States) until it leaves Oakland, CA for Phily, PA.

As for your Venice temps, what are they in real money please (i.e. degreesC)?

Yeah, I kind of figured it was CA and not Canada, I was surprised it jumped around so much though.

And it's definitely Fahrenheit. 110 Celcius is 230F, which I believe is the limit temperature that the CPU would shut off.

 

[Araemo]

Originally posted by: Double Echo
And it's definitely Fahrenheit. 110 Celcius is 230F, which I believe is the limit temperature that the CPU would shut off.

I think he knew it was fahrenheit. He was asking what it is in Real Money(IE, Celsius. )

43~ degrees, btw.

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: Araemo

Originally posted by: Double Echo
And it's definitely Fahrenheit. 110 Celcius is 230F, which I believe is the limit temperature that the CPU would shut off.

I think he knew it was fahrenheit. He was asking what it is in Real Money(IE, Celsius. )

43~ degrees, btw.

Eh, sorry about that My parts just got delivered (the new wifey signed for 'em), but the only thing I can install is the new PSU (exciting stuff there!). I'll have to wait until tomorrow for AM2 goodness.

 

[lmimmfn]

Hi Guys,
sorry for the long post,but i really would appreciate your input, i dont know too much about this board, but for upgrading i have no choice( i.e. have AGP board and i got a new AMD 939 CPU ) ive just ordered the components to build a system can someone give me an idea of whether ill get a resonable performance increase over my current system, ive ordered the following( i hope i made the right choices ):

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Gigabyte GZ-FSCA1-AN Silver Aluminium Body (Without PSU)( has 3 fans )
Asrock 939Dual-SATAII, ULI 1695, Socket-939, 1XSATA2, DDR, PCI-Ex16/AGP
Fortron Source Epsilon 600W, Blue Fan, Active PFC, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin( has 1 fan )
Plextor DVD±RW burner, PX-760A, 18x, 10x Dual, Retail

and just bought an AMD 4200+

i have the following components to install in the system:
Connect 3d x850 pro AGP with 16 pipelines unlocked and with a Zallman Fatal1ty GPU fan
2 gig PC 3200 RAM

I currently get around 4800 in 3dmark05, my current setup is:
Dell 4600 with Intel 865PE mobo
P4 2.4Ghz
2 Gig PC 3200 Ram
X850Pro OC 'd as above
X-Fi XtremeMusic
160Gig & 40 Gig Maxtor EIDE
XP Pro

Does anyone know/think i might be able to get around 5500 in 3DMark?
My main reason for upgrade was to be able to play battlefield 2 better, currently with my CPU in areas of chaos i get extreme slowdown and i cant play on 64 player servers( runs around 20FPS average on 64player and 32 FPS on 32 player ), i run everyting on medium except geometry on high and sound set to Ultra high, my resolution is 1280 x 960 and i have my system seriously tweaked for max performance( performance monitoring disabled, all unnecessary services and process disabled/killed, regular defrags, an dusing tunexp to set everyting performance orientated, GFX card is OC'd to 520 GPU and 600Mem, i think it will go higher as i dont think i applied the thermal paste correctly for cooler )

Does anyone know if i will see a good improvement in BF2 with the above setup,i realise you guys dont have the exact same setup,but id appreciate any info

Thanks

 

[Double Echo]

Ok, I got my AM2CPU expansion card yesterday. As soon as I got home from work I started on the installation, as my wife rolled her eyes at my geekdom.

The expansion card fit without a problem in the case. I really don't see how it would be a problem in any normal (read: not twisted or damaged) case as far as fitting. It fits just like any other expansion card would.

Basically, just take out your old CPU, heatsink, memory and the 4 pin power connector from the mainboard. Next, switch the jumpers (J10, J11 and J12, and the 4 rows of jumpers near them) according to the manual. Then, install the CPU, heatsink and RAM on the AM2CPU card (I'd recommend doing this before you install it so you don't crack it while trying to get the heatsink on) and plug the 4 pin connector into the card.

The biggest problem I had was getting the screwhole lined up to the metal bracket, while trying to hold the screwdriver still. You have to kind of pull the card towards the back of the case to get it to line up, even when it's correctly pushed into the Future CPU slot. I was able to do this by myself by laying the case on it's back (meaning lay it down on the end where you'd plug your peripherals) and gently pushing on the bracket.

Once I got everything in place, I booted it up. The BIOS is still the same, except for some things that have to do with DDRII memory (memory speed, and a DDRII compatibility option). I wasn't able to overclock my Orleans 3500 above 240 (Multiplier of 11), but it could be due to the voltage cap at 1.45 or my memory (OCZ DDRII 533), or some tweaks I need to do in the BIOS. Overall, I think it's much cheaper and easier to upgrade to AM2 in this method rather than swapping out a whole motherboard. If it was possible to upgrade to AMD's next CPU form factor with this board I'd do it in a heartbeat. Hell, I'd even buy another ASRock board with a new form factor, as long as it had a CPU upgrade slot!

Any questions, post 'em here!

 

[Wi1z]

Originally posted by: lmimmfn
Hi Guys,
sorry for the long post,but i really would appreciate your input, i dont know too much about this board, but for upgrading i have no choice( i.e. have AGP board and i got a new AMD 939 CPU ) ive just ordered the components to build a system can someone give me an idea of whether ill get a resonable performance increase over my current system, ive ordered the following( i hope i made the right choices ):

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
Gigabyte GZ-FSCA1-AN Silver Aluminium Body (Without PSU)( has 3 fans )
Asrock 939Dual-SATAII, ULI 1695, Socket-939, 1XSATA2, DDR, PCI-Ex16/AGP
Fortron Source Epsilon 600W, Blue Fan, Active PFC, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin( has 1 fan )
Plextor DVD±RW burner, PX-760A, 18x, 10x Dual, Retail

and just bought an AMD 4200+

i have the following components to install in the system:
Connect 3d x850 pro AGP with 16 pipelines unlocked and with a Zallman Fatal1ty GPU fan
2 gig PC 3200 RAM

I currently get around 4800 in 3dmark05, my current setup is:
Dell 4600 with Intel 865PE mobo
P4 2.4Ghz
2 Gig PC 3200 Ram
X850Pro OC 'd as above
X-Fi XtremeMusic
160Gig & 40 Gig Maxtor EIDE
XP Pro

Does anyone know/think i might be able to get around 5500 in 3DMark?
My main reason for upgrade was to be able to play battlefield 2 better, currently with my CPU in areas of chaos i get extreme slowdown and i cant play on 64 player servers( runs around 20FPS average on 64player and 32 FPS on 32 player ), i run everyting on medium except geometry on high and sound set to Ultra high, my resolution is 1280 x 960 and i have my system seriously tweaked for max performance( performance monitoring disabled, all unnecessary services and process disabled/killed, regular defrags, an dusing tunexp to set everyting performance orientated, GFX card is OC'd to 520 GPU and 600Mem, i think it will go higher as i dont think i applied the thermal paste correctly for cooler )

Does anyone know if i will see a good improvement in BF2 with the above setup,i realise you guys dont have the exact same setup,but id appreciate any info

Thanks

Well, A P4 2.4 is pretty pants, not total rubbish, but not the best gaming chip by a long chalk Any A64 will slaughter it in gaming performance! But also as ever games depend on your graphics as well, I did also read BF2 really likes the oldie 2GB ram I'd have honestly thought you should see a healthy improvement, which I'm sure you expect anyways Looking around the net really quickly some people have had dual core issues with BF2, hey its pc, issues come with the territory But install windows, uli drivers (IMPORTANT due to AGP drivers) then your graphics card drivers, then maybe the dual core optimizer, there's also the cpu driver if you intend to run cool n quiet, I wouldnt do this, crashes the heck out of my pc in games. Anyways, I feel waffling already Maybe consider a 2nd hand graphics card upgrade........

 

[funguy34]

has anyone of you guys tried the 04xx Bios or adv. Version from http://www.pc-treiber.net/download_kategorie_13.html]here[/url]. i used the 04xx for some months and it was running great.

 

[Double Echo]

Are these custom BIOS builds?

As an addition to my previous post, make sure when you get the expansion card that you get good DDR2 memory too. I think my OCZ DDRII 533 memory is really crappy and I wish I had shelled out $20 more for better RAM.

 

[lmimmfn]

Originally posted by: Wi1z
Well, A P4 2.4 is pretty pants, not total rubbish, but not the best gaming chip by a long chalk Any A64 will slaughter it in gaming performance! But also as ever games depend on your graphics as well, I did also read BF2 really likes the oldie 2GB ram I'd have honestly thought you should see a healthy improvement, which I'm sure you expect anyways Looking around the net really quickly some people have had dual core issues with BF2, hey its pc, issues come with the territory But install windows, uli drivers (IMPORTANT due to AGP drivers) then your graphics card drivers, then maybe the dual core optimizer, there's also the cpu driver if you intend to run cool n quiet, I wouldnt do this, crashes the heck out of my pc in games. Anyways, I feel waffling already Maybe consider a 2nd hand graphics card upgrade........

Lol,youre right about the P4 2.4, totally sux, however get this, i used to get 4800 in 3dmark 05, but last week after i ordered the above setup i decided to OC the CPU( its a Dell 4600, so not the easiest thing to do!!! ), anyways i OC the CPU to 2.9Ghz and got a 5400 score in 3DMark 05, damn i cant wait to see what the new system will give

Ohhhh Noooooo, not buying and new GFX card for a while yet as i spent too much already, but i appreciate the advice, the above OC'ing has proved that its my CPU that sux as i get 20% extra FPS now in games, my X850Pro is OC'd to an X850XT, Core @ 510( i lowered it slightly because of CPU FSB increase ), Mem @ 600 and the above system should be cooler( and have more power ) because when i OC the core further i get the black screen so id be 99% sure its my power as before i added loads of extra stuff i could run the core higher

Im a pro at improving BF2 performance, 2 Gig is the minimum for BF2 for no lag at the start( i went from 512 late last year, ouch ) so the new system shouldnt be a problem hopefully, it doesnt support dual core so ill need to disable the other core/only set it to run on 1

Thanks for the setup info, i appreciate it, also in PC format for Dual Cores they recommend downloading and installing winxpdualcorehotfix.exe( followed by some reg editing for PerfEnablePackageIdle" ) for fixing XP dual core throttling and also a utility to synch both cores ( amdcpu.exe ) from tinyurl.com/84r89 and adding "/usepmtimer" to the end of the line in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Settings/Startup and Recovery

Im guessing the last part for /usepmtimer is done by the AMD optimizer?

Ill stay away from the Cool n Quiet nonsense

Originally posted by: Double Echo
Ok, I got my AM2CPU expansion card yesterday. As soon as I got home from work I started on the installation, as my wife rolled her eyes at my geekdom.
.
.
Any questions, post 'em here!

Double Echo, mabye this is a stupid question but can you have Socket 939 CPU and the new AM2 board with AM2 processor connected at the same time and switch between them in some funky way? im guessing not, but just interested


Thanks again
//Mark

 

[Ragnarok2]

I've heard and seen amazing things about this board so I ordered an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ and this ASRock board. Overclocking should be good.

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: lmimmfn

Originally posted by: Double Echo
Ok, I got my AM2CPU expansion card yesterday. As soon as I got home from work I started on the installation, as my wife rolled her eyes at my geekdom.
.
.
Any questions, post 'em here!

Double Echo, mabye this is a stupid question but can you have Socket 939 CPU and the new AM2 board with AM2 processor connected at the same time and switch between them in some funky way? im guessing not, but just interested


Thanks again
//Mark

Nope, only one CPU at a time, it doesn't run like a dual CPU board. You can only plug the 4 pin power connector into either the mainboard or the AM2CPU board, since most PSUs only have one. I'm not sure what would happen if you had the AM2CPU board in, and had a 939 CPU on the board and fired it up with the 4 pin in the mainboard. I imagine if you even could find a PSU with 2 4 pin connectors and plugged 1 in each board, you'd probably fry it big time.

I'm getting a PCI-E card (Radeon X800GTO 256mb GDDR3) to replace my AGP card, as it seems so much easier than loading that AGP driver before installing the drivers, especially when you have a Windows image that installs the graphics driver automatically (I have a custom ISO that pre-loads some programs and SP2).

 

[Double Echo]

As an update to my DDR2 problem, it looks like both sticks are bad. Both test bad in memtest86, so I'll have to RMA them. I'm getting a new set of Patriot RAM (I've got OCZ now) and if that tests bad too, it's got to be the AM2 card. The only thing is though, the CPU is fine, so I'm not so sure it's the expansion card.

 

[fireandicefuel]

I'm excited. I just bought this motherboard and amd 64 3000 along with 80 gig western digital sata 2 drive. I can't wait to get it up and going

 

[emilyek]

Wish I could just get the expansion card and price-cutted AM2 and pop it in.

I still like my DDR. :/