Spineshank
Diamond Member
- Jun 8, 2001
- 7,728
- 1
- 71
My only complaint is running an X800XL with 2 hard drives in SATA in my LIAN LI case was a real pain in trying to make everything fit.
Im slightly confused as to what exactly I'm going to need to install a retail HSF. Will this guarantee me compatibilty with most retail heatsinks? http://heatsinkfactory.com/shop/product.php?productid=16308
Even though it only says for Gigabyte mobos, this was all I could find. The link someone posted earlier (Paragon Computing) was broken when I tried it.
Even though it only says for Gigabyte mobos, this was all I could find. The link someone posted earlier (Paragon Computing) was broken when I tried it.
fustercluck
Diamond Member
- Dec 29, 2002
- 7,402
- 0
- 71
Quick question: Can i do the vcore mod without taking out my Mobo? It'd be kind of a pain to detach everything.
Also where can i buy some conductive metal for cheap? I only need a tiny bit.
Also where can i buy some conductive metal for cheap? I only need a tiny bit.
Not really, the points are tiny and actually I had to remove the retention bracket because it was so close. I just bought a conductive pen from Radio Shack for $12, not sure exactly where you could find something cheaper
Is 1.45v the absolute limit of the board without Vmods? So dissappointing... I thought it was 1.55v without mods... 
You are considering the board or the X800XT? AGP or PCIe?
In any case, I'm running a modified X800Pro AGP card which is identical to the X800XT and it works just fine.
I'm using the Coolermaster Aquagate Mini which fortunately comes with all the backplates you could possibly need for just about any motherboard. The one for Socket 939 that I'm using has four mounting holes but you can also use one with six mounting holes depending on the HSF you have. The one you are looking at doesn't look right to me.
Originally posted by: Richdog
Is 1.45v the absolute limit of the board without Vmods? So dissappointing... I thought it was 1.55v without mods...
Yes, 1.45V is the limit for Venice CPUs without modding, 1.4V seems to be the limit on DC Opty's and maybe X2's (at least that's what my limit was before I modded). 1.55V is only possible by default with FX chips, from what I've read. And that's a bit useless, since you're really not going to use a $1200 CPU with a $65 motherboard
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
OK. I haven't read all 46 pages of this thread, so please don't be too hard on me if my questions have already been answered. I have been hoping that another company would make a better motherboard based on this chipset, but that hasn't happened yet. Also, I would like to get the Opteron 165, and there's no guarantee that it will be around much longer.
So, I have already read that the Opteron 165 works in this motherboard. But what kind of overclock can I expect both with and without the voltmod?
I have read that someone is using the SI-120 with no space issues. Does that mean that my Scythe Ninja should fit as well?
Also, you can see from my sig that getting the 165 will be quite a performance boost. However, will my 6600GT limit my gaming so much that I won't notice a big performance boost in that area? Would it make more sense to save up for 6 mos. to 1 year and get the DFI Ultra-D board and a 7800GT?
So, I have already read that the Opteron 165 works in this motherboard. But what kind of overclock can I expect both with and without the voltmod?
I have read that someone is using the SI-120 with no space issues. Does that mean that my Scythe Ninja should fit as well?
Also, you can see from my sig that getting the 165 will be quite a performance boost. However, will my 6600GT limit my gaming so much that I won't notice a big performance boost in that area? Would it make more sense to save up for 6 mos. to 1 year and get the DFI Ultra-D board and a 7800GT?
Without the voltmod (1.4V max), I could get my 170 to 2.4GHz, didn't experience any problems. Once I voltmodded (1.55V max), I can run anywhere between 2.6 and 2.75, depending on which BIOS I'm using (the official ones sometimes don't want to boot over 270HTT, so the OCW beta ones help in that case). I'm sticking with 2.6 for the time being, and you can probably expect that out of a 165 pretty easily once you've voltmodded the board. Anything above that is not as certain.
I'm the one running an SI-120. I don't have any experience with the Scythe Ninja, but my *guess* is that it would work fine. You may want to do a search over on OCW Forums first, to see if anyone's using that heatsink on this board though.
What games do you play, and at what resolutions/settings? Your P4 is fast enough that for gaming, a video card would benefit you more than a CPU upgrade, I think. However if you do other CPU-intensive work (like video encoding, which is my main non-gaming application), the upgrade would still be worth it (especially if your software is SMP-aware, of course). If you play games at no higher than 1024x768 and/or don't have all your settings turned up, your 6600GT will probably hold you over for a while. If you do get the board and CPU right now, how long would you be waiting for a video card upgrade? If it's not too long, I would probably suggest that you do the upgrade and stick with your video card for now, and add the 7800GT later (since of course, you can use a PCI-E video card with this motherboard). If the CPU upgrade would cause you to have to wait a while for a video card, I might suggest just sticking with what you've got right now, because your video card will be limiting you much more than your CPU unless you play at low resolutions.
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
Thanks for the quick response. As far as what I use my computer for, the only intensive programs I run are games. I'm currently playing Warcraft 3 and Doom 3. Obviously Warcraft 3 runs fine on my system. Also, I can play Doom 3 on 1600x1200 with all the graphics turned up except no AA and no AF. If I upgraded now, it would probably be at least another 6 months before I bought a new video card. I've just had a big desire to upgrade since I've had this motherboard and processor for almost 2 1/2 years now, and I might be able to sell my processor for $100, which would help in the upgrade. I also don't want to upgrade to socket M2, because I won't want to have to upgrade my RAM on top of the mobo, cpu, and video card. The end result I want is to have a dual-core AMD processor that I can overclock as much as possible (without frying it, of course).
So, let's assume that in 6 months I am the proud owner of an opteron 165 and a 7800GT (whether I purchase them now or in 6 months). Will there be a sizeable overclock and performance difference between using this board and using the DFI ultra-D? If there is, then I think it's worth it to wait 6 months. If we're looking at only a 5% difference in performance, then I will probably get the ASRock and opteron 165 this month and the 7800GT in 6 months or so.
While there are extreme voltages and tons of other settings available on the DFI boards (from what I've read anyway; I've never used one) - generally 1.55V is around the most you really want to be giving a 90nm CPU with 1.35V default, 1.60V maybe. Anything above that might not be safe for long-term operation, and you will probably hit diminishing returns above that point anyway. My thought is, if you want to use the board as-is and have no interested in voltmodding, but DO have an interest in (fairly big) overclocking, the DFI would be better. However if you are willing to do the voltmod, 1.55V is really all you need for a good overclock (and my board actually seems to overvolt just a bit too) - so in that case, the ASRock board is quite competent as an overclocker. Yes, you could probably tweak a little more out of the DFI board, but I easily got to 2.6-2.7GHz after voltmodding, and I imagine that the difference by going to, say, 2.8 is probably insignificant in the real world. The board is not without its quirks (which you'll see if you skim through some of the comments in here), but I think it's a great buy overall. Anand's reviews a while back showed that performance clock-for-clock is great with this board, on par with the high end NF4's.
If you don't mind doing the voltmod, I'd recommend just picking up the board and CPU right now. There won't be too many more Socket 939 CPU's (IMO), so the prices on current ones probably won't drop all that much. And, as you noted, 939 Opterons may drop off the face of the earth in not too long anyway, so if you can get one without spending too much, I say go for it. Socket M2 only brings DDR2 (what performance gains that brings, if any, remain to be seen), and that's about it...maybe their virtualization technology, maybe PCI-E controller on-chip (or maybe that was later than M2, I forget). AMD probably won't have 65nm chips out the door for another year at least, and all signs indicate that there isn't much of a "next big thing" right around the corner, at least as far as I can tell - a ~2.6GHz dual-core Opteron probably won't be much surpassed at any reasonable price any time soon. The new CPU will give you a nice boost in CPU-limited games (particularly future ones like UT2007 that are supposed to use SMP), and you should be able to get a nice overclock out of it (especially with that monstrous heatsink you're planning on using
). Adding the 7800GT later will make it a really solid gaming system for quite a while.I'm stuck at 2.53 oc, my goal is to get to 2.6. I've read the oc guide and tried everything i've read in this thread (haven't read the whole thing) I was wondering if there is anyway to go higher without doing the vcore mod
You probably have a Venice, so you're using 1.45V I imagine? Hmm...if you're read the guide (assume you're talking about Zebo's guide), then you probably know what you're doing as far as HTT speeds and multipliers and such...it might be that 2.53 is all you can get on 1.45V. I hit 2.4 at 1.4V easily, but I never bothered to try anything in between 2.4 and 2.6 to see what voltage I might need. I am running 1.50 or 1.55V for 2.6, so it's entirely possible that you've got all you can with this board's (admittedly limited) default voltage options.
I advised my boss to get an Opty 146 and an Asrock and it got delivered to work yesterday... however I noticed sub-par performance compared to a colleagues 3200+ AXP.
I am presuming the board is running at 2T as i couldn't find an option in the BIOS to fix it and my SANDRA memory score came out as 4000 at around 177mhz using a divider... is 1T a pipe dream on these boards and is it automatic and not selectable?
I am presuming the board is running at 2T as i couldn't find an option in the BIOS to fix it and my SANDRA memory score came out as 4000 at around 177mhz using a divider... is 1T a pipe dream on these boards and is it automatic and not selectable?
Some people have had problems running at 1T, but you can at least try. The BIOS that comes with the board (or at least that came with my board), 1.20, does not have a 1T option visible...however in newer BIOS versions you can change it. I'm using 1.50 and on the CPU configuration page where you change speed/multipliers/voltage/etc., there's an option that says something like "MA Timing", and that can be set to Auto, 1T, or 2T.
I'd like to back up what SynthDude is saying. It's all good advice, even if he still doesn't believe me when I tell him that command rate settings are available in the 1.20 BIOS for single core CPUs! ;-) (personally I think 1T is over rated. While you get a significant increase in measured memory bandwidth I don't notice that improvement in actual performance)
I'm not sure what the attraction to the Opteron is for the casual user and gamer. I don't think it will outperform a Venice or San Diego 939 chip and isn't a good value for gaming.
The main attraction for this ASRock board, IMO, is the price and versatility. You spend very little on a board that allows you to migrate your current AGP graphics card to a high end system without limiting your PCIe upgrade potential down the road. This board is hands down the BEST board you can buy for socket 939 and AGP graphics. The ability to upgrade to PCIe is an added bonus.
If you are on a budget and looking for maximum performance, this board has got to be on your list. If you have a good AGP card that you aren't ready to toss out right now the decision to go with this board is a no brainer. I too waited a couple months to see if another ULi based AGP/PCIe board would come out but it didn't and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer because clearly it will never happen.
When you are on a budget a lot of the decision making needs to be based on price versus performance. In my opinion you are better off getting this board and a San Diego core 3700 than a DFI board and a Venice 3000. The price will be about the same but the San Diego is basically an underclocked FX and you can push it a little farther on lower voltage with lower bus speeds and games will benefit from the 1MB L2 cache. If you get this board and a Venice think how little money you will spend for such a significant performance boost.
I am using a modified AGP X800Pro that I migrated from an overclocked 2.2GHz AthlonXP 2500 system (very similar performance level as kalrith's overclocked P4 system) to my ASRock and A64 3700 system that is overclocked (240x11) to near FX-57 performance and noticed a huge improvement in gaming performance just from the CPU/chipset upgrade alone. I'm holding out on the graphics card upgrade until something significantly faster comes out. I was never interested in SLI or Crossfire as an upgrade path.
I hope all this helps.
I'm not sure what the attraction to the Opteron is for the casual user and gamer. I don't think it will outperform a Venice or San Diego 939 chip and isn't a good value for gaming.
The main attraction for this ASRock board, IMO, is the price and versatility. You spend very little on a board that allows you to migrate your current AGP graphics card to a high end system without limiting your PCIe upgrade potential down the road. This board is hands down the BEST board you can buy for socket 939 and AGP graphics. The ability to upgrade to PCIe is an added bonus.
If you are on a budget and looking for maximum performance, this board has got to be on your list. If you have a good AGP card that you aren't ready to toss out right now the decision to go with this board is a no brainer. I too waited a couple months to see if another ULi based AGP/PCIe board would come out but it didn't and I'm glad I didn't wait any longer because clearly it will never happen.
When you are on a budget a lot of the decision making needs to be based on price versus performance. In my opinion you are better off getting this board and a San Diego core 3700 than a DFI board and a Venice 3000. The price will be about the same but the San Diego is basically an underclocked FX and you can push it a little farther on lower voltage with lower bus speeds and games will benefit from the 1MB L2 cache. If you get this board and a Venice think how little money you will spend for such a significant performance boost.
I am using a modified AGP X800Pro that I migrated from an overclocked 2.2GHz AthlonXP 2500 system (very similar performance level as kalrith's overclocked P4 system) to my ASRock and A64 3700 system that is overclocked (240x11) to near FX-57 performance and noticed a huge improvement in gaming performance just from the CPU/chipset upgrade alone. I'm holding out on the graphics card upgrade until something significantly faster comes out. I was never interested in SLI or Crossfire as an upgrade path.
I hope all this helps.
I am in agreement with Woody - the performance of this 'budget' board with a San Diego is simply awesome. I find I am able to now run games at higher settings with the same graphics card. Along with some video card overclocking, I have brought my game benchmarks to 35-50% higher than with the previous cpu/board (2.8c and P4P800 dx).
It's funny playing BF2 now because I always spend a good 10 seconds on each new map running around alone (with free pick of all the toys) because the other 31 people are still loading.
It's funny playing BF2 now because I always spend a good 10 seconds on each new map running around alone (with free pick of all the toys) because the other 31 people are still loading.
Shuxclams
Diamond Member
- Oct 10, 1999
- 9,286
- 15
- 81
I am having the 'sudden reboot' issue when attempting to send an email and when browsing the web. It always happnes when it is opening a new email when I choose reply or when I go to a heavily javascripted site.
Brand new fresh install of Win XP and Office 2003 Professional with ALL patches and updates applied.
Antec P-180 (4x120mm 1x80mm Fans)
Antec NeoHE 500
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Bios v 1.20
XFX GeForce 6800GT 256MB PCI-e
GigaRam 2x512MB GR1DD8T-K1GB/400/2.0 @ 2-2-2-10-2 (Runs great at 2-2-2-5-2 but was adjusting to find sweet spot)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice E3 @ 2.0GHz
GIGABYTE GH-ED821-LC 94 mm HS/F
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10K
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7.2K
SONY DDU1615/B2s 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE
SONY DRU800A Dual Layer DVD-R+/--RW IDE
SONY MPF920 FDD
I am going to upgrade to BIOS 1.50 tonight.... Does anybody have any clue why this is happening?
SHUX
Brand new fresh install of Win XP and Office 2003 Professional with ALL patches and updates applied.
Antec P-180 (4x120mm 1x80mm Fans)
Antec NeoHE 500
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Bios v 1.20
XFX GeForce 6800GT 256MB PCI-e
GigaRam 2x512MB GR1DD8T-K1GB/400/2.0 @ 2-2-2-10-2 (Runs great at 2-2-2-5-2 but was adjusting to find sweet spot)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice E3 @ 2.0GHz
GIGABYTE GH-ED821-LC 94 mm HS/F
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10K
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7.2K
SONY DDU1615/B2s 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE
SONY DRU800A Dual Layer DVD-R+/--RW IDE
SONY MPF920 FDD
I am going to upgrade to BIOS 1.50 tonight.... Does anybody have any clue why this is happening?
SHUX
Shuxclams
Diamond Member
- Oct 10, 1999
- 9,286
- 15
- 81
I will check when I get home, should it be on high or should I set it to high? Did anyone the was expereincing those issues fix them? And if they did how? Its the strangest thing to be in the midst of doing something and watch the whole PC just spontatously reboot.
SHUX
SHUX
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