Well, I should have been more specific...it came with the black plastic retention bracket, but not the metal backplate that seems to be required for some larger heatsinks.
Well, I should have been more specific...it came with the black plastic retention bracket, but not the metal backplate that seems to be required for some larger heatsinks.
I had that exact issue a while back, but I can't for the life of me remember why. Maybe I was trying too high of an overclock for the voltages I was using, maybe it was something else. I guess I might have posted it in here (I'll do a quick search in a minute), but I can't remember what, if anything, I did to fix it. I seem to remember it only being an issue for a day or two, haven't had any such problems for several weeks now.
Edit: And yeah, if you're running your RAM a bit out of spec, you should probably have the voltage set to High.
I had a couple spontaneous reboots and found that my memory was failing the 8th test in memtes86... setting DRAM voltage to high solved this.
You know, I'm not sure if I missed this part before (the part that I bolded), but that may be the key. I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy, and I can't find a 1T/2T option anywhere in the 1.20 BIOS.
However, if it indeed is available only on single core CPU's, that would explain why I never saw it - I never owned or used a single core Socket 939 CPU. Sorry for the misunderstanding if that was the case The attraction to the Opteron was mostly 6-8 weeks ago, right after their overclocking potential was discovered, and right after the price drops but before retailers caught on and started price gouging, so they were very cheap. For example, the single core Opteron 144 at $150 or less (1.8GHz 1MB L2, 2.6-2.8 was basically guaranteed), and the dual core Opteron 165 at $280-290 (1.8GHz 1MB L2 *2, same on the overclocks or just slightly less, and actually cheaper than the lowest Athlon 64 X2 by over $30). In recent weeks however, the whole situation has been a mess - there were supply issues, retailers started jacking up prices, and AMD started threatening to pull them off the market. Now they're more difficult to find, and prices aren't so good anymore. I would agree that they're no longer a great value like they were in November, for the most part.
Agreed 100% on the rest of your post. As far as I'm concerned, this ASRock board was the best thing to come out of 2005 for anyone not ready to dump their entire system in the trash just yet. But even if you don't have a nice AGP card you still want to keep, performance is very solid on this board all around, and the price is right. As soon as I saw info about this board back in July, I knew I wanted it. Which is why this thread is that old.
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
Well, I'm leaning more and more toward getting this board instead of waiting 6+ months until I can afford a PCI-e card. However, I have a couple more questions. Has anyone on here gotten the refurb board from Newegg? I read another thread on this already, but I was just trying to get a second opinion about it. Also, is there any use for the PCI-e x4 slot that this board lacks? I have a few PCI cards that will need to go in here, but I will also need a firewire card since it isn't included in the motherboard. Are there any firewire cards other than PCI ones? My last question won't be relevant for about a year, but I want to make sure that this board is future-proof. Would there be any problem with running 2x1GB sticks of RAM along with my current 2x512MB sticks, or would it be better to only run to 2x1GB sticks and sell my current RAM?
Thanks.
Thanks.
...First of all, hi everyone and thanks for the very nice thread
oops, Happy New Year too ^^After reading countless posts / threads etc..I still haven't figured out what is going on with the cold/warm boot problems...I keep experiencing all of em...
My system: ( NOTHING OVERCLOCKED) -- BOUGHT JUST BEFORE X-MAS, AND I'VE ONLY BEEN USING IT FOR LIKE A WEEK...
ASROCK DUAL SATA 2
CASE: AEROCOOL BAYDREAM BLACK
A64 3500+ VENICE
WD 2500KS SATA II ( 250GB)
ENERMAX LIBERTY 500W (DUAL 12V RAIL, 22A + 22A )
2X1GB KINGSTON VALUE RAM DDR 400 CL3 ( working in dual channel and automatically recognised by mobo as CL 2.5 and obviously working to 333mhz, haven't really checked it yet )
LEADTEK 6600GT 12MB AGP
NEC 3500 DVD-RW
USING ONBOARD SOUND WITH 2.1 LOGITECH Z3E SPEAKERS
ok...so...the board came with bios 1.20. As soon as i tried to switch it on, i got my first cold boot problem. 2nd try was succesful though, so here we go...win xp took like 20 secs to load....(!) first 2 probs already... then after installing a few drivers, i had to reboot...oops!!.. sata II not recognised again!... switched off the pc, checked cables, on again, it worked. Anyway, im experiencing those problems quite frequently and it has started getting on my nerves. At fisrt i thought it was coz of the Sata II, but i've seen people who have the same problems with sata 1 too...anyway, I updated to 1.50 but problems still here... any suggestions??
HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY SOLVED THE BOOT PROBLEMS SOMEHOW???
(i've tried setting sata II to auto, raid, etc, but still nothing )
I read sth today about WD disks having problems with many controllers. I remember many guys who have probs with this mobo have WD hard disks...The support site of WD mentions sth about a jumper which sets the disk to sata 150 in order to make it compatible with "older controllers" as they say. Has anyone tried this??
PLZZZ HEEEEELPPPPPP
( coz apart from the boot probs, the mobo rox )
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
Originally posted by: EKTELESTES
First of all, hi everyone and thanks for the very nice thread
After reading countless posts / threads etc..I still haven't figured out what is going on with the cold/warm boot problems...I keep experiencing all of em...
My system: ( NOTHING OVERCLOCKED) -- BOUGHT JUST BEFORE X-MAS, AND I'VE ONLY BEEN USING IT FOR LIKE A WEEK...
ASROCK DUAL SATA 2
CASE: AEROCOOL BAYDREAM BLACK
A64 3500+ VENICE
WD 2500KS SATA II ( 250GB)
ENERMAX LIBERTY 500W (DUAL 12V RAIL, 22A + 22A )
2X1GB KINGSTON VALUE RAM DDR 400 CL3 ( working in dual channel and automatically recognised by mobo as CL 2.5 and obviously working to 333mhz, haven't really checked it yet )
LEADTEK 6600GT 12MB AGP
NEC 3500 DVD-RW
USING ONBOARD SOUND WITH 2.1 LOGITECH Z3E SPEAKERS
ok...so...the board came with bios 1.20. As soon as i tried to switch it on, i got my first cold boot problem. 2nd try was succesful though, so here we go...win xp took like 20 secs to load....(!) first 2 probs already... then after installing a few drivers, i had to reboot...oops!!.. sata II not recognised again!... switched off the pc, checked cables, on again, it worked. Anyway, im experiencing those problems quite frequently and it has started getting on my nerves. At fisrt i thought it was coz of the Sata II, but i've seen people who have the same problems with sata 1 too...anyway, I updated to 1.50 but problems still here... any suggestions??
HAS ANYONE ACTUALLY SOLVED THE BOOT PROBLEMS SOMEHOW???
(i've tried setting sata II to auto, raid, etc, but still nothing )
I read sth today about WD disks having problems with many controllers. I remember many guys who have probs with this mobo have WD hard disks...The support site of WD mentions sth about a jumper which sets the disk to sata 150 in order to make it compatible with "older controllers" as they say. Has anyone tried this??
PLZZZ HEEEEELPPPPPP
Did you reinstall the OS when you upgraded? Such a major hardware change usually warrants reinstalling the OS in order to get things working correctly. Also, if your RAM is CL3 and it's running at CL2.5, you might want to manually change it to CL3 in the BIOS (heck, it wouldn't hurt to loosen the RAM timings as much as possible). At the very least, run MemTest86 for several hours to see if you get any errors. You could have bad RAM, the mobo might not like the RAM, or the RAM might be running at the wrong timings.
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
Originally posted by: professor1942
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.
professor,
Since you previously had a similar system to mine and have a similar video card, would you mind sharing your previous and current gaming benchmarks (preferably 3dmark03 & 05), so I can have a general idea of what mine will be. Mine are written down at home, or else I would list them here. I "think" that my best 3dMark05 score was around 3800.
Thanks
Sure, with the latest Nvidia drivers (81.95) on the P4 system (2.8c @ 3 Ghz, 6800 at stock) I was getting:
43,000 in Aquamark
around 3200 in 3d05
8800ish in 3d03
95 fps in CS:S VST
The upgrade to the San Diego (with everything at stock speeds) brought me to around 57,000 in Aquamark and around 3500 in 3d05, 9500 in 3d03.
With the overclocks (cpu @ 2.6, 6800 @ 390/785) I am now at 66,000 in Aquamark, 4000 in 3d05, 11100 in 3d03. 137 fps in CS:S VST
Most importantly, the games I play (mostly BF2 and the IL2 series) run very noticeably better, not just in framerate but in loading time and overall smoothness as well.
43,000 in Aquamark
around 3200 in 3d05
8800ish in 3d03
95 fps in CS:S VST
The upgrade to the San Diego (with everything at stock speeds) brought me to around 57,000 in Aquamark and around 3500 in 3d05, 9500 in 3d03.
With the overclocks (cpu @ 2.6, 6800 @ 390/785) I am now at 66,000 in Aquamark, 4000 in 3d05, 11100 in 3d03. 137 fps in CS:S VST
Most importantly, the games I play (mostly BF2 and the IL2 series) run very noticeably better, not just in framerate but in loading time and overall smoothness as well.
A few people in here have gotten the board refurbed, and as far as I know they're doing fine with it. They (Newegg) say that refurb items might be missing accessories, but this board doesn't come with a whole lot of accessories in the first place.
I'm not aware of any PCI-E x4 cards. They might be useful for things that need a lot of bandwidth like high-end SCSI/RAID controllers, but for right now you're not missing out on anything by not having that slot. The PCI-E x1 slot will be fine for anything that you'll find on the PCI bus today. Looking at your sig, I see that you have an Audigy 2 ZS. Wouldn't that be sufficient if you needed a firewire port? If you needed more than one, I suppose you'd need a separate card, but one is sufficient for me (actually I haven't used a firewire port for as long as I've had them - more than two years - but that's obviously beside the point). It should hold you over for a while anyway (unless the ZS doesn't have a firewire port like my regular Audigy 2 does). Not sure if there are any PCI-E x1 firewire cards yet, but there probably will be at some point.
You will be able to run 2x1GB along with 2x512, but you will be limited to 2T (not like 1T always works that well on this board anyway), and additionally dual-channel *might* not work because of the dissimilar sizes, I'm not entirely sure.
kalrith
Diamond Member
- Aug 22, 2005
- 6,628
- 7
- 81
Synthdude2001,
First of all, thanks for all the help. It's nice to get so much input from someone who's been using this board for so long. I can't believe that I've had the Audigy 2 for 6 months and never realized that it has a firewire port. That solves that problem. I use the port to stream video from my digital camcorder, so it's a necessity for me. As far as the RAM issue goes, that upgrade is probably at least a year away (since the video card upgrade will come in 6 months or so), so it's just something that I can deal with then. If I happen to be one of the lucky ones to run in 1T, then I wouldn't want to give up that and dual channel just to run 3GB instead of 2.
I'll probably get the refurb from Newegg, if they still have it in a week when I have some money. My current motherboard was a Newegg refurb, and even though it came with nothing, I've had no problems with it whatsoever. I'll let you know when I get all this and post my results.
Oh, two more questions. I have a Thermalright NB-1 installed on my current motherboard's northbridge. Do the chipsets on the ASRock get warm enough to warrant active cooling? If so, then which heatsink should I replace? Also, I've read that this motherboard doesn't come with a backplate to install large heatsinks, so will the one that came with my heatsink work? It says here that the cpu socket must be at least 3cm away from the RAM DIMMs in order for the Ninja's backplate to work.
Thanks.
First of all, thanks for all the help. It's nice to get so much input from someone who's been using this board for so long. I can't believe that I've had the Audigy 2 for 6 months and never realized that it has a firewire port. That solves that problem. I use the port to stream video from my digital camcorder, so it's a necessity for me. As far as the RAM issue goes, that upgrade is probably at least a year away (since the video card upgrade will come in 6 months or so), so it's just something that I can deal with then. If I happen to be one of the lucky ones to run in 1T, then I wouldn't want to give up that and dual channel just to run 3GB instead of 2.
I'll probably get the refurb from Newegg, if they still have it in a week when I have some money. My current motherboard was a Newegg refurb, and even though it came with nothing, I've had no problems with it whatsoever. I'll let you know when I get all this and post my results.
Oh, two more questions. I have a Thermalright NB-1 installed on my current motherboard's northbridge. Do the chipsets on the ASRock get warm enough to warrant active cooling? If so, then which heatsink should I replace? Also, I've read that this motherboard doesn't come with a backplate to install large heatsinks, so will the one that came with my heatsink work? It says here that the cpu socket must be at least 3cm away from the RAM DIMMs in order for the Ninja's backplate to work.
Thanks.
Kalrith, it was a clean install of win xp it's actually a brand new system ! brand new, hd, cpu, mobo, case, psu, ram i only kept my leadtek 6600gt
I don't think it has to do with the ram coz all games play just fine and the prob is only with THE HDISK BEING UNDETECTED ( i know gaming is no proof for good ram and the timings are cl 2.5 while they're supposed to be cl3, but since it was automatically recognised as cl 2.5, i think the mobo dropped it to 333mhz too - ILL let you know )
in the cold/warm boots, sometimes it just doesn't find the Wd sata II. ( and i always have the long boot times )
ill try checking the ram or even putting them to the other 2 slots and I'll let you know.
PLZ KEEP POSTING IDEAS ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS - ANY MORE INFO??
it's actually a brand new system ! brand new, hd, cpu, mobo, case, psu, ram i only kept my leadtek 6600gt I don't think it has to do with the ram coz all games play just fine and the prob is only with THE HDISK BEING UNDETECTED
( i know gaming is no proof for good ram and the timings are cl 2.5 while they're supposed to be cl3, but since it was automatically recognised as cl 2.5, i think the mobo dropped it to 333mhz too - ILL let you know )in the cold/warm boots, sometimes it just doesn't find the Wd sata II. ( and i always have the long boot times )
ill try checking the ram or even putting them to the other 2 slots and I'll let you know.
PLZ KEEP POSTING IDEAS ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS - ANY MORE INFO??
Originally posted by: EKTELESTES
Kalrith, it was a clean install of win xp
I don't think it has to do with the ram coz all games play just fine and the prob is only with THE HDISK BEING UNDETECTED
in the cold/warm boots, sometimes it just doesn't find the Wd sata II. ( and i always have the long boot times )
ill try checking the ram or even putting them to the other 2 slots and I'll let you know.
PLZ KEEP POSTING IDEAS ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS - ANY MORE INFO??
If you're having hard drive detection problems (within Windows specifically), try setting the SATA controller to "non-RAID" or "IDE" mode in the BIOS. (the first setting applies to the SATA1 ports, the second would be for SATAII)
I'm not too familiar with the Ninja, but if it came with a backplate of its own, I think you should be able to use that on this motherboard with no problems (just make sure the screw holes line up with those on the board by looking at photos or something). In fact, there's a thread here that seems to confirm that it will work, though it will be a pretty tight fit. I'm also not sure how warm the chipsets get on the board, but I haven't had any problems using the stock (passive) heatsinks on them. It looks like some people (including one in that thread I linked) have replaced the northbridge heatsinks though.
SynthDude2001,
The Opterons were hard to find for a while, but a few places have them in stock now, and the prices are down. A 165 can be had for $270, well below any X2, and the 146's are around $180. And they still clock very well indeed. I think they are an oustanding value.
The Opterons were hard to find for a while, but a few places have them in stock now, and the prices are down. A 165 can be had for $270, well below any X2, and the 146's are around $180. And they still clock very well indeed. I think they are an oustanding value.
Cool, didn't realize that. As you might imagine, I haven't been following Opteron prices all that closely since I bought mine two months ago
Shuxclams
Diamond Member
- Oct 10, 1999
- 9,286
- 15
- 81
Set the DRAM to high... wnet and tried to reply to an email...... it starts to open up word as the default editor and then reboots.
http://www.gigaram.com/products/ddr_high.php
I have the second to last module, it show 2-3-2-5 How should that be read... What would you say are the correct settings given there is no '3' in that space.
EDIT: It only does that when Word is set to the default email application editor
EDIT #2: It happens when I open Microsoft Word as well
EDIT #3: Anything Flash crashes with a bluescreen and reboots.
I have googled this and am not the only one.... only I cant find an answer to this problem.
EDIT #4: Just flashed BIOS to 1.5 and can open MS Office Apps and visited Macromedia.com in Mozilla no problem.
SHUX
http://www.gigaram.com/products/ddr_high.php
I have the second to last module, it show 2-3-2-5 How should that be read... What would you say are the correct settings given there is no '3' in that space.
EDIT: It only does that when Word is set to the default email application editor
EDIT #2: It happens when I open Microsoft Word as well
EDIT #3: Anything Flash crashes with a bluescreen and reboots.
I have googled this and am not the only one.... only I cant find an answer to this problem.
EDIT #4: Just flashed BIOS to 1.5 and can open MS Office Apps and visited Macromedia.com in Mozilla no problem.
SHUX
There was a long thread in hot deals about them. I just checked, they are back up to $309. Sorry.
I 've tried them with no luck....the prob though will appear only in a reboot or a cold boot. If it detects the hard disk then it will boot ok ( but I'll have to wait TOO LONG in the the win screen )
HAS anyone with the same problems managed to solve them??
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