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

[OvErHeAtInG]

Very tempting, but at the same time, I am rather cautious to touch this motherboard again.

Me too. I know better, but I know I'll try it for me it's potentially worth it since I have a 165 with a 9x multi. Altho summer is coming and this CNPS7000 isn't doing much for me, so I was planning on just staying at 2466.

 

[Araemo]

Then you're in almost the same boat I'm in. My 144 is sitting there at 2400, and my ram is stuck at either 170 mhz or I have to use A64Tweaker after every boot to change it to the 150(0.75) divider... which crashes my system half the time(If something makes a sound at that moment, or a few other things..).. I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Or if I can push to 9x300, that would work too. (I'm not betting on it with my ambient temps though)

 

[Spacecomber]

I searched through this thread with the search function and didn't see mention of this, but I just bought my second one of these boards and the audio seems to be DOA. Skimming through the NewEgg "reviews" it looks like while this is not exactly a common problem, there are a few others who report a similar issue.

Any one here on Anandtech seen this problem? I'm pretty sure that I'm not missing something with the install. I've set one of these boards up before and there was nothing tricky about getting the onboard audio to work. Just install the drivers and you're good to go. I did double check the BIOS to make sure the audio was enabled, device manager shows the AC97 audio to be installed and working, and windows shows this to be the device for handling my sound. But, none of the audio jacks produce anything. Even hooking up the case's front audio outputs to see what happens was unsuccessful.

It will probably be cheaper and easier to pick up an inexpensive sound card to use, instead of RMAing the board back to NewEgg for a replacement, but I thought I would double check against the possibility that I'm missing something before I do.

Thanks.

Space

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Spacecomber
I searched through this thread with the search function and didn't see mention of this, but I just bought my second one of these boards and the audio seems to be DOA. Skimming through the NewEgg "reviews" it looks like while this is not exactly a common problem, there are a few others who report a similar issue.

Any one here on Anandtech seen this problem? I'm pretty sure that I'm not missing something with the install. I've set one of these boards up before and there was nothing tricky about getting the onboard audio to work. Just install the drivers and you're good to go. I did double check the BIOS to make sure the audio was enabled, device manager shows the AC97 audio to be installed and working, and windows shows this to be the device for handling my sound. But, none of the audio jacks produce anything. Even hooking up the case's front audio outputs to see what happens was unsuccessful.

It will probably be cheaper and easier to pick up an inexpensive sound card to use, instead of RMAing the board back to NewEgg for a replacement, but I thought I would double check against the possibility that I'm missing something before I do.

Thanks.

Space

It sounds like you have everything set up correctly - that's exactly how I set up my onboard audio when I got my board (I used it for a few days before my sound card came in). It does sound like a bad board (at least the audio part of it), but you're probably right in that it would be easier just to pick up a cheap sound card...

 

[Limboistik]

Hmm Im stumped guys, my computer has been having a power problem for a month or so, if I turn off the computer, it simply refuses to turn back on and I gotta fidget with the power cords and stuff for an hour before it turns back on again.
Then one day when I left my computer on and went out, I came back to it turned off. So I try to turn it on, and it doesn't turn on, and no matter what I did with the power or jumpers it doesn't turn back on, so I figured maybe my PSU couldn't handle it anymore, since it was a antec 400W and i have a FX53, DFI UT Lanparty nF3-ultra-D, 3 harddrives, and a X800XT AGP, 1 gig ram.
So I went out and bought an Enermax 535W, and swapped it, nope, computer still won't power up.
Ok so I figured its the mobo, because I swapped in an old mobo with a xp 3500 on it and it works, wtf?
So I bought the AsRock mobo now, and it STILL doesn't turn on.
Wtf? I honestly don't know what is wrong, and I hope to god it's not actually my CPU that's messed up
Someone halp!!!

 

[qsrk]

FYI, there is a new JMicron RAID controller available via Windows Update:

Driver update for JMicron JMB36X RAID Controller
Date last published: 4/17/2006
Download size: 37 KB
Driver update provided by JMicron Technology Corp.

Also, has anyone ever looked at the JMB360 PDF available on the JMicron website? It has CONFIDENTIAL all over it. Here's a link

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Araemo
My 144 is sitting there at 2400,
I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Are you saying you can use an Opteron 144 at HTT x 8?
How?

Edit:
Wow! I didn't know this was possible.

 

[Tates]

939Dual-SATA2_1.80

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Wow! I just flashed to OCWB7 and I'm amazed. Booting at >274HTT (even over 300) looks like it works perfectly now, no cold/warm boot problems. I could boot right up at 270x10, 280x10, 311x9, etc. I'm pretty sure I can get my overclock a bit higher than 2.6 now, I just need to find a setting that doesn't run my RAM faster than it can handle (but also not below 200MHz).

Overall I'm very impressed, I think everyone should upgrade to this BIOS right now

Were you able to get these results with or without a volt mod? I upgraded to this BIOS and was not able to push past 274 without system problems or halts during XP booting up, which is no different from the previous ASRock BIOS I had (1.20 I believe). If you did this without a volt mod, what kind of RAM and PSU do you have? Also, what were your NB and SB settings (200, 400, 600, etc) and memory timings and speeds (133, 166, etc)?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Double Echo

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Wow! I just flashed to OCWB7 and I'm amazed. Booting at >274HTT (even over 300) looks like it works perfectly now, no cold/warm boot problems. I could boot right up at 270x10, 280x10, 311x9, etc. I'm pretty sure I can get my overclock a bit higher than 2.6 now, I just need to find a setting that doesn't run my RAM faster than it can handle (but also not below 200MHz).

Overall I'm very impressed, I think everyone should upgrade to this BIOS right now

Were you able to get these results with or without a volt mod? I upgraded to this BIOS and was not able to push past 274 without system problems or halts during XP booting up, which is no different from the previous ASRock BIOS I had (1.20 I believe). If you did this without a volt mod, what kind of RAM and PSU do you have? Also, what were your NB and SB settings (200, 400, 600, etc) and memory timings and speeds (133, 166, etc)?

I have done the (Vcore) voltmod on my board. CPU-NB speed is 600MHz I think, and for now I have my memory divider at 133MHz (I increase it to 150 in Windows after boot). Timings are 2.5-3-3-7-2T (4x512MB), and I'm running 270x10 for the moment. With the 150 memory divider this puts my RAM speed at 192MHz (compared to the 216MHz it was running before at 260x10 and 166 divider, which was pretty close to the limit - anything over 220 on the RAM seems to be unstable). But even with the lower RAM speed, my video encoding seems to be faster just from the higher clockspeed of 2.7GHz vs. 2.6. I'm still playing with my settings to find what works best overall...

 

[Wi1z]

Just a quickie

1.80 bios is out now, only updates CnQ on AM2

http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2#bios

 

[nJett]

I've been noticing a very weird problem on my 939Dual - it's a relatively new set up and has apparently been stable but about 5 times now my wireless networking has gotten borked. I have to use wireless on my desktop because my computer is upstairs and my cable modem is downstairs - it's a cheapo D-Link 802.11G PCI card. As far as I can tell the issue is NOT with the card or its drivers. Here is a general summary of what's happened:
1)Computer is in heavy use for several hours, including the wireless connections
2)Close whatever I'm doing (namely HL2 and Oblivion)
3)Wireless network is not detected anymore

The only way to solve this is to reboot the computer. My first thought was that it was a heat issue but after testing for that it certainly does not seem to be, nothing is overheating and it's so intermitten that it doesn't really seem like I'm hitting a peak temp. and then the problem occurs. It's definitely AFTER I close down whatever was running (i.e. I can play HL2DM for 2 hours and then the second I close the program the issue occurs, other times I can play for 3 hours and close the program without issue).
I tried refreshing the wireless network list and it does not detect the signal, even though the strength on it is still good (tested with two different laptops). I tried reinstalling the card's drivers (yes they are current) and that makes no difference. Tried disabling and re-enabling the card and that makes no difference. Tried powering on and off the WAP itself and that makes no difference. The ONLY thing that makes a difference is rebooting the PC itself. Now, I know there is nothing wrong with my D-Link card - I've run it without issue for many months - the only change I've made to my system was the recent installation of my 939Dual + A64 3000+ - since it's not likely the CPU causing this weird issue my primary suspect is something with the motherboard itself - anyone have any ideas? I've searched through the forums and can not find any other accounts of anything similiar to this.

Full system specs:
ASRock 939Dual
A64 3000+ @ ~2.3ghz (Venice core, stock cooler - hottest I've ever seen it was ~95f)
LeadTek 6600GT (AGP, slight OC)
D-Link 802.11G PCI (can't recall model, whatever their cheapo version is)
IDE Maxtor 60gb 7200RPM (don't recall specific model #, sorry)
Antec Truepower 430w

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: nJett
I've been noticing a very weird problem on my 939Dual - it's a relatively new set up and has apparently been stable but about 5 times now my wireless networking has gotten borked. I have to use wireless on my desktop because my computer is upstairs and my cable modem is downstairs - it's a cheapo D-Link 802.11G PCI card. As far as I can tell the issue is NOT with the card or its drivers. Here is a general summary of what's happened:
1)Computer is in heavy use for several hours, including the wireless connections
2)Close whatever I'm doing (namely HL2 and Oblivion)
3)Wireless network is not detected anymore

The only way to solve this is to reboot the computer. My first thought was that it was a heat issue but after testing for that it certainly does not seem to be, nothing is overheating and it's so intermitten that it doesn't really seem like I'm hitting a peak temp. and then the problem occurs. It's definitely AFTER I close down whatever was running (i.e. I can play HL2DM for 2 hours and then the second I close the program the issue occurs, other times I can play for 3 hours and close the program without issue).
I tried refreshing the wireless network list and it does not detect the signal, even though the strength on it is still good (tested with two different laptops). I tried reinstalling the card's drivers (yes they are current) and that makes no difference. Tried disabling and re-enabling the card and that makes no difference. Tried powering on and off the WAP itself and that makes no difference. The ONLY thing that makes a difference is rebooting the PC itself. Now, I know there is nothing wrong with my D-Link card - I've run it without issue for many months - the only change I've made to my system was the recent installation of my 939Dual + A64 3000+ - since it's not likely the CPU causing this weird issue my primary suspect is something with the motherboard itself - anyone have any ideas? I've searched through the forums and can not find any other accounts of anything similiar to this.

I've noticed this too, with my Netgear MA311 802.11b card (actually a really good card). However, I don't know if this is a problem with Wireless B's low bandwidth and signal strength, or the board itself.

Personally I'm going to install patch panels in the walls and run ethernet, because I'm sick of wireless

 

[nJett]

Unfortunately I don't really have that option so I'm stuck having to figure out what's going on with the damn thing. I'm worried it may be getting worse, it seems like it is happening more frequently now although it is still following the same pattern as before. The only time I've ever seen anything similiar was with an old Asus P2B-LS (late '90's BX-chipset board for P2's & first-gen Celerons) that would have almost the exact same problem on the built in ethernet except it wasn't when you closed a program it was just after some random amount of time.

 

[Spineshank]

Im still running the 1.2 bios but maybe ill finally try a new one.

 

[Araemo]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Araemo
My 144 is sitting there at 2400,
I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Are you saying you can use an Opteron 144 at HTT x 8?
How?

Edit:
Wow! I didn't know this was possible.

the A64s are unlocked downwards

If your chip has 9x multi, theoretically you can run it at anything down to about 5x multi.

With this chip on this board, it doesn't seem to want to do anything below 7 or 8, but that's good enough for my purposes. (I swear the updates to this thread weren't showing for me for the past few days)

 

[Navid]

It looks like the new released official Asrock Bios (1.8) does not have the 274 lock. I am using it now at 304 with my Opteron 144 and have no cold or warm boot freeze problems.

The memory rates are 100, 133, 166 and 200. I am not sure if the 100 rate is new or was there in the previous ones; don't remember.

 

[SonicIce]

so will this thing really work with AM2?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
so will this thing really work with AM2?

As long as you buy the (yet-to-be-released, as far as I'm aware) AM2 riser card, and change the board's jumpers accordingly, then yes. That's the idea anyway.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: SonicIce
so will this thing really work with AM2?

As long as you buy the (yet-to-be-released, as far as I'm aware) AM2 riser card, and change the board's jumpers accordingly, then yes. That's the idea anyway.

what about needing DDR2?

 

[Tates]

Originally posted by: SonicIce

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: SonicIce
so will this thing really work with AM2?

As long as you buy the (yet-to-be-released, as far as I'm aware) AM2 riser card, and change the board's jumpers accordingly, then yes. That's the idea anyway.

what about needing DDR2?

All on the riser card

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: Araemo

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Araemo
My 144 is sitting there at 2400,
I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Are you saying you can use an Opteron 144 at HTT x 8?
How?

Edit:
Wow! I didn't know this was possible.

the A64s are unlocked downwards

If your chip has 9x multi, theoretically you can run it at anything down to about 5x multi.

With this chip on this board, it doesn't seem to want to do anything below 7 or 8, but that's good enough for my purposes. (I swear the updates to this thread weren't showing for me for the past few days)

Would a A64 Venice 3000+ be unlocked downwards too? Would this potentially let me clock higher at a lower multiplier?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Double Echo

Originally posted by: Araemo

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Araemo
My 144 is sitting there at 2400,
I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Are you saying you can use an Opteron 144 at HTT x 8?
How?

Edit:
Wow! I didn't know this was possible.

the A64s are unlocked downwards

If your chip has 9x multi, theoretically you can run it at anything down to about 5x multi.

With this chip on this board, it doesn't seem to want to do anything below 7 or 8, but that's good enough for my purposes. (I swear the updates to this thread weren't showing for me for the past few days)

Would a A64 Venice 3000+ be unlocked downwards too? Would this potentially let me clock higher at a lower multiplier?

Yes, as far as I know they should all be unlocked downwards (though as mentioned, going below 7-8 doesn't always work).

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: Double Echo

Originally posted by: Araemo

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Araemo
My 144 is sitting there at 2400,
I'd much rather go down to the 8x multi and use 300 mhz CPU clock, I'd be able to use the 133 divider..

Are you saying you can use an Opteron 144 at HTT x 8?
How?

Edit:
Wow! I didn't know this was possible.

the A64s are unlocked downwards

If your chip has 9x multi, theoretically you can run it at anything down to about 5x multi.

With this chip on this board, it doesn't seem to want to do anything below 7 or 8, but that's good enough for my purposes. (I swear the updates to this thread weren't showing for me for the past few days)

Would a A64 Venice 3000+ be unlocked downwards too? Would this potentially let me clock higher at a lower multiplier?

Yes, as far as I know they should all be unlocked downwards (though as mentioned, going below 7-8 doesn't always work).

Can you tell me the benefit of doing this? Am I going to be able to get higher clock speeds?

 

[Araemo]

Originally posted by: Double Echo
Can you tell me the benefit of doing this? Am I going to be able to get higher clock speeds?

Very few people get HIGHER cpu clock speeds. The advantage is primarily if you don't have good ram. Using my chips as an example, it has a standard multi of 9. I currently run 267X9, for 2402 Mhz. But this leaves my DDR400 running at 177 Mhz (DDR354). (Using the 133 Divider)

If I switch to 300x8, I'm still at 2400 Mhz, and using the 133 Divider my RAM will run at 200 Mhz. It's really most usefull for tuning your setup to the best clocks you can get, but not necessarily for your CPU's benefit.