Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 + ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA + ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[Deleauvive]

I was lucky enough to grab a Gigabyte 8600 GT on the second hand market, equipped with a Zalman heatsink, for less than 30 euros. This card used to get a lot of bad rap when it was released, mainly because it proves less powerful and overclockable than its older cousin, the 7900 GT.
Yet, so far, I should mention it works wonders with the Asrock 4Core. Default BIOS values were automagically loaded after the replacement took place, then all I had to do was to apply the usual settings for my mild overclocking.

This card comes as a replacement for my fanless 7600 GS I wasn't entirely satisfied with (PM me if you'd like me to give you the link to the ebay auction, once I have the opportunity to resell it).

"TOSERVE", the computer on which I installed it, isn't my main gaming machine, so I don't care much for the relatively subpar performance of the 8600 GT (some user commented that it was merely a DirectX 10 card "on paper" ha ha!), but I fancy its full compatibility with Windows Vista's Aero.

e.q. I could reenable GPU rendering in Internet Explorer since all the artefact issues I was experiencing in Vista are gone. I couldn't help myself : I already started to overclock it (very gently for the moment). 3Dmark '06 gives an honorable score (see below).

In one word, I think that's precisely the GeForce model (GV-NX86T256H-ZL-HM) I should have chosen in the first place to fit this motherboard, not that the 7600 GS is a bad card, but this one has what it takes (for my needs at least), plus it runs cooler and very quietly, with the addition of that elegant Zalman heatsink.

My 320W PSU from way back supports it (fingers crossed!), and it doesn't require any additional power via a 6-pin PSU connector.


GPU-Z

 

[zaoan]

Well, this is one thing i don't understand. If lowering the multiplier to 8, for more stability, and not being able to increase cpu freq over 300, it doesn't get me anywhere, does it?
I would still be in the 2.4ghz range (80mhz more if set to 300x8), wouldn't i?
And only for a non significant increase in performance, dunno if it's worth it.

As for the video card you're describing, i really think my hd4770 is a lot more powerful, if you were suggesting that i should change mine

The only drawback now is that by running with wddm driver, my system lacks the opengl feature for the gpu, thus i cannot run games which use opengl, like cs 1.6.
Not sure how to fix this. Is it recommended to uninstall wddm driver if i plan to install official ati or the later one will overwrite the wddm files?

 

[Deleauvive]

lowering the multiplier to 8, for more stability, and not being able to increase cpu freq over 300...

I am not saying it won't work. I am just saying chances are a stringent test such as using the CPU stress-testing tools I evoked earlier on will crap out, after a few minutes of maximum load on both cores.

I would still be in the 2.4ghz range (80mhz more if set to 300x8), wouldn't i?

FSB overclocking > CPU overclocking usually. Of course, it would be better to decrease the ratio by a mere 0.5 point, apparently your class of CPU doesn't offer this feature while mine does (i own a e7300).

And only for a non significant increase in performance

Overclocking doesn't solely affect 3D performance (in fact, that's more of a GPU overclocking affair, strictly speaking), the whole system benefits from it (better multitasking is to be expected). Notice how jumps in chipset architecture offer a significant boost in overall performance : Quad-pumped FSB's of 800, 1066, 1333 with their corresponding DDR2 modules running at PC2-3200 PC2-4200 and PC2-5300, and now DDR3 with its increased bandwidth. Some owners of e5xx Dual Cores have physically modified their Asrock to run them as if they were 1066 based.

So, basically, the more your increase the FSB through CPU frequency, the closer you get from the next generation of chipset architecture, the better it is (after you pass the threshold of a too low FSB to compensate for the lower ratio, if you see my point). This said, the combination you used (286x9), while probably not optimal, might do the trick in terms of hassle free (small but noticeable) performance increase.

As for the video card you're describing, i really think my hd4770 is a lot more powerful, if you were suggesting that i should change mine

Not at all, I am simply worried that the graphic card you're using could be less than 100% compatible with the Asrock, since it is not listed on Asrock web site.

Is it recommended to uninstall wddm driver if i plan to install official ati or the later one will overwrite the wddm files?

That's a good question. First, can you tell us exactly what version of the AMD driver suite you plan to use ? It should mention "legacy" somewhere. Secondly, if you want to prevent the WDDM driver from reinstalling, there is a method I am about to describe, but it requires that you are logged in as an administrator, and I never tested it in Windows 8. I am not saying it will solve your driver issue, but it's worth a try.

1) Go to desktop run the following command gpedit.msc
2) machine policy window will open, go to the Machine policy ->Administrative Templates -> system -> device installation
3) Go to Prevent installation of devices not described by other policy settings.
4) Edit settings and select disabled radio button.
5) Uninstall the driver and reboot.
6) Once rebooted you will not get the driver installed and can install the driver you want.
7) Once done you can change the setting back and check if all things are working properly or not.

(taken from answers.microsoft.com)

"8)" You may use the command gpupdate /force to apply the console related settings without rebooting (especially useful to install the proper driver right after you have changed back the setting).

 

[zaoan]

Yeah, well i have also never seen anywhere that the 4770 is supported by this motherboard. Only saw it in the latest of pctreiber's bios updates, but that was for the VSTA model. From here, i was thinking why it shouldn't be supported by my mobo, if they're using the same chip.

ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA Bios 2.39a
Datiert auf den 18.06.2009
4CoreDual-VSTA BIOS L2.39 REV:a
Changelog:
- Add support für HD 4350, HD 4550, HD 46×0, 47X0 and HD 48X0
- Add support for E-0/R-0 Wolfdale CPU (E7600, Pentium E6300 supported!)
- Support 4 GB DDR2 (~ 3,3 GB useable)
- Enhanced Speedfancontrol for PWM-Fans
- Support Enahnced Halt State, SpeedStep and Thermal Throttling
- Instant Boot Support
- Logitech Illuminated keyboard fix


I took the liberty of downloading the 13.4 beta driver from ati/amd. I uninstalled the wddm driver, but then windows would instantly install it back after i did the scan for hardware changes. I disabled the automatic driver installation from device installation services. That didn't work either, it kept reinstalling it.
Finally i uninstalled the wddm driver again and, without clicking the scan for hardware changes button, i installed the .inf driver file from where i previously extracted it.
Now the hardware changes option was missing, but after a few seconds it was back there and windows had already installed the new driver, now being listed as ATI Radeon HD 4770, instead of Radeon 4770 series (Microsoft Corporation WDDM 1.1).


Opengl now works, as well as flash player's hardware acceleration for youtube videos, as with the wddm driver i had to disable hardware acceleration, because videos were not playing correctly.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Hi again

Update for Hlafordlaes

I ran sfc /verifyonly this morning before work and it completed with no reports of errors.

When it actually boots up, Windows 7 is working fine. The problem seems to be on shutdown, while everything goes off, the actual PC stays on rather than powering off. Then, on starting again, sometimes Windows 7 starts up perfectly, other times it hangs on the startup screen (just as the coloured balls are beginning to appear) and sometimes I get the option to do a startup repair (which so far always freezes) or start normally, which usually works!

Haven't had time to check the HDD yet but that's next.

Thanks

Hmmm. On the one hand, it sounds like a hardware issue, but on the other, perhaps you are not allowing the OS time to shut down?

For example, after Windows updates, which are commonly "happening" during the hours/days following an install, I sometimes have an extraordinarily long wait before the PC shuts down/restarts, much of it spent staring at a black screen. Further, if I do fall prey to the temptation to manually shut down, the next boot finds Windows scrambling to figure out how to work around the broken update install.

All this happened when I was recently re-installing Win7 on the 775i65G, btw, which I had to repeat due to my impatience and the broken update.

I know it sounds trivial, but make sure that's not an issue; i.e., that nothing is being updated during reboots, so the hang does not owe to that.

As for HW, as above I suspect the HD, but the symptoms upon reflection are more typical of the PSU, or bad seating of components/cables. Best way to overcome this conundrum is, if poss, try installing Win7 on a different drive, and take all other HDs out of the system.* Prior to testing, reseat all cables and add-in cards when swapping the drive out. For debugging simplicity, connect as little hardware as you can for the initial install.

If in this scenario you still get the same boot issues, we will have narrowed it down to the PSU, unlikely as that initially seemed, given the quality of the brand and model.

*ETA: Meaning do not connect power and data cables. No need to take them out of the case.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

nm

 

[meanscotsman]

It's been a while, due to a number of family issues, but I'm still struggling with my 4coredual-sata and Windows 7.

Have had it apart, took the mobo out, reseated both the CPU, heatsink and fan and the northbridge heatsink, reseated the RAM, disconnected and reconnected the Video card, HDD, DVD drive etc. About the only think I haven't tried is swapping out the PSU for another.

Still have trouble booting up. When it does boot, everything seems to work great. But, on shutdown, the PC stays powered on and I have to hold the power button to get it to shut off. Then, when I restart, it struggles and I get the "startup repair or start normally" screen. Sometimes start normally works, sometimes not.

One thing I want to try is updating the chipset drivers. When I installed Windows 7, I assumed I'd have to do this first thing thereafter. But Windows installed all the drivers. And, on checking ASrock's website, they have no Windows 7 drivers for this board, only for the Rev 2 board. They do have VISTA 64 bit drivers, however.

What have other users of this board and Windows 7 done about chipset drivers? Have you left the ones installed by Windows 7? Or have you downloaded the ASRock ones? If so, which ones?

I'm thinking of trying the VISTA ones but any advice before I do so will, as always, be very much appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[Hlafordlaes]

I use the Win7 default drivers. No need to install chipset drivers in either x86 or x64 Win7 setups.

Here is what I'd do:
-Clear CMOS
-Set BIOS to defaults, reboot
-Set BIOS to settings used in this thread and appropriate to your setup, reboot
-Full re-install of Windows 7

That ought to give you the ACPI and not the Standard PC result you need. If it does not work, it does seem that it may be the PSU.

If you test another PSU now, the existing install will still be Standard PC. A full OS re-install with a different, test PSU seems to be the best final option.

 

[Deleauvive]

Guys, what if it was the motherboard itself that was physically damaged (through the first PCTreiber's BIOS update attempt, which was the moment issues started to appear AFAIR) ?

Previous PSU's I've owned did blow up and die instantly when something wrong occurred at their level, and the VIA PT800 equipped motherboards can run on low wattage for most setup's.

Indeed, a full reinstall sounds like the best thing to do, but it seems boot issues still are / will be in the way.

 

[ricardo.vix]

sorry, wrong topic

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Guys, what if it was the motherboard itself that was physically damaged (through the first PCTreiber's BIOS update attempt, which was the moment issues started to appear AFAIR) ?

Previous PSU's I've owned did blow up and die instantly when something wrong occurred at their level, and the VIA PT800 equipped motherboards can run on low wattage for most setup's.

Indeed, a full reinstall sounds like the best thing to do, but it seems boot issues still are / will be in the way.

IIRC that would result in bad checksum errors at boot time if it were the case, so unless one sees that msg, and the system boots, the BIOS image is OK.

 

[Deleauvive]

Except that our friend was never able to do a proper Windows 7 installation from A to Z through the standard procedure (HDD initialization from the DVD routines), even after a low level format. So I still have my doubts about the mobo not being the culprit.

 

[meanscotsman]

Final update from me on my 4coredual-sata2 related issues.

First, the conclusion – the motherboard had developed a fault to do, as far as I can tell, with its power management. Whether flashing the BIOS caused this, or just revealed an underlying issue, I don’t know. The onboard audio was faulty on this board – only one channel coming out of the green port on the back when headphones were connected. I don’t know if that indicated a general problem or was unrelated to my power problems.

But I eventually swapped out the mobo for a "new" (second-hand) 4coredual-sata2 and everything is now up and running fine. I haven’t flashed the BIOS of this board yet, so I’m limited to 2GB of RAM. But given my experiences, I’ll hold off flashing the BIOS until I’ve got a new PC and this one becomes my back-up.

For the sake of anyone else having problems, here is a summary of what I did in order to work out where the fault lay.

Given that my problems related to booting and shutting down Windows 7, I suspected the PSU. I pulled out an old PC chassis and built a test rig, fitting an old ATX PSU in it, along with the mobo, DVD drive, HDD etc. No change – still having trouble booting and PC still not turning off on shutdown. So it wasn’t the PSU.

I also suspected the HDD, although it had passed Seagate’s various diagnostic tests. My other HDD, with XP on it, booted perfectly every time. Although it only got as far as displaying “It is now safe to turn off your computer” on shutdown. Was there something wrong with the HDD with Windows 7 installed?

I swapped that HDD for a new (old) one I had going spare, zeroed it, and installed Windows 7. Everything was the same as before. The PC failed to restart during installation, but eventually completed once I managed to get the PC to reboot. But I had exactly the same trouble booting and shutting down as before. So it wasn’t the HDD. As an aside, I suspect the XP HDD booted up fine because, when I repair installed it way back, it failed to recognise the mobo as ACPI compliant and installed as “Standard PC”.

Having ruled out problems with the PSU and HDD then (and having previously ruled out problems with the CPU, RAM, GPU etc), I took out my mobo and installed the “new” one, connecting up my Windows 7 HDD. It posted fine and booted up first time! And it has continued to boot up and shutdown/turn off perfectly ever since.

So the problem was definitely the mobo.

Whether the problem was with the BOIS I still don’t know. I was certainly having some BIOS related issues. Sometimes, on powering on the PC, it wouldn’t post at all and would go straight to a black screen with flashing cursor. Occasionally (after the PC had been off for 2 weeks while I was away), it gave me a checksum error on post. And on other occasions, it posted repeatedly. But given that happened after I’d repeatedly forced the power off by holding down the button, that’s maybe not surprising.

But I suspect the board and not the BIOS or CMOS chip. As far as I understand things, a BIOS is either bad or good – it can’t be a little bit bad, just like a girl can’t be a little bit pregnant.

The only way to know, however, would be to swap CMOS chips with my new, working mobo and see if the problem recurs. I may try that in the future, just to see.

For now, however, I’m just happy to have a working PC again. And Windows 7 works fine even with just 2GB of RAM, much, much faster than XP.

 

[Deleauvive]

Good news, and congrats for the meticulous testing!
Fear not though, giving this baby the PCTreiber 2.20a Bios update treatment will make your Scottish ancestors (and us) proud of you.

Just as you, I was a bit worried before I updated to the unofficial Bios.
The numerous enhancements convinced me, it's worth the little sweat during the blocks erasing / rewriting. When it's done (provided everything went fine, obviously), you'll probably never want to turn back to the official Bios!

2GB of RAM (with adjusted timings) are more than enough to run any of the major 32-bit Windows OS'es, as long as one doesn't attempt for massive multimedia / intensive task switching. That's the amount my own Asrock 4Core based system bears. The lack of the additional 1,25 GB shouldn't have a too detrimental effect on performance hopefully.

 

[Deleauvive]

A small update with my own Asrock 4core setup guys :

Even with the DRAM voltage set to high, I couldn't use CAS 3 in the long run without some data corruption in Windows,
so now it's back to CAS 4 for me (4-4-3-10; CAS 4 / tRP 3 / tRCD 4 / tRAS 10).
The presence of the 8600 GT seems to make the BIOS a little more prone to sudden bios defaults resets, setting DRAM voltage back to normal helped to solve the problem, apparently.

I slightly overclocked the Gigabyte's GPU (+ 4%) and GDDR (+ 1%), but since I don't actually play many games, I am not too sure about the real life gains.
This said, since the card uses that powerful fan and bulky Zalman heatsink, chances are I only scratched the surface in terms of GPU overclocking.


To increase the air flow within my case, I installed these mesh brackets from Nexus at the back :




One above the GPU, two underneath it!
These smart case additions are microperforated to prevent too much dust from entering the case.

I also added a 3.5" generic smart card reader so that I may use a USB port up the front panel.
Maybe someone can confirm that plugging the USB45 (4 & 5) and USB56 (5 & 6) connectors to the front panel is not recommended (or was it the front panel audio ones ?).


I think I finally found out about that fuzzy CPU Thermal Throttling setting
http://www.computing.net/answers/cpus/what-is-cputhermal-throttling/11119.html

According to these guys, it's not some addition to the existing speed step mechanisms (e.q. to protect the CPU from overheating), nor it is related to the Pentium 4 thermal monitoring feature.

This BIOS feature determines the clock speed of the processor when it is in the Suspend To RAM (STR) power saving mode. It has no effect when the processor is in normal active mode.

Available options for this BIOS feature are set values of the processor's power consumption. They range from a low of 12.5% to a high of 87.5%. Please note that these options reflect the desired power consumption of the processor, not its clock speed. The clock speed of the processor will be determined based on the option chosen.

The default setting is usually 62.5%. This means the processor will be running at a clock speed that allows it to use 37.5% less power.

So what's missing from the option is the possibility to choose the % of diminished CPU power in hibernation when thermal throttling is enabled (PC Treiber guys, should you be reading this thread...!).


Last, if you don't want to push the FSB too high (relatively speaking), in most cases, choosing to lower the ratio by only half a point will bring similar results, e.q. 290x9.5 gives a 3D Mark score very close to what one might obtain with 297x9. That is, if your class of Dual / Quad Core allows you to change the ratio accordingly.

 

[Deleauvive]

Give me an F!
Give me an I!
Give me an N!
Give me an A!
Give me an L!

This is probably my final attempt at overclocking both this CPU and this GPU

CPU OC' :
FSB@297 (+11.8% relatively to default speed)
CPU Ratio : 9.5 (CPU speed +6%)


GPU OC' :
GPU 630 MHz (VS 600 MHz) ;
GDDR 367 (x2) MHz (VS 360 MHz)





Aquamark
Avg FPS : 88.85
Avg Triangles Per Second : 26747342
Aquamark Score Render : 14570
Aquamark Score Simulation : 11386
Aquamark Score : 88852


3Dmark 2001SE
26989 3Dmarks


3Dmark '06
5580 3Dmarks


Not too bad for a 5 years old mobo, paired with a 6 years old GPU, huh ?
Just let me know if you need the new screenshots from my BIOS setup.

 

[doubleOseven]

Not much activity in this discussion, so I thought I'd just add a few words saying that my 4CoreDual-Sata2 is going on 6 years in age and continues to work very well for me. It has been very stable, reliable, and performs pretty good all things considered. Long may it continue!

 

[flimsy]

Greetings all.

Long time owner of the 4CoreDual-VSTA and just stumbled upon this thread. Didn't know about the special bios that allows the extra RAM. Downloaded what I think is correct, version 2.39A. Problem is that I have no idea how to install it. The instructions lead to broken links, and looking through this long thread also leads to a lot of broken links. Tried to be sneaky and use the Asrock ASR Flash utility from the current version but it will not install it (error 18). Can anyone point me towards how to exactly install this? This could be a sign that I need to finally upgrade into a more modern system, but with a bit of extra memory I think I would be happy... At least until a nice MicroCenter sale occurs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

flimsy,

Here is a link to some files in my GDrive, all related to the 2.39a and flashing tools. Follow instructions in WinFlash4.22Usage.txt. NEVER choose the option to flash the boot blocks.

Hlaf.

 

[flimsy]

Thanks. Worked perfectly.

flimsy,

Here is a link to some files in my GDrive, all related to the 2.39a and flashing tools. Follow instructions in WinFlash4.22Usage.txt. NEVER choose the option to flash the boot blocks.

Hlaf.

 

[denis747]

Hi Guys, I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong section. I have a 4coredual-vsta with the latest pctreiber bios version 2.39a. I have been using an Ati radeon x1950pro pci express graphics card which works fine with this motherboard. I recently bought a Sapphire Dual-x R9 270X pci express graphics card. Problem is, the motherboard refuses to boot with this graphics card. I have a 600 Watt power supply which is more than enough. All the fans come on, i.e the power supply fan and the graphics cards fans but the motherboard refuses to successfully POST (Power On Self Test) i.e. nothing shows up on the screen and no bios successful POST sound either. The graphics card is a pci express version 3 card. Could it be that the card cannot work with the 4x pci express version 1, of this motherboard?

Problem is it seems like I will have to buy a new motherboard which means new cpu and new ram. For now I am using my old radeon x1950pro graphics card with the new R9 270X waiting in its box.

Denis.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

denis747,

Some newer cards require support in the BIOS, others may not be PCIe 1.0 backwards compatible. Either may be the case here.

Make sure PCIe downstream pipelining, and similar settings just below are off in the BIOS, and try again. And vice-versa. Only option is to play around with settings with the x1950 and then try the other card, but probably will not work.

Hlaf.

 

[denis747]

Thanks Hlaf.

I have set PCIe downstream pipelining, and the other PCIe setting, sorry can't remember the name now, to disable and no joy, didn't work. Yes I think the R9 270X may not be backwards compatible with PCIe 1.0. Also could be the bios support as you've said. I emailed Asrock asking them if they could release a bios that could make the PCIe 1.0 work at least like PCIe version 2.1, but they replied saying it was impossible to do it due to the physical constraints of the 4x PCIe version 1.0 of the motherboard.

 

[maxsin72]

Give me an F!
Give me an I!
Give me an N!
Give me an A!
Give me an L!

This is probably my final attempt at overclocking both this CPU and this GPU

CPU OC' :
FSB@297 (+11.8% relatively to default speed)
CPU Ratio : 9.5 (CPU speed +6%)


GPU OC' :
GPU 630 MHz (VS 600 MHz) ;
GDDR 367 (x2) MHz (VS 360 MHz)





Aquamark
Avg FPS : 88.85
Avg Triangles Per Second : 26747342
Aquamark Score Render : 14570
Aquamark Score Simulation : 11386
Aquamark Score : 88852


3Dmark 2001SE
26989 3Dmarks


3Dmark '06
5580 3Dmarks


Not too bad for a 5 years old mobo, paired with a 6 years old GPU, huh ?
Just let me know if you need the new screenshots from my BIOS setup.

Hi, my name is Max and i'm writing from Italy (sorry for my english )
Please, could you post yours final bios settings? Is the pci-e bus sync with the cpu?
Thank you

 

[Deleauvive]

Sure Max, here they come :

* CPU CONFIGURATION
CPU Host Frequency [Manual]
BIOS Default (Auto)
CPU Frequency [297]
BIOS Default (266)
297 is the best I can get (which translates in a successful 2 hours IBT stress-test)
PCIE Clock [Sync with CPU]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Aye Sir, it's in sync.
In fact, according to some modders, it would probably help to be pushing the PCIE clock even higher
AGP/PCI Clock [66 / 33]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Spread Spectrum [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Boot Failure [Enabled]
Ratio Actual Value 9.5
BIOS Default (10)
Enhanced Halt State [Enabled]
BIOS Default (Disabled)
Max CPUID Value Limit [Disabled]
Cpu Thermal Throttling [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Enabled)
No-execute Memory Protection [Disabled]
Intel {R} SpeedStep{tm} tech. [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Enabled)


* CHIPSET SETTINGS
DRAM Frequency [266MHz {DDRII533)]
BIOS Default (Auto)
With my 2x1 GB sticks of PC2-5300's DDR2 (which nominal clock speed is 333 MHz),
the Asrock defaults to 266 MHz
Flexibility option [Disabled]
DRAM CAS# Latency [4T]
JEDEC default value (4T)
DRAM Bank Interleave [4-Way]
Precharge to Active {Trp} [3T]
JEDEC default value (4T)
Active to precharge {Tras} [10T]
JEDEC default value (12T)
Active to CMD {Trcd} [4T]
JEDEC default value (4T)
REF to ACT/REF to REF {Trfc} [38T]
JEDEC default value (34T)
34T should be OK, but since Trfc is a "stabilizing timing" (as opposed to performance timings),
I chose a middle ground between 34 and 43, the latter being the JEDEC value corresponding to @333 MHz DRAM speed
ACT {0} to ACT {1} Trrd [2T]
JEDEC default value (2T)
Read to Precharge {Trtp] [2T]
JEDEC default value (2T)
Write to read CMD (Twrt) [2T]
JEDEC default value (2T)
Write Recovery Time (Twr) [4T]
JEDEC default value (4T)
DRAM BUS Selections [Dual Channel]
BIOS Default (Auto)
DRAM Command Rate [2T Command]

- Advanced Memory Configuration
DRAM Drv & DCLK Ctrl [Auto]
CLKBUF A Skew In & Out [300ps]
CLKBUF B Skew In & Out [450ps]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Nothing essential here, you may leave it all to auto 

- Advanced Host Configuration
Pipeline DRQCTL [Enabled]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Enabling this is more effective for DDR1 type of DRAM, supposedly
(in terms of increased memory bandwidth)
but it seems to affect positively my DDR2 setup too
GTL Control [Auto]

* CHIPSET SETTINGS (continued)
DRAM Voltage [Normal]
BIOS Default (Auto)
AGP Voltage [High]
BIOS Default (Auto)
Cranks up the Northbridge voltage, very important
Primary Graphics Adapter [PCI-Express gfx]
BIOS Default (PCI)
AGP Mode, Fast Write, Aperture Size
NA (I would probably use 4X, Disabled and 32 MB with an AGP card)
BIOS Default (Auto, Disabled, 64 MB)
V-Link Speed [Fast]
Try to set the V-Link to Normal if you experience stability issues
PCI Delay transaction [Enabled]
IDE Drive Strength [Normal]
PCIE Downstream Pipeline [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Auto)
PCIE VC1 Request Queue [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Auto)
HD Onboard Audio [Disabled]
BIOS Default (Enabled)
Echo TPR Disable [Auto]
BIOS Default (Enabled)
I have no idea what this is supposed to do,
I simply noticed people usually switch it to Auto

For the sake of it :
* ACPI SETTINGS
ACPI HPET Table [Enabled]
BIOS Default (Disabled)

* ADVANCED PCI~PNP SETTINGS
PCI Latency Timer [128]
BIOS default (32)
32 is too low admittedly, 64 should be fine in most cases.
The reason I use 128 is because my SCSI hard drive is unresponsive on rare occasions.
Speaking of SCSI, I don't have any HDD attached to the south bridge
which might partly explain the rather good overclocking potential of my setup.
PCI IDE Busmaster [Enabled]

Pictures of the corresponding BIOS settings :

- Overview



- CPU configuration



- Chipset (beginning)



- Advanced Memory



- Advanced Host



- Chipset (continued)



- ACPI



- PCI ~ PnP