Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[Microsystem]

fan speed setting avialable in all moded bios 1.5a-1.9a
i think yoru problem is due to fan and heatsink

system shutdown when cpu temp is 85C or when any core temp is 85 C ?

 

[imported_wineo]

sys shutdown when cpu reaches 85c

I think my new + old fans are fine. Problem maybe hs or cpu?

everything else in the case is cool.

Do you mean the quiet cpu function?

It's about 27c in my house now.

cpu 50c
cpu1 + 2 75c

 

[imported_wineo]

I'm seriously thinking about getting a couple of 2gb ram pieces. Anyone running on 4gb? does it detect it all?

I'm looking at this forum. The r2 version seems to support 4gb ram just by tweaking the ram timings.

http://pieterb.be/2008/01/16/a...ual-sata2-4gb-support/

 

[fritzfield]

Originally posted by: wineo
I'm seriously thinking about getting a couple of 2gb ram pieces. Anyone running on 4gb? does it detect it all?

I'm looking at this forum. The r2 version seems to support 4gb ram just by tweaking the ram timings.

http://pieterb.be/2008/01/16/a...ual-sata2-4gb-support/

With the 1.90a BIOS, my mobo recognizes 3.028GB and I AM running 64bit Vista.

 

[imported_wineo]

Originally posted by: fritzfield

Originally posted by: wineo
I'm seriously thinking about getting a couple of 2gb ram pieces. Anyone running on 4gb? does it detect it all?

I'm looking at this forum. The r2 version seems to support 4gb ram just by tweaking the ram timings.

http://pieterb.be/2008/01/16/a...ual-sata2-4gb-support/

With the 1.90a BIOS, my mobo recognizes 3.028GB and I AM running 64bit Vista.

I read you were having problems a while ago. Do you know what brand or model the ram is/was? I thought maybe it?s just not 100% compatible?

I'm also having problems with my Kingston ram. It keeps failing blend. I had it at 17h stable once, but somewhere along the way of changing bios's and tweaking I lost the settings. I'm trying to fix it atm.

So I?m thinking of changing the ram and just taking the loss. Really though a 3gb update should be good enough under xp x64 but hopefully someone has 4gb working for use with vista x64.

Did you try setting the ram to low volt + ddr 667? Maybe vista x64 will pick up the 4gb that way?

My temps are not getting higher than 70c since our heat wave has gone. So I don't think it's a temp problem atm.

 

[Phatjayunoi]

From the looks of that link, it says someone got it working with the R2.0 version of this motherboard, but it did not specify what BIOS version was used. Note that it was also posted on January 16th, so that was a while ago and long before this 1.90A modified BIOS showed up. So it brings up an interesting situation to look at and ALOT of testing between the two motherboard revisions.

 

[imported_wineo]

Yeah you?re right, even though they didn?t specify a bios version, it was a while back, and the R2 does not have official support for 4gb ram nor have modded bios (I think) to date. I think the only difference between R1 and R2 is that R2 uses a lower channel audio chip?

Did you notice my post (the last one) I asked him straight out about it being the same for R1 and he didn?t say anything, this leads me to believe it should work but he doesn?t know for sure, of course nothing is guaranteed especially with this mobo. Since out modded bios supports 4gb ram?? it looks very hopeful.

After the Easter long weekend I?m most likely going to buy the adata 4gb kit because I can get it cheap.

Hopefully fritzfield lets me know by then what ram he was using so I can get something different. It would be great if someone with access to 4gb rams would try it out?

 

[fritzfield]

Spot on. I'm using 2 x 2GB Adata that I got a month ago from outpost. Only 3GB is recognized by BIOS 1.90a and by Vista 64bit OS. So, in my case, the 4GB total did allow me to get 3GB, however, I bought 2 more sticks and as I said, I'm moving from this transition board to a P35 where I'll be able to use all 8GB of really preiswert RAM.

 

[imported_wineo]

Ok I?ll give the adata's a miss then. I was doing some research and my next bet would be the semi-expensive patriot 800 (can't believe I paid under $400 for these 6 months ago :disgust. As I?ve already got 4gb in my gamer rig if it doesn't work I could just add it to that.

Only problem is that there 2.2v. So I may have to do some work to get it them to working properly.

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: wineo
Yeah you?re right, even though they didn?t specify a bios version, it was a while back, and the R2 does not have official support for 4gb ram nor have modded bios (I think) to date. I think the only difference between R1 and R2 is that R2 uses a lower channel audio chip?

Did you notice my post (the last one) I asked him straight out about it being the same for R1 and he didn?t say anything, this leads me to believe it should work but he doesn?t know for sure, of course nothing is guaranteed especially with this mobo. Since out modded bios supports 4gb ram?? it looks very hopeful.

From the blog ?? He put in a 2gb stick and "extrapolated" that 2 X 2gb would work. Thats meaningless.


Its been well known that a single 2gb stick would work for a long time.

 

[nickime]

tomorrow I'll try 2x2GB sticks of Corsair XMS memory: 6400C5 - 800MHz and report back

similar to Patriot it seems to be a bit out of JEDEC specs, on the memory itself it says: 1.90V
hopefully it will work with my SATA2 R1, at the moment all voltages are set on highest
available setting

got this memory for MSI P35 Neo2-FR that has been delivered as well

 

[nickime]

Yes, it works!

BIOS recognizes 4096MB, so does CPU-Z and Windows XP (32bit) reports 3.25 GB

4CoreDual-SATA2 R1, BIOS 1.9A ( modded version )

4GB (2X2GB) Corsair XMS memory 6400 C5

will also try Radeon 3870, to get an idea what is the impact compared
to 16x performance on P35 MSI board that I will be playing with later on

 

[nickime]

a quick update, tried with memtest as well, it shows 3327MB

Ubuntu 7.10 (64bit) reports 3356044k in top utility and in /var/log/messages there is a line:
max main memory to use 3127 Mbytes

BTW Linux kernel reports Via PT880 Ultra on my board

quick and dirty comparison in Crysis shows no difference compared to 2GB configuration,
fps numbers are the same

it seems that there are no stability issues, but that is something that I don't have time to test
more thoroughly

IMHO unless you are using some very demanding programs when it comes to memory usage,
there is no reason to go for 4GB with this board

 

[imported_wineo]

Nice one nickime. There?s a few patriot 800 rams and the one that I?m using in my striker extreme sys is 2.0v so I think it should work with the 4core. I should just pull out the ram from that and try first, with all these days saying up till the morning and luck of sleep I forgot I could just do that, I know...

nickime really nice info so there?s no more fps to be had with 4gb. This maybe because you?re using a 32b os and games can only use 2gb?

I re-read allot of the posts from this forums and my 4core is now stable. Wouldn't you know it just needed more vagp, with the first bios settings I tired I?m now stable @ 22h on blend. Now I want to oc it more, but I?m worried about my temps so for the meantime I?ll leave it at 300fsb. I'm happy with that anyway and I can't afford more downtime.
The days are cooler now and I reach about 66c max but when it was hot those couple of day it reached 80c but that was straight after the cpu re-install, So I don?t know if I should push it more.

Jimmor pointed out that I needed more vagp but when I nearly killed it by jumping up to 2.05v I put it down to 1.74v because weird stuff started to happen even @ 1.8. I don't think it was related now. I have to install something in my striker x tomorrow, so I?ll do a quick test of the 4gb with xp x64 + maybe vista x64?

I was thinking I don't think vista would be of any use to me as my card is only dx9.

The main reason I wanted 4gb apart from gaming is that I use vmware heaps

nickime so you have one of those 3870's does it kick some ass of what? What card did you have before that?

Also if you have a x64 win os try a 3dmark + game fps comparison. I think for sure vista would improve but I don?t know about xp x64?

Cpmee, I asked that blog guy for a link to the tweaker that got it working with 4gb but no reply as of yet.

 

[nickime]

sorry, but I don't have Vista and can not try with it, but it bothers me a bit that 64bit Ubuntu does
not see all 4GB, maybe there is still some HW issue even if there is no limit in BIOS apparently

hopefully I'll be able to try 3870, before passing SATA2 to my brother tomorrow, currently I am
using X1950Pro AGP version, and it will be an interesting comparison even if quick and dirty one

my comment about 4GB and this motherboard was more for people who might think that +2GB
will automagically give some performance lift, of course if you know you need more memory,
or run Vista then it will help

the board appears to be stable, I copied lots of files while running Orthos without any issues

 

[nickime]

last update before powering the board off and taking it out of the case:

Radeon 3870, a very quick comparison with x1950Pro AGP: well, it is faster

in Crysis it is like 50% + more performance
with x1950 I was running Crysis AT 1024X768 with many settings at low or medium
and card was struggling around 40fps
without changing anything in game settings 3870 scores above 60fps (from 61 to 65 fps roughly)

in HL2 Loast Coast improvement in fps is again noticable, and visual quality is improved, colors
look more saturated

on the end I tried my favorite: Team Fortress 2, while it is smooth already with x1950
it is smother yet with 3870, again my feeling is that it looks better with same settings

summary:
Radeon 3870 is probably limited with available 4x slot, but it is still a worthy upgrade,
especially compared to "lesser" cards then x1950Pro, later on this week it will go in
my new build based on P35 and then I will get chance to compare it with 16x slot
performance (and faster memory, FSB, etc. so not exactly a fair comparison)

I still think that 4CoreDual SATA2 is a great crossover board, if not pushed over the
limit it is very stable and it is a very good performer for the price

thanks again everyone who shared information and tips, you really made my experience
with this board much more fun and I hope that my rumblings will be useful to some

cheers

 

[dmarook]

FYI

Vista installs without any issue with BIOS 1.9 and ATI 3870. However after installing the catalyst drivers I had to manually activate the AERO in vista. So far on minimal testing no apparent problems.

 

[Tantalum]

I can't flash this BIOS image file. Says the file is valid, but for another machine than the current machine. Is this a quirk of XP 64bit?

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: Tantalum
I can't flash this BIOS image file. Says the file is valid, but for another machine than the current machine. Is this a quirk of XP 64bit?

Are you flashing in DOS ?, you should.

Dont flash when overclocked.

 

[imported_wineo]

nickime, I thought you had the Radeon 3870 agp card.

I'm going to try my little adventure with 4gb on this board in the next 30m.

Keep you all posted.

 

[conflikt]

Can someone tell me of a good cooler i can get with the E2200 or if i would need to change my cooler ????? I don't want to spend over $30 on one. As of now ive got four 80mm fans in my case + my cpu cooler + a hdd cooler and my memory has sinks. Memory settings are at 3-3-3-9 + voltage is on high for video and memory. Speedfan reads my 356 Celeron D 3.3 at 34c for temp 1 temp 2 is 40c hd0 is at 31c and Rpm setting are at 2569-2679...

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: conflikt
Can someone tell me of a good cooler i can get with the E2200 or if i would need to change my cooler ????? I don't want to spend over $30 on one. As of now ive got four 80mm fans in my case + my cpu cooler + a hdd cooler and my memory has sinks. Memory settings are at 3-3-3-9 + voltage is on high for video and memory. Speedfan reads my 356 Celeron D 3.3 at 34c for temp 1 temp 2 is 40c hd0 is at 31c and Rpm setting are at 2569-2679...

It really depends on which cooler your e2200 ships with, the thick one or the thin stock cooler. The thick one is very good for the e2xxx series and usually ships with the quad cores. The thin one is pretty much junk. I would say the Artic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 is the best sink in the under $30 range.

 

[Tantalum]

I don't have any DOS capability, and I don't have a floppy drive on my computer.

@ Conflikt, I see the Coolermaster Hyper TX/TX2 getting excellent reviews, and it's quite an inexpensive cooler.

 

[Tantalum]

Ok, I have managed to make a bootable DOS USB drive, now I get a file not found error, even though I am in the directory with both ASRFLASH and the BIOS file. Do you have to supply any switches with the program?

EDIT:

Ok, there is an extra space in the filename I wasn't including, so I don't get that message anymore, but the program just won't seem to update the bios. I'm not sure which switches to use, so I'm not going to try them at random. Any advice? I never updated to a modded bios before, so I have no experience with ASRFLASH.

Edit:

Success! It finally dawned on me that the 09a in the filename is a file extension, not part of the name itself. Updated smoothly. Now I have to convince myself I actually need 4GB of ram.

 

[The Fedex Pope]

I just ordered this mobo from Newegg a few days ago. I have an OEM P4 2.8ghz Prescott and a new Intel C2D HSF that I found for uber cheap on eBay. I also have 2x1gb sticks of DDR2 667 Kingston Value Ram. The video card I have is a PNY 6800gt AGP. I'm just wondering if I need to install the Hyperion VIA Hd/Ethernet/Audio/USB etc drivers, or just the Chipset ones? Note that I will be using XP Pro 32bit. Thanks!