Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[imported_2fast]

Anyone found the solution how to run Q6600 on a stock freq ? Mine is running at just 2.26Ghz... We must force asrock to release a bios that whould fix this issue !!! Just writing emails on asrock with this problem...

 

[nisryus]

After awhile instead of going to Stand by I have been using Hibernate and SATA2 works with hibernate, as long as it is enabled. Also Asrock just replied to me on Friday stating SATA2 can't go into Stand by, so one has to set XP's hibernation on to go to hibernate. Oh well, kind of weird.

Also upgraded with 2 G Crucial pc533 ram. But my CPU score on PCMark05 is only 4755 while my 7600GT AGP has a 5975 on 3DMark05. The CPU score is kind of low as average e4400 not OCed shoudl score around 5100. Guess i will chekc the BIOS setting again just to make sure. Core temps stayat 30 to 32 degree and 65 on full load.

Otherwise the MB has been running flawlessly.

 

[Farfle]

Well, as similiar to alot of other people's here, my 4CoreDual-Sata2 board also seems to have a life of it's own, never ending to surprise me with it's extremely quirky behavior. Here goes my experience:

I've tried the board with both DDR and DDR2, with two different AGP cards, IDE hard drive, SATA hard drive, and with and without any peripherals. No matter what I do, I still receive problems when trying to overclock this past certain points. I'll explain:

DDR: I have some PC4000 (DDR500) that's rated to run at 250mhz FSB. However, the closest I can get to that rated speed is a system FSB speed of 240Mhz, with the memory running at the same speed (DDR400, which gave it a 1:1 ratio). So, logically, I tried to lower the memory speed to DDR333 (6:5 FSB to Mem ratio). No go, the system wouldn't POST. At this point I was fairly disappointed, thinking perhaps my E2160 CPU was limited to a measly 360Mhz overclock. After fiddling with the settings, I managed to get the system to run stably at 285Mhz FSB, but I had to use the 266 memory speed (4:3 FSB to Mem ratio), which ran the memory at 186Mhz. Anything above 285Mhz and the system would freeze upon loading Windows. At this point, I think i've hit the CPU or MB's voltage limits and would need to do some modding to go any higher. I would happy with this level of overclock if only I could get the DDR memory to run at at least 333Mhz speed (which, with the 6:5 ratio, would run it at 233Mhz). I've tried setting timings manually according to SPD timings reported in CPU-Z. I've also set both AGP and DRAM voltages to High. The system just doesn't like running the FSB higher than 240Mhz with the memory being anywhere near that speed.

DDR2: It gets even weirder with DDR2. I had two sticks of DDR2-667 memory. Unlike with the DDR, I was unable to get anywhere near 285Mhz FSB. The maximum I could stably get the system was 260Mhz FSB, using a 1:1 ratio. However, what was really odd is that I could easily get the system up to 250Mhz FSB using the 3:4 memory ratio (which ran the Memory at 333Mhz. So obviously the DDR2 memory can run as fast as it's rated to run. It's just that I can't get the system to run faster than 260Mhz with DDR2 memory, no matter what ratios I select. The only way I could get the system to run at 1:1 memory ratio with DDR2 was enabling the Flexibility option. Using the flexibility option, however, I had to manually set timings as it didn't automatically adjust those as I raised the FSB.

Like I mentioned, I know other people have had similiar weird experiences with their SATA2 boards, but there also a lot of people out there who have seemingly easily got theirs up to 300Mhz+ FSB speeds. That's such a radical difference of performance that I have to suspect i'm missing some BIOS setting of some sort. I've even considered performing the BSEL mod on my CPU to trick the MB into thinking it's a 266Mhz FSB cpu. I was hoping by doing that the MB may radically adjust the way it does it's memory timings, or whatever setting that may be holding me back by manually adjusting the FSB. I KNOW my E2160 can run at 266Mhz speeds, as it can run at 285Mhz using DDR1 memory. I think i'll try increasing my CPU's volts as well, since the mod required for that is very similiar to BSEL's and just as easy to do.

 

[Farfle]

Originally posted by: Mr Vain

At 222FSB DDR400 is at 1.1 divider
At 267FSB DDR400 is at 4.3 divider

CPU SPEED MEMORY Mhz FSB/DRAM Ratio

With an E4300

1800 (200x9)
DDR266 133 3:2
DDR333 167 6:5
DDR400 200 1:1
1900 (211x9)
DDR266 141 3:2
DDR333 176 6:5
DDR400 211 1:1
2000 (222x9)
DDR266 148 3:2
DDR333 185 6:5
DDR400 222 1:1
2100 (233x9)
DDR266 117 2:1
DDR333 146 8:5
DDR400 175 4:3
2200 (244x9)
DDR266 122 2:1
DDR333 153 8:5
DDR400 183 4:3
2300 (256x9)
DDR266 128 2:1
DDR333 160 8:5
DDR400 192 4:3
2400 (267x9)
DDR266 133 2:1
DDR333 167 8:5
DDR400 200 4:3
2500 (278x9)
DDR266 139 2:1
DDR333 174 8:5
DDR400 209 4:3
2600 (289x9)
DDR266 145 2:1
DDR333 181 8:5
DDR400 217 4:3

@Mr. Vain: I'm not sure this is correct. My MB doesn't act like this at all. When I have my DDR1 memory set using the DDR400 setting, the system ALWAYS runs it at the ratio of 1:1. It never changes that 1:1 ratio, even if I overclock the FSB to 240Mhz. According to CPU-Z, when I run the FSB at 240Mhz, my memory's also running at that speed, with the ratio still 1:1. The same goes for the DDR266 and DDR333 settings. The system ALWAYS multiplies the FSB by the memory ratio selected; it never changes it based on the FSB speed like you mentioned above.

However, with the Flexibility option enabled, it does lower the memory speed quite dramattically. If this is what you're referring to, I have to admit I still don't think my MB follows that table above. I'll have to double check, though.

 

[phcahill]

A couple of problems with this board. I'm running on stock with DDR400 and an E4500 BIOS 1.60 VIA drivers5.13A.

After a few days operation the system failed to boot after POST. Just a black screen. I managed to get the system back up using a Silicon Image SATA 1 controller. I am using a Maxtor SATA2 drive.

ASROCK suggested

Please go to BIOS setup and recheck if the option ?SATA Option Mode? was set correctly.
Here are some suggestions:
1. Please adjust the jumper of your HDD as SATA1 mode.
2. Disable the ?Spread Spectrum? in BIOS.
3. Change a known good SATA cable to try.
4. Try another SATA HDD if possible.

I disabled spread spectrum and managed to boot OK

Now I am having keyboard problems. It keeps missing keystrokes. This has taken me 5 mins to type.
Any ideas?

 

[NeonGerbil]

I just got a 4CoreDual-SATA2 with an E2180 CPU (2.0 GHz).

I just noticed there are about ZERO Voltage controls in the BIOS. What the heck is the "low / normal / high" setting for RAM? Why isn't there a VCore adjustment?

Do any other 4CoreDual boards have VCore control?

It runs at 2.2GHz (10%) with the RAM at 1:1, and I got it to boot at 2.5 GHz, but only when running my DDR400 RAM at DDR333 speed.

Anything past that makes the system boot at crazy speeds like 1.66 GHz or 1.8 GHz.

 

[Farfle]

Just a quick update on my status. I went ahead and performed the fairly easy BSEL-VSS pin mod, and the motherboard immediately recognized the CPU as a 266Mhz FSB chip.

Additionally, just as I had hoped, the MB changed the way it's operating quite significantly. It seems like it reset itself so that at 266Mhz FSB it's treating the memory ratios like it was when running at 200Mhz, instead of how it was when overclocked to 266Mhz before the pin mod. Perhaps Mr. Vain's memory ratios above make a little more sense, since he modded his CPU as well to 266Mhz.

I'm setting up a Windows installation to test the overclocking, stress testing, cpu-z reporting, etc. I'll report back shortly with my results. But at least in the mean time, it looks like there's some hope for you people out there receiving little overclocking results from this 4CoreDual-Sata2 board. Don't be scared by the Pin mod either; it's quite easy for even a beginner.

 

[Farfle]

Had a little setback with another quirky little tidbit about this board:

After doing the BSEL mod, I reported the MB recognized it as a 266Mhz cpu running @ 2.4Ghz in the BIOS. Well, CPU-Z said otherwise. It reported it being underclocked @ 2304Mhz, running at an FSB of 256Mhz. Turns out, this is an auto feature of this MB for all 266Mhz FSB CPUs. According to some other user, apparently it's an intential feature implemented by Asrock to ensure system stability. Kinda weak if you ask me. Anyways, the way to fix this was to set the "CPU Frequency" from Auto (which it reported was 266) to Manual (which I left untouched at 266Mhz). After booting into Windows, CPU-Z recognized it as 2.4Ghz!

Good news as well, my DDR2 memory is running ok at 266Mhz with a 1:1 ratio. If you notice my first post above, you'll see I had problems getting the system to boot higher than a 260Mhz FSB (it didn't even do this with the lowest DDR2 memory ratio possible, which is 1:1). So it's obvious that doing the BSEL pin mod did a lot more than just increase the MB's FSB to 266Mhz. It seems to have done something else that tolerates higher speeds that it wouldn't allow with a 200Mhz FSB cpu. (And for those who think I may have left something out when I initially overclocked my cpu before the BSEL mod, let me add that I literally changed every setting in the motherboard 1 at a time until I ran out of options.)

 

[Farfle]

Well, guys...I have to say Success!

I owe it all to the 200->266Mhz BSEL CPU pin mod! All my fears about unluckily getting a bad MB and/or bad CPU went out the window when I was able to overclock this baby stably to 300Mhz. For whatever reason, the motherboard did NOT like overclocking the FSB much over 50Mhz or so with the CPU being recognized as a 200Mhz chip. So, for those who have been having similiar problems as me, getting stuck around the 240-260Mhz FSB range, getting really odd memory ratios, etc, I recommend trying out the CPU mod. It's quite easy to do and has saved me from attempting to RMA this back to eWiz .

***Update***

I seem to be hitting the motherboard or CPU's voltage limitations at a 308Mhz FSB, which places it right in the average of everyone else who's been successful with this board. I ended up not doing the CPU voltage mod when I did the BSEL pin mod, just to see how much this processor could do on stock voltage. I'm very pleased, and don't neccesarily feel obligated to perform the CPU and MB voltage mods just to squeeze out the extra 15-30Mhz it may have to offer (maybe in a future installment ).

To all those who are getting frustrated with this board and pissed off at people like me who actually get it to work (like I was before I modded the CPU ) all I can say is KEEP fiddling with it. It seems like everyone who's messed with it long enough has gotten it to work, whether by just changing BIOS settings (which didn't do anything for me) or actually hard modding one of the components. For me it was the FSB 266Mhz mod that did it. Others (especially those with older boards like VSTA and 775Dual) seemed to have no problems overclocking a 200Mhz FSB chip to ~300. Who knows why mine behaved the way it did. This board is SO weird.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Farfle
Well, guys...I have to say Success!

I owe it all to the 200->266Mhz BSEL CPU pin mod! All my fears about unluckily getting a bad MB and/or bad CPU went out the window when I was able to overclock this baby stably to 300Mhz. For whatever reason, the motherboard did NOT like overclocking the FSB much over 50Mhz or so with the CPU being recognized as a 200Mhz chip. So, for those who have been having similiar problems as me, getting stuck around the 240-260Mhz FSB range, getting really odd memory ratios, etc, I recommend trying out the CPU mod. It's quite easy to do and has saved me from attempting to RMA this back to eWiz .

***Update***

I seem to be hitting the motherboard or CPU's voltage limitations at a 308Mhz FSB, which places it right in the average of everyone else who's been successful with this board. I ended up not doing the CPU voltage mod when I did the BSEL pin mod, just to see how much this processor could do on stock voltage. I'm very pleased, and don't neccesarily feel obligated to perform the CPU and MB voltage mods just to squeeze out the extra 15-30Mhz it may have to offer (maybe in a future installment ).

To all those who are getting frustrated with this board and pissed off at people like me who actually get it to work (like I was before I modded the CPU ) all I can say is KEEP fiddling with it. It seems like everyone who's messed with it long enough has gotten it to work, whether by just changing BIOS settings (which didn't do anything for me) or actually hard modding one of the components. For me it was the FSB 266Mhz mod that did it. Others (especially those with older boards like VSTA and 775Dual) seemed to have no problems overclocking a 200Mhz FSB chip to ~300. Who knows why mine behaved the way it did. This board is SO weird.

Happy to hear of your successes and 308fsb is about the maximum that stock voltage will get you IMO.

 

[dmarook]

Originally posted by: nisryus
After awhile instead of going to Stand by I have been using Hibernate and SATA2 works with hibernate, as long as it is enabled. Also Asrock just replied to me on Friday stating SATA2 can't go into Stand by, so one has to set XP's hibernation on to go to hibernate. Oh well, kind of weird.

Also upgraded with 2 G Crucial pc533 ram. But my CPU score on PCMark05 is only 4755 while my 7600GT AGP has a 5975 on 3DMark05. The CPU score is kind of low as average e4400 not OCed shoudl score around 5100. Guess i will chekc the BIOS setting again just to make sure. Core temps stayat 30 to 32 degree and 65 on full load.

Otherwise the MB has been running flawlessly.

I have been using this board now with E4500 and 2GB of DDR2 533MHz Ram. I can standby XP if I am not overclocking. If I overclock even a bit it does not go to standby. I have no idea why is that. With regards to O'clocking, I'm afraid I'm very much a noob on that subject and am still in the process of learning the tricks of the trade. I have only had a stable system at FSB of 256 so far, not touching the AGP or RAM voltage. But as it is my primary system, I am actually running it at stock speed mostly.

 

[imported_2fast]

I have tried it in manual mode but doesnt boot. Does the mobo working fine with this hardmod ? At stock freq of procesor ? Can you post link to this hardmod ?

 

[Radski]

Hey guys, I posted on Sep 11 about quirky behaviour in overclocking. After much screwing around....

The highest overclock I can achieve is FSB of 278 (x 9 multiplier = 2502 clock speed) with DDR running at 185 MHz (370 MHz effective)

I am NOT impressed. Why the heck can I not get this E-2160 running at 2.7 Ghz at stock voltage on this motherboard??? (running 3:2 so my DDR runs at the full 400 MHz)

I tried flexibility on, command rate @ 2, etc. In all this current bios setup enabled me to achieve by far the highest clock rate of 2502. I once got a higher FSB but the CPU multiplier stepped down to 7 for some unexplained reason. I guess I consider myself lucky to get this much out of it thus far. -Dann

 

[NeonGerbil]

Why does the BUS speed randomly change on me? When I try to go past 250 MHz BUS, it drops to 166 MHz on the next reboot. (1.60 BIOS)


Edit, I just rebooted a few times to check speeds.

E2180, 2.0 GHz (10x 200 MHz)
VCore: 1.10 - 1.13 volts

Speeds I set in BIOS, versus what the system would boot at:

BIOS: "225 MHz" BUS:
Real: 225 MHz BUS
Speed: 2250 MHz CPU

(What I've been running at)

BIOS: "255 MHz" BUS:
Real: 191 MHz BUS
Speed: 1910 MHz CPU


BIOS: "266 MHz" BUS:
Real: 200 MHz BUS
Speed 2000 MHz CPU


BIOS: "300 MHz" BUS:
Real: 225 MHz BUS
Speed: 2250 MHz CPU


BIOS: "340 MHz" BUS: (maximum for board)
Real: 255 MHz BUS
Speed: 2550 MHz CPU

BIOS: "200 MHz" BUS: (the actual speed of CPU)
Real: 166 MHz BUS
Speed: 1660 MHz CPU

So.... What gives???

 

[Farfle]

@2fast: First of all, here's a link to how to do the CPU pin voltage mods (which I didn't do):
http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3904.

Also, here's how the 200Mhz to 266Mhz BSEL CPU Pin mod looks after using the same techniques as in the link above (Which is what I DID do):
http://www.techspot.com/galler...7/cat/500/ppuser/25139

And here's a link to an excellent post about the board's voltage mods (havn't messed with any of these yet):
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=93127

@Radski: Those were the same exact symptoms I was having before I modded my CPU to 266Mhz FSB using the BSEL Pin mod. The highest I could get the system running was 283Mhz FSB with the ram set to the 133Mhz (DDR266) speed, which put the ram right around the same speed yours is at. With DDR2 it was even worse; I couldn't even get it past 260Mhz FSB. If you don't mind voiding your processor warranty with a VERY safe and easy mod, I'd do that next before bashing your head against the wall any further with worthless BIOS settings.

@NeonGerbil: My system exhibits the same behavior but only after it boots up with bad BIOS settings (ie, I chose too high of a FSB). The first couple times I turn it on with the bad BIOS settings, nothing happens and I have to completely turn it off and turn it back on. After the 3rd time or so, it will boot with a radically reduced FSB speed, something I can only assume is triggering an internal "safety" boot feature (I don't think it's the same thing as Boot Failure Guard, a setting in the BIOS. This happened regardless of having that setting enabled or disabled). I rarely had to clear the CMOS with the jumper because of this neat little feature. The only thign about this is, it would occasionally throw me for a loop because of the weird speeds you mentioned above. I recommend completely turning off the system and turning it back on to have it try to boot with the correct settings. When my system booted up with the "safety" settings, those settings would remain in place until I physically turned the machine off by holding the power button in 3 seconds. After a cold shutdown and restart, it would start up with the specified speeds in the BIOS (assuming the system COULD run with those).

 

[tman7]

Yeah this is a very quirky board. Alot of different results. Im able to get my e4500 about 95% stable at 240x11 In sync @ 2.64. ive tried the voltage mod which will let me boot at a higher freq but still is not stable. Ive tried all the recomended bios settings. This is just not a good board for maximizing the overclocking potential of a core2 Duo. When I can aford it Im gonna move up to a EVGA 650i Ultra board. Of course Ill have to get rid of my X800 agp card but its about time for a newer generation card anyway. Crysis is coming.

 

[NeonGerbil]

So I guess I'd have to do a Voltage mod to hit decent speeds then...?

Those pin mods look easy - however, how would I know which one to do for the E2180?

It runs at 1.10v, and says "Max 1.3v" on the box.

 

[stockriderman]

I am happy with mine. had no problems since I received it

 

[Farfle]

@tman7: Did you do the CPU voltage mod OR the BSEL 266Mhz FSB mod? There's a big difference between the two. The 266Mhz FSB mod does nothing to the CPU except trick the motherboard into thinking it's a 1066Mhz (QDR) FSB cpu. I recommend trying the BSEL pin mod before purchasing the other motherboard. It sounds like you were having the same issues I was having (it being unstable around the 240-260 range)

@Neon: I didn't need to do ANY voltage mods to hit a decent speed. I DID have to do the BSEL 266Mhz FSB pin mod, though (both are very similiar and require you connecting pins with a conductant of some kind). In the link I posted a page back, that BSEL pin mod should work with the 2180, as well. (it works with all E21XX series, and E43XX series. The only differences with these cpus are the voltage mods. The voltage mod pins vary for the different voltage CPUs). According to Mr. Vain, he has a 2180 and has BSEL modded it just fine. You really have nothign to lose; the conductive ink comes right off with isoprop alchol.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: NeonGerbil
So I guess I'd have to do a Voltage mod to hit decent speeds then...?

Those pin mods look easy - however, how would I know which one to do for the E2180?

It runs at 1.10v, and says "Max 1.3v" on the box.

The BSEL 266Mhz FSB pin mod WORKS fine on the E2180 CPU.

If your CPU is a 1.2875 or a 1.35 Voltage defaulter then you can also perform a CPU pin volt mod as the Core2Duo guide only covers these two CPU?s voltage defaulters?.

Unfortunately my E2180 has a default voltage of 1.3 and there is no cpu pin mod guide that I know of for this voltage, the only way for me to obtain more voltage is to experiment or to hardmod the motherboard like Johnny Bravo has done on post 223 of the below link.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...117017&page=9&highligh

How do you know what your CPU default voltage is??
Easy just run RightMark CPU Clock Utility and the Startup voltage is your Particular CPU?s default voltage.
http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

 

[ghus]

I got this board as well along with a Core 2 Duo E4500 3 days ago with high hopes to overclock it as much as possible just to hit the same problems that are posted here. Boy am i so glad to find this thread

In my case of course exempt the board/cpu overclock problems i have been having memory issues that drove me crazy. The patriot DDR2 800 PC2 6400 kit that I got seems to be having compatibility issues with this board. Lots of memory corruptions even at stock speeds. I know the dimms are ok since when i install them one by one in the 1st memory slot they both work just fine. Only when both are installed as dual channel is when the corruptions start.

At the beggining I thought it a bad mobo with defective memory controller. But yesterday I got a DDR2 533 dual channel kit from a local store just to realize that this works fine with no corruptions. Seems like the board is picky with the memory dimms as well. What is the problem here? The board works only with a limited number of DDR2 800 dimms? Cause some of you can run it with some brands. Patriot does not seem to be one of them. any insights?

Does anybody know if the BSEL FSB mod works with an E4500?

 

[fritzfield1234]

How about the e6600?

 

[enDings]

Hello, first sorry for my english , and second, i'm new here so hi all


I have 4Core Dual - SATA2 with E6420 and 2x1GB Kingstone 667 DDRII, i want to overclok them.

I reach FSB 293 (2345.8 Mhz), with PCI-2 100 and PCE: Sync with CPU, RAM: 266DDRII, flexibility: Disabled, and timings 5 - 5 - 5 - 15. All on default...
I have a AGP x8 video card (ATI X1600 PRO 512MB)


More than FSB 293 makes computer inestable.

Can i make more overclock? FSB 293 it's all i can reach?

Thanks all, waiting for urs answers ^^
Bye all!!

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: ghus
I got this board as well along with a Core 2 Duo E4500 3 days ago with high hopes to overclock it as much as possible just to hit the same problems that are posted here. Boy am i so glad to find this thread

In my case of course exempt the board/cpu overclock problems i have been having memory issues that drove me crazy. The patriot DDR2 800 PC2 6400 kit that I got seems to be having compatibility issues with this board. Lots of memory corruptions even at stock speeds. I know the dimms are ok since when i install them one by one in the 1st memory slot they both work just fine. Only when both are installed as dual channel is when the corruptions start.

At the beggining I thought it a bad mobo with defective memory controller. But yesterday I got a DDR2 533 dual channel kit from a local store just to realize that this works fine with no corruptions. Seems like the board is picky with the memory dimms as well. What is the problem here? The board works only with a limited number of DDR2 800 dimms? Cause some of you can run it with some brands. Patriot does not seem to be one of them. any insights?

Does anybody know if the BSEL FSB mod works with an E4500?

The BSEL mod should work with all core2duo 800 MHz bus speed CPU?s.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: enDings
Hello, first sorry for my english , and second, i'm new here so hi all


I have 4Core Dual - SATA2 with E6420 and 2x1GB Kingstone 667 DDRII, i want to overclok them.

I reach FSB 293 (2345.8 Mhz), with PCI-2 100 and PCE: Sync with CPU, RAM: 266DDRII, flexibility: Disabled, and timings 5 - 5 - 5 - 15. All on default...
I have a AGP x8 video card (ATI X1600 PRO 512MB)


More than FSB 293 makes computer inestable.

Can i make more overclock? FSB 293 it's all i can reach?

Thanks all, waiting for urs answers ^^
Bye all!!

You will probably need to do mods to go higher from here on.