Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[cpmee]

nvflash -i0

Jimmor, is that minus i oh, or minus i zero ?

I also just got a PNY 8800GT that I have to flash. (At $110, 5yr warranty, free game, free shipping at newegg, any card for a little less $ just didnt make sense)

Ill also be using the same evga bios 62.92.24.00.01 found on page 22 of that mvktech forum thread.

 

[cb750rob]

Hi Jimmor,

thanks very much for the comprehensive info (nice lack of margin for error) :laugh: I will hopefully get this done today and will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Regards

rob

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: cpmee

nvflash -i0

Jimmor, is that minus i oh, or minus i zero ?

I also just got a PNY 8800GT that I have to flash. (At $110, 5yr warranty, free game, free shipping at newegg, any card for a little less $ just didnt make sense)

Ill also be using the same evga bios 62.92.24.00.01 found on page 22 of that mvktech forum thread.

It is "minus i zero", and it is used to ensure flashing the vga card fitted in the first slot of your mobo ---> thus also meaning for "SLI setups", you would use -i0 to flash the first vga card and -i1 for flashing the second card!

And yes, at the prices available these days, a 8800gt is an excellent choice !

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: cb750rob
Hi Jimmor,

thanks very much for the comprehensive info (nice lack of margin for error) :laugh: I will hopefully get this done today and will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Regards

rob

No problem, glad to be of help !

 

[cb750rob]

Hi Folks,

Well after an afternoon yesterday of running around I managed to get the en8800gt's bios flashed and all seems to be well with the graphics card so all good there then.

Thanks again Jimmor for the info it worked a treat!

One odd thing though...

With my Ati all-in-wonder x800xt I could overclock the fsb to 295 and all was stable.

With the en8800gt I cant get the fsb much past 266 (which is what it should be with the bsel mod on my e2160 cpu) without artifacting at the logon screen and general strangeness.

Also at 266 fsb my far cry bench's are 10 -15 frames slower than they were at 295 fsb with the x800xt. Bizarrely my crysis benches have doubled. :roll:

Anyone have any ideas? Maybe it is just another "quirk" of this board.

Could be my crappy power supply 300w (Macron mpt-301).

On the whole I can't really complain as the 4coredual sata2 is letting me do what I wanted and follow a gradual upgrade path, which I suppose is similar to most here.

Just like to have my cake AND eat it I suppose

Anyway Thanks to all and as usual any suggestions appreciated.

Regards

Rob

 

[doubleOseven]

> Could be my crappy power supply 300w (Macron mpt-301)

Bingo! The 8800GT requires a good amount of power.... Buy a better power supply, something like 500 watts and up, and from a reputable company, like Seasonic, OCZ, Enermax, Silverstone, PC Power & Cooling etc.... (I avoid Antec as they had (have?) a leaking/bulging capacitor issue from using cheap Fuhjyyu caps)

 

[cb750rob]

Double0seven, I think you are right.

Had a newer (albiet it the same wattage) one knocking around so I thought I'd try that after my last post......

Halfway through a bench it died - eek!

With a few prayers to the maker of all things carbon and silicon and one to goddess of electrickery I put the macron back in and all ok now.

Thankfully it hasn't borked anything else in its passing.

However, I think I'll back off and settle for stock speeds untill I can get a new one at the end of the month...... No point in tempting fate me thinks.

 

[doubleOseven]

cb750rob -- yup, you're gambling with 300 watts... The 8800gt is spec'ed to require a power supply that delivers 26 amps on the 12 volt output. I'm guesstimating that your 300 watter puts out roughly half that amperage. If you value your components, I'd change your power-supply now....

 

[pavelb]

I have this board lying around along with a couple CPUs (e2200 65nm, and e5200 45nm), does anyone actually have it running with a 45nm CPU in it? I don't want to spend the time installing the e5200 if the 45nm tech is not supported by the current BIOS.

Thanks in advance (and I apologize in advance if this has been mentioned in this thread).

edit: looking at the CPU support list for this board I just realized that the E5200 Pentium Dual Core is indeed there, must have been a recent update (as of 6/4/2008 V.P2.00 I guess...)

 

[doubleOseven]

Yup, some 45nm CPUs work, like the e5200, 7200 and 7300 (as long as they have a FSB of 1066 or below).

 

[cpmee]

If you value your components, I'd change your power-supply now....

Definately. Im surprised it powered your AIW x800xt. It is obviously an exceptional 300watt psu, but if you dont want to burn it and the rest of your stuff up, get a higher power unit pronto.

 

[rno]

How well this board handles Q6600? I remember that manual mentions performance may be reduced by 5% with quad core CPU installed (was that reduced FSB speed and can it be manually restored)?

 

[cpmee]

and can it be manually restored

Yep, just read back thru this thread. But dont expect overclocking miracles with the Q6600 and this board, heh.

 

[rno]

Thanks for reply, I do not intend to overclock anyway, just want to be sure I'm able to run with original clock speeds.

 

[JonW]

Originally posted by: rno
Thanks for reply, I do not intend to overclock anyway, just want to be sure I'm able to run with original clock speeds.

You can run a quad with this unmodded mb up to 270-275fsb. A few shades of HB2 pencil to resistor R2471 (vagp mod) under the ram sockets, will take you all the way to 285-290fsb. Then there's the vaiable resistor that will take you even further to 300-310fsb. The vagp mod dictates how much bootable fsb you will achieve with this mb.

 

[rno]

Interesting to know, thanks for that info.

 

[cpmee]

Got my PNY 8800GT flashed with the EVGA 62.92.24.00.01 bios. 8851 3Dmarks in 3Dmark06 first time, no tweaks, just stock settings 600/1500/1800. Not too bad.

 

[doubleOseven]

cpmee, does the new vid card seem to run quite stable? Also, just curious, what are your system specs? Thanks.

 

[cpmee]

cpmee, does the new vid card seem to run quite stable? Also, just curious, what are your system specs? Thanks.

So far so good. I did have to up the fan to 60% in RivaTuner, it was running way too slow.

My specs are the 4CoreDualSata-2, E2180 @ 2.8ghz and PNY 8800GT, 2gigs of A-Data DDR800 @ 3-3-3-9, Fortron 530watt psu, 2 HDs, 1 DVD-RW, modem and tv card.

Also I am using the official bios 2.0 and nvidia drivers 175.19.

 

[doubleOseven]

thanks for replying, cpmee.... I can't decide what card to get, the 8800GT or a 4850... I've heard mixed reviews about the 4850 -- i.e. stability issues with this board even with the hacked bios.

 

[JonW]

Just recieved my Gigabyte HD4850 1Gb version today. The card works with the beta bios 2.02a that Mr.Vain linked earlier. Make sure to download the proper bios which is 512kb. My opinion and thoughts were that it runs at 4x which I think hinders the performance. But definetely performs nearly identical or better to an HD3850 agp@8x 800/1000mhz. Desktop and texts are sharp (doubleOseven are you reading this bro ) Cpu and mb temps are cooler (probably due to the pci-e connector a little further from the cpu and the mb diode which is I think under the agp slot. Make sure to disable vpu recover and fastwrites to prevent any sorts of crashes ati related. Feel free to suggest any sort of benchmarks....

Here's a screenshot: HD4850 1GB 700/992 (defualt clocks) @16xAF
http://img184.imageshack.us/my...mage=asrock4850vg9.jpg

Tomorrow I'll make the transition to the biostar mb so goodluck fella's........

Edit: Some crysis benchmark
1360x768 (excuse the res as it the demo doesn't support 1080p and this is the next best thing) X16AF All High
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8789/ascrysisuv8.jpg

With HD3850 same res settings except X8AF All High 29.1fps average

 

[doubleOseven]

Thanks JonW for your valuable info (sharp text, great). Did you also flash the bios on the vid card (if so, to what)?
And, finally, just curious, but why did you opt for the 1 gig card rather than the 512mb version?
Thanks!

 

[JonW]

Originally posted by: doubleOseven
Thanks JonW for your valuable info (sharp text, great). Did you also flash the bios on the vid card (if so, to what)?
And, finally, just curious, but why did you opt for the 1 gig card rather than the 512mb version?
Thanks!

No need to flash the gfx bios just the mainboard. You need the beta bios 2.02a to make it work. I was looking forward for the HD4850x2, but looks like ati won't be releasing it anytime soon. So I opted with the 1gb version, I'd like to crossfire sometime in the future when the prices drop. For once i'd like to crank some AA and AF. It's one of those things i've never tried before

 

[bujeezus]

just picked up a cheap hd3870 an am havin absolute hell tryin to get it to play nice with ATI tray tools. it worked great for my old x800gt agp card, but everytime i try an over clock the 3870 it shuts down the system and i get a weid dos message about atimsg somethin or other. sorry about bein so vague. just wonderin if anybody else has any issues. i've currently got it runnin ok with the drivers an catalyst control center off the cd that came with the card somewhere between drivers 8.3 an 8.9. i know this card will overclock a bit an it's killin me not too. tryin to run anythin other than what came on the cd i get weird full screen aritfacts. i've even tried settin all the motherboard bios back to default with the same results. an sorry again if this has already been touched on but i'm at work (dial up at home is KILLIN me!) an there's no way i can sit here an read thru 90 pages...thanks in advance.

 

[JonW]

Originally posted by: bujeezus
just picked up a cheap hd3870 an am havin absolute hell tryin to get it to play nice with ATI tray tools. it worked great for my old x800gt agp card, but everytime i try an over clock the 3870 it shuts down the system and i get a weid dos message about atimsg somethin or other. sorry about bein so vague. just wonderin if anybody else has any issues. i've currently got it runnin ok with the drivers an catalyst control center off the cd that came with the card somewhere between drivers 8.3 an 8.9. i know this card will overclock a bit an it's killin me not too. tryin to run anythin other than what came on the cd i get weird full screen aritfacts. i've even tried settin all the motherboard bios back to default with the same results. an sorry again if this has already been touched on but i'm at work (dial up at home is KILLIN me!) an there's no way i can sit here an read thru 90 pages...thanks in advance.

Try catalyst 8.9. This driver worked really well with my HD3850. Use rivatuner to oc your gfx card, it's much better. You need to disable VPU recover/fastwrites (chipset section bios) and ati hotkey poller service. IIRC you also need to disable 2 options through the bios to prevent artifacting. It's above the lan/hda audio option. I hope someone can name those 2 settings. I can't remember what they're called hehehe