Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[bujeezus]

thanks for the reply. i remember the 1 bios option "downstream pipeline" somethin er other. i don't know about the 2nd option to disable tho. mebbe somebody will help me out with that 1. the vpu recover/fastwrites has to be disabled in the bios or in the card options? i couldn't find it in the bios but did disable it on the card properties.

 

[bujeezus]

@ spicedaddy

so i've got my hd3870 running somewhat an decided to give 3DMark a shot. 8300...(E2160 at 2.25GHz, 2GB ddr2 667). i was content until i read your post. ;P of course it's way beyond what my old x800 agp card was runnin, but now i wonder if somethin is not set up just right. are you oc'ing your card? what bios are you runnin? any tips? thanks!

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: bujeezus
@ spicedaddy

so i've got my hd3870 running somewhat an decided to give 3DMark a shot. 8300...(E2160 at 2.25GHz, 2GB ddr2 667). i was content until i read your post. ;P of course it's way beyond what my old x800 agp card was runnin, but now i wonder if somethin is not set up just right. are you oc'ing your card? what bios are you runnin? any tips? thanks!

HD3870 was running stock, but my CPU was overclocked higher @2.5GHz... Was running the latest BIOS available at the time. (probably the first one that supported HD38x0 cards.

I can't help you much, I dumped my Asrock board a long time ago in favor of a P35-DS3L.

 

[bujeezus]

thanks for the response. i tho't you'd moved on to bigger an better things by now, but tho't i'd give it a shot anyways.

 

[krppi]

Does 9800GT work with this board?

 

[bujeezus]

i've seen people on here with 9600gt cards an it's been hit or miss. it's not a chance i'd like to take. i'd rather spend my money on a new mb with pci-e 16x support.

on a different note i finally got my hd3870 up an runnin smoothly. just started over with default settings on the mb an used driversweeper correctly (i wasn't booting into safe mode earlier) an i've got my 3DMark scores in the 8800's now. it still won't run the 8.9 catalyst drivers and rivatuner did not work for me at all for whatever reason so i'm still a little miffed about that. wound up using a program called amdgpu to overclock the card.

 

[kylesb]

Anyone had a CMOS checksum error on powerup, and found that all board settings have been reset upon entering cmos setup, yet clock is unchanged and still accurate? This has happened to me twice with my 4coredualsata board.

 

[rno]

Hey folks,

I got a chance to try an Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 with this board and I can say it works great with official BIOS 2.0 so I do not see any need for unofficial bios. Games and 3D apps work fine, only be sure do disable PCIE downstream in BIOS before installing drivers since I've heard numerous things that when it's enabled you might get some freezing.
Just for your info

 

[cpmee]

Originally posted by: kylesb
Anyone had a CMOS checksum error on powerup, and found that all board settings have been reset upon entering cmos setup, yet clock is unchanged and still accurate? This has happened to me twice with my 4coredualsata board.

Try a new battery and check your 5 VSB voltage. If its below +4.85 volts, it can give you trouble.

 

[Mike45450]

Hi guys, i've been wanting to upgrade my PC for ages now, and have finally decided to do it. However being on a budget, I want to be able to use some of my old components. So can anyone rate this system, and give any pointers on whether or not things will be incompatible?

New components:
-Corsair VX450W PSU
-Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 (obviously)
-Q6600 (G0 stepping edition)
-2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667) [TWIN2X2048-5400C4]
-Lian-Li PC7-B Plus II

Old components:
-2 IDE hard drives
-128mb 9800 pro (AGP)

So hows it look? I know the system will be extremely bottlenecked by the rubbish graphics card, but my budget it stretched as it is. Also i've heard of some problems with this mobo and the Q6600 - will I need to flash the BIOS or anything before it recognises the Q6600?

Thanks guys!

 

[rno]

It should work fine. Just be sure to download latest BIOS (v 2.0) to avoid possible compatibility problems.
More powerful PSU doesn't hurt either.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Mike45450
Also i've heard of some problems with this mobo and the Q6600 - will I need to flash the BIOS or anything before it recognises the Q6600?

Just keep in mind that quad core processors will be underclocked a tad on this board, due to a chipset limitation. ASRock says it roughly equates to 5% underclock.

 

[clubfoot]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Mike45450
Also i've heard of some problems with this mobo and the Q6600 - will I need to flash the BIOS or anything before it recognises the Q6600?

Just keep in mind that quad core processors will be underclocked a tad on this board, due to a chipset limitation. ASRock says it roughly equates to 5% underclock.

All you have to do is set it to manual instead of auto and bump it to 267 and it will run at full rated speed.

 

[imported_rebel]

hey guys i have the 4coredual-sata2 r2 with modded bios 2.10a but i cant seem to get 4GB working... iv been searching for days i have 2x2 corsair XMS2 ram 1.8v 5-5-5-18 is there anything i can do when i put the other stick in just a black screen and doesnt post.. the rest of my specs are.. Q6600 @ 2.4 , HIS 3870 PCIE , 500GB Sata westurn digital iv tryed setting ram to low voltage but nothing... if anyone noes of certain ram timings or something anything i would be appreciated because at the moment i feel like iv wasted money on a 4GB kit

 

[imported_rebel]

anyone?? so this hole low voltage 4GB ram in 4coredual is all BS??

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@rebel,

I can't help much since I have yet to try 4GB on my 4CoreDual-VSTA. However, I have had problems getting the board to boot with the second DDR2 ram populated (2x1GB config). In the end it was a question of (1) really truly emptying out my CMOS (PSU off and drained of residual, CMOS battery out, jumper shorted for several minutes) and (2) extreme, extreme care & precision installing the ram stick in the second slot. I still had black screens etc., but persevered (many reboot attempts) and eventually the bios recovery kicked in and booted, allowing me to set bios defaults and reboot again, then adjust bios settings properly.

I am of course assuming you have also already tested each stick individually in slot 1 with memtest+, a sine-qua-non.

 

[Nsaney]

BTW: There is a new official 2.10 bios update. I dunno what all it addresses. Just says CPU code.

Version Date OS Size Description

2.10 10/13/2008 626.11KB Update CPU Code

Also, seeing how this is pretty much a budget board and a few people look like they had PSU problems. I figured I would share a link to a sweet little cheap power supply I bought for myself from Newegg. It's got 30A on the 12v rail. It runs my MSI NX8800 GT with no problems and my E4500 is overclocked to 2.70Ghz (was higher but when I got DDR2 667 it would not overclock as much stable :roll: ).

PSU ePOWER EP-550XPF 550W ATX12V Power Supply - OEM $24.99

 

[imported_rebel]

my psu is fine 600W two 12v rails at 20A each i have the new 2.10 bios update but i i now have the modded version 2.10a i really want to use this other stick of ram
and to hlafordlaes i have run memtest with no problems i have tryed both sticks of ram sepratly and work i remeber seeing somewhere someone is runing the sticks i have but i want to no what they have done to make it work...

 

[Nsaney]

Originally posted by: rebel
my psu is fine 600W two 12v rails at 20A each i have the new 2.10 bios update but i i now have the modded version 2.10a i really want to use this other stick of ram
and to hlafordlaes i have run memtest with no problems i have tryed both sticks of ram sepratly and work i remeber seeing somewhere someone is runing the sticks i have but i want to no what they have done to make it work...

When I finally broke down and bought my 2x1GB of Mushkin Extreme Performance DDR2 667. I had a hell of a time overclocking. It would read the two sticks just fine until I started messing with the bios. I just had to screw around in the bios with different setting until I got it so it would see all the ram and run stable too. I really don't know WTF I'm doing so it took awhile... :laugh:

I'm not going to mess with the modded bios unless I decide to buy more ram. Which I doubt I will do. My next move will most likely be a new mobo.

 

[imported_rebel]

lol well i need to no those bios settings you used lol i contacted asrock no response yet but im so dam upset i just want this other 2gb in there!!! lol i recon people with 4GB is just a hoax lol

 

[imported_rebel]

i fixed my issue!!!!!!!!!! when bios flashing i ticked programe all box's and now it works WOOT yay!!!!!!!! 3.25GB

 

[doubleOseven]

Rebel -- does it show 3.25GB only in the bios or does it also say so in the Windows system properties (i.e. does Windows XP (or Vista) actually recognize the 3.25 gb of ram?)
Thanks!

 

[imported_rebel]

it shows 4GB in bios and 3.25GB in windows XP sp3

 

[clubfoot]

That's normal for Xp it will load drivers in there.

 

[Razgrizo]

Hey guys,

I also bought this motherboard last week. Installed it along with the E4500 and everything is working fine. The BIOS keeps on freezing occasionaly but after I flashed the BIOS to the latest (I think 2.1 or 2.2), there is less lock-up in BIOS but I get it at random times (not like it used to be) but I still figured that's still a problem. Everything boots fine into Windows XP SP2 but for some odd reason, about 25-30minutes later, the computer shuts down on it's own and sometimes after 5 minutes, it turns back on it's on.

I'm using SpeedFan and I don't really see any overheating except maybe for the hard drive (need to buy a cooler for it).

CPU is running 35-40'C and same with the motherboard the last time I checked in BIOS.

1st HDD (Primary) - 46-50'c
2nd HDD - 38-42'c
3rd HDD - 40-48'c

As for the PSU, it's practically brand new (Thermaltake 600w).


Spec:
Intel Duo 2 Core E4500 2.2ghz
Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2
1.5gb DDR1 PC3200
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
Advancsys SCSI Controller
Pinnacle Systems DV500
Sound Blaster 5.1 Live
Sound Blaster PCI 128 (don't ask, it's the only sound card that still has a gameport)
Maxtor 30gb SCSI
Western Digital 250gb SATA
Maxtor 120gb IDE

I can't see to find the solution anywhere.