ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA

[complain]

I think it would be wise to upgrade VGA. Maybe you should try to upgrade to VGA confirmed working in our mobo, either by ASrock Website Compatibility list or by any other user on this forum. I personally have now Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO, but AGP version, and because it has still sufficient raw power, iam not thinking about upgrade in nearest months. It works flawlessly, but as i said, its AGP version, which should not have problem in any newer AGP equiped mobo.

 

[djcoolio]

Originally posted by: Sayyym
Hi guys

just got this board and paired it with a new 6420, havent tryed OC'in yet but i bought this board so i could upgrade to a PCIe card at some point. I saw they have a lot of issues with geforce 8x00 series. anyone tried the new radeon x2900 with this board? any ways ive currently got an agp x850 pro @ xt, just wanted to know what you'd recommend as a good upgrade to PCIe. Also im using XP

All the 8800 320mb nvidia models are officially supported by Asrock!

Check out the vga support list.I have xfx 8800 gts 320MB model and is running great in Windows Xp Pro-Vista 32bit.

Also i have seen some guys from other forums who work with the new Ati 2900xt and their Windows Xp-Vista running perfectly with this mobo.

The only disadvantage of this modo is the 4x Pci express which gives you 10-15% lower
performance.

 

[Ankh]

Originally posted by: Sayyym[/b]
Hi guys

just got this board and paired it with a new 6420, havent tryed OC'in yet but i bought this board so i could upgrade to a PCIe card at some point. I saw they have a lot of issues with geforce 8x00 series. anyone tried the new radeon x2900 with this board? any ways ive currently got an agp x850 pro @ xt, just wanted to know what you'd recommend as a good upgrade to PCIe. Also im using XP.

I am testing an eVGA 8800 GTS 640MB with Windows XP nVIDIA 158.22 Drivers. It is now working perfectly. My PCIe bus setting was my initial problem. (I had a post on this with 3DMark scores, back on page 20 I believe.) Due to the fact that all 8800 boards (that I know of), are of nVIDIA reference design, there is little to no difference between them as far as I can tell. There are still many people having various problems with both nVIDIA and AMD/ATI boards in VISTA.

Once I had the PCIe bus stable, I was able to overclock a vanilla 8800GTS to 659Mhz GPU Core and 1030/2060(Effective)Mhz Memory, ROCK stable...

I have been playing around today with a couple STALKER Demos and FRAPS.

Setup:

E4400 @ 2.85Ghz
2GB OCZ PC2-8500 (OVERKILL but only DDR2 memory I had to test with)
8800GTS 640MB @ 659/1030(2060 Effective)

STALKER Settings:
1280x1024
Basic Video Settings - Max
Advanced Video Settings - All sliders Maxed, All ON except grass shadows (Because I don't like the way the shadowing was implemented)

Ran both time demos from: http://obr.czweb.org/stalker_bench_new.zip

short_timedemo:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4641, 65963, 41, 151, 70.358

buildings_timedemo:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
5205, 65248, 44, 165, 79.773

I will post more later on when I have enough time to verify with multiple runs after a clean boot, and average the results.

Ankh

 

[atkmani]

Originally posted by: Sayyym
Hi guys

just got this board and paired it with a new 6420, havent tryed OC'in yet but i bought this board so i could upgrade to a PCIe card at some point. I saw they have a lot of issues with geforce 8x00 series. anyone tried the new radeon x2900 with this board? any ways ive currently got an agp x850 pro @ xt, just wanted to know what you'd recommend as a good upgrade to PCIe. Also im using XP

I also got this board just some days ago and use it with E6420. This CPU is not as good to OC on this board as E4300 or E4400 because max FSB speed you can get is in range from 280 - 310 Mhz. In my case 300 Mhz is rock stable. System won't boot on any faster FSB setting even 301 seems to much. This is actually bit odd because normally when you find the edge you should drop FSB a bit (eg. 5-10 MHz).
I know my CPU can take 333 MHz without any difficulty. (tested on other setup)

Anyway I'm happy with E6420@2,4 Ghz atm. on this "temporary" board. I chose the 4CoreDual-VSTA for two reasons.
No need to update AGP card at this point & price /basic overclocking features still this board is better then I thought.
But for E6420 perfect companion will be board than can run FSB at 333 Mhz, the ratio btw. CPU and RAM is optimal 1:1 for 667Mhz RAM. But than again you need new PCI Express x16 card. (btw guess that my next board will be based on new IP35 chip when they come less expensive)

Back to 4CoreDual-VSTA if you use 667Mhz DDR2 RAM is of great importance to choice in Bios 533Mhz than you will get optimal 1:1 ratio and than manually set more aggressive timing.
At 300 fsb 3-3-3-8 T1 I get
RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 : 6019 MB/s
RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 : 6034 MB/s in sandra
(Flexibility option is turned off)
Auto mode in Bios give 4-4-4-12 T2 but remember your RAM is "underclocked"
ASRock use bit criptic terms for timing settings in bios however.
Can post exact names on request if needed ?
---------------------------------
Actually have 1 question
Someone said here before
DDR2 "high" 2.0v
DDR2 "norm" 1.9v
DDR2 "low" 1.8v
Where you can see RAM Voltage? progs. that I have tested don't show it or I'm just blind.

cheers /atk

 

[Ankh]

Some quick STALKER Benchmarks:


Setup-

Windows XP Pro 32bit Retail Patched as of 06/04/2007
E4400 @ 2.85Ghz
2GB OCZ PC2-8500 (OVERKILL but only DDR2 memory I had to test with)
8800GTS 640MB

STALKER Settings-

1280x1024 (17" CRT Monitor on this test. This is the MAX res.)
Basic Video Settings - Maxed
Advanced Video Settings - All sliders Maxed, All ON except V-Synch

Ran both time demos from: http://obr.czweb.org/stalker_bench_new.zip



Default GPU/Memory Core:

Benchmark - buildings_timedemo

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4186, 60000, 42, 164, 69.767

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4169, 60000, 43, 163, 69.483

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4191, 60000, 43, 163, 69.850

69.7 AVG FPS

Benchmark - short_timedemo

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4067, 60000, 39, 154, 67.783

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4081, 60000, 39, 156, 68.017

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4099, 60000, 40, 155, 68.317

68.039 AVG FPS

-------------------------------------------

OC GPU 659Mhz/Memory 1030Mhz (2060 Effective)

Benchmark - buildings_timedemo

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4425, 60000, 43, 163, 73.750

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4404, 60000, 45, 164, 73.400

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4410, 60000, 46, 164, 73.500

73.55 AVG FPS

Benchmark - short_timedemo

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4244, 60000, 41, 156, 70.733

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4149, 60000, 40, 153, 69.150

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
4233, 60000, 40, 157, 70.550

70.144 AVG FPS


Benchmark - buildings_timedemo

5.234% Increase

Benchmark - short_timedemo

3.000% Increase

Whoopie... /sarcasm


I'm EXTREMELY happy with the overall numbers... But I'm also disappointed with the OC results. At this point I have no way of knowing what exactly is causing the poor OC numbers. It could be caused by anything from the 4X PCIe Bus to too low of a test resolution to notice a vast difference. I may delve deeper into this at a later time, but for now, I am happy with the general results with the 8800GTS on the board.

Anyway, I hope someone finds the results interesting...

Ankh

 

[Space Marine]

PLEASE anyone help me - i hate overclocking stuff so plz answer to me set the v-link to fast is overclocking or normal for an 6420? also the ide drive strength default is low - normal or high is "overclocking" ? or not i mean why low and not normal? Please somebody answer - searched all bios guides me myself i am adept at award bioses but this for this one by AMI i am a noob. I know for sure that many options in todays bioses are by default in "safe mode" like my abit kv-8max3 now has the agp fast writes disabled but enabling it (without harm) help get that little extra squize of power out of your rig.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Space Marine
PLEASE anyone help me - i hate overclocking stuff so plz answer to me set the v-link to fast is overclocking or normal for an 6420? Set the V-link to fast as this just increases the communication speed between the South Bridge and North Bridge chips not the CPU speed.

also the ide drive strength default is low - normal or high is "overclocking" ? or not i mean why low and not normal? Leave in low, but if you?re IDE Drives don?t boot up or have some faults you may have to increase the voltage up one notch.
Please somebody answer - searched all bios guides me myself i am adept at award bioses but this for this one by AMI i am a noob. I know for sure that many options in todays bioses are by default in "safe mode" like my abit kv-8max3 now has the agp fast writes disabled but enabling it (without harm) help get that little extra squize of power out of your rig.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
Someone even hacked drivers to run the board in SLI (or Crossfire, can't remember which one).
I will try to find the link and post it.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...e_and_AGP_Cards/g1.htm

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...pcie-agp-7600gs/g1.htm

It?s not the 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard being used, but the same principal should apply to the 4CoreDual-VSTA Mobo.

 

[bigsnyder]

Thanks Mr. Vain. I believe that is it.

 

[dragojlo2]

I am sorry if I bother you again but I have an issue with 775 Dual vsta board ...After post I got a message about some invalid MAC adress both in cmos and flash...
I know that a guy from Brazil (not the movie) did solve this issue but I can't find that topic any more...It's really annoying to press F1 every time you turn on or reboot the machine...If someone knows any solution regarding this it would be nice...Thanks anyway, cheers!

 

[bydandie]

Hi all,

I've read through this very infromative forum, as I'm about to become the proud owner of the e4300 CPU, 4CoreDual-VSTA mobo and 2 x 1Gb Kingston PC2-5300 RAM. From what I can gather from reading through here, the processor has 4 x 200Mhz FSB threads that connect up to the dual channel RAM (If I'm wrong please correct me)? Therefore if I want to over clock the CPU to, say 266Mhz FSB I'd need to downgrade the Mhz on the Memory to 533Mhz to get a 1:1 ratio?

I'm no overclocker, and am struggling to get my head around this, so would appreciate any assitance.

Cheers!

 

[kekewons]

Thought I would pass this along, since there are those wondering about using dual-video cards on this board.

This is a (partial) quote I've taken from a German fellow who's using this mobo and taking advantage of it's dual-video card output capability in a couple of sim-racing applications (rFactor and Flatout2):

----------

I made rFactor running on three Monitors. Thats great! Flatout2 runs too!

Just for your information:

I used the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA LGA775 Mainboard (you can run both AGP and PCIe simultanous) with the following config:

PCIe = Radeon X850XT
AGP = Geforce mx 440

The first time I always got the log "resolution ist too wide (... > 2048)"

That was until we noticed, that the max resolution (width) on ATI cards is 2048!

So I took 3 x resolution 640 x 480 = rendering resolution 1920 x 480.

So I will now have a look for a video card that supports higher resolutions (I have the Nvidia 7900gt in mind)

-----------

The essential point for me, and the reason I pass it along here is that two different cards can indeed all be used (and even combined) to generate 3D graphics--it is not the case that only expanded (2D) desktop space will be possible with this board.

BTW, I know it's not clear from this snippet, but what the fellow is actually doing is using "SoftTH*" to generate 3D game output spread out onto three side-by-side monitors.

[* http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/ ]

This is something I'm certainly hoping to try myself, although my own thought had been to use my 7800GS (AGP) as the primary card, with something like a 6200LE in the PCI-x4 slot as the secondary. Not sure if my way will be practical in the long run or not--it may indeed be the case that the AGP bus is going to be too bandwidth limited to make it work well, but I suppose I will have to find out for myself.


k

 

[Simplepsy]

Hi guys,

I got a real weird one here!

Had my 4coredual for about 2 months now with an E6300 onboard and Palit 7600GT PCI-E

Heres the thing...

Overclocking: CPU/PCI-E Sync boots fine, plays fine with no 3D corruption, Orthos tested 8 hours no errors or warnings.

CPU/PCI-E ASync Boots fine to XP and Vista, XP Locks up (Graphics stop responding and screen flashes from time to time), Vista keeps working well untill in a 3D application, the graphics and text corrupt, half drawing and rebooting the NV driver every few mins.

I dont want to run in Sync mode since I use SATA HDD's and dont want to clock the PCI-E.

I've tried several driver combinations, no change, and even the slightest overclock in Async will kick the graphics out.

Another thing: V-LINK mode, has to be Normal. In fast mode XP and Vista wont load.


Any ideas??? Temps are no problems, my system is very well cooled.

 

[Space Marine]

Originally posted by: Simplepsy
Hi guys,

I got a real weird one here!

Had my 4coredual for about 2 months now with an E6300 onboard and Palit 7600GT PCI-E

Heres the thing...

Overclocking: CPU/PCI-E Sync boots fine, plays fine with no 3D corruption, Orthos tested 8 hours no errors or warnings.

CPU/PCI-E ASync Boots fine to XP and Vista, XP Locks up (Graphics stop responding and screen flashes from time to time), Vista keeps working well untill in a 3D application, the graphics and text corrupt, half drawing and rebooting the NV driver every few mins.

I dont want to run in Sync mode since I use SATA HDD's and dont want to clock the PCI-E.

I've tried several driver combinations, no change, and even the slightest overclock in Async will kick the graphics out.

Another thing: V-LINK mode, has to be Normal. In fast mode XP and Vista wont load.


Any ideas??? Temps are no problems, my system is very well cooled.

quote:
Originally posted by: Space Marine
PLEASE anyone help me - i hate overclocking stuff so plz answer to me set the v-link to fast is overclocking or normal for an 6420? Set the V-link to fast as this just increases the communication speed between the South Bridge and North Bridge chips not the CPU speed.

also the ide drive strength default is low - normal or high is "overclocking" ? or not i mean why low and not normal? Leave in low, but if you?re IDE Drives don?t boot up or have some faults you may have to increase the voltage up one notch.
Please somebody answer - searched all bios guides me myself i am adept at award bioses but this for this one by AMI i am a noob. I know for sure that many options in todays bioses are by default in "safe mode" like my abit kv-8max3 now has the agp fast writes disabled but enabling it (without harm) help get that little extra squize of power out of your rig.


You see my point?
That v-link setting has definitely something to do with the speed between norh/south bridge
i knew it beforehand - BUT the case here for the VIA PT880ultra chipset on the 4coredual m/b is if NORMAL=1 GB/S speed between and of FAST=1GB/S or higher. Speaking of defaults the default is 1GB/s (1066 mb/s) for the ultra chip and the PRO chip. Anyways today i will finish my rig building and use some sysinfo tools to find out at what speed exactly the fast setting sets the v-link bus.
IMHO if the normal bios setting is the stock 1066 mb/s and the fast setting is even higher than that THEN this explains why many overclocks will fail. That v-link thing speed affects BOTH
the southbridge and the northbridge and the 4core sporting a puny passive heatsink and the southbridge having nothing may lead to instabilities and of course failed overclocks.

TY for your reply

 

[Space Marine]

Edit:
e-mailed asrock hope they answer sometime - anyway searched some further especially those via forums and found out this:

V-LINK SET TO FAST=MORE AGGRESSIVE TIMINGS (this certainly is NOT for your OCs)

just need that confirmation on that. Update soon..

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: dragojlo2
I am sorry if I bother you again but I have an issue with 775 Dual vsta board ...After post I got a message about some invalid MAC adress both in cmos and flash...
I know that a guy from Brazil (not the movie) did solve this issue but I can't find that topic any more...It's really annoying to press F1 every time you turn on or reboot the machine...If someone knows any solution regarding this it would be nice...Thanks anyway, cheers!

I think the answer is in this thread.


http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=29&threadid=1896616

 

[Simplepsy]

I've reinstalled Windows XP, used the reccomended Certified Forceware drivers (94.24) for my Palit 7600GT, and the latest Hyperon for my 4coredual.

Still having issues. It would appear that I cannot overclock at all without risk to my PCI-E and SATA devices.

Here's the symptoms on XP and Vista:

1) Defaults
All bios settings to Default: Memory fixed to 266MHz (I'm using 2x 1024 DDRII 667)
No overclock.

XP and Vista
XP+ Vista boots with no issues, all applications run, no hangs, lockups, artifacts.
3DMark06 scores average 3400

2) ASync OC
Bios as above except Overclock mode set to ASYNC as reccomended
FSB: 270 + (same end result on each OC)
PCI-E: 100

XP
System Boots then hangs after a short time (time is shorter when the FSB is increased).
Mouse pointer is still responsive but all buttons, links, applications and features dead untill hard reset.
Screen flashes black then back to normal every 15 - 20 seconds.
After a few clicks of the mouse PC speaker Beeps followed by long pause on the mouse.

Vista
System boots but does not Hang. System functions as normal in most applications.
At lower FSB 3DMark06 bench runs well throughout all SM2.0 and CPU tests with good rates, SM3.0 tests fail to load or produces massive Geometry errors.
At higher FSB's (275 - 290) with PCI-E bus still set to 100 Tests can be unpredictable with the 3D driver failing and reseting and Tests failing to load.
Again, issues present themselves sooner when the FSB is higher with no change to the PCI-E.
Other corruptions: Text and 2D Graphics in DX 3D applications corrupt or half load, missing polys and Geo errors in any 3D application.


3) Syncronus OC (CPU / PCI-E Sync)
All settings as above with the only change being OC mode set to Sync.

XP
System boots with no errors, Applications run, Stress Tests show no errors (Orthos 8 hour test)
3DMark06 Benchmark runs with no issues on SM2.0 and CPU tests, SM3.0 (airship) test displays Geomety Corruption at the same point in the test every time regardless of FSB and even after a full OS reinstall and 3Dmark reinstall from a fresh download from a different host.
3DMark05 causes the same error on the same part of the same test aswell.
Other 3D apps run with no issues (Testdrive Unlimited no HDR, World of Warcraft, Aquamark).

Vista
System boots and loads with no issues.
Ran all the above tests, again no issues, all Benchmarks complete without artifacts, warnings or errors.


Basicly my PCI-E Graphics card/PCI-E Bus cannot cope with being out of sync with the CPU even by a small number of MHz in XP and Vista.
When in Sync the system runs well but the drives fragment faster and there are some benchmarking / Shader model 3.0 test issues in XP.

I read that Sync mode can cause damage to PCI-E devices and data loss on Sata drives and its reccomended to OC in ASync mode.
If someone can figure out a way for me to use Async mode without lockups that would be amazing.

If you need any other info I can provide.

Thanks

 

[Biggrich76]

Can anyone confirm if this board locks the AGP frequency at 66mhz? I see options to adjust PCI-e frequency and PCI frequency but nothing regarding AGP frequency.

Thanks.

 

[Simplepsy]

Just did some tweaking on my board: Disabled Virtualisation features, Widened the Host bandwith, Slapped a Thermaltake Ramsink on the Southbridge to be on the safeside and added an extra case fan for good measure. CPU and GPU temps were never a problem but I just wanted to be sure the nb and sb and memory wernt overheating.

Seems to be stable, just ran 4 consecutive 3Dmark06 full tests scoring aprox 3640 which is good for my system (puts me 5th place on the list of similar builds).

Currently running in XP with FSB 290 (2031.5MHz in cpuz),
Memory at 1:1 290Mhz (Dual channel)
PCI-E 109 (Async)
PCI 34.28
V-link normal,
IDE strength Low,
all memory settings to Auto,
Flexibility disabled,
Delay transaction enabled.

Idle Stats:
Core0: 35C
Core1: 35C
MB chip 1: 31C (guessing its the sb)
MB chip 2: 36C (nb?) I'm using Speedfan
CPU Voltage: 1.280v - 1.296v (cpuz reading)

Under 100% load (10mins orthos):
Core0: 46C
Core1: 46C (both stable - no further increase over 5 mins)
MB Chip1: 32C
MB Chip2: 41C (No further increase over 5 mins)
Cpu Voltage: 1.248v (cpuz reading) Guessing a Voltage increase option would be nice to go further.

Temps return to normal idle temps within 10 secs.

 

[Space Marine]

About the V-link issue: Thread copied from original Via forums thread
Well yes - sent yesterday mail to asrock today i got at work found my reply in the inbox:

Dear Sir,

We suggest keeping the Vlink option with default setting.

It will not affect the system performance.

Thanks for the email.

Yours truly,

ASRock

So my guess is that it does not affect the transfer speed it is more probably that aggresive timings stuff
so yes hell that stays default.
Something weird though is that all (engineering) samples sent for reviews had that thing to fast.

Anyway yesterday i finished building my rig - got to say i'm impressed with this via chipset motherboard.

All things like sata1 raptor, ddr and agp x1950 pro along that c2d worked in harmony which was a surprise taking in mind all those different "genre" stuff- installed winxp and got to say i'm was very surprised at the crisp and smooth stability and responsiveness of this m/b and that on raid0 on the 8237a raid controller.
Actually the reason i abandoned the K8T800 abit was that inserting the x1950 agp reverted my 2raptor from raid0 to hdd mode on every reboot even though i created the array successfully-that using the "onchip" same 8237a controller. Also The onboard silicon image gave me multiple socket connect error and file system corruption - as long as i put my X800XTPE back all normal So yes sporting that 4phase power reg this cheap m/b offers some punch for its buck.

 

[Space Marine]

Another issue i have is a more practical one:

I have the Thermaltake armor VA-8000BWS case - the issue is that this motherboards front panel (?) or case power led errmmm ... don't seem to cooperate!!:Q

Going by the manual the p-led takes those 2 first pins like this:


pl+ pl- #pwrbtn gnd
o o o o
o o o o o
hdled+ hdled- gnd reset dummy


BUT this case has a 3 female header for the power led like this


pled+/- nc pled+-
o o o


so 3 female case header for 2 males on panel


Sorry for the crude representation but the proper pled pins like those that would fit to my case are THERE next to speaker connector
BUT NOT SOLDERED :Q

So frustrated i went on and connected the pled to the chassis fan 1 connector and works wonder!! :Q:Q:Q:Q:Q

(a) Does anybody have the same case and what did he do? Is it my motherboards early revision???

(b) Do I miss a pin or other connector?

(c) Powering the Pled from a fan header is safe ? Where do i risk damage?


Dudes thanks for your patience to read this - but as far i'm concerned i cannot live without this cool blue led from the armor case :brokenheart:




Bah leave it dudes just modded it my self....

 

[Simplepsy]

I had a similar problem, pin config is a 3 pin plug on my case (akasa eclipse 62) but the mobo uses a 2 pin, simply move the connector to the center of ur 3 pin plug and overhang the end of the connectors.


Example:

Motherboard Header Pins:.............O.....O
Original Connector:...............O.....X.....O
Modded connector:................X-->O.....O

The wire should be held in place by a small catch, just lift the catch to pull the wire then slot it in the center one.

 

[Simplepsy]

or ... get an adaptor

btw, thanks for the info.

 

[allenlux]

To update my earlier posts about graphics cards - the fact that I failed to get an MSI RX800XT to work at all: I went out and bought a Gainward 8500GT SilentFX (fanless) PCIe card (109 euros).

I can report that so far this works perfectly in the 4CoreDual-VSTA.

I ran some quick benchmarks usng 3DMark05 V1.3.0 - the default settings from the free version.

old card:
Radeon 9600SE
Catalyst 7.4
3DMark05 score 1033

new card:
Gainward 8500GT SilentFX
(apparently clocked by default 600 core, 1200 memory)
driver 101.02 (as supplied)
3DMark05 score 5473

driver 158.22
3DMark05 score 5893

The only thing I'm concerned about is that the GPU temperature seems to be around 70C at idle. I had understood that this card ran much cooler. I'm wondering if the Gainward software is overclocking the card and making it run hotter.

 

[Simplepsy]

70C is a bit excessive for idle temp.

You might want to check your airflow throughout the case to make sure the card is receiving enough cool air,

Tie up your cables, install in intake (front) and exhaust (back) fan, 120mm is best since you'll get max flow for min noise.

You might also want to concider replacing the heatsink and fan for a Zalman VF700-CU.