ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA

[ramjet428]

Originally posted by: ramjet428
Hi Timzak, been a while since we last talked, I see you have done a little upgrading...
So have I...

I am still running an E4300 dual core CPU at 266FSB
have now installed 2GB OCZ Gold DDR2-800 at 533MHZ running at IT command rate
and Asus 7300SE PCI Express Video Card
2 SATA drives, 500 and 250GB, 1 ATA drive, 160GB
1 External SATA 120GB
Ultra X-Connect 500 Watt PSU

Dual-Booting Windows XP and Vista, but runs best in Vista

My onboard sound quit working, but I have installed a lowly Sound Blaster 5.1 digital card

I am however eyeing the ASROCK Conroe1333/DVI as a possible future upgrade as this was my 1st Intel board since the 386SX days, and I want another socket 775 board in case I ever
have CPU or motherboard failures. I had a very weird experience the other night, it turned out to be video driver related, but almost had me thinking it was my motherboard. Whew!

Anyways, I will be on here from time to time, talk to you again some time...

OH No! RMA TIME!

Seems I was premature in thinking I fixed the problem, the computer was again
rebooting randomly. I am RMAing the Motherboard today after 10 months of use.

Since it will take 4-8 Weeks, my upgrade plan just kicked into high gear...

I have replaced my 4 CoreDual-VSTA with ASUS P5K-VM motherboard, my CPU and ram were fine, rock solid performance...

I now have 2 more SATA ports, but 1 less IDE connector, and onboard video, assuming I want to use it... And it is a micro-ATX board, so I can get it into an Ultra MicroFly case.

I will await the replacement of my 4CoreDual-VSTA and probably use it to upgrade another computer since I have 3 computers, 1 for me, 1 for the wife, 1 leaving soon to give to my brother-in-law in the Philippines. Always liked having 3, so that I can use one to do mundane things like processing videos to DVD and the other for gaming.

So, we will check back in after the new replacement board comes in... See you all later...

 

[stevvie]

just a quick follow up to 7600GT starting @ 1X in PCI-e. Here's my 3dMark06 scores.

7600GT@1X 2572
7600GT@4X 3676

 

[WillyWanker]

Anyone have this board with a Pentium D 805 and have successfully overclocked it? For a chip that's supposed to be a huge overclocker I'm lucky if I can get it from 2.66 to 3 GHz and keep it stable, even with an aftermarket cooler.

Right now I'm using DDR RAM, and I think I read somewhere in this thread that DDR2 is recommended for overclocking. Can someone confirm this?

I wonder if I would have better results if I could increase the voltage a tad, but it seems there is no option for it. I did see a few posts floating around about volt mods, but I don't know if any would apply to the D 805.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[stevvie]

I think overclocking millage varies dramatically on these boards. I have an E6600 that runs at 2.4 and can only overclock to 2.66 stable, I have heard others get much higher from this chip on these boards. I have tried this E6600 and the GSkill memory on a friends PC with an abit IP35 board and it overclocked to 3.1 with my artic cooler that I use now.

 

[WillyWanker]

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but this thread is simply too long for me to sift thru, but what's the general consensus on the 4x PCI-e graphics slot on this board? Would a GF 8800GTS 320MB card saturate the bus, or are modern cards simply not yet capable of peaking out a 4x slot, let alone a 16x one?

 

[WillyWanker]

Originally posted by: stevvie
I think overclocking millage varies dramatically on these boards. I have an E6600 that runs at 2.4 and can only overclock to 2.66 stable, I have heard others get much higher from this chip on these boards. I have tried this E6600 and the GSkill memory on a friends PC with an abit IP35 board and it overclocked to 3.1 with my artic cooler that I use now.

I've gotta guess the problem is the crappy voltage regulator. Even at stock speeds I can see the voltage fluctuate periodically, which I've never seen a board do before. Usually core voltage is rock solid and stable. So I'm thinking the overclocking problems are more voltage related than anything else. Too bad there is no way to replace the voltage regulator with a better one.

 

[linuxtiger]

Latest BIOS 2.30:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/downl...p?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA

 

[WillyWanker]

Originally posted by: linuxtiger
Latest BIOS 2.30:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/downl...p?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA

How exactly did you get your Pent D overclocked from 3.06 to 3.81?? I can get my 2.66 D to about 2.9 before it starts crapping out.

 

[imported_stickboy]

anything new in BIOS 2.3?

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: WillyWanker

Originally posted by: linuxtiger
Latest BIOS 2.30:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/downl...p?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA

How exactly did you get your Pent D overclocked from 3.06 to 3.81?? I can get my 2.66 D to about 2.9 before it starts crapping out.

This thread below should guide you in overclocking the D805.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/show...highlight=pin+volt+mod

 

[Mr Vain]

Excellent guide for these motherboards.

Originally posted by: cpmee
Asrock 4CoreDual-Vista overclocking article at Madshrimps.


http://www.madshrimps.be/?acti...tpage=3174&articID=670



:thumbsup:

 

[Budarow]

Anyone upgrading to a Q6600/Q6700...please post your experiences.

Thanks,

Bud

 

[OddJensen]

I've had my 4core Dual Vsta for about 9 months, it does 303 MHz FSB (backed off to 300 MHz to play it a bit safe) without any mods, which I think is decent enough. At first I ran a Celeron 440 (2 GHz) clocked to 3 GHz, now it's running an Pentium E2160 @ 2.7 GHz. Got 2GB of PC3200 DDR and an X1950 Pro 512MB AGP board running on it. (This is sort of a spare rig, it's usually folding, I use my main rig for everything else). I really should try modding the board, because the E2160 has so much more potential from what I see around the net.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: OddJensen
I've had my 4core Dual Vsta for about 9 months, it does 303 MHz FSB (backed off to 300 MHz to play it a bit safe) without any mods, which I think is decent enough. At first I ran a Celeron 440 (2 GHz) clocked to 3 GHz, now it's running an Pentium E2160 @ 2.7 GHz. Got 2GB of PC3200 DDR and an X1950 Pro 512MB AGP board running on it. (This is sort of a spare rig, it's usually folding, I use my main rig for everything else). I really should try modding the board, because the E2160 has so much more potential from what I see around the net.

That's encouraging. After some significant price drops and rather than buying a Q6600 (with a multiplier of 9X), maybe I'll hold off a while longer until I can get a Q6700 (with a 10x multiplier) so perhaps I could hit ~2.9 GHz. I wouldn't pay too much more (maybe $20-$30 more) for a Q6700 over a Q6600 cause a 200-300 MHz increase shouldn't have that great an impact on performance.

 

[imported_stickboy]

The ability to run the 4coredual boards at a 300FSB will also depend heavily on the cpu and how well it runs without a volt mod. My 1.325V E4400 maxes out at 2.66 at default vcore which limits my FSB to 266. Other E4400s with a lower default voltage would probably be able to run a little faster. And its a crap shoot as to what the default voltage will be for a given chip.

edit: oh yea, don't plan on overclocking the Q6600/6700 on the 4coredual board- very unstable by most reports.

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: stickboy
The ability to run the 4coredual boards at a 300FSB will also depend heavily on the cpu and how well it runs without a volt mod. My 1.325V E4400 maxes out at 2.66 at default vcore which limits my FSB to 266. Other E4400s with a lower default voltage would probably be able to run a little faster. And its a crap shoot as to what the default voltage will be for a given chip.

edit: oh yea, don't plan on overclocking the Q6600/6700 on the 4coredual board- very unstable by most reports.

With my mobo and a Pendium D925 (factory clocked at 3.0 GHz), I've OC'd it stable to 3.4 GHz with no voltage increase. So I'm hoping to OC a Q6600 or Q6700 by only ~10% with no voltage increase. I also have good RAM (DDR2).

 

[Budarow]

FYI...I just installed a PNY 9600 GT in my "non-Sata2" 4CoreDual and it fired right up. Did a quick benchmark (game tool) using COH (original, not OF) and with all setting on high (no AA/AF) at 1024x768 I got 31 minimum fps (and >60 avg. fps). Rest of system is Pentium D 925 (at 3.4 GHz) and 2 GBs of RAM. BIG improvement over my old X800XT (AGP) so I'm pretty happy with my $110 upgrade.

 

[imported_stickboy]

well, my trusty 4coredual-vsta bluescreened in the middle of a bios update so its dead now... i'll be moving to a P35 mobo..adieu, everyone.

 

[WillyWanker]

I have a spare BIOS chip that I'd be willing to send you. It has BIOS v2 on it right now. I don't believe there is anything wrong with it, but I make no guarantees it'll work.

I had an issue when I flashed the BIOS to v2. Even tho the flash completed without errors the machine wouldn't POST. I contacted ASRock and they sold me a new BIOS chip, also v2, that also wouldn't POST. I figured out that for some odd reason the machine needed to have DDR2 installed for the first bootup. And that's all it took -- replaced the DDR RAM with DDR2 for the first bootup, then switched back to DDR and it's running fine.

So I have every reason to believe there is nothing wrong with the old BIOS chip. I was gonna toss it, but I'd be happy to send it to you. All I ask is that you cover the shipping costs (like $2 for first class mail).

Otherwise, you can buy new BIOS chips directly from ASRock for $15. That is unless you're dead set on buying a new board.

If you want the chip, let me know.

 

[imported_stickboy]

not sure if you got my PM, its acting kinda funny with mozilla, but that would be awesome... PM me your paypal address, if you have one, and I will send you the money.

 

[imported_rep]

Hi to all guys.

my config.
4coredual-vsta bios 2.30a (pctreiber.net)
e6700 (default 266x10) VID 1,35
2x2GB team group elite (5-5-5-15 @pc6400 // 4-4-4-10@pc4200) with windows xp sp3 3,25GB recognized.
HD3850 AGP

the problem is that i can't go over 282 mhz moreover it is not stable even at 280!orthos beepppp

what bios settings I should use?

does AGP voltage refer to chipset voltage or vga voltage?I wouldn't cook my 3850!

thanks

 

[imported_rep]

other thing.
setfsb show 50 mhz on pci!!!I don't have set anything in bios!
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4581/m2650mhzhv7.png

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@rep

The AGP voltage will not affect your card. It modifies the NB chip IIRC.

The PLL chip to choose in SetFSB is the RTM866-890. See if selecting that gives you a proper PCI reading.

 

[imported_rep]

HI Hlafordlaes.

ok for agp voltage.

in setfsb I've chosen RTM866-890 but it show me always 50mhz on pci!
moreover with RTM866-890 if i select also few mhz over 266 pc freezes.
if i select rtm866-485 or rtm876-660 they show me correctly 33mhz and with them I can overcloc fsb up to 285 mhz without error in orthos!very strange!!

edit
I'm not stable at 285 neither 280

 

[jimmor]

Originally posted by: rep
HI Hlafordlaes.

ok for agp voltage.

in setfsb I've chosen RTM866-890 but it show me always 50mhz on pci!
moreover with RTM866-890 if i select also few mhz over 266 pc freezes.
if i select rtm866-485 or rtm876-660 they show me correctly 33mhz and with them I can overcloc fsb up to 285 mhz without error in orthos!very strange!!

edit
I'm not stable at 285 neither 280

Asrock used a number of PLL chips (RTM and ICS types) for 4coredual mobos, which means for SETFSB you just use the one that works for your particular setup?

With SETFSB, my particular 4coredual-sata2 works with the RTM866-485 selection!

And with available default mobo settings, a 280-285 overclock is actually quite good ---> achieving up to 300, or more, typically requires increases in both Vagp and Vcore ---> as well detailed throughout anandtech, and other forum, 4coredual-vsta, 4coredual-sata2 and 775dual-vsta threads ?