ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA

[inbow78]

I am running a Pentium D 945, about a week ago I was able to get it to boot @ 4.2 ghz. now for whatever reason anything over 4.0 ghz it just doesn't wanna boot. Any ideas?

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: inbow78
I have been able to OC my cpu with no problems. I just have no idea which settings to change in the BIOS when it comes to oc'ing the RAM

You cannot choose at will you RAM dividers? with this mobo, its all based on what FSB you dial in and the type or RAM (DDR or DDR2) and RAM speed you are using as to the final outcome.

I have come across this explanation by Slipstreem in regards to ram dividers. I'm sure I have posted it here in this forum somewhere before, hope this helps.

Quote
Hi peeps!

I've noticed that quite a few people who are relatively new to overclocking seem to be having trouble setting their DDR memory up correctly on this motherboard.

The following may be helpful to someone...

You cannot lock the memory speed on this motherboard, but you can manually change the divider to bring the memory speed back down when you overclock.

The dividers aren't expressed as dividers in the BIOS. They are expressed as DDR speeds which can be a little confusing.

I'll try to explain:

At 200MHz FSB (quad-pumped 800MHz for an E4300), the motherboard will give the following memory speeds for its stated 'DDR' speeds when used with DDR memory...

'DDR400' = 1:1 = 200MHz = DDR400,
'DDR333' = 6:5 = 166.7MHz = DDR333,
'DDR266' = 3:2 = 133.3MHz = DDR266.

These dividers hold true until the we reach an FSB of 240MHz where a new set of dividers are invoked as shown below. Now, suppose that we take the FSB straight up to the level that most unmodified Dual-VSTA motherboards will reach. This seems to be around 290MHz. The dividers and memory speeds will then be as follows...

'DDR400' = 4:3 = 217.5MHz = DDR435,
'DDR333' = 8:5 = 181.25MHz = DDR362.5,
'DDR266' = 2:1 = 145MHz = DDR290.

These new dividers make perfect sense when you consider that at an FSB of 266MHz, the memory speeds are actually DDR400, DDR333 and DDR266 again. This gives the correct memory speeds for processors running at a quad-pumped speed of 1066MHz, ie, the E6300, etc.

So, we don't have precise control over the memory speed achieved for a given FSB, but we can predict what it will be and select the appropriate 'DDR' setting in the BIOS for a given FSB.

Good DDR memory with slackened timings should manage at 290MHz FSB on the new dividers. If it doesn't, then knock the setting in the BIOS down to the 'DDR' setting below the one that matches your memory's actual DDR speed and try tighter timings to compensate for the underclock.

I hope this makes sense.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: inbow78
I am running a Pentium D 945, about a week ago I was able to get it to boot @ 4.2 ghz. now for whatever reason anything over 4.0 ghz it just doesn't wanna boot. Any ideas?

If think that you need more than stock voltage to keep you at around 4.2Mhz.

 

[inbow78]

Originally posted by: Mr Vain

Originally posted by: inbow78
I am running a Pentium D 945, about a week ago I was able to get it to boot @ 4.2 ghz. now for whatever reason anything over 4.0 ghz it just doesn't wanna boot. Any ideas?

If think that you need more than stock voltage to keep you at around 4.2Mhz.

I think that I read somewhere within this topic that you can't change the vcore....right?

 

[Mr Vain]

The motherboard does not have vcore adjustment in the bios.

You can use this method below.

http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3931

This thread might be helpful if you intend on doing the mod.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=89038

 

[Mr Vain]

I came across this today, for those who did not know.

ASROCK 4CoreDual-VSTA works with 8600GTS



For those of you who are wondering if the 8600GTS will work with the
4CoreDual-VSTAA, I have received news from ASROCK that it works. This is what they said.

ASROCK 4CoreDual-VSTA/775Dual-VSTA supported NVIDIA 8600GTS PCIE card. A MSI NX8600GTS PCIE card under Windows Vista and Windows XP.
There are no issues.

Test Configuration
BIOS P1.60
Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU
MSI NX8600GTS/256MB PCIE card
ADATA DDRII667 1GB memory
Seagate 7200.9 160GB SATAII HDD
FSP 350W PSU
Windows XP + SP2
Windows Vista 32-bit
Forceware 158.19 (For Windows XP)
Forceware 158.18 (For Windows Vista)

 

[ronach]

My new Asrock Core2 Dual mobo arrived today, along with a e6600 and 2 1 gig OCZ Platinum PC6400 ram stix for dual channel mode. Will get around to putting it all together in a few days. I think this mobo is a prime candidate for a bios mod wizard to make this board a lil more user friendly..we will see.

Mr Vain,
Are you running this board on both XP and Vista ? What do you think about the 1.60 bios ver ?

 

[inbow78]

So there is no way to manually change the timings on my RAM?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: inbow78
So there is no way to manually change the timings on my RAM?

You should be able to, the 4coredual has plenty of options in the bios for memory setting.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: ronach
My new Asrock Core2 Dual mobo arrived today, along with a e6600 and 2 1 gig OCZ Platinum PC6400 ram stix for dual channel mode. Will get around to putting it all together in a few days. I think this mobo is a prime candidate for a bios mod wizard to make this board a lil more user friendly..we will see.

Mr Vain,
Are you running this board on both XP and Vista ? What do you think about the 1.60 bios ver ?

There are moded bios available with slightly more functions, all the bios with (A) in the end E.g. 1.6A.

http://www.pc-treiber.net/download_kategorie_108.html

Using XP only, VISTA is to buggy and expensive at the moment.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: inbow78
So there is no way to manually change the timings on my RAM?

As Stumps has said. You should be able to; the 4coredual has plenty of options in the bios for memory setting.

The only thing that you cannot do is set the memory divider manually; it changes automatically according to your FSB speed and the memory type that you?re using as in my previous post.

 

[inbow78]

I'm not trying to be a pain....I'm just a NOOB to the whole overclocking thing. I'm not too sure which settings to change in the bios.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: inbow78
I'm not trying to be a pain....I'm just a NOOB to the whole overclocking thing. I'm not too sure which settings to change in the bios.

Have a read thru these overclocking guides.

http://www.tomshardware.com/1997/01/02/overclocking_guide/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/11/overclocking-guide-part-1/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/18/overclocking-guide-part-1/

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: inbow78
So there is no way to manually change the timings on my RAM?

I initially had trouble too. The wording is a little different.

If you want a timing of 1-2-3-4, here is where you change it.

Dram Freque. - Auto
Flexib.- Disabled
Cas Latency - 1
Interleave -
Precharge - 3
Tras - 4
trcd - 2
trfc -
trrd -
trtp -
twtr -
twr -
Bus Select.-
Command Rate -

 

[Fercyful]

thanks lots Mr Vain for your explanation about DDR when overclocking, really nice!

and also for the 8600 working report!! each day that pass I love more this MOBO. And more knowing that the newest video cards works fine...

great!

 

[Compton]

I just got this board today. It seems that the second DDR2 slot is dead. I hate putting together a new system just to take it all back apart. :|

 

[inbow78]

So far I have to say that I am not totally impressed with this motherboard. I have not been able to break 4ghz. I have read on quite a few forums that getting the PD 945 to 4.2ghz on air cooling is quite common. At 4ghz my rig is anything but stable. When I run Prime95 my system re-boots after running for about 2 hrs. I really wish that there was a way to change the vcore. Will updating to a newer BIOS help at all?

 

[Stumps]

can anybody tell me what the memory divider for DDR2 667 is for FSB's higher than 266mhz?

I'm currently using the 533mhz setting (1:1) for my DDR2 667, I have the FSB set to 296.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: inbow78
So far I have to say that I am not totally impressed with this motherboard. I have not been able to break 4ghz. I have read on quite a few forums that getting the PD 945 to 4.2ghz on air cooling is quite common. At 4ghz my rig is anything but stable. When I run Prime95 my system re-boots after running for about 2 hrs. I really wish that there was a way to change the vcore. Will updating to a newer BIOS help at all?

There is no provision to change the Vcore thru the bios at this stage.
Vcore can only be set thru mods that work fine, I have a Pentium D 805 pinmoded to 1.6 volts working stable @ 3860 MHz water cooled and can boot into windows@4000Mhz+
This board is not designed for ultimate overclocking.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Stumps
can anybody tell me what the memory divider for DDR2 667 is for FSB's higher than 266mhz?

I'm currently using the 533mhz setting (1:1) for my DDR2 667, I have the FSB set to 296.

I have seen a table for DDR2 somewhere if I find it ill add it in, otherwise you will just have to keep increasing the FSB by 5 or less till you see the different divider kick in.

The below post might help with the way this mobo works with ram dividers.

Timzak post
Quote
memory speeds at various FSB/DDRXXX combinations

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

FYI, I posted this over at the Anand thread on the same mobo:

I can't quite get this formatted the way I want in this post, but I think this is understandable. Here is a list of what your actual DDR speeds and ratios will be at different FSBs, with each memory speed option. So for example, if you're running at DDR266 at an FSB of 222 (2.0Ghz with a x9 mult), your memory is running 148 Mhz (15 Mhz overclock). It looks like the FSB/DRAM ratio changes somewhere between 222 and 233 FSB. I didn't have time to go through each setting in 1 Mhz increments; rather I chose to pick the FSB that most closely matched the nearest 100 Mhz speed (which turns out to be 11 Mhz jumps with a x9 multiplier). Since my E4300 locks up during POST at 300 FSB, I did not include that information. If someone can test these and give me the info, I can fill it in. Hopefully this will help those looking to overclock the cpu with a specific targeted DDR speed. For example, I know this board seems to have a hard time running ram at its rated latencies. So maybe if I want to run at 2.4Ghz @ DDR400 I have to loosen up my ram timings so much that it's better to run at 2.3Ghz with my memory slightly underclocked at 192Mhz, but with tighter timings. I doubt the tighter timings will make up for the 100Mhz loss in cpu speed, but this is just an example of how you might use this.

By the way, this is on a 4CoreDual-VSTA, but it should be the same as a 775Dual.

CPU SPEED MEM MEM Mhz FSB/DRAM Ratio
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
__________________
E4300: runs up to 293 FSB (2.64Ghz) but still searching for fastest stable configuration
4CoreDual-VSTA
Crucial Ballistix DDR400; Corsair XMS3200c2 (both 2x512)
eVGA 6800GS CO AGP unlocked from 12/5 to 16/6
Raptor 74GB boot
Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA, 7200.7 80GB PATA, WD 20BB 20GB PATA data drives
Aopen DVD-RW 16X

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Mr Vain

Originally posted by: Stumps
can anybody tell me what the memory divider for DDR2 667 is for FSB's higher than 266mhz?

I'm currently using the 533mhz setting (1:1) for my DDR2 667, I have the FSB set to 296.

I have seen a table for DDR2 somewhere if I find it ill add it in, otherwise you will just have to keep increasing the FSB by 5 or less till you see the different divider kick in.

The below post might help with the way this mobo works with ram dividers.

Timzak post
Quote
memory speeds at various FSB/DDRXXX combinations

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

FYI, I posted this over at the Anand thread on the same mobo:

I can't quite get this formatted the way I want in this post, but I think this is understandable. Here is a list of what your actual DDR speeds and ratios will be at different FSBs, with each memory speed option. So for example, if you're running at DDR266 at an FSB of 222 (2.0Ghz with a x9 mult), your memory is running 148 Mhz (15 Mhz overclock). It looks like the FSB/DRAM ratio changes somewhere between 222 and 233 FSB. I didn't have time to go through each setting in 1 Mhz increments; rather I chose to pick the FSB that most closely matched the nearest 100 Mhz speed (which turns out to be 11 Mhz jumps with a x9 multiplier). Since my E4300 locks up during POST at 300 FSB, I did not include that information. If someone can test these and give me the info, I can fill it in. Hopefully this will help those looking to overclock the cpu with a specific targeted DDR speed. For example, I know this board seems to have a hard time running ram at its rated latencies. So maybe if I want to run at 2.4Ghz @ DDR400 I have to loosen up my ram timings so much that it's better to run at 2.3Ghz with my memory slightly underclocked at 192Mhz, but with tighter timings. I doubt the tighter timings will make up for the 100Mhz loss in cpu speed, but this is just an example of how you might use this.

By the way, this is on a 4CoreDual-VSTA, but it should be the same as a 775Dual.

CPU SPEED MEM MEM Mhz FSB/DRAM Ratio
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
__________________
E4300: runs up to 293 FSB (2.64Ghz) but still searching for fastest stable configuration
4CoreDual-VSTA
Crucial Ballistix DDR400; Corsair XMS3200c2 (both 2x512)
eVGA 6800GS CO AGP unlocked from 12/5 to 16/6
Raptor 74GB boot
Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA, 7200.7 80GB PATA, WD 20BB 20GB PATA data drives
Aopen DVD-RW 16X

I'm really just trying to find out what the exact speed of my ram is when it is set to the 667 setting....I currently have it set at 592mhz (296 1:1)using the 533 setting.

 

[ronach]

Mr Vain,
Did you use the ASRflash program to flash your bios or did you use AFUDOS with switches, like /o /p /c ect. If you used the ASRflash, do you know if it contains the switches built in to the program rather than typed in after the program..like..ASRflash 4cdvsta1.60 /o /p /c ?

 

[Torpedo]

Hi!

I'm new of this forum.

I would to buy a AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA.

My current configuration is:

E4400, 2*1GB G.Skill HZ DDR500 (Samsung UCCC), Gigabyte 8800GTS, WD Raptor 74GB + WD Caviar 250GB S-ATAII

I have some questions for the guru of thread, Mr Vain and others

1) With my 8800GTS I can work under Vista? Mr Vain tell that the 8800GTS work only under Vista and not Windows XP. 3DMark results, Mr Vain? You can help me?

2) The performance loss with PCI-E x4 how much is?

3) Wich is the record of FSB on this motherboard? 332, right? For reach this record I can make this mod-> http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3931

4) Someone explain me what's the HDMI-SPIDF connector?

5) Wich differences have the modded bios on-> http://www.pc-treiber.net/download_kategorie_108.html
There's no description!

6) The normal DDR work in dual channel mode?

7) The memory divisor are 133, 160 and 200? The ram voltage?

Sorry for my bad english, I'm italian

Please help me,
best regards

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Torpedo
Hi!

I'm new of this forum.

I would to buy a AsRock 4CoreDual-VSTA.

My current configuration is:

E4400, 2*1GB G.Skill HZ DDR500 (Samsung UCCC), Gigabyte 8800GTS, WD Raptor 74GB + WD Caviar 250GB S-ATAII

I have some questions for the guru of thread, Mr Vain and others

1) With my 8800GTS I can work under Vista? Mr Vain tell that the 8800GTS work only under Vista and not Windows XP. 3DMark results, Mr Vain? You can help me?

If it works on the 775Dual-VSTA it works on the 4CoreDual-VSTA.
Look thru this tread below.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...STARTPAGE=69&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

2) The performance loss with PCI-E x4 how much is?

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2814&p=4

Final Words

Our results confirm that there is not a throughput performance penalty for using AGP over PCI Express on the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. In fact, just the opposite is true in this case as our AGP graphics cards consistently scored better than their PCI-E counterparts. This is attributable to the PCI Express Graphics slot being limited to X4 operation at the upper resolutions and the slight overhead penalty incurred due to the VIA chipset design. However, the performance of the PCI Express slot is not that bad with the worst penalty being around 5% with our video cards. (Pairing the motherboard with a top end GPU results in performance that can be up to 10% slower in certain applications than competing motherboards.) If you have either an AGP or midrange PCI Express card then this board will handle both in a more than acceptable manner with today's applications.


3) Wich is the record of FSB on this motherboard? 332, right? For reach this record I can make this mod-> http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3931

340FSB

4) Someone explain me what's the HDMI-SPIDF connector?

Lets you send High Definition Sound thru a HDMI card into your HD TV.

5) Wich differences have the modded bios on-> http://www.pc-treiber.net/download_kategorie_108.html
There's no description!

Quote
StephenMSmith

Thanks. According to Google translation, this BIOS has been modded to:

With the Bios it concerns a Betabios 2.60 official of ASRock on basis. In the Bios speed-quilts and Thermal Throttling should again to function. Likewise the old automatic controller action of the exhaust price increase was repaired. Attention, perhaps thereby it can come to the overheating of the Northbridge.

which I think means:

1) Speed step option restored on CPU page
2) Thermal throttling option restored on CPU page
3) CPU Quiet functionality is fixed (ie. restored back to when it actually worked)?

6) The normal DDR work in dual channel mode?

YES on DDR and DDR2

7) The memory divisor are 133, 160 and 200? The ram voltage?

Increase voltage only to stabilize, if it's working ok don?t increase voltage.

Sorry for my bad english, I'm italian

Please help me,
best regards

 

[bigbillyt99]

I am new to this forum. I am interested in purchasing one of these motherboards. My only concern is the lack of sufficient SATA ports. I would like to pair a SATA controller but I fear compatibility issues.

Has anyone had any experience with specific SATA controllers, good or bad?

Alternately, has anyone seen any other threads anywhere discussing this?