ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA

[ronach]

Hlafordlaes,
Unfortunately..I am not a bios guy, BUT..I have a friend who is, he is real busy at the moment, so this board will have to wait. I did download and install the 1.70 bios via the Dos method without a hitch from Asrock and find it to be more stable than the 1.50 supplied with the board. I had fiddled around some with the bios settings in the 1.50 ver, so I was familiar enough with the bios to make more educated decisions this last time. My sys has NOT crashed all day. I could not of said that yesterday..heh. It has been 4 years since I changed mobo's so I was a bit rusty to say the least. I had to educate myself again on all the bios terms so I could understand what the settings ment in the bios. I did all manual settings for my ram except one which I left on auto [ had no clue what to set it at ]. I cannot after just one day say that my sys is as stable as it will get at the default 2.4 gig speed of my cpu..time will tell after I game some more. When I do a modest O/C successfully I will let you guys know what my final settings are if anyone is still interested.

 

[tno]

Hey Gary Key,

When are we going to see that AT review of this board? We've been waiting patiently and if reports are right, this board might be phased out pretty soon, it'd be a shame to not even get a review before it hits the D/C'd list. I mean it didn't even show up in your MOBO overview article from today. Let us know.

tno

 

[Tedtalker1]

False Alarm guys.This board is selling like hotcakes and it just came out.There's no way this board is going away anytime soon IMHO.It's too good at what it does;giving people a hybrid board for seamless upgrade paths. It's still listed on ASROCKS website under the PRODUCTS page even if it disappeared from the main page new products highlight short list index.

 

[skykasper]

I am in China and only know a little English.
I am useing this 4coredual_VSTA with E4300 for a week,this cheap board is great than i thought before, I set FSB to 300Mhz and the E4300 working at 2.7GHZ very stable.
I find must set the PCi frequency to 33.8Mhz ,the ram and the agp voltage must set to high the IDE strength to highest in BIOS ,if donot do this FSb can only to 297MHZ

i disabled the on boat LAN and soundcard and use a PCI soundcard and a PCI LAN card, flopy controller and other ports I dont need are disbaled too.

somebody says if mod the E4300 to 266 fsb, maybe OC above 300 ,I want to try it.

can you understand my non_standard English,hehe!

 

[ronach]

Skycasper,
Your english is just fine, 100% comprehension here. If your cpu temps are ok then go for the 266 FSB setting, let us know how you make out on your O/C. I am still having minor glitches on my new build, nothing serious at all, just a few things to tidy up on. Good luck.

 

[asrock n roll]

Hi,

I have just bought an ASRock 4coreDual-VSTA and am having a small problem with it.

I have 2x1gb sticks of Kingston HyperX DDR400 ram and the BIOS and windows will only detect 1gb. CPUZ, however, sees both sticks??

I have swopped both sticks around but it appears that they will only work in DDR1 slot 1. Neither work in DDR1 slot 2.

I am using BIOS 1.5 and thought maybe a new BIOS would help? Or is the slot itself dead and i need a new motherboard?

Thanks

 

[ronach]

asrock n roll,
Have you set the bios up for Dual channel mode ? If so does the boot screen say that you are in fact in DC mode ? Give us your new system specs as well. I know you have pushed those modules in and out of the ram slots a few times, but are they fully in the slot. I had to really push em hard on my board to get them seated. If this doesn't work, take a GOOD look into DDR1 slot 2 with a flashlight and see if any of the pins are bent inward down into the slot, if so..DIS IS BAD. Maybe clean the ram module pins with a pencil eraser, hey..won't hurt. Better than dissin the mobo if you don't have to.

 

[asrock n roll]

Originally posted by: ronach
asrock n roll,
Have you set the bios up for Dual channel mode ? If so does the boot screen say that you are in fact in DC mode ? Give us your new system specs as well. I know you have pushed those modules in and out of the ram slots a few times, but are they fully in the slot. I had to really push em hard on my board to get them seated. If this doesn't work, take a GOOD look into DDR1 slot 2 with a flashlight and see if any of the pins are bent inward down into the slot, if so..DIS IS BAD. Maybe clean the ram module pins with a pencil eraser, hey..won't hurt. Better than dissin the mobo if you don't have to.

I've had a look at the slot but all seems ok. I've not seen the dual channel selector in the bios?

My full specs are

Core 2 Duo E4300
2x1Gb Kingston HyperX DDR400
MSI Radeon X1950XT 256mb PCI-E
120Gb Maxtor SATA 150 HDD
NEC DVDRW
Antec TruePower 550W

EDIT. I've found the dual channel selector but it doesn't help. The boot screen is still only showing 1024mb ram in slot 1 but nothing in slot 2. It's obviously then selecting single channel.

 

[ronach]

ASRock n Roll,
Go into the bios..Advanced, Chipset selection, Disable ..Flexibility Option, this setting should give you a better fsb/mem ratio. Your mem is DDR1 so I can't help you with bios parameter selections for your particular ram modules..but I have mine set pretty much for my ram..the auto mode sucks..heh. For your info, my mobo detected dual channel from the get go, even when I was using the 1.50 ver bios, but then again I am using DDR2 stix. You could try a Dos bios flash using the 1.70 ver from ASRock, and cross your pinkies for luck..heh. Go for it.

 

[dumbdumb]

I wasn't happy with this mobo.
Going to RMA it and get my money back.
Getting a different one with pci-e x16 and getting new ram

 

[asrock n roll]

Originally posted by: ronach
ASRock n Roll,
Go into the bios..Advanced, Chipset selection, Disable ..Flexibility Option, this setting should give you a better fsb/mem ratio. Your mem is DDR1 so I can't help you with bios parameter selections for your particular ram modules..but I have mine set pretty much for my ram..the auto mode sucks..heh. For your info, my mobo detected dual channel from the get go, even when I was using the 1.50 ver bios, but then again I am using DDR2 stix. You could try a Dos bios flash using the 1.70 ver from ASRock, and cross your pinkies for luck..heh. Go for it.

Tried all that now and still no luck, it must be a faulty board. Going to sebd it back. Sad really , as it replaced a 939Dual-SATA2 that worked flawlessly. Shame this new board is nowhere near as good.

Thanks for your help

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: dumbdumb
I wasn't happy with this mobo.
Going to RMA it and get my money back.
Getting a different one with pci-e x16 and getting new ram

What has been the source your unhappiness?

 

[Flapper]

Hello,

I have the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard.


I've just bought some new DDRII RAM:

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)


Unfortunately I've just seen that the motherboard doesn't support 800Mhz RAM.

Will the motherboard accept the new RAM but run it at slower speeds? -(I don't mind this as I intend to upgrade the MB in a year and take the RAM with me)

Or will it simply fail to function?


Any help appreciated. I could cancel the order if I'm quick

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: Flapper
Hello,

I have the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard.


I've just bought some new DDRII RAM:

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)


Unfortunately I've just seen that the motherboard doesn't support 800Mhz RAM.

Will the motherboard accept the new RAM but run it at slower speeds? -(I don't mind this as I intend to upgrade the MB in a year and take the RAM with me)

Or will it simply fail to function?


Any help appreciated. I could cancel the order if I'm quick

It should run at slower speeds.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: asrock n roll

Originally posted by: ronach
ASRock n Roll,
Go into the bios..Advanced, Chipset selection, Disable ..Flexibility Option, this setting should give you a better fsb/mem ratio. Your mem is DDR1 so I can't help you with bios parameter selections for your particular ram modules..but I have mine set pretty much for my ram..the auto mode sucks..heh. For your info, my mobo detected dual channel from the get go, even when I was using the 1.50 ver bios, but then again I am using DDR2 stix. You could try a Dos bios flash using the 1.70 ver from ASRock, and cross your pinkies for luck..heh. Go for it.

Tried all that now and still no luck, it must be a faulty board. Going to sebd it back. Sad really , as it replaced a 939Dual-SATA2 that worked flawlessly. Shame this new board is nowhere near as good.

Thanks for your help

There has been faulty memory slots reported before on the 775Dual-VSTA, I guess that this board is no different.

 

[Mr Vain]

Customer reviews some good info here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813157107

 

[capler]

If anyone has problems with the fans staying ON (S1) when attempting to perform an S3 (Suspend to RAM) sleep in Vista/XP, the following modded-BIOS worked for me.
I don't think anyone's mentioned this in this thread (the 'Search' function in the thread seems broken) although I noticed that someone mentioned the same trick for the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA on this forum too, so here it is:

Installing one of the modded-BIOS files from here at your own risk:
http://www.pc-treiber.net/filebase.php?cat=108

For those that don't speak German, look for the latest BIOS version with an 'A' at the end (that's the modded one, I used 'ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA Bios 1.70A'), and use Altavista babelfish to translate the instructions and be sure to follow them to avoid problems.

Now my HTPC not only goes into sleep silently, but the original fan temp control settings in the BIOS now actually work meaning that my Intel Stock HSF is now silent during heavy PC use too! I can't believe ASRock didn't do this themselves.


---
HTPC case in tv room
ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard
Intel Core2Duo E6420 (2.13Ghz) non-overclocked
reseated stock Intel HSF using Arctic Silver 5
reseated stock Northbridge using Arctic Silver 5
2x 64mx64u-40c 3200 DDR400 modules in dual-channel mode. 1Gb total. Timings: 2.5,3,3,8
ATI-built Radeon 9600XT with Mass-Air-GPU fitted
Pioneer 106D DVD-RW
Matrix Orbital VK204-24-USB
2x Hauppauge NOVA-T tv-tuner cards
3 Nexus Real Quiet fans (80x80x25mm) 17dBA
MS Vista 32-bit

 

[theslasher]

Ok guys been watching this forum for a while i have the 4CoreDual-VSTA running bios 1.70.
Im running a E6400 and 2 gig of crosair Twinx DDR2 XMS2GB PC5400.
The graphic card is a XFX 7800GS XT and i want to upgrade the card.
I run xp pro so basicly i want to go for a 8800gts 320mb or 640mb just checking that this will work on my motherboard.
Apart from this question i cant fault the board it will last me till i get a 680sli board.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: capler
If anyone has problems with the fans staying ON (S1) when attempting to perform an S3 (Suspend to RAM) sleep in Vista/XP, the following modded-BIOS worked for me.
I don't think anyone's mentioned this in this thread (the 'Search' function in the thread seems broken) although I noticed that someone mentioned the same trick for the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA on this forum too, so here it is:

Installing one of the modded-BIOS files from here at your own risk:
http://www.pc-treiber.net/filebase.php?cat=108

For those that don't speak German, look for the latest BIOS version with an 'A' at the end (that's the modded one, I used 'ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA Bios 1.70A'), and use Altavista babelfish to translate the instructions and be sure to follow them to avoid problems.

Now my HTPC not only goes into sleep silently, but the original fan temp control settings in the BIOS now actually work meaning that my Intel Stock HSF is now silent during heavy PC use too! I can't believe ASRock didn't do this themselves.


---
HTPC case in tv room
ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard
Intel Core2Duo E6420 (2.13Ghz) non-overclocked
reseated stock Intel HSF using Arctic Silver 5
reseated stock Northbridge using Arctic Silver 5
2x 64mx64u-40c 3200 DDR400 modules in dual-channel mode. 1Gb total. Timings: 2.5,3,3,8
ATI-built Radeon 9600XT with Mass-Air-GPU fitted
Pioneer 106D DVD-RW
Matrix Orbital VK204-24-USB
2x Hauppauge NOVA-T tv-tuner cards
3 Nexus Real Quiet fans (80x80x25mm) 17dBA
MS Vista 32-bit

I believe Asrock removed the fan temp control settings in the BIOS because boards were failing due to heat issues and set fan to full speed to keep area cooler, that?s why its been removed.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: theslasher
Ok guys been watching this forum for a while i have the 4CoreDual-VSTA running bios 1.70.
Im running a E6400 and 2 gig of crosair Twinx DDR2 XMS2GB PC5400.
The graphic card is a XFX 7800GS XT and i want to upgrade the card.
I run xp pro so basicly i want to go for a 8800gts 320mb or 640mb just checking that this will work on my motherboard.
Apart from this question i cant fault the board it will last me till i get a 680sli board.

If you look back one page in this thread you will see that 8800GTS work's with the 775Dual-VSTA and this board as this is a 775Dual-VSTA board with certified north bridge chip.

 

[theslasher]

Thanks Mr Vain just needed a bit more reasurance before i spent £200 so here goes.
Im loving me motherboard.

 

[lookin4dlz]

I'm thinking about getting this board to go w/ my existing 9600XT AGP card & 1 GB of DDR I that will oc by 10%-15% (depends on the voltage I can supply it). To run the memory in sync & get the highest CPU speed, it looks like I should buy a 6300/6400 series chip. Additionally, it seems as if getting a 6320/6420 would provide an average 7%-8% speed boost.

Under this scenario, I would spend $235 ($170 6320 chip & $65 board). Alternatively, I could spend $300 for a cheap CPU/motherboard (945 chipset)
combo from Newegg for $180, 2 GB of DDR II for $85 & a cheap graphics card for $35.

The second option would probably provide a decent speed boost in processing & graphics speed. Since I don't game much, I need only the processing speed.

Any advice?

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: lookin4dlz
I'm thinking about getting this board to go w/ my existing 9600XT AGP card & 1 GB of DDR I that will oc by 10%-15% (depends on the voltage I can supply it). To run the memory in sync & get the highest CPU speed, it looks like I should buy a 6300/6400 series chip. Additionally, it seems as if getting a 6320/6420 would provide an average 7%-8% speed boost.

Under this scenario, I would spend $235 ($170 6320 chip & $65 board). Alternatively, I could spend $300 for a cheap CPU/motherboard (945 chipset)
combo from Newegg for $180, 2 GB of DDR II for $85 & a cheap graphics card for $35.

The second option would probably provide a decent speed boost in processing & graphics speed. Since I don't game much, I need only the processing speed.

Any advice?

4CoreDual-VSTA with an E4400 for around 3 GHz+ because you don?t game much and can use your old stuff DDR Ram AGP card etc.

 

[timzak]

Originally posted by: lookin4dlz
I'm thinking about getting this board to go w/ my existing 9600XT AGP card & 1 GB of DDR I that will oc by 10%-15% (depends on the voltage I can supply it). To run the memory in sync & get the highest CPU speed, it looks like I should buy a 6300/6400 series chip. Additionally, it seems as if getting a 6320/6420 would provide an average 7%-8% speed boost.

Under this scenario, I would spend $235 ($170 6320 chip & $65 board). Alternatively, I could spend $300 for a cheap CPU/motherboard (945 chipset)
combo from Newegg for $180, 2 GB of DDR II for $85 & a cheap graphics card for $35.

The second option would probably provide a decent speed boost in processing & graphics speed. Since I don't game much, I need only the processing speed.

Any advice?

I agree with Mr. Vain. Since you're not gaming, you will get 95% of the processing performance you'd get from going to a new mobo, DDRII and cheap PCI-X video card. An E4400 will get you a solid 2 Ghz and let you run your DDR400 at 1:1 with the cpu FSB. Plus, you have the option to overclock if you like, with a maximum overclocked speed of about 3 Ghz for this setup. Easily your best bang-for-the-buck option.

 

[lookin4dlz]

Thanks for the quick replies Mr Vain & timzak!

So, the e4400 multiplier would work out better than the e4300 & neither of you think that going with an e6320 that has an extra 2MB of cache is worth the extra $30 over the e4400?