Asrock 775Dual VSTA help

[schi0249]

First off, I know this is an old board. Don't tell me to build a new machine. I am looking to upgrade the processor and put this machine in my sons room as a whole new PC is not in the budget. I have read mixed things about running Wolfdale core processors while using the beta bios. They seem easier to find and lower price. But do they work as well? And if so, what would people recommend. For officially supported cpu's I have the following options:
Conroe
E4700 (retail) $100
E6300 (oem) $57.99
E6320 (oem) $57.99
E6400 (oem) $62.99
E6420 (oem) $62.99

I'm looking for some honest recommendations. Anything should improve this system. One of the games he wants recommends (not requires) an Intel C2D 2.4 GHz.

Current system
board running 3.19a beta bios
2 GB DDR II
P4 3.4 ghz
Windows XP
Radeon HD 4600

 

[Fornax Eridanus]

I had a similar board, 775DUAL-SATA2 and it served me very well.
You are right in that you want to loose that P4, any C2D will be faster.

I have no experience with the board in combination with a Wolfdale but those have an FSB of 1066 or 1333MHz. You will be safe with any Conroe with an 800 or 1066 FSB and then mildly overclock it. You could start with an E2180 or E4400 (both 2.0GHz, 800FSB) and overclock them to 2.4 (they might go higher, both run at 2,6GHz here at stock voltage).
You could also look for an E6600 (2.4GHz, 800MHz FSB) which was a very common CPU.

 

[tigersty1e]

I had the same exact board 4 years ago. It overclocks very slightly with an agp video card and ide hard drive. I got it to hit maybe 290 fsb.

But the problem is that increasing the fsb also increases the pcie-frequency. So if you use a pcie video card and/or sata hard drive, you may have problems. They may have fixed that problem with a bios update though.

 

[bigsnyder]

Check these two threads for everything you want to know or don't want to know about the board:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=3036&highlight=asrock+775dual
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=311715&highlight=asrock+775dual

If memory serves me, wolfdale will work fine with beta bios. Just don't expect to run at regular speeds with the 1333fsb chips. The 1066fsb chips would be better suited. Again, just recalling from memory, check the threads for a more reliable answer.

 

[schi0249]

tigersty1e and all

What processor were you using and do you have experince/know of running the wolfdale cores on this board? According to the bios page it says it adds support for E7xxx and e5xxx wolfdale.

I was thinking of trying to max the processor without OC it. I only need to squeeeze about 1 year out of this machine. Ideally I want a minimum processor of 2.5 (for his game). Newegg has a good price on a new e5700 wolfdale (3GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB) and e6600 wolfdale (3.06GHz, 2MB L2, 1066MHz FSB). Also I can get a new e4700 conroe (2.6GHz, 2MB L2 and 800MHz FSB) for a decent price.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd go for an E5xxx CPU myself, I think. Although, check the steppings, the newer ones might not be supported fully.