ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[dmnlucifer]

BOARD IS NICE HAVE E6600 @ 2.81 312 FSB
2 STICKS DDR2 PNY 667 OPTIMA
ATI X1950XTX
PRIOR HAD BFG6800GT 2 STICKS DDR333

 

[dmnlucifer]

BOARD IS NICE ASROCK775DUAL-VSTA
HAVE E6600 @ 2.81GHZ 312 FSB
ATI X1950XTX 2 STICKS PNY OPTIMA DDR2 667
PRIOR HAD BFG6800GT OC 2 STICKS DDR 333
BOTH SET UPS WORKED GREAT
FROM DMNLUCIFER

 

[LoboE]

I ordered GF7950GT gfx card and I have this mobo. Do you know is that card even working with this Asrock mobo, or shall I destroy this and buy new mobo...? Thanks.

 

[amir911]

it should work as long as u gave a decent psw.
i ordered my x1950pro as well so if i get it i let you know.
The 4x vs 16x is like 2%-10% diff so a max of 10 fps.

good luck

 

[techwool]

Originally posted by: colche

Sounds like exactly what happened to my (X800Pro - Modded to XT AGP) check my posts a while back in this thread.

I've been there and tried a lot. Save yourself the time and effort! You've got a couple options...Upgrade to Vista the Cataylst drivers work fine no issues there, or swap cards (I sold my X800 AGP and got a 7900GS PCI-E). In the end i did both!

I've swapped over my PSU, going to give it one more go from a fresh install... If that doesn't work the X800XT is going on Ebay and I'll order an Nvidia card.

I'll post the results after I've tried it.

 

[amir911]

specs please.
mine works perfect with an x800xl.
bios 1.9
agp fast write on
agp 8x
256mg set in bios.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

I've been perusing this thread...even with the seemingly excessive amount of tweaking one has to go through, I'm (somewhat) tempted to pull the trigger. Wanted to get your thoughts, pls:

Is the incompatibility with the Nvidia 8800 series cards due to the PCI-e 4x limitation? (I reckon a $400+ vid card would be overkill anyway... )

What is the best BIOS to date for this board...1.9? 2.10?

I have 2x512MB Crucial PC3200 cas3 DDR that runs @ 2.5, but it's old (3+ years) & running in an AthlonXP box...would it make more sense investment-wise to upgrade to DDR2, even though it's somewhat expensive?

I would reuse the majority of the parts in my current box (Audigy 2, ATI x800xl AGP, etc.).

Sorry if the questions are redundant.
Thanks all...

 

[batmang]

anyone have any overclocking experience with these boards with the Pentium D 925 Presler 3.0? I just got this board and that CPU.. wondering how much juice I can squeeze out of it.

 

[homonculus]

...You'll be lucky! This board has no core voltage adjustment, pretty important for overclocking P4D.

Oldhoss, the ONLY reason to buy this board is to reuse all your old gear, although the Audigy might create issues. The NV 8800 does not work with this VIA chipset, period.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Thanks homonculus. Amazing that after all these years, SB cards still have problems with VIA chipsets. The lack of 8800 compatibility is the deal killer, though. Gonna take a closer look @ the budget P965 boards.

 

[Raikku]

I don't have any problems with Audigy 4. Maybe i'm lucky, don't know.

Fact about 8800's incompability with 775Dual is sad, now i have to wait until i have some other mobo before it make sense to buy 8800Gts.

And those DDR2's too, it's about 800-900euros together... but maybe i buy DDR2's earlier, i can already use them in AsRock.

 

[7lowe]

I started working on upgrading my old PC with a new 775Dual-VSTA motherboard, e6600 C2Duo, and a new SATA drive about a week ago. Everything went together ok, then I started having lots of freezing problems. It would freeze up very quickly if I tried to copy large amounts of data or if I tried to use MCE. Occasionally it would also freeze when browsing a website.

I read through this entire thread trying various solutions reported by other people and tried lots of different BIOS settings and the latest Hyperion drivers from both ASRock and VIA.

Finally, I saw a post on this thread that mentioned what seemed like the same problem and that they took out their PCI wireless adapter and that solved the problem. I was desperate by this point and tried it even though I thought for sure it was the SATA controller. Lo and behold, that fixed it right up.

So, I wanted to join to post a thanks to whoever suggested that and in hopes that someone else with a similar problem might be helped.

Also, does anyone know of a fix aside from removing the card and getting a USB adapter or something to that effect? I'll probably get a wireless access point/router so I can hook up both the PC and my VOIP phone via ethernet, but I was just curious.

Thanks again,
7

 

[Heffty]

Originally posted by: amir911
okay i am thinking of getting this board with a e6400/6300

i need to know the following if you can help:

1. ATI x800xl agp will be an issue?
2. Kingmax ddr 533 will be an issue?
3. What version of this motherboard i need to look for? like a rev 1 2 ...
4. What stepping A/B i need to look for in the cpu?
5. How loud is the stock fan?

Thanks for the help

X800XL AGP is not an issue. I have it in my board and it works fine.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

I read this thread often, since like most I am thinking of making the transition upgrade with this board (actually, the quad-core version if released outside Asia). I would like to share the thought that we really need to encourage VIA to release the PT880/Pro/Ultra NB & SB chipset datasheets. Here's why:

I use VIA chipsets on a couple of old (really old) boards. Yet with the right tweaking, I play Oblivion (1280x1024, high quality settings) on an Abit VP6 (dual 1Ghz Coppermine P-IIIs @ 1.09 146FSB), using an eVGA 6800 GT @ 400/1100, and 1GB Samsung SDRAM @ 2-2-2-5.

Through the use of the datasheets that VIA released to me for this old chipset, and a couple of utilities to tweak both NB and SB, I get a lot of performance that no amount of BIOS, XP, or video card tweaking was able to provide, thus the ability to play a demanding game like Oblivion on such modest HW. I also get stuff like a 90Mb/s burst rate on UDMA 100; the Highpoint RAID (also UDMA 100) bursts to 112 Mb/s. Slow by modern standards, but great for 7-year old junk!

My point is this: mobo mfgrs traditionally do not seem to invest in properly setting up the BIOS to exploit all of the features built into VIA chipsets. I am guessing that at least a few of the issues in this thread could be solved if the data were available.

I have asked the company to release these new datasheets, but no luck so far (even wrote to the President and gave my opinion that the PT880 is either VIA's last gasp, or a first chance at a comeback in mainboards, depending on the support they now provide to enthusiasts). Marketing actually wrote back and timidly agreed, but still no datasheets.

Might I encourage those interested to write VIA using the emails on their site, and/or request the datasheets on the page provided for that? I am guessing they will eventually yield, and we can all start tweaking away (me last, since would still need to get me a board)!

 

[tcsenter]

VIA release data sheets? Isn't going to happen. VIA is restructuring its business to focus on SFF and embedded (e.g. UMPC). Being locked out of SLI and CrossFire being nearly dead, it has all but given up on producing enthusiast class chipsets or attempting to compete in that segment. VIA has decided to be content as a mid-range and value segment core logic maker, because value-segment desktop core logic is high-end embedded core logic.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

You are right, of course, on the retreat of VIA into the SFF niche. However, that makes the PT880 end of the line, thus even less need for secrecy. My business instinct for VIA, though, is that they should harvest on whatever strengths can bring in quick cash flow now, given the huge drop in revenue. Yet if you look up the chipset on their site, and look for mobos listed for the chipset, neither the 775Dual-VSTA nor the 4Core-VSTA are even listed. A push on their part to support the PT880 now would cost less than the incremental revenue I believe they can generate.

As for SFF, you can hardly get an HTPC feel from VIA's site either, another element in my comments when writing to them.

 

[simonnance]

Anyone know any good in-windows memory timing tweakers that work with this board? MY old socket 939 Opteron let me run A64tweaker which was a great timesaver over having to keep rebooting to get memory stable overclocks....... anything like that for Intel that runs on this board?

 

[TMS]

Originally posted by: techwool

I've swapped over my PSU, going to give it one more go from a fresh install... If that doesn't work the X800XT is going on Ebay and I'll order an Nvidia card.

I'll post the results after I've tried it.

As i wrote earlier in this thread, my solution was to use older Catalyst version (5.11).
You might try that too. Just remember to clean out the newer drivers from the disk (delete the ati-folder from disk too).

Haven't had any other problems.

 

[batmang]

Originally posted by: oldhoss
Thanks homonculus. Amazing that after all these years, SB cards still have problems with VIA chipsets. The lack of 8800 compatibility is the deal killer, though. Gonna take a closer look @ the budget P965 boards.

heres one thing i dont understand. if someone has the funds to get a 8800 and a new motherboard, why would you eve bother with a dual board? just upgrade everything else.
but i still think its pretty lame that this board doesnt support the 8800.

 

[Sebapolver]

I'm thinking of updating my memory and video card. I like (and my pocket likes too):

- eVga 7950 gt 512Mb PCIe
- G.Skill 2x1024Mb ddr2 800 MHz 4-4-4-12

Did someone try them? I know that the video card is not included in Asrock's compatibility list, but maybe there is no problem.

Thanks for the help

 

[blackangst1]

My board and C2D 6600 is now on the UPS truck to be delivered today. I've read the thread a couple time and downloaded all the appropriate drivers etc. I'm also going to do a clean install of 32 bit XP Pro, as its about time anyway I'll let you know how it goes.

Here's my setup:

C2D e6600
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA
OCZ PC2 5400 Gold 2gig
Nvidia AGP 6800 Ultra
Quantum Atlas 10k SCSI (for OS)
LSI Logic SCSI adapter PCI card
Western Digital Caviar 250 (for everything else) SATA

I went for this board because Im not really ready to spend 400 bucks on a new vid card So we'll see....

edit: Just as an FYI I noticed driver version 2.0 are out...gonna try em. If I have issues I'll probably fall back to 1.9 as most people seem to have luck with those

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

heres one thing i dont understand. if someone has the funds to get a 8800 and a new motherboard, why would you eve bother with a dual board? just upgrade everything else.

Oh, don't get me wrong, batmang...I wouldn't drop that kind of wampum on a vid card. I was referring to the series -- i.e. whatever midrange/slower 8X00 DX0 iteration that nvidia releases. I realize it's a $56 board, & you get what you pay for...but I don't like having my potential future upgrades restricted. Just my 2c.

 

[GODDEH]

Finally my items arrived

e6300
775dual-vsta
corsair xms ddr2 pc5300 (2x512)

Took me ages to get this setup, although I am a noob

Bumped into many problems:-

1) Couldn't get the back motherboard face plate lined up correctly with the case, so I was forced to leave it off, hopfully wont be a problem with leaving it off. (may have been the case who knows)

2) Switched it on for the first time, pop'd into the BIOS everything looked ok, until I saw the cpu temp go from 33c to 45c... I turned my head around for 10seconds maybe, checked the temp again and it was at 73c. I just switched it off at the wall quickly at that point. Problem was ofcourse the heatsink(stock) wasnt sat correctly, I found this pretty hard to be honest, the connectors wouldn't pop into place when I pushed them, and I was worried that I may break the board if I pushed to hard. (took about 30mins to figure it out lol)

3) Put the windows CD in, and it hung up on the first part of the installation, googled for hours trying to find help/simlar problems, lots of people had problems like this and I was told to turn off USB support, which didnt work. I pissed at this point at the system not working so I swapped the memory back to my old PC2700 and... it WORKED

Still got one little issue with my 160g harddrive only displaying 60g which is pretty strange, dunno if thats to do with the board, or something I messed up formatting etc etc. Anyone know what thats about?

And my DRR2 PC5300 memory should work right?

1.86 @ 32c idle (stock fan)

Pretty happy with everything so far, not bad for a noob

 

[bigsnyder]

Yeah, the stock heatsink doesn't quite install like the documentation states. Evidently I have
it right since my temps are good and it hasn't fallen off.

C Snyder

 

[homonculus]

GODDEH, you'll need to upgrade the bios (consensus suggests version 2.10 is best, and I agree) to get your new DDR2 working properly.

You must have formatted the HD incorrectly to get a smaller partition, no matter, you can get the other 100 GB by creating an extra partition in disk management.

You're right about the stock heatsink, took me about half an hour before I was happy with the fit. Dunno why the backplate didn't fit, must be that your case is not fully ATX compliant.