ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Memory questions will be answered on Wednesday, AGP on Friday in our upcoming reviews.

Thank you AnandTech.

 

[imported_Nighthawk]

Interesting Review of an interesting board:thumbsup:

It would be great to see a comparison E6600+Asrock(with DDR1, maybe underclocked) vs E6400+fast Board(with DDR2) Memory. Can more cache compensate for the slower Memory?

 

[Budarow]

If I can get a ~15% OC (Conroe) on the CPU with this board, use DDR1 and AGP...I may have to buy 2 of this board.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

anyone else with the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA want to share there opinion/experience with this motherboard?

I'm consider this board for my next build.

Thanks

 

[Just4Ever]

I just got the board in today for my E6600. I'm at work right now but when I get home I'll install it and let you know.
My reason for choosing this board is because I wanted something cheap to hold me over until the new nForce chipsets get here.

 

[imported_Nighthawk]

Got the board 2 days ago, runs rock stable so far(OCed to 292 FSB, did not try more yet).
My other components: E6600(boxed), 2x512MB DDR1(333) and X800xt(AGP)

Had an Barton@2400 and NF7-S before. Oblivion is always playable now(@1024x768), even at the oblivion gate scene, which was more like a slideshow with the AthlonXP system. So AGP is not dead yet

Want i don't like: Only 2 SATA ports.
I will wait for the x1950pro(october) or DX10 cards, then i will switch to PCI-E and maybe upgrade the board as well.

I expected problems with such a cheap board, but so far everything is ok

Edit: 295FSB will hang on bootup, so 292 is the highest stable FSB for me. Using the 1.5 bios.

 

[CupCak3]

has anyone tried OCing this board on the new 1.5 bios?

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

 

[Cheex]

i have had this new rig for 5 days now still running at stock speed
the board max is 340 FSB but actually is less depending on other factors.
can i start overclocking my cpu now? is it burnt in yet?

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: FreedomGUNDAM
Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

Good question...anyone care to comment?

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: Budarow

Originally posted by: FreedomGUNDAM
Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

Good question...anyone care to comment?

Also, I saw the PCIe x4 stat and thought it quite odd. I guess spliting the bandwidth is engineering necessity, but likely no one would try to run AGP and PCIe video cards at the same time.

 

[michal1980]

Originally posted by: Budarow

Originally posted by: Budarow

Originally posted by: FreedomGUNDAM
Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

Good question...anyone care to comment?

Also, I saw the PCIe x4 stat and thought it quite odd. I guess spliting the bandwidth is engineering necessity, but likely no one would try to run AGP and PCIe video cards at the same time.

wheres this stat? I missed it in the manual/reviews

 

[imported_Nighthawk]

Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

0-12% according to:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/775Dual-VSTA/b5.htm
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/775Dual-VSTA/b6.htm

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: Nighthawk

Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

0-12% according to:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/775Dual-VSTA/b5.htm
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/775Dual-VSTA/b6.htm

great find!
In general, the graphics performance on the asrock is marginally slower than pcie x16 motherboards. In most cases, the difference is negligible, ~2-3 fps.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: FreedomGUNDAM
Any idea of the performance hit with running a 7800GT on the 775Dual-VSTA because of the PCIe x4 limitation?

It depends on the application and resolution. We typically have found a 5~7% difference in gaming with a 7900GT at 1600x1200 (no AA/AF) or 1280x1024 (2xAA/8xAF). This is an average as some games are even (except for the platform being slightly slower) and some are a little higher.

 

[Just4Ever]

Hey Gary, have you tested the A-DATA Vitesta DDR2-533 2GB kit with the board yet. I have the newest bios (1.50) and I'm having weird memory problems. My board is running my memory at 710 - 790 MHz, as verified by CPU-Z, instead of 266 MHz. And it doesn't matter if I change the memory setting to Auto or DDR2-553 or even DDR2-667. It still runs at those speeds.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I'm having stability issues because of it.

 

[stickybytes]

I am planning to purchase this board for use with the core 2 duo e6400. Can anyone recommend me a pair of 2x1Gb DDR2 memory that has been confirmed to work well with this board?

 

[stickybytes]

Has anyone tried the Corsair Value Select 2GB DDR2 667 ram with this motherboard? Any success?

 

[Just4Ever]

Can anyone tell me if the problem I'm experiencing is the motherboard or the memory?

 

[NoStateofMind]

I think this should be one of the *Sticky's* at the top. Alot of people are going to be buying this board, including myself.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

I second that, probably will order mine in a week or two

 

[nzimmers]

just ordered mine!

honestly I couldn't decide what to get - I was fully prepared to plunk down $1500 on a new system (I upgrade once every 3 years since I love the "whoa man is this new shite fast!" feeling) but honestly.......

*none of the mide or high end conroe MBs appealed to me*


They all had some kind of drawback - and I didn't want to buy a $250+ MB just to replace it 6-8 months down the line

So happy to have stumbled across the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

now bear in mind, I am upgrading from my current system:

P4 northwood 2.4
Asus 865 chipset MB (originally it was the IS7, then briefly a MSI - both died along the way)
2xDDR 400 + 2xDDR 433
4x200 GB segates in Raid 5
36GB Raptor
2xWD 120Gb drives + a handful of IDE's lying arond
Gforce Fx5600 256mb ram

now, I am a casual gamer, but I am big into photo/video/audio editing/encoding - and while I don't have a problem picing up a new video card, throwing in a new PS starts to piss me off, then I have to get new ram- fine but hell who wants to throw out half the stuff I already have?

I am very glad I didn't upgrade a year ago, because I would probably still have to get all new stuff anyways

since the VSTA is less than $60 it just made sense to use that money towards somthing useful

My order is:
E6400 - (wanted the virtualizaiton support)
Segate 320GB (perpendicular recording and only $96??? whooo hooo!)
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

with fedex total comes to: $446.06

considering I might be able to hang on another 6-8 months, it will give me plenty of time to pick out the perfect components, at the right price for the next system I will have fo the next 3 years

should have it by tomorrow night - will benchmark and post results

only thing that worries me is I can only put 512Mb worth of my ram on board.....humm I was planning on picking up 2x1Gb DDR2 PC5400 or higher.... we'll see just how miserable the 2x256 DDR400 really is before I decide anything

 

[Just4Ever]

Ok, so I did some testing last night and I this is what I've found:
I ran Test #5 for 5 passes on Memtest86 and it's ok.
I ran two instances of Prime95 on small FFT for 5 - 10 minutes and ok.
However, two instances of Large FFT failed after 5 - 10 minutes with a rounding error.
Finally, two instances of blend mode failed immediately with a rounding error.
So, I know that both Large FFT and Blend stress the RAM as well as the CPU but why are they failing when I can run Memtest86 fine?

Can the source of my problem be the RAM or the motherboard? Are these two just not compatible?
If anyone has the A-DATA Vitesta DDR2-553 2 gig kit with this motherboard then let me know.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Just4Ever

If anyone has the A-DATA Vitesta DDR2-553 2 gig kit with this motherboard then let me know.

I will run the A-DATA kit on the board today. I usually run Q4 at maximum settings to check memory also. I am finding more and more that MemTest86 or SuperPI 1.5, and Prime95 to a certain degree can pass fine and certain games will still lockup. LOL....

 

[michal1980]

i'm about to buy this board will report once system goes togther.

this to do a step update for my g/f.

kind of broke right now. so got a cheap pentium d 805. this board.

with a 6800gs, or 9600pro.

and a gig of pc3200

then in a month or two as more money comes in buy a conore and just drop it in.

its for mainly a web browseing/ office app pcs. with some Sims 2, Civ 4 playing.

much better then the current semp socket a 2000. or something like that.