ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[Budarow]

Okay peeps...if I pick up this board and an E4400 proc (EDIT...the E4400 has a FSB mult of 10x), can I be safe in assuming I'll reach an overclock of ~2.5 GHz using DDR1 RAM (Patriot CL2 DDR400)? Or is this board totally "luck of the draw" (i.e., I may not be able to OC much at all). Edit...sorta looks like an increase of ~200-300 MHz is about the average OC using this mobo (with a 10x mult proc).

Also, I plan to use WinXP. Does that mean I won't be able to use a DX10 video card (e.g., 8800)?

Thanks for any input cause I don't have time to read 60+ pages of posts

Regards,

Budarow

 

[timzak]

Originally posted by: Budarow
Okay peeps...if I pick up this board and an E4400 proc (EDIT...the E4400 has a FSB mult of 10x), can I be safe in assuming I'll reach an overclock of ~2.5 GHz using DDR1 RAM (Patriot CL2 DDR400)? Or is this board totally "luck of the draw" (i.e., I may not be able to OC much at all). Edit...sorta looks like an increase of ~200-300 MHz is about the average OC using this mobo (with a 10x mult proc).

Also, I plan to use WinXP. Does that mean I won't be able to use a DX10 video card (e.g., 8800)?

Thanks for any input cause I don't have time to read 60+ pages of posts

Regards,

Budarow

With a 10x mult., you should have no problems getting to 2.67Ghz and keep your ram at DDR400 with a 4:3 FSB/DRAM ratio. The only problem with this board is it seems to have trouble running asynch FSB/DRAM...you end up having to loosen the timings to get stable performance. My DDR400 ram runs at rated timings when FSB/DRAM is 1:1 (stock E4300 speeds), but if I go to FSB 267, the FSB/DRAM ratio is 4:3 and I have to really loosen the timings to keep things stable, even though the ram isn't being overclocked at all.

The other scenario that would work well with the E4400 is set the FSB to 290 (this board maxes out between 290 and 300 depending on the person) and the DRAM to DDR333 for 2.9Ghz cpu speeds with 180Mhz ram speeds. That would still be a great performance setup for the money.

 

[Chris2571]

I took a chance the other day and picked up an 8800 gts 320 the other day to try out on this board. Took me a while to find the right driver in Vista that wouldn't end with me getting bsod. I really wanted to run some games with my new card but having to reinstall all of them in vista is a pain. I decided i'd give Winxp a go with this board, so i decided id download as many 8800 compatible drivers i could and hopefully one of them would go.

I started with the newest ones(158.19) and they actually worked!. I've only been using them for a few hours so i dunno if there are any bugs yet. I got a 7231 in 3dmark06 with my 4300@ 2ghz. I just hope future versions of Forceware drivers let me continue to use the 8800 on this board in Winxp.

 

[bigsnyder]

This is great news! I might be able to hold off on a motherboard upgrade after all.

C Snyder

 

[aussieburger]

My new mobo still hasn't arrived yet so I tested the gpu on this mobo.

evga 8800 gts 320 ACS3 KO edition

3dMark06 (Vistax64)

Overall: 7759

SM2.0 3703
HDR 3383
CPU 1823

at least a few thousand less than on another mobo as i'm lead to believe but not bad. Strangely enough in my bios I set everything back to defaults making sure my FBS was back to default, however when I restarted the bios had my cpu clocked at 2.33! (a E6300 btw). Inside Vista both Vista and 3DMark06 report my cpu clocked at 2.14 (my old overclocked speed !) ? Don't know what's going on there ...

 

[Budarow]

Originally posted by: timzak

Originally posted by: Budarow
Okay peeps...if I pick up this board and an E4400 proc (EDIT...the E4400 has a FSB mult of 10x), can I be safe in assuming I'll reach an overclock of ~2.5 GHz using DDR1 RAM (Patriot CL2 DDR400)? Or is this board totally "luck of the draw" (i.e., I may not be able to OC much at all). Edit...sorta looks like an increase of ~200-300 MHz is about the average OC using this mobo (with a 10x mult proc).

Also, I plan to use WinXP. Does that mean I won't be able to use a DX10 video card (e.g., 8800)?

Thanks for any input cause I don't have time to read 60+ pages of posts

Regards,

Budarow

With a 10x mult., you should have no problems getting to 2.67Ghz and keep your ram at DDR400 with a 4:3 FSB/DRAM ratio. The only problem with this board is it seems to have trouble running asynch FSB/DRAM...you end up having to loosen the timings to get stable performance. My DDR400 ram runs at rated timings when FSB/DRAM is 1:1 (stock E4300 speeds), but if I go to FSB 267, the FSB/DRAM ratio is 4:3 and I have to really loosen the timings to keep things stable, even though the ram isn't being overclocked at all.

The other scenario that would work well with the E4400 is set the FSB to 290 (this board maxes out between 290 and 300 depending on the person) and the DRAM to DDR333 for 2.9Ghz cpu speeds with 180Mhz ram speeds. That would still be a great performance setup for the money.

I will most likely get this mobo. An OC to ~2.9 GHz with slower RAM speeds will work for me. I'm not ready to sell my X850XT (AGP) and 2GBs of DDR1 RAM for peanuts when a fast CPU with this mobo should give me a nice boost in gaming performance for <$200.00. Thanks for the information!

Budarow

 

[Mr Vain]

Sad Sad Day

Asrock has just killed the 4CoreDual-VSTA and replaced it with 4CoreDX90-VSTA.

DDR only, single channel memory, PCI-e only.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDX90-VSTA

Goodbye to Dual Channel Memory, DDR2 Ram, AGP slot ........................Sob Sob.

 

[bigsnyder]

What makes you think they discontinued the 4coreDual-VSTA? The 4coreDual is still listed on their webpage. The 4coreDX90 uses
a different chipset and is mATX form factor. Seems like an additional model to their product line-up.

C Snyder

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
What makes you think they discontinued the 4coreDual-VSTA? The 4coreDual is still listed on their webpage. The 4coreDX90 uses
a different chipset and is mATX form factor. Seems like an additional model to their product line-up.

C Snyder

I can not find it on their webpage.

http://www.asrock.com/index.asp

 

[Javvis]

Sad Sad Day ...Asrock has just killed the 4CoreDual-VSTA and replaced it with 4CoreDX90-VSTA.

I can not find it on their webpage ...http://www.asrock.com/index.asp

That's because you're looking at a popup advertisment of a "List of ASRock motherboards with Windows® Vista? Premium logo" ...don't believe the hype though since Vista really sucks).

Below is the real link to their complete product page & yes the 4CoreDual-VSTA version is listed.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=n

 

[Mr Vain]

You are looking at the supported product list not currant manufactured board list IMO.

In there you find 6 478 Socket boards 7 462 socket boards etc etc, most are no longer being manufactured.

 

[bigsnyder]

All have to do is click on the "product" link on the main page, then click "Intel Platform" and I see it is listed in the Socket 775 section right next to "VIA PT880 Ultra".
It is also still listed in the Core2 processor support pages. Now, the 775Dual-VSTA is no longer available because the 4CoreDual-VSTA replaced it. Checking around
the net still shows healthy stock of 4CoreDual boards. I will agree that every board on that list is not available, but there is also no evidence to claim that the
4CoreDual-VSTA is discontinued.

C Snyder

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
All have to do is click on the "product" link on the main page, then click "Intel Platform" and I see it is listed in the Socket 775 section right next to "VIA PT880 Ultra".
It is also still listed in the Core2 processor support pages. Now, the 775Dual-VSTA is no longer available because the 4CoreDual-VSTA replaced it. Checking around
the net still shows healthy stock of 4CoreDual boards. I will agree that every board on that list is not available, but there is also no evidence to claim that the
4CoreDual-VSTA is discontinued.

C Snyder

The fact that its been removed from the main page just like the 775Dual-VSTA before it and its spot has been filled in with the 4coreDX90 is enough for me.

 

[bigsnyder]

I am having a hard time following you. The 4coreDual is even listed on the main page under the news section for receiving
an award from a reviewer. The same award is listed in the "Awards" column on the bottom right. If you are talking
about the top right column, that section is simply introducing new models. Since the 4coreDual has been out for
about 4-5 months, it makes since that it is no longer considered new. Like I said, if supply dried up, then I would
worry. Again, the 4coreDX90 uses a different chipset and form factor, not a logical replacement.

C Snyder

 

[Shlonglor]

Originally posted by: Chris2571
I took a chance the other day and picked up an 8800 gts 320 the other day to try out on this board. Took me a while to find the right driver in Vista that wouldn't end with me getting bsod. I really wanted to run some games with my new card but having to reinstall all of them in vista is a pain. I decided i'd give Winxp a go with this board, so i decided id download as many 8800 compatible drivers i could and hopefully one of them would go.

I started with the newest ones(158.19) and they actually worked!. I've only been using them for a few hours so i dunno if there are any bugs yet. I got a 7231 in 3dmark06 with my 4300@ 2ghz. I just hope future versions of Forceware drivers let me continue to use the 8800 on this board in Winxp.

Thanks a lot for posting this! I ordered the new Asus 650i because I couldn't get my 8800 working. I've been monitoring this thread forever.... an hour after ordering, I saw your post and decided to give it one last try.
Needless to say, you saved me a lot of money and it now works flawlessly.

I uninstalled the old drivers, booted in safe mode and installed the new ones (didn't work without that) if anyone needs to do this.

 

[vmyap]

does the 8600 gt and 8500gt works on this mobo

 

[Orbitr8]

Wow.
I cannot believe the length of this thread on this mobo. I just dropped in to say I'd given up trying to get all the bugs worked out of this mobo, its low power issues, and most importantly, given up on trying to get the dual core to work with all my programs. EA Games would consistently drop back to the desktop, no matter what cure du jour I tried.

I finally went back to a Socket 939 with an X4000 and I absolutely love it. The stability issues are gone, the speed differential isn't all that great in reality, and honestly, I can still handle Photoshop and Dreamweaver open simultaneously.

And in another aspect, how many apps at once time can you really handle, or, need to handle (I know there are exceptions out there).

So, color me slower, but happier. Now if I can just get my hands on an FX-57...

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: vmyap
does the 8600 gt and 8500gt works on this mobo

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)

If it works on the 4CoreDual-VSTA it should work on the 775Dual-VSTA.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Mr Vain

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
All have to do is click on the "product" link on the main page, then click "Intel Platform" and I see it is listed in the Socket 775 section right next to "VIA PT880 Ultra".
It is also still listed in the Core2 processor support pages. Now, the 775Dual-VSTA is no longer available because the 4CoreDual-VSTA replaced it. Checking around
the net still shows healthy stock of 4CoreDual boards. I will agree that every board on that list is not available, but there is also no evidence to claim that the
4CoreDual-VSTA is discontinued.

C Snyder

The fact that its been removed from the main page just like the 775Dual-VSTA before it and its spot has been filled in with the 4coreDX90 is enough for me.

And yet, the Conroe865PE, which HAS been discontinued, is still there showing in the list. Go figure.

 

[kmmatney]

I bought one of these Asrock boards as a refurb for $25 from NewEgg 2 months ago, and have been sitting on it until the price drops. I tested it a while back by booting up into Ubuntu using a CD drive and a borrowed CPU. However when I received my E4400 this week, and swapped out this motherbaord into my system, it refused to boot from my 320 GB Seageate SATA hard drive. I've played with all Bios options (Bios 2.6 - latest). It will boot up fine from my SATA DVD (from both channels) so my SATA ports are OK. I was able to install win 2K on an old 40 GB IDE drive I had, and than runs fine, so I know the boards works OK.

Anyone else ever have any trouble booting from a SATA hard drive?

The stock HSF that comes with the E4400 isnt too bad, but I'm not sure how well it can be installed on this MB. 2 of the supports never really "snapped" into place like I would like them to. Are ther any good aftermarket HSF units for this in the $25 price range? That's what I paid for my Arctic Cooler 64 that's on my AMD system.

I'm very pleased that I was able to get an E4400 to run at 2.7 Ghz (and maybe even faster). For $25, I'm still pretty happy with the board, and I still have other DDR and AGP and IDE HDDs lying around, so this MB is still very useful. I really just bought it on a whim, but it would be perfect if it just booted from my SATA HDD

Edit: The other crappy thing about this board is the ATX power socket placement, and the fact that there is not enough roon around the connector to connect a 24 pin PSU. I have an older Enermax 24 Pin PSU, where the extra 4 pins don't come off. I can use it because there is a capacitor in the way.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I bought one of these Asrock boards as a refurb for $25 from NewEgg 2 months ago, and have been sitting on it until the price drops. I tested it a while back by booting up into Ubuntu using a CD drive and a borrowed CPU. However when I received my E4400 this week, and swapped out this motherbaord into my system, it refused to boot from my 320 GB Seageate SATA hard drive. I've played with all Bios options (Bios 2.6 - latest). It will boot up fine from my SATA DVD (from both channels) so my SATA ports are OK. I was able to install win 2K on an old 40 GB IDE drive I had, and than runs fine, so I know the boards works OK.

Anyone else ever have any trouble booting from a SATA hard drive?

The stock HSF that comes with the E4400 isnt too bad, but I'm not sure how well it can be installed on this MB. 2 of the supports never really "snapped" into place like I would like them to. Are ther any good aftermarket HSF units for this in the $25 price range? That's what I paid for my Arctic Cooler 64 that's on my AMD system.

I'm very pleased that I was able to get an E4400 to run at 2.7 Ghz (and maybe even faster). For $25, I'm still pretty happy with the board, and I still have other DDR and AGP and IDE HDDs lying around, so this MB is still very useful. I really just bought it on a whim, but it would be perfect if it just booted from my SATA HDD

Edit: The other crappy thing about this board is the ATX power socket placement, and the fact that there is not enough roon around the connector to connect a 24 pin PSU. I have an older Enermax 24 Pin PSU, where the extra 4 pins don't come off. I can use it because there is a capacitor in the way.

It should boot and work with SATA or PATA.
You need to set the bios to combined mode or SATA only.
You may need to do a fresh install.
My system runs a SATA HDD and I have used Raid 1 with 2 SATAS HDD ok.
Some HDD require a jumper pin to make them SATA I instead of SATA II.

 

[kmmatney]

I've given up om this motherboard and installed it in my son's computer (8 years old). He has an AGP card and DDR memory, so it works OK for him matched with a Cedar Mill celeron. The motherbaord still has some issues, and doesn't restart properly, or start up on the first try. However it seems to start up OK on the second try. I'm glad this board has found a home, and I don't have to deal with it's quirks anymore. What a pain. My SATA drive did have the jumper limiting it to 1.5 GB operation, but it still didn't work. I probably just got a bad motherboard, and it was a refurb to begin with, so I should be glad it even working at all. Now I need to find a budget home for my E4400.

 

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I've given up om this motherboard and installed it in my son's computer (8 years old). He has an AGP card and DDR memory, so it works OK for him matched with a Cedar Mill celeron. The motherbaord still has some issues, and doesn't restart properly, or start up on the first try. However it seems to start up OK on the second try. I'm glad this board has found a home, and I don't have to deal with it's quirks anymore. What a pain. My SATA drive did have the jumper limiting it to 1.5 GB operation, but it still didn't work. I probably just got a bad motherboard, and it was a refurb to begin with, so I should be glad it even working at all. Now I need to find a budget home for my E4400.

GA-965P-DS3(rev. 3.3)???????????????????

 

[catp]

BIOS 2.70 come out today. Anyone tried it and seen any changes?

 

[pdawg1717]

Originally posted by: catp
BIOS 2.70 come out today. Anyone tried it and seen any changes?

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=33889730

The rage3d site is acting weird at the moment so to summarize, Intel needed to update their microcode as there was a "bug" in the previous version that caused rare issues with devices freezing, random reboots, etc with the c2d cpu...