ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - Socket 939 with PCI-E and real AGP and Socket AM2 upgrade path

[stormont]

Originally posted by: Westmassguy
Lord Banshee
I've contacted ASRock on three occations in the past month, and got a response withing 24 hours.
Strange that they didn't reply to you.

I sent them an e-mail regarding the cold boot issue I'm having and got this. (I hope it is a generic reply saying they got my e-mail and that a real answer will follow. If this is THE answer I'm pissed):


Dear ASRock Customer,

Your question has been forwarded to ASRock Technical Support Center. We suggest you to contact your dealer first for technical issue.
ASRock web site also offers FAQ and CPU support lists. Some similar questions or solutions could be found there and our technical support engineers will keep updating the FAQ each month.

For inquiry regarding repair/RMA service, please kindly ask your dealer first for related service. Please remember to record the model name & product serial number for future tracking.

Thanks for your email,
ASRock Technical Support Division


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I'm wondering if the cold boot issue is that the CPU needs to warm to a certain temperature before the motherboard will let it function. With my water cooling I have low temps, but I need to reset the PC 4-5 times after a cold boot to finally get into Windows. I just flashed to 1.30 and I still get the cold boot problem.

 

[niggles]

ok, install of all parts has gone fairly ok. I have yet to pull out the existing ATI drivers and update to the latest Cat drivers. As soon as I do that and drop in my Audigy (I need firewire somehow right?) I'll run 3dmark 05 and see what this thing can do.
I was laughing when I was installing the AGP drivers etc though. The english in the software is hilarious as well. Reminds me of the software from my old Asus P5A from 1997. I hope at some point they hire someone to review their future driver package before releasing it. profesionalism isn't high on the list of things these guys are good at.

 

[Double Echo]

Has anyone tried the new BIOS yet? Does it let you set the voltage past 1.45 for the Venice 3000+? I'm guessing no, since I didn't see it in the details for the update. Hopefully the next update will have it.

 

[Lord Banshee]

What new bios?

And don't count on there being a voltage option above .5 + stock voltage. The voltage mod is really easy, but right now it seems that more and more i get random reboot (runs S&M and Prime95 not problem) so there is stability problems with this mobo and Overclocking or my PSU i would assume.

I am now down to 2600, but got another random rebot at startup , going to try 2500 soon.

 

[Westmassguy]

In a word, this new (1.30) BIOS SUCKS.
Not only did they not address the lack of Vcore/Vdimm, but they managed to defeat the Vcore mods.
In addition, Vcore adjustment, and Multiplier adjustments do not function anymore.
You can set them to whatever you want, reboot, and the're right where they were before.
So my rig (with the moddified Vcore mod) rebooted at 1.55 Vcore without any way to adjust it downwards.
Others who have NOT done the Vcore mod are also unable to adjust their Vcore.
The only "Added" feature is MA/1T/2T now shows under memory options.
Unfortunately, it's still not stable with my X2 3800+ and my new 2 X 512 Patriot PC3200+XBL.
No 1T goodness for me.
I'm back to the 1.20 BIOS for now

 

[PenguinClock]

I bought this board and got it about 3 days ago. Installed it right away and noticed it felt a lot more stable than my old board (main reason for the switch). I had some major performance issues though - on my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum I had recently run AquaMark3 as part of a troubleshooting extravaganza (I couldn't play OpenGL games on that board) and got a 57,000+ overall, 8,700+ GFX, and 8,500+ CPU score. I ran AquaMark3 on this ASRock 939 Dual SATA2 and my scores were cleaved in half, 29,000+ overall, 6,500+ GFX, and 2,800+ CPU (!!). I think the problem was that for some reason the AGP drivers wouldn't install and it was running the card in PCI mode or some sort of emulated mode, and I was going to come here and ask for help. This morning though I went to boot it and it seems to be dead, it doesn't even post, so I'm going to RMA it.

On the off chance the AGP drivers still don't install, does anyone know what to do? I get this message when I try to run the patcher "64bit Windows already include AGP driver, Only install Special Patch!!"

I'm running Win XP Pro SP 2, DirectX 9.0c, 4x512mb OCZ Platinum Enhanced Latency RAM, AMD Athlon 64 3800+, ASUS v9999 GeForce 6800GT 256, Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, everything is at stock speeds, as right now my goal is system stability.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Westmassguy
In a word, this new (1.30) BIOS SUCKS.
Not only did they not address the lack of Vcore/Vdimm, but they managed to defeat the Vcore mods.
In addition, Vcore adjustment, and Multiplier adjustments do not function anymore.
You can set them to whatever you want, reboot, and the're right where they were before.
So my rig (with the moddified Vcore mod) rebooted at 1.55 Vcore without any way to adjust it downwards.
Others who have NOT done the Vcore mod are also unable to adjust their Vcore.
The only "Added" feature is MA/1T/2T now shows under memory options.
Unfortunately, it's still not stable with my X2 3800+ and my new 2 X 512 Patriot PC3200+XBL.
No 1T goodness for me.
I'm back to the 1.20 BIOS for now

Hmm...doesn't sound good. I'll put a warning in the OP. Thanks for the heads-up though.

 

[niggles]

I'm a little disappointed with the results from 3DMark05. My old rig of 2600+ with an A7N8X-Deluxe scored 4600 at stock. When I overclocked both the board and my vid card I got the score up to 5266.
With no overclocking at all my new Asrock with a 3500+ and the same X800XL as my old rig. It scored 4932. I then overclocked only the the vid card. I am now scoring a 5306. To get only 3000 more with almost a full third more power on the CPU is simply depressing. I'm going to have a fiddle and see what I can get out of the board on overclock, but based on earlier posts I doubt I'll get more than 5%.

 

[amdexclusive]

I've had this board up and running for almost 4 weeks and am happy with it (for a $70 board). Im using an A64 3500 venice which stocks at 11*200 (2.2GHZ) I have had it at stable OC of 11*240 (2.6Ghz) . Memory is working good at 200 Mhz (PC3200 DDR 2*512) and 2.5/3/3/6 2T timings. Cpu voltage is 1.45. I installed bios 1.3 yesterday and haven't noticed any difference in performance. My AGP card (AIW 9600XT) has issues but they are unrelated to the motherboard...my new PCIe card (BFG 7800gt OC) works flawlessly and awesomely. Thats one of my favorite features of the Asrock939...the ability to use either PCIe or AGP or both at same time. My next CPU will probably be an M2 so that will be an extra bonus.....I only hope theres no performance loss by using a riser card (holding breath) but thus far Asrocks riser card solutions have been solid.

IMO this board is a hellovdeal at $70. As many may point out it's not a great overclocking board but then the ULI 1695 chipset reviews never stated it was a great OC'er....just decent...according to the ULI reference motherboard reviews. I'm a little tired of reading complaints about it's lack of overclockability. Why in the world would you buy a Volkswagon and then expect it to perform like a Ferrari ? The Asrock 939 is about features and upgradeability...not extreme overclocking. Just my 2 cents.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: niggles
I'm a little disappointed with the results from 3DMark05. My old rig of 2600+ with an A7N8X-Deluxe scored 4600 at stock. When I overclocked both the board and my vid card I got the score up to 5266.
With no overclocking at all my new Asrock with a 3500+ and the same X800XL as my old rig. It scored 4932. I then overclocked only the the vid card. I am now scoring a 5306. To get only 3000 more with almost a full third more power on the CPU is simply depressing. I'm going to have a fiddle and see what I can get out of the board on overclock, but based on earlier posts I doubt I'll get more than 5%.

What are you trying to benchmark with 3dmark 2005 because it's mostly a video card benchmark?

 

[Westmassguy]

Why in the world would you buy a Volkswagon and then expect it to perform like a Ferrari ?

I guess you've missed the whole point of overclocking then.
Take low to mid priced components, and run them above spec to equal the performance of their higher priced siblings.
I can't afford $200+ for a DFI with all the bells and whistles, coupled with an X2 4800,
or my dream system with dual Opterons and an NForce Pro Workstation motherboard.
I'm not knocking the board, as I've already circumvented its limitations. I just wish ASRock would get the BIOS issuses worked out.

 

[amdexclusive]

Originally posted by: Westmassguy
I guess you've missed the whole point of overclocking then.


LOL....ok. If I don't get the point of overclocking then why is my D/S2 currently OC'ing almost 500 Mhz???
Come on man...this is a budget board if I ever saw one and it DOES overclock. The POINT of my post is that ALL things considered the D/S2 is a great product, for it's class and features....it's just not a great overclocker. Certainly the bios has issues but giving the voltages a ceiling is not necessarily one of them. It seems to me Asrock doesn't want certain voltages to go higher BECAUSE of budget component instability. Hmmm it could be that they don't want 25% of their boards RMA'ed due to failed components brought on by heavy OC'ing. Or maybe the ULI 1695 chipset has the limitations, not Asrock per se.

Or maybe they're just a bunch of meanies intentionally holding back voltages cuz they don't like satisfying their customers.

 

[snoopy007]

The board preforms fine from what I can tell. very stable with the components that I have chosen. ( don;t really do OC anymore, not since the good old celeron on a BX board and the duron on a KT133). (did have a 3dmark 2001se score that was in the top 20 for all duron + geforce mx card at the time) max oc for my 700 duron was like 1.05G at the time on air cooling.



Anyway, from my observation, both the south bridge and the northbridge feels pretty hot after a night of "real-time HDRL IBL" graphics program that maxes out the graphic card more than 3dmark. (produces more heat anyway from the graphics card) + a few hours of cpu warming using cpu-stability.

So for most people who want to maximise their fsb. they probably will need to change the cooling solution on the NB.

The main thing I don;t like about the motherboard is that it still uses a 20pin atx connector.

Otherwise the board is a decent performer , NO NOISE!! (some of those fans used on the nforce 4 is awful)+ its cheap!!!

 

[Westmassguy]

I haven't complained about the quality of board itself, only the BIOS issues.
It's become apparent that ASRock doesn't want to spend additional money for more extensive BIOS features.
These additional features require more extensive BIOS coding packages from AMI.
This latestest BIOS update broke more things than it fixed.

 

[sandorski]

Installed a X2 3800 on this mobo yesterday. Was worried about my mismatched pair of generic PC3200 using Samsung chips, but that proved fine(thank god, didn't want to buy ram at this time). Mobos running fine, very pleased with it and the x2 3800!

I did run into one glitch though, I plugged my HDLED and PWRLED in wrong!

 

[russki]

its not about 3dmark synthetic benchmark scores, that have no audio, a.i. or physics calculations.

try it with your games. if they run smoother, you win. if they dont... then return that p.o.s.

 

[imported_Woody]

I just got mine this week and built up my new system yesterday with a 3700 and my modded AGP X800Pro (16 pipe overclocked). I am using the Coolermaster Aquagate mini for cooling so I hope to get some extra speed out of the CPU but mainly I purchased this board for the dual graphics slots.

Currently running at default speeds but I had to manually set my 3200DDR to run at 400 since the board set it for 333. Haven't had the chance to give it a good workout yet and am just copying my files and installing software.

The board shipped with BIOS revision 1.20 and from what I'm reading I should just leave it there. My guess is that they will be shipping with 1.30 fairly soon.

In regards to others who may have AGP related issues be sure that you uninstall graphics card drivers and reinstall the AGP drivers before reinstalling graphics card drivers. When I set up Windows I installed from the Windows SP2 CD, installed the hardware drivers from the ASRock CD, then installed all the Windows updates from CD all before installing the Catalyst drivers for my graphics card.

Can anyone recommend a good application for monitoring the CPU temp of this board in Windows? I've been using motherboard monitor but they don't properly support this board so a lot of the info is in the wrong order....CPU temp and board temp are reversed.

 

[BlackPear1]

Speedfan works fine with this board for me.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: niggles
I'm a little disappointed with the results from 3DMark05. My old rig of 2600+ with an A7N8X-Deluxe scored 4600 at stock. When I overclocked both the board and my vid card I got the score up to 5266.
With no overclocking at all my new Asrock with a 3500+ and the same X800XL as my old rig. It scored 4932. I then overclocked only the the vid card. I am now scoring a 5306. To get only 3000 more with almost a full third more power on the CPU is simply depressing. I'm going to have a fiddle and see what I can get out of the board on overclock, but based on earlier posts I doubt I'll get more than 5%.

What are you trying to benchmark with 3dmark 2005 because it's mostly a video card benchmark?

I didn't realize that gaming wasn't a valid thing to benchmark on a board. What's wrong with benchmarking gaming?

 

[dunkster]

I'm running the 1.30 BIOS, and see no differences compared to BIOS 1.20 in either menu structure or performance.

No differences in stability, bandwidth or SuperPi times, using same settings as used with BIOS 1.20.

I haven't tried to push past the limits I found with BIOS 1.20, but I ran Prime95 for an hour at 11X245 with BIOS 1.30 and played HL2 for an hour without incident.

Edit:
Previously my system was on the edge of stability at 11X250 with ram at 250 3/3/3/5 1T with 1.20 BIOS. With 1.30 BIOS, system crashes within seconds after booting Windows at same settings. So, I guess I'll revert to the 1.20 BIOS.

Hope this helps!

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: niggles

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: niggles
I'm a little disappointed with the results from 3DMark05. My old rig of 2600+ with an A7N8X-Deluxe scored 4600 at stock. When I overclocked both the board and my vid card I got the score up to 5266.
With no overclocking at all my new Asrock with a 3500+ and the same X800XL as my old rig. It scored 4932. I then overclocked only the the vid card. I am now scoring a 5306. To get only 3000 more with almost a full third more power on the CPU is simply depressing. I'm going to have a fiddle and see what I can get out of the board on overclock, but based on earlier posts I doubt I'll get more than 5%.

What are you trying to benchmark with 3dmark 2005 because it's mostly a video card benchmark?

I didn't realize that gaming wasn't a valid thing to benchmark on a board. What's wrong with benchmarking gaming?

3dmark 2005 doesn't really have much to do with game benchmarking because it's a synthetic benchmark which tests dx9 video cards. Which part of your computer were you hoping to benchmark with 3dmark 2005?

 

[sandorski]

Anyone succeed in getting Speedfan to adjust the stock HS(X2 3800) fan? Find it kinda noisy and wanted to slow it down, no luck so far though.

Gotta say the board is great so far worked first time, installed WinXP 64 without a hitch, but there are a few things I miss after being with MSI for many years. Things like LiveUpdate, especially for BIOS flashing and MSI's Hardware Monitoring, the little extras that Asrock doesn't have. That said, I always expected my MSI to pack it in at any time, just seen too many dead.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

3dmark 2005 doesn't really have much to do with game benchmarking because it's a synthetic benchmark which tests dx9 video cards. Which part of your computer were you hoping to benchmark with 3dmark 2005?

The CPU/Mobo/vid card. Why would there be tests specificallty for the CPU in 3dmark05 if it wasn't testing the CPU/bus as well as the vid card?

 

[imported_Woody]

I used to have a A7N8X NForce2 with a 3200XP and scored around 6000 with my AGP X800Pro in 3DMark05. With this new ASRock board and a 3700 I scored 6212. Actually I was surprised the score went up that much since 3DMark05 almost completely ignores CPU speed and the results are almost entirely graphics card dependent. My guess is that the AGP interface on the ASRock is a little more efficient than my old ASUS NF2 board.

My review on this board:

I built the system over the weekend and played plenty of Battlefield2 on Sunday.

Overall this board is an excellent value. At $69 I can't complain about anything and there were no surprises. The board is exactly what I expected and went together with no difficulties. A couple things lacking like a PSU fan monitor plug and Firewire. Firewire cards are cheap and I think my Audigy2 has one built in. It works with older 20 pin PSUs that have the 4 pin extra plug.

Performance with the 3700 is troublefree and on par with NF4 systems. AGP performance is very good and without doupt the best performing and most advanced AGP motherboard you can buy at any price for Socket 939.

If you have a good AGP graphics card that you don't want to give up and you feel your CPU is dragging you down you can pick up one of these boards along with any Socket 939 Athlon64 including the dual core models. You are basically getting a new CPU with a $69 surcharge that you can install with all the rest of your existing components. It's definately the way to go.

The PCIe upgrade slot means you can then upgrade your graphics card down the road at your leisure. It also is the only motherboard I know of that includes a future CPU expansion slot for next generation AMD CPUs. The board allows for simultaneous use of both AGP and PCIe graphics cards (not in SLI).

I picked up a Maxtor DiamondMax10 SATA for my boot drive and am using the Coolermaster Aquagate mini for CPU cooling. I set up a 240GB RAID0 with a pair of 120GB 7200.8 Barracuda drives I already had from a couple years ago. The SATA RAID0 performance is considerably better on this board over my old ASUS A7N8X and BF2 maps load nearly instantly. I created a special partition on the RAID for games so I can keep them defragged easily....yes I will be in the map faster than you and I'm gonna come steal your chopper! ;-)

I'm a little concerned that the CPU temp is pretty high.....gets up to around 60C under load and idles in the high 40s. I'm wondering if the water pump block isn't properly seated or the thermal paste didn't spread evenly. The temps are actually normall for Venice cores with this cooler (based on reviews I've read on the Coolermaster) and I would assume the San Diego would naturally run hotter but this is the same CPU that a friend of mine used for overclocking his system back in June. He had much lower temps (40s under load) using air cooling in the hot Kansas summer. I'm going to try a bigger fan on the heat exchanger since I'm using a slower, quieter, and prettier one than what came with the Aquagate mini. I really don't want to take the darned thing apart and reinstall the cooler but I don't want to fry the CPU either, it's the most expensive component in my system now. Possibly just my temp sensor is not calibrated too accurately since the air coming out the heat exchager doesn't seem as warm as I would expect for those temps. The case temp stays nicely cool and is well vented.

I would like to hear what others are getting for temps with this board.

 

[Spineshank]

Originally posted by: niggles

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

3dmark 2005 doesn't really have much to do with game benchmarking because it's a synthetic benchmark which tests dx9 video cards. Which part of your computer were you hoping to benchmark with 3dmark 2005?

The CPU/Mobo/vid card. Why would there be tests specificallty for the CPU in 3dmark05 if it wasn't testing the CPU/bus as well as the vid card?

Because it doesnt use it for the score. So that means its going off of your video card.