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

[mindless1]

The problem is not always "crappy caps" per se, but that the manufacturer is choosing how the power subcircuit is designed and then relying on the cap manufacturer for these guidlines.

Several things can interact, it is defintely NOT so simple an issue as "bad" or "defective" capacitors. In fact, usually it is not defective caps at all.

The entire subject is far too involved for a basic thread post, but to try to summarize it as briefly as possible:

Any portion of a circuit supplying the power has a certain ripple current. The caps' ESR determines how hot it gets. How hot it gets determines how long it lasts, and caps may degrade beyond performing necessary function in the circuit because of it. BUT if they run really hot, they will burst then dry up.

Keep your caps as cool as reaonably possible. If they feel more than mildly warm while the system is running at full load, expect them to have a short lifespan. If they're small, their physical size also limits the ability of the casing to radiate some heat. Failures in any given system can come from contributary causes.

 

[phlashphire]

Aside from stock AMD heatsink/fans what other hsf are you guys using? I've read that there would be some spacing issues with the bigger units (Big Typhoon, XP-120, etc)?

 

[Ejhocky313]

Originally posted by: phlashphire
Aside from stock AMD heatsink/fans what other hsf are you guys using? I've read that there would be some spacing issues with the bigger units (Big Typhoon, XP-120, etc)?

Im using the big typhoon and it fits great....no promblems at all... just make sure u get a backplate(can be purchased from thermaltake)

 

[x2plasma]

Originally posted by: phlashphire
Aside from stock AMD heatsink/fans what other hsf are you guys using? I've read that there would be some spacing issues with the bigger units (Big Typhoon, XP-120, etc)?

I am using Cooler Master Hyper 6+, keeps my X2 at ~39C idle, 51C load at room temp of 75F. The fan just barely comes over across the first Ram slot, but other than that it fits just fine.

 

[Westmassguy]

The Thermalright XP-90 and XP-120 both fit this board.
You'll need the K8 backplate, since this board does not come with one.

 

[Cruise51]

My first time overclocking an A64. What should I do next?
I have:
3000+ Venice
2.44ghz
270fsb
166memory
x9multipyer
Stock 1.2bios
stock cooler (37C at full load while oc'd)
I can't get past 270fsb, not sure what to do. I just keep getting cold boots. Will that ocw bios people are talking about help, or have I already reached my max? Is the only thing left that volt mod??? Thanks.

 

[cyberfuzz]

is it an e3 or e6 step? if its e6 u probably are at your max. dunno about e3.

 

[Cruise51]

It's an e3.

 

[Fam Money]

Cruise51 a lot of people are hitting the 270 wall, including me, with the official BIOS. Some are reporting they can get more using the Beta 1 BIOS. The downside is that it seems to cause other issues like cold boots.

Also, I've heard of people getting using the vcore mod. That's what I'm looking to try if ASRock doesn't come out with a BIOS with a higher vcore setting.

 

[Lord Banshee]

I did the vcore mod.. but still an iffy board for overclocking... (well the bios i mean)

My system will not go past 300MHz HTT with out cold boots here and there. Also i have to boot the 100Mhz memory and use windows A64 Tweaker for higher Memory Clocks.

But with vcore my system is stable iwth 2700Mhz, but i wish the bios were better, this cold boot crap just sucks. And what the hell is up with this memory divider issue?

Oh well i can deal with the A64Tweaker for the moment.

 

[Beatnik]

I'm running with:

AMD X2 4200+
ASUS V9999GT [ slow mem version of the 6800 GT ] AGP
Corsair Twinx CL2
Seagate IDE

This board uh... rocks.... had to do it... ;-/ Only issues seem to be convincing it of better MEM settings and pushing up some of the other settings. Best I can do on MEM seems to be 2.5 but at 1T, so getting very good bandwidth.

3DMark 2001 SE -> 20771

This thing has been rock solid, and very responsive. After turning on AGP fast write, and enabling the HT to 1000 ... still rock solid. Please note, I am only using IDE drives at the moment. But the other issues some folks reported haven't touched my system. Only surprise is that I can't get to 2-2-2-5. But if I'm stable, and my bandwidth is solid [ SiSoft Sandra MEM benchmark used to verify ], I'm a happy camper.

It's great to be able to hold onto the spendy AGP card for a while longer...

 

[dunkster]

I've only spent a few hours with this board, currently running 11X245 with ram synchronous at 245 2.5/3/3/5@1T. It's stable at 250MHz, but I have to either loosen RAM timings or revert to 166MHz memory clock, which results in an appreciable bandwidth hit.

Problems going above 250MHz with 11 multiplier and above 270MHz with 10 multiplier.

I tried the ocwb1 BIOS, but it didn't solve the above problem. They changed some defaults and apparently loosened some hidden settings (slightly lower memory bandwidth). I reverted to the shipping 1.2 BIOS. No problems with Asrock's asrflash program.

No cold boot problem at overclocked speeds, no problem my 9800Pro card or any other system devices. Booted up right out of the box.

Other than the disappointing FSB/HTT limits, I have no problems with this board.

 

[niggles]

this may be a bit of a newb question so sorry in advance, but does anyone know what the fastest CPU I could put on this board?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: niggles
this may be a bit of a newb question so sorry in advance, but does anyone know what the fastest CPU I could put on this board?

Anything up to and including an FX-57 and X2 4800+ should work just fine.

To everyone in general: Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this thread as well lately, I intend to search and see if I can find out any new info on the board soon and updating as needed.

Thanks to everyone who's posting your results too!

 

[touchmyichi]

http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/30/5146.html

here's an interesting thread on OCworkbench where ASrock didn't realize the want for bios vcore/vdimm adjustments. Maybe we could all send in a letter to them as well and explain how much the community behind these boards would appreciate this?

 

[Lord Banshee]

touchmyichi,

I do not think anything will come from this. And they need to fix the bios for no cold boot for >290HTT first and memeory issues.

But serious i sent asrock 4+ e-mails about different problems i had at first with the board, but have not gotten one reply (months now lol). But before i bought the board and before all the big online places had it it took them one day to respond to me asking where i can buy one.

I don't think I'll buy another asrock board, not because it sucks but there is NO customer service, not even bad support lol.

 

[niggles]

Well that's a bit of a concern, I'm going to pick one up tomorrow.

In fact I live in Canada and I spent part of today trying to find a place that sold this mobo. by googling. No luck beyond NCIX who wanted $25 to ship a simple mobo and they couldn't figure out how to ship to a different address than my credit card billing address. I found on the Asrock website the Canadian Wholsaler who in turn gave me the number for Sonnam Computer in Toronto. If anyone can find this board in the Toronto area for less than $110 please post back here.

Thanks,

 

[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.

 

[thedonutman]

Will BH-5 RAM work with this motherboards low ram voltages? because ive got a dual channel kit of GEIL ultra-x BH-5 and this motherboard on my shelf right now and im planning on building. If it wont post im screwed because i will have to send it back and buy some cheap stuff. Has anyone had any experience with the BH-5 stuff?


btw i just want it to work stock, maybe a little OC but nothing insane

 

[BlackPear1]

I've used TwinMOS (with Winbond UTT chips) and it works fine on this board, but don't expect the big o/c at extremely low latencies this memory can achieve with higher voltage. If you are only interested in "a little OC", you can probably get the same performance on this board with cheaper memory.

 

[skljohnson]

Looks like ASRock posted new bios for this board todayasrock

looks like support for cpu's

 

[thedonutman]

is winbond UTT the same as winbond BH-5? also let me get this straight, my BH-5 ram will work with this motherboard?


btw it was only 10 gbp more expensive than the geil value so i decided to get it

 

[niggles]

Just picked up the board and dropped it into my case. Am in the process of formatting right now. First impressions, where's the firewire connection? I mean raise the price a few bucks and stick a firewire connection on the next iteration, it really lowers the value in my eyes. The time wasn't set when I first booted up so I got the old "bad checksum" when I first booted up. Scared the willies out of me till I got into the set up and found the issues. the manual doesn't seem to list what cables come with it specifically, but it does show some of the cables. I find it interesting that no USB to mobo cables or game port cables are included, at least in the box I got. Keep in mind that
I'm changing from a long line of Asus motherboards so my expectations are somewhat high. I realise that it's not going to be to Asus standards, but I am hoping it will still be good. I'll post again when I get further in.

 

[KDOG]

Anybody want to help me with overclocking this setup? I have this board and a 3000+ and can't get it to overclock at all. No matter what settings I place in the BIOS, its still pops up at 1.8...

 

[sparka]

In case anyone's interested, there's a new asrock BIOS out today. V1.3
http://www.asrock.com/support/Download/dl_939Dual-SATA2.htm#bios