New ASRock Motherboard

[ochungry]

Negative.

Currently both my OCZs and the Corsairs get insanely hot with 'High' vdimm, with a mod I need to sort out cooling first. I need to buy some 60mm fans

If you have don the vdimm mod I dont see why your memory sticks are getting hot? The board's highest vdimm voltage is 2.7v(2.72v some cases) and will not be high enough for the rams to get hot. Must be something wron w/ the rams (or one of them shorted and effecting others). Test the rams individually (one stick at the time) and find their limits, or which one is causing the problem (error and overheat). If the rams are rated higher than 2.7v, then you need to do the vdimm volt mod.

 

[Asr940]

Of course you could always get the AM2 expansion board for the 939DualSATA, but I'm not too confident that 939Dual will still overclock well with the addon board.

The info on the seems to be a bit vague. It is supposed to perform just as well as a 939 cpu in the Dual Sata, but I don't know of anything that compares the ocability. They are getting Brisbanes to run in it though!

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

If you havent done the vdimm mod I dont see why your memory sticks are getting hot?

That's what I was wondering.

I've not done the vdimm mod, and with 2.7v under load the RAM gets too hot to touch. This is the same with the OCZ and the Corsair, and it's the same with my other rig using their rated 2.75v - I think high end DDR just runs hot. With a 20CFM 80mm fan over them they dont get hot at all, they just need airflow.

I've tested both sticks individually, and they're completely stable at their rated timings and speed, with 1T and undervolted (2.7v compared to the 2.75v required).

It's just when I put both two sticks in, dual channel or not, I'm forced to use 2T.

The info on the seems to be a bit vague. It is supposed to perform just as well as a 939 cpu in the Dual Sata, but I don't know of anything that compares the ocability. They are getting Brisbanes to run in it though!

There's a volt mod for that addon board aswell. Usually it only allows +0.05v same as the onboard 939 options.

 

[Asr940]

Yeah, I think there are both vcore and vdimm mods out there for it. The latency is probably going to be a bit lower than the normal board due to the longer leads though.

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

Well, it seems my time with this board has come to an end

I picked up a cheap DFI Ultra D on eBay, so that's going into this rig, and I'm upgrading my brother to the ASRock and 3700+

 

[g0dM@n]

The info on the seems to be a bit vague. It is supposed to perform just as well as a 939 cpu in the Dual Sata, but I don't know of anything that compares the ocability. They are getting Brisbanes to run in it though!

any links?

i just hate that the add-on board isn't cheap... it's not worth going with the add-on board for say $45 if you can sell this board and get a new am2 board for a less difference (example: sell this board for $55 and spend $100 for a new am2 board)... same difference.

 

[funnyperson1]

any links?

i just hate that the add-on board isn't cheap... it's not worth going with the add-on board for say $45 if you can sell this board and get a new am2 board for a less difference (example: sell this board for $55 and spend $100 for a new am2 board)... same difference.

Thats pretty much my take on it as well. I never considered teh AM2 expansion board a real feature because I figured it would cost too much to be worth it and that it wouldn't oc as well as a standalone AM2 board.

Of course if it does oc past 300HTT with high memory speeds then this could be the cheapest upgrade path ever, but I haven't seen any ocing results on these things.

 

[g0dM@n]

Thats pretty much my take on it as well. I never considered teh AM2 expansion board a real feature because I figured it would cost too much to be worth it and that it wouldn't oc as well as a standalone AM2 board.

Of course if it does oc past 300HTT with high memory speeds then this could be the cheapest upgrade path ever, but I haven't seen any ocing results on these things.

Even still, you know you can pick up a BRAND NEW Biostar TForce 550 for less (after reselling your asrock 939 and not purchasing the expansion)...

 

[Jame Gumb]

AM2 expansion board, I remember I used to tout that that thing a lot...Only w/ Asrock I used to worry how it would conflict w/ all of the other hard-mods and BIOes.

I'll go over to ocworkbench.com and ask Bluetooth through PM if there are any mods and OCs recorded w/ it.

 

[ImprtRcr]

Sorry for bringing back an old thread in advance but my curiosity just got the best of me

I was wanting to know if anyone is still messing with this motherboard. I just got mine about a week ago, and boy its been a headache up until my brother told me about this forum, thank God for that!

Let me just include a few things on my system on where I am right now and what I have been able to do.

I have found the this board does not like OCZ ram such as the Gold Edition, 2-2-2-5 which I had to sell so I can buy a set of Kingston or more compatible ram... Rather I can overclock my CPU or change the setting to 200MHzDDR400 but not both at the same time... and just to let you guys know, its a x2 3800 @2.45 from 2.00.

I also could not run my Dual Channel with my Hynix sticks or OCZ sticks thus needing to buy Kingston or Corsair, which I am on my way to do.

Other then that, I find that its not to bad of a board, I am not sure what people paid for this board when it was just released but I picked this one up for $30 new.

Just wanting to get some others people opinions on the quality and if it is worth keeping after all this time, I have read a lot of this thread but not all, 61 pages is a lot of reading!!

Thanks in advance!

 

[RollingThunder]

Sorry for bringing back an old thread in advance but my curiosity just got the best of me

I was wanting to know if anyone is still messing with this motherboard. I just got mine about a week ago, and boy its been a headache up until my brother told me about this forum, thank God for that!

Let me just include a few things on my system on where I am right now and what I have been able to do.

I have found the this board does not like OCZ ram such as the Gold Edition, 2-2-2-5 which I had to sell so I can buy a set of Kingston or more compatible ram... Rather I can overclock my CPU or change the setting to 200MHzDDR400 but not both at the same time... and just to let you guys know, its a x2 3800 @2.45 from 2.00.

I also could not run my Dual Channel with my Hynix sticks or OCZ sticks thus needing to buy Kingston or Corsair, which I am on my way to do.

Other then that, I find that its not to bad of a board, I am not sure what people paid for this board when it was just released but I picked this one up for $30 new.

Just wanting to get some others people opinions on the quality and if it is worth keeping after all this time, I have read a lot of this thread but not all, 61 pages is a lot of reading!!

Thanks in advance!

This board, in my opinion, is not for the faint of heart as there are a few items that will hold you back.

First, the default vdimm is about 2.6-2.7 volts max. Under load, you will be lucky to get 2.7v. You need to use RAMs that are 2.6 volts default. Don't plan on a high overclock in most instances. Normally the vcore is fine for a while but you won't be able to bring your RAMs up on a 1:1 ratio because of the low vdimm.

Some have better success overclocking this board than others, I didn't without volt mods. You need to look up your specific OCZ RAM's voltage. You'll have to check the factory specs on them. I have run and overclocked Crucial Ballistix (2.8v), Kingston HyperX and these Patriot XBLK RAMs without a problem if you can give them enough vdimm with volt mods. Any good 2.6v RAMs should work fine dual channel default.

Try running your RAMs on the 5:6 divider, you should be able to bring them up to your CPU on stock vdimm. Try running them at 2T, many of us have problems running RAMs on this board at 1T.

The board doesn't like the rear USB ports at all, such as for a battery backup UPS. Front USBs seem to be ok like for digital camera photo transfers. I would avoid using those rear USB ports.

Once you understand the board's capabilities and shortcomings, it works just fine.

 

[DeadSmiley]

Well, I have the same setup and I am running my 3800 x2 at 2.4GHz. It's pretty stable. I have had this thing for almost 2 years and it just runs beautifully.

My kids' are at running 3200's at 2.6GHz and never have issues.

Overall I think it's a solid board. I have some standard DDR500 and I had difficulty running it at anything more than DDR400, but it doesn't really matter in regards to an socket 939 CPU anyways, so I am happy.

I really don't "mess with it" anymore, it just runs.

I did upgrade my daughter's graphics card from AGP to PCIe a couple of months ago. It was uneventful, which is good!

 

[Project86]

Well, mine has been very very stable, but not the greatest overclocker thus far. To be fair, I haven't had a chance to do the vcore mod, nor add my DDR booster. I think those 2 voltages being a bit low are holding me back, so I can only hit 240x10 on my Opty 144. One of these days I will try those and see how it goes. But other than that it has been absolutely perfect - no errors or wierd behavior to speak of.

 

[RollingThunder]

Well, I have the same setup and I am running my 3800 x2 at 2.4GHz. It's pretty stable. I have had this thing for almost 2 years and it just runs beautifully.

My kids' are at running 3200's at 2.6GHz and never have issues.

Overall I think it's a solid board. I have some standard DDR500 and I had difficulty running it at anything more than DDR400, but it doesn't really matter in regards to an socket 939 CPU anyways, so I am happy.

I really don't "mess with it" anymore, it just runs.

I did upgrade my daughter's graphics card from AGP to PCIe a couple of months ago. It was uneventful, which is good!

Smiley,

I agree, this board isn't a top line Asus or DFI with voltage available out the kazoo and many don't understand the limitations with vdimm or running 1T in many instances. Once OC Hungry did my volt mods, I played with it for some time writing everything down. Now, I leave it alone, it's at a sweet spot on default high end vcore and stock cooling for the Opteron (1.350v). I can go much higher and have but I need better cooling and it's not worth it to me.

 

[DeadSmiley]

Smiley,

I agree, this board isn't a top line Asus or DFI with voltage available out the kazoo and many don't understand the limitations with vdimm or running 1T in many instances. Once OC Hungry did my volt mods, I played with it for some time writing everything down. Now, I leave it alone, it's at a sweet spot on default high end vcore and stock cooling for the Opteron (1.350v). I can go much higher and have but I need better cooling and it's not worth it to me.

I believe you posted before I was finished with my reply.

My reply was really for ImprtRcr, not for you my friend. I was speaking in terms of what I have done with my 3800 x2 and the RAM more than anything.

The single core 3200's run at DDR500 if I want too, just not my 3800 x2. I ran my 3800 x2 at 2.5GHz for a while and it was just running kinda hot. My cases aren't that great and the air flow through the case suffers because of it. So, I run it slower and cooler. <shrug>

This Asrock is definitely not a high end board, but it does pretty well for what I spent on it.

I wasn't dissing you RT, even though it may have sounded that way.

 

[RollingThunder]

I wasn't dissing you RT, even though it may have sounded that way.

Smiley,

I never took it that way, we all know you better! I think I'm the one FUBAR today, not you!

 

[ImprtRcr]

Awesome!

Thanks for all the great responses.

I went ahead and picked up some Corsair ram and running it in single channel because there is I believe and from what ASRock techs told me after two hours on the phone with them trouble shooting, a problem with the Dual Channel, its been driving me nuts... but at least I got my 245 frequency out of it with no volt mod in single channel.... yet

Its been pretty stable now, I hope it stays that way, thanks again for the info folks!

 

[DeadSmiley]

Smiley,

I never took it that way, we all know you better! I think I'm the one FUBAR today, not you!

I just wanted to make sure we were cool man...

 

[DeadSmiley]

Awesome!

Thanks for all the great responses.

I went ahead and picked up some Corsair ram and running it in single channel because there is I believe and from what ASRock techs told me after two hours on the phone with them trouble shooting, a problem with the Dual Channel, its been driving me nuts... but at least I got my 245 frequency out of it with no volt mod in single channel.... yet

Its been pretty stable now, I hope it stays that way, thanks again for the info folks!

I did the volt mod for the CPU. It seemed to help me get a little more out of it even if I didn't the max volts.

It's really pretty easy to do.

I did not do the VDIMM volt mod.


Definitely set your RAM to run at T2. That's pretty much a given. A few have gotten it to work at T1, but not many...

 

[RollingThunder]

Definitely set your RAM to run at T2. That's pretty much a given. A few have gotten it to work at T1, but not many...

Smiley,

We know this board is odd in that a few guys play a little with timings and run 1T ok. The last time I tried 1T, it kicked me clear out of Memtest86 and warm booted. Scared the hell out of me! So I'm 2T permantently, really doesn't make any difference you can see "real world."