New ASRock Motherboard

[funnyperson1]

That's seconded. There are several tweaks that may (or may not) work with this board.

In my experience though, this board has really proved a tough one (edit: to kill).

I don't know about that, mine kinda just died out of the blue. I did have a VDimm mod for a little bit, but the board worked fine for months after that was removed. I also had a PSU go out (and took out a video card), but when that was replaced the board worked fine for more than a month.

Then it started doing these random freezes, and all the other components checked out, I ended up just junking it and going to AM2.

It was a pretty nice board while it worked, but the issues and eventual death have put me off to buying another ASRock board honestly.

 

[ImprtRcr]

So, how would you guys rate the ASRock board on a scale of 1-10? Lets say, 1 being ECS and 10 being ASUS or DFI...heck the list goes on but you get the idea. I would not mind having everyone who owns this board throwing in their #'s. I rate it 7

Reason why I ask is because oddly enough, I bought my board new about a month ago. Its great, holds my overclock and I have no issues with it. Heck, I even had to RMA my 7900 and its kinda nice having the AGP slot for backup.

 

[RollingThunder]

I don't know about that, mine kinda just died out of the blue. I did have a VDimm mod for a little bit, but the board worked fine for months after that was removed. I also had a PSU go out (and took out a video card), but when that was replaced the board worked fine for more than a month.

Then it started doing these random freezes, and all the other components checked out, I ended up just junking it and going to AM2.

It was a pretty nice board while it worked, but the issues and eventual death have put me off to buying another ASRock board honestly.

FP,

Perhaps. My board is the last revision before discontinuation, maybe they made some unseen improvements. I can tell you they tightened up the SATA connection from their first revision. It plugs into the MB much tighter and I know we complained about it on their first boards.

However, I wouldn't buy another Asrock. Too temperamental as you witnessed many times in this thread!

 

[RollingThunder]

So, how would you guys rate the ASRock board on a scale of 1-10? Lets say, 1 being ECS and 10 being ASUS or DFI...heck the list goes on but you get the idea. I would not mind having everyone who owns this board throwing in their #'s. I rate it 7

Reason why I ask is because oddly enough, I bought my board new about a month ago. Its great, holds my overclock and I have no issues with it. Heck, I even had to RMA my 7900 and its kinda nice having the AGP slot for backup.

Imp,

I would rate it about a 7 too. There are some shortcomings with this board, the biggest one being vdimm. It only gives out about 2.7v max. If you use RAMs needing 2.8v or overclock 2.6v RAMS too far, you'll see what happens with undervolted RAMs. Otherwise, it's not a fancy board, it's not for the enthusiast or hardcore overclocker without doing volt mods. The rear USB ports cause lockups with a UPS connected to it, they don't work correctly (for me). Running RAMs on 1T can be an issue for some.

Many users like the choice of AGP or PCI-e. I was PCI-e from the beginning so it didn't matter to me. It's a good board to experiment with. If you screw up the board experimenting, it's not a large loss. I know!

This second board has been fine so far once you understand its shortcomings. The BIOS is straightforward and uncluttered. I'm ready for something better with no regrets.

 

[ImprtRcr]

Imp,

I would rate it about a 7 too. There are some shortcomings with this board, the biggest one being vdimm. It only gives out about 2.7v max. If you use RAMs needing 2.8v or overclock 2.6v RAMS too far, you'll see what happens with undervolted RAMs. Otherwise, it's not a fancy board, it's not for the enthusiast or hardcore overclocker without doing volt mods. The rear USB ports cause lockups with a UPS connected to it, they don't work correctly (for me). Running RAMs on 1T can be an issue for some.

Many users like the choice of AGP or PCI-e. I was PCI-e from the beginning so it didn't matter to me. It's a good board to experiment with. If you screw up the board experimenting, it's not a large loss. I know!

This second board has been fine so far once you understand its shortcomings. The BIOS is straightforward and uncluttered. I'm ready for something better with no regrets.

Great post, sums up just about every pro and con for this board.

So really, its a step up from the bottom line but nothing to fancy, I can live with that.

 

[Linux_Box]

Imp,

I would rate it about a 7 too. There are some shortcomings with this board, the biggest one being vdimm. It only gives out about 2.7v max. If you use RAMs needing 2.8v or overclock 2.6v RAMS too far, you'll see what happens with undervolted RAMs. Otherwise, it's not a fancy board, it's not for the enthusiast or hardcore overclocker without doing volt mods. The rear USB ports cause lockups with a UPS connected to it, they don't work correctly (for me). Running RAMs on 1T can be an issue for some.

Many users like the choice of AGP or PCI-e. I was PCI-e from the beginning so it didn't matter to me. It's a good board to experiment with. If you screw up the board experimenting, it's not a large loss. I know!

This second board has been fine so far once you understand its shortcomings. The BIOS is straightforward and uncluttered. I'm ready for something better with no regrets.

Pretty much sums it up. It's a decent board for the price but it's not an OC supreme.

I've had decent luck with it OC'ing but I can't get max OC with it. I'm currently having troubles with VCore fluctuations when using 1.5v or above (VID4 mod). I do have 11x260=2860 @1.4v currently. That's not too shabby for the money I paid for the entire rig. As long as you understand it's limitations and have a realistic expectation, you will be happy with it for the price.

 

[funnyperson1]

FP,

Perhaps. My board is the last revision before discontinuation, maybe they made some unseen improvements. I can tell you they tightened up the SATA connection from their first revision. It plugs into the MB much tighter and I know we complained about it on their first boards.

However, I wouldn't buy another Asrock. Too temperamental as you witnessed many times in this thread!

As I witnessed and experienced first hand lol. Thats kind of how I feel too, I don't regret buying my 939Dual, but I will avoid ASRock in the future and pay the extra 20 bucks or so for a Biostar or Gigabyte.

The ASRock was the right board for me at the time though because I couldn't afford to upgrade my 9800Pro, and it did the job for about a year. If it hadn't died I would still be using it with an upgraded video card/cpu.

I think 7 is a fair score, I mean for $70 it faired decently, but right now there are better choices in the 70-100 dollar range if you are building an AMD system and don't already have a bunch of good DDR and AGP cards on hand.

 

[Lucius_Esox]

Hi all,
I am running a 3700 San Diego (oc 2.6) on my 939 duelVSTA board. Gig of Geil Value ram, Audigy 2Zs, and a 1950 pro. I was thinking of buying an opteron 180-185 as an upgrade for my system. I'm not particularly technical and wondered what this upgrade would entail. What do people think, is it worth it? I know I could do with more ram but this appears like a good upgrade for not a bad price.

 

[RollingThunder]

Hi all,
I am running a 3700 San Diego (oc 2.6) on my 939 duelVSTA board. Gig of Geil Value ram, Audigy 2Zs, and a 1950 pro. I was thinking of buying an opteron 180-185 as an upgrade for my system. I'm not particularly technical and wondered what this upgrade would entail. What do people think, is it worth it? I know I could do with more ram but this appears like a good upgrade for not a bad price.

Lucius,



My opinion is "yes." Dual cores are great, you can do a lot more with them. I upgraded from an A64 3500 almost a year ago (at a much higher price than now) and it was a good move for me. If you can afford it, then go for it.

I'm not particularly an AMD 'fanboy" but for now I'm committed to DDR 184 pin memory with these Patriots and a good spare kit of Kingston HyperX RAMs. The Dual VSTA Asrock board is similar to this board with a few improvements. I have never used one but I think they offer a little more vdimm than this board for one improvement.

The Intels Core Duos are excellent and most are very economical at their prices. I don't need the "latest and the greatest" so the Opteron still serves me well today. If I could use these RAMs with an Intel Core Duo board, I would consider building one but they aren't compatible.

With this board, the Opteron dropped right in and with an updated BIOS, that was it. Your BIOS is most likely dual core ready so you may not have to flash a later version but you always need to make sure. I didn't have to do anything but drop it in and turn on the computer. Everything was recognized correctly. A little tweaking and testing afterward was all I did. Your board should work the same.

The Opterons overclock very well if you have the proper cooling for high overclocks. If you are not into overclocking, a mild one like mine works very well with stock cooling. Some of the lower Opterons overclock just as well as this one, some better, and they need slightly less default voltage than your 3700 but optional cooling is a must for any CPU for high overclocks.

RAMs shouldn't matter, both my sets were compatible right away, I had no problems. It's up to you if you want to spend the $175 for an Opteron 180, depending on if you are a gamer or not. I would do it again. Our upgrades would be about the same (only cheaper for you!) If you are not into heavy graphics, your 1 GB of RAM should work just fine.

FunnyPerson, who posted above, always has valid opinions. If he chooses to post about this, listen to him.

 

[funnyperson1]

Imho not worth it (for the 180), get a 165 or even an X2 3800+ and overclock it if you feel like you want a dual core. You probably won't get the same clock speeds as with the 180, but you'll save $100 or more and only lose 1-200mhz.

Imho the $65 for the 3800+ is a steal right now.

 

[ImprtRcr]

The X2 3800 is one hell of a steal right now. I got mine for $84 just two months back, now, they are down to $63.99 on newegg. Overclocks nicely at 2.5MHz as mine is, but I have also scene them go as high as 2.9MHz and 3.0MHz of coarse with the proper cooling. I have just have a step above stock cooling in a well cooled case and it runs flawlessly.

5.0MHz is plenty for me, too much really. I wanted a Dual Core just to have one at the time, now, I can never go back to a single core because its so darn fast and I got spoiled

They also are making a X2 4200 still and those are a little more but, imo, I get my bang for the buck with my X2 3800.

Good luck.

 

[aaronnco]

What are your RAMs, default timings, and their voltage requirements? What's your power supply? Can you post a photo of your chipset and CPU/memory BIOS screen settings? Do you have your dram voltage set to "high"? What's wrong with 3 GHz?

Hi thanks for the info, Ill try and get some pics of my PC. Its my 2nd build actually and im trying to get as much power out of it as possible. Im living in New Zealand and it is quite a find to pick up this AsRock. Everyone is astounded there is such a thing as PCiExpress and AGP together with a expansion for AM2 upgrade. Let alone hardly anyone has a 939 here where i am.

Anyway, what are your opinions for a 64 4000+, do you think an over clock of 3.01 ghz is sufficient and not worth complaining about. I have not had any experience with AMD before and its my first time overclocking, so i have to admit if i make it sound modest with an overclock of 3.01 ghz, i dont mean to at all. I just dont know what the potential of a 4000+ is. It is currently running stable and no crashes. Very quiet but i would like to push it futher.

Best Regards
Aaronnco.

 

[funnyperson1]

Hi thanks for the info, Ill try and get some pics of my PC. Its my 2nd build actually and im trying to get as much power out of it as possible. Im living in New Zealand and it is quite a find to pick up this AsRock. Everyone is astounded there is such a thing as PCiExpress and AGP together with a expansion for AM2 upgrade. Let alone hardly anyone has a 939 here where i am.

Anyway, what are your opinions for a 64 4000+, do you think an over clock of 3.01 ghz is sufficient and not worth complaining about. I have not had any experience with AMD before and its my first time overclocking, so i have to admit if i make it sound modest with an overclock of 3.01 ghz, i dont mean to at all. I just dont know what the potential of a 4000+ is. It is currently running stable and no crashes. Very quiet but i would like to push it futher.

Best Regards
Aaronnco.

I'm with RT here, 3ghz is an excellent result, that is usually the final goal with a 939 chip as most of them couldn't do it very easily. Your 4000+ is a San Diego core chip, one of the better ones for hitting 3g+.

You might be able to squeeze a couple hundred mhz more out of it provided you have excellent cooling, but if you can't 3ghz is excellent.

 

[Asr940]

Hope you enjoy it aaronnco.

I'd give it a 7.5 - remember that this board is over two years old by now. When it came out, having the ULI chipset was a really big deal. Now that AGP has really died out, its less so. Of course, there are still plenty of people out there with AGP, but not so many in the DIY market. Vdimm is an issue though. Luckily my patriots just sip at voltage.

I don't think I'll be buying any more computer hardware (at least for the next 5-10 years at minimum), but if I were, I'd be willing to give ASrock another go. They've been pretty innovative and have jumped on some pretty good ideas. A few problems with they're service, but then again I've tried dealing with Sapphire. That was hell, at least Asrock doesn't pretend to offer much in the way of service. I wouldn't buy an Asrock to by an Asrock, but I wouldn't mark it against a board either.

Another couple notes: When I got my dual sata, it only cost my 61 or 62. (was 65 w/ shipping)

Asrocks other majorily innovative/amazing board for 939 was the 939SLI32. Full x16 SLI without a NVidia chipset. Nvidia bought out ULI and started patching drivers to block the chipset from working in SLI. Not a move I was a fan of. That board was on the path to being bigger than this one.

 

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

I must admit, I haven't read the whole thread, but the "search this thread" function doesn't seem to work for me so I'll just ask.

BIOS problems for me. I sold off my 3000+ and bought a X2 3800+. So......w00t. Before I switched procs, I did the following:

1. Updated from 1.5 to 2.30 in windows. Before the bootup, I removed all the ram sticks but one in the first slot. The BIOS flash seemed to go fine (so error messages and it said I needed to reboot). I figured I'd try this whole windows flash thing for once (guess I shoulda stuck to DOS).

2. Powered down.

3. Clear CMOS, remove battery, wait 5 minutes, cycle power switch to empty caps, wait 5 minutes, replace battery, put jumper on right

4. Now, whenever I boot it up it gives me one long beep and then 9 short ones. It beeps with 1 stick in first, 1 stick in third, and 2 sticks in first and second. So it beeps it a lot

I don't think it's bricked cuz it beeps, but somethings up. OCW said to remove a ram stick (didn't work), keep rebooting (did so 6 times in a row using power button), and clearing the CMOS (using the above method) doesn't seem to work either. Any ideas? System was working beautifully up to BIOS update. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

Ok, just did a bit more testing. Took out my PCIE ATI Radeon 1900 xtx and stuck in my ol' AGP BFG 6800 GT.

Booted right up.

There was a BIOS checksum error, but I went in, hit F10 and that went away. I went in again, set first vid init to PCIE, powered down, and switched to the 1900. Same beep codes (1 long, 9 short).

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[RollingThunder]

I must admit, I haven't read the whole thread, but the "search this thread" function doesn't seem to work for me so I'll just ask.

BIOS problems for me. I sold off my 3000+ and bought a X2 3800+. So......w00t. Before I switched procs, I did the following:

1. Updated from 1.5 to 2.30 in windows. Before the bootup, I removed all the ram sticks but one in the first slot. The BIOS flash seemed to go fine (so error messages and it said I needed to reboot). I figured I'd try this whole windows flash thing for once (guess I shoulda stuck to DOS).

2. Powered down.

3. Clear CMOS, remove battery, wait 5 minutes, cycle power switch to empty caps, wait 5 minutes, replace battery, put jumper on right

4. Now, whenever I boot it up it gives me one long beep and then 9 short ones. It beeps with 1 stick in first, 1 stick in third, and 2 sticks in first and second. So it beeps it a lot

I don't think it's bricked cuz it beeps, but somethings up. OCW said to remove a ram stick (didn't work), keep rebooting (did so 6 times in a row using power button), and clearing the CMOS (using the above method) doesn't seem to work either. Any ideas? System was working beautifully up to BIOS update. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

Ok, just did a bit more testing. Took out my PCIE ATI Radeon 1900 xtx and stuck in my ol' AGP BFG 6800 GT.

Booted right up.

There was a BIOS checksum error, but I went in, hit F10 and that went away. I went in again, set first vid init to PCIE, powered down, and switched to the 1900. Same beep codes (1 long, 9 short).

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Raven,

Not sure what the problem is but I would try flashing your BIOS again from the DOS prompt. Do you have a floppy drive? If not, then from a bootable CD. It's very easy and not as cryptic as it looks. Print it out and follow it.

I can give you a screen shot of the PCI-e card settings. I never used an AGP vid card in this unit.

Edit: This URL is probably telling you what you already know but you can check it:

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/BIOSBeepCodes.asp

 

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Ok, time for an update. I've been testing a bunch. Here's the situation:

-still have BIOS 2.30
-have 2 dimms of OCZ4002048PFDC-K
-have an ATI x1900 XTX
-have a BFG 6800GT AGP
-Opteron 165

Found out the following:

-6800GT will boot with either dimm in any slot (ie. 1,2,3,4) and both (in 1,2)
-1900xtx will only boot with one dimm (let's call it "A") but not the other (let's call it "B") (I didn't try in both dimms as I was just happy to see it POST)

So, right now I'm memtesting. I didn't think it was the RAM as the 6800gt booted with both, but it may be. Back to ya when the testing done.

 

[funnyperson1]

RaVeN, what PSU do you have?

 

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Sorry for the delay in my response, but I did a bunch of testing. Looks like I'm heading over to the BleedinEdge forum to get an RMA on my OCZ RAM

Ok, rundown goes like this:

-same situation as before

-still have BIOS 2.30
-have 2 dimms of OCZ4002048PFDC-K
-have an ATI x1900 XTX
-have a BFG 6800GT AGP
-Opteron 165

-6800GT will boot with either dimm in any slot (ie. 1,2,3,4) and both (in 1,2)
-1900xtx will only boot with one dimm (let's call it "A") but not the other (let's call it "B") (I didn't try in both dimms as I was just happy to see it POST)

So I memtested it with the 6800GT over the Thanksgiving (well, the Canuck one) weekend and came back to this:

http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2077
http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2078

It occured after the 49 hr mark (that's when I left to go to my parent's for dinner). You'll also note that the time stamps are the same. No, my crappy camera isn't enough of a gem to take two photos that quick The computer was hard locked in memtest.

So, to be thorough, I memtested the A dimm (ie. the good one). After more than 48 hrs. these were the results I came up with:

http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2079
http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2080

So, I'm fairly confident that it's good. Both video cards refuse to even boot with the other dimm on its own so I'm fairly certain it's pooced

RaVeN, what PSU do you have?

I have the 500w version of the Ultra X-finity 500w psu similar to this one:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=34

During testing, I have plugged in 2 USB devices and 3 harddrives to load the other lines. Though, I honestly don't think on simple boot up it would make a difference. This supply did run my dual Xeon system and this system with the 6800gt during a whole LAN so I'm confident in it for this system.

SUMMARY:

Memtesting dimm B (it doesn't boot with the x1900 so I think it's the culprit). Mobo, as of now, seems good.

 

[RollingThunder]

Sorry for the delay in my response, but I did a bunch of testing. Looks like I'm heading over to the BleedinEdge forum to get an RMA on my OCZ RAM

Ok, rundown goes like this:

-same situation as before


So I memtested it with the 6800GT over the Thanksgiving (well, the Canuck one) weekend and came back to this:

http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2077
http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2078

It occured after the 49 hr mark (that's when I left to go to my parent's for dinner). You'll also note that the time stamps are the same. No, my crappy camera isn't enough of a gem to take two photos that quick The computer was hard locked in memtest.

So, to be thorough, I memtested the A dimm (ie. the good one). After more than 48 hrs. these were the results I came up with:

http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2079
http://kalnet.kalshadowtech.com/php/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2080

So, I'm fairly confident that it's good. Both video cards refuse to even boot with the other dimm on its own so I'm fairly certain it's pooced




I have the 500w version of the Ultra X-finity 500w psu similar to this one:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=34

During testing, I have plugged in 2 USB devices and 3 harddrives to load the other lines. Though, I honestly don't think on simple boot up it would make a difference. This supply did run my dual Xeon system and this system with the 6800gt during a whole LAN so I'm confident in it for this system.

SUMMARY:

RAM RMA time. Mobo, as of now, seems good.

Raven,

I don't know if it's related your your problem or not but the USB ports in the back caused me major issues with freezing. I had an APC battery backed plugged into it. I know the Asrock manual mentions this specifically and I contacted their support and they gave me a solution but it never worked for me.

Your symptoms were not like mine with beep errors or vid card issues so I really don't know if it's related to your problem.

Personally, perhaps an RMA is best way way to go. They don't make this board anymore so you may get something comparable from them. I don't know what they are sending out now as replcement RMAs for the Asrock Dual SATAII boards.