New ASRock Motherboard

[RollingThunder]

Probably the same as your Opteron, if not less. Just remember, no PCI locks on this board, you OC the processor, you OC everything else as well.

I started out with this board and it's a solid board. Run Prime95 for 24 hours, that will get you the stability check you want.

If your RAMS need much more than 2.7v to overclock, you'll have a problem soon. The board at only puts out ~2.7 volts vdimm without mods and about 2.65v under load. Set your vdimm in the BIOS on "high" (~2.7v). Vcore usually isn't a problem, it's a decent board but it's not an overclockers dream with its limitations on voltage.

I ran Ballistix on this board for about 6 weeks then began getting error messages. The Ballistix RAMS were ok but they required 2.8v which I couldn't give them until I had mods done. So if you begin getting error messages, it may not be the RAMs. Run a 5/6 divider if you can, that should cure vdimm voltages.

 

[funnyperson1]

Probably the same as your Opteron, if not less. Just remember, no PCI locks on this board, you OC the processor, you OC everything else as well.

I started out with this board and it's a solid board. Run Prime95 for 24 hours, that will get you the stability check you want.

Who said there are no PCI locks? Make sure that the Disable Spread Spectrum option is set. Its been a long time since my ASRock died but I do recall doing 300+HTT with my PCI sitting pretty at 33Mhz.

 

[broken_Naols]

Yeah, theres a nce option to set the pci frequency in bios.
Spread spectrum is disabled.
I remember testing this board up to 320MHz FSB or something like that.

 

[Jame Gumb]

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.

Awe man your Rock crashed????? Mine is still kicking, seems like eons ...collecting dust though.

I wonder if OChungry is still on one ....has he been in here lately?

 

[funnyperson1]

Awe man your Rock crashed????? Mine is still kicking, seems like eons ...collecting dust though.

I wonder if OChungry is still on one ....has he been in here lately?

Yea if it hadn't I probably would still be running it with a dual-core upgrade. I've definitely become a fan of the Biostar boards though, everything you need in the bios and solid board layouts/quality capacitors for less than $100.

I haven't seen OCHungry around for a while.

 

[RollingThunder]

I wonder if OChungry is still on one ....has he been in here lately?

Jame, FP,

OC Hungry stops by from time to time but I haven't seen him post from his history. I email him from time to time just to say "hi." He appears well and I miss his posts.

RT

 

[DeadSmiley]

Ewww... I need to update my sig. My son has had a new (to him) rig for a while now.

 

[Jame Gumb]

My Venice or my rock crashed a month or so back...don't have any leftover AMD components to test to see what's FUBAR. Oh well, I must say it was a fun board to tweak at the time and a bargain. And for the record I will never buy ASrock boards again...had some experience w/ two others after this one...this one had it's probs but they were still manageable( due to 3rd party code). Tell you what, I'm running this ASRock ConRoeXFire junk on a secondary comp...****y little board but I know how to work the Rocks into compliance..but if you haven't dealt w/ the Rocks before I feel your pain. lol god knows I've wanted to slam all of them up against the wall.

 

[RollingThunder]

My Venice or my rock crashed a month or so back...don't have any leftover AMD components to test to see what's FUBAR. Oh well, I must say it was a fun board to tweak at the time and a bargain. And for the record I will never buy ASrock boards again...had some experience w/ two others after this one...this one had it's probs but they were still manageable( due to 3rd party code). Tell you what, I'm running this ASRock ConRoeXFire junk on a secondary comp...****y little board but I know how to work the Rocks into compliance..but if you haven't dealt w/ the Rocks before I feel your pain. lol god knows I've wanted to slam all of them up against the wall.

Jame,

It's been a frustrating and fun ride from time to time, I'm still using mine as a second rig and haven't messed with it since all you guys helped me out. No more Arock for me either when it goes. This Intel DFI build was the easiest I ever had. I learned my lesson!

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

I just got one of these boards last week, as a replacement for an Nforce4 board which had some annoying issues.

So far I like it OK, save for a few little quirks I've been working on ironing out.

One question, though: Does anyone still have a copy of the 2.10adv BIOS from the German site? After doing some reading, I'm interested to try that version, but it seems to have completely disappeared from the internet.

 

[RollingThunder]

I just got one of these boards last week, as a replacement for an Nforce4 board which had some annoying issues.

So far I like it OK, save for a few little quirks I've been working on ironing out.

One question, though: Does anyone still have a copy of the 2.10adv BIOS from the German site? After doing some reading, I'm interested to try that version, but it seems to have completely disappeared from the internet.

OT,

Can't help. I only have the Asrock BIOS versions. Those German BIOS' were betas and I never tried them.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

So far I like it OK, save for a few little quirks I've been working on ironing out.

I'm going to retract this statement, it just crashed again. I have tried several different versions of the various drivers, all the later official BIOSes from 1.70-2.30, and I've been messing with settings all day. I get different problems every time, but stable operation is nowhere in sight.

So to hell with this thing, I'm going back to my old board. It at least worked without any fuss.

 

[RollingThunder]

I'm going to retract this statement, it just crashed again. I have tried several different versions of the various drivers, all the later official BIOSes from 1.70-2.30, and I've been messing with settings all day. I get different problems every time, but stable operation is nowhere in sight.

So to hell with this thing, I'm going back to my old board. It at least worked without any fuss.

OT,

Don't give up on it, there are some oddities about the board and if you run it stock, it should run ok. The BIOS versions from V2 and up should cover any hardware you have. I run V2.10 and it's fine. If you're trying to overclock the RAMs, the are some issues. I can elaborate if you wish.

I'm running Opteron 180 and Patriot XBLK 2 x 512mb @ 2628MGz stock cooling but I have volt mods. Otherwise, it's nothing special.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

if you run it stock, it should run ok.

It was at stock. I'm sure there's some way of getting it going, but it's just not worth it to me. It only took about an hour to swap back to my old board and reinstall Windows... that's certainly less time than it would've taken to troubleshoot the Asrock, and probably a lot less effort too.

I bought it solely to resolve some relatively minor issues I'd been having with the Nforce chipset. I honestly don't have much interest in overclocking anymore, my only real concern is stable, trouble-free operation. Instead that Asrock proved to be one of the most troublesome boards I've ever owned, and that's simply unacceptable to me.

 

[DeadSmiley]

Windows 7 and it still lives! w00t!

I installed Windows 7 on my Asrock tonight, which is still my main machine for the past four years.

When I first booted Win7 it did not find my LAN adapter or my onboard sound. My first thought was, "Well, I guess I have finally reached the end of this board."

I just used the (old) drivers for the Lan adapter and the onboard sound. They worked just fine! I am posting from it right now.

Now I just have to find drivers for my old SoundBlaster Live.

 

[RollingThunder]

I installed Windows 7 on my Asrock tonight, which is still my main machine for the past four years.

When I first booted Win7 it did not find my LAN adapter or my onboard sound. My first thought was, "Well, I guess I have finally reached the end of this board."

I just used the (old) drivers for the Lan adapter and the onboard sound. They worked just fine! I am posting from it right now.

Now I just have to find drivers for my old SoundBlaster Live.

Hey DS!

My Asrock board that OC Hungry volt modded gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I moved on. A power out blew a tranistor but nothing else. Sold off the Opteron and RAMS. It was a great ride, I have no regrets and you guys helped and taught me a lot.

 

[DeadSmiley]

Hey DS!

My Asrock board that OC Hungry volt modded gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I moved on. A power out blew a tranistor but nothing else. Sold off the Opteron and RAMS. It was a great ride, I have no regrets and you guys helped and taught me a lot.

Howdy RT!

I forgot to add that I am using the 64 bit version. It accepted to old drivers just fine. I realize that there is not much point to running Windows 7 64 bit with only 2 GB of RAM, but I am just wanting to see how it goes.

The only thing I have installed at this point is Firefox and Seagate Manager which comes with my new FreeAgent 500GB external HD. I picked up the 3.5" version the other night and I am kicking myself for waiting this long.

One thing that I did not know when I got Win7 upgrade (I bought the Family Pack, Home Premium) was that I could not do an upgrade on top of XP. I had to do a clean install, so I have to reinstall everything. I am going to try the 32 bit version on my daughter's PC. My son will soon have 4GB RAM and I think we are going with the 64 bit version on his too.

As far as the mobo is concerned. I haven't had any issues with the three I bought. I did Rebels VCORE mod to them and that was it.

My son has been upgraded thanks to Madshrimp! (see sig) This occurred a year and a half ago. I gave my son's hardware (mobo, RAM, CPU, 7800GT) to a friend and he was running a P4 2.8GHz with an nVidia 4600. The friend is still running it for WoW.

 

[RollingThunder]

Howdy RT!

I forgot to add that I am using the 64 bit version. It accepted to old drivers just fine. I realize that there is not much point to running Windows 7 64 bit with only 2 GB of RAM, but I am just wanting to see how it goes.

The only thing I have installed at this point is Firefox and Seagate Manager which comes with my new FreeAgent 500GB external HD. I picked up the 3.5" version the other night and I am kicking myself for waiting this long.

One thing that I did not know when I got Win7 upgrade (I bought the Family Pack, Home Premium) was that I could not do an upgrade on top of XP. I had to do a clean install, so I have to reinstall everything. I am going to try the 32 bit version on my daughter's PC. My son will soon have 4GB RAM and I think we are going with the 64 bit version on his too.

As far as the mobo is concerned. I haven't had any issues with the three I bought. I did Rebels VCORE mod to them and that was it.

My son has been upgraded thanks to Madshrimp! (see sig) This occurred a year and a half ago. I gave my son's hardware (mobo, RAM, CPU, 7800GT) to a friend and he was running a P4 2.8GHz with an nVidia 4600. The friend is still running it for WoW.

DS,

This is from my other machine, an E7500 XP Pro otherwise the same in my sig except for 2 x 1 GB Rams.

I can tell you I was hesitant buying these DFI boards but now these are the best boards I ever used. I got some great help and coaching from redduc before and after. OC'ing is easy as long as I get the AMD numbers out of my head! As you know for a person that was away from all this for 10 years, the Asrock Dual SATA 2 board is not for the faint of heart and has its limitations. I couldn't have done it without you guys! Otherwise the Asrock board ran fine for these last 3.5 years until the transistor blew.

I dropped in this WD 74 Raptor boot drive from the Asrock board to see if it would boot and it was fine. I cleaned out all the old AMD drivers and all others and there are no issues. I was prepared for a reformat and install which I hate but didn't have to.

The other machine with Vista 64 runs fine but it has 4 GB RAMs but W7 should run ok with 2 x 1Gb. I use about 1.25 GB on it a boot up and I'm not a power user so if you are fairly basic, 2 x 1 Gb should be fine. Friggin' DDR2 RAM prices have doubled recently too.

So our Asrock Dual SATA2 "Band of Brothers" are becoming scattered in the wind.

 

[DeadSmiley]

DS,

This is from my other machine, an E7500 XP Pro otherwise the same in my sig except for 2 x 1 GB Rams.

I can tell you I was hesitant buying these DFI boards but now these are the best boards I ever used. I got some great help and coaching from redduc before and after. OC'ing is easy as long as I get the AMD numbers out of my head! As you know for a person that was away from all this for 10 years, the Asrock Dual SATA 2 board is not for the faint of heart and has its limitations. I couldn't have done it without you guys! Otherwise the Asrock board ran fine for these last 3.5 years until the transistor blew.

I dropped in this WD 74 Raptor boot drive from the Asrock board to see if it would boot and it was fine. I cleaned out all the old AMD drivers and all others and there are no issues. I was prepared for a reformat and install which I hate but didn't have to.

The other machine with Vista 64 runs fine but it has 4 GB RAMs but W7 should run ok with 2 x 1Gb. I use about 1.25 GB on it a boot up and I'm not a power user so if you are fairly basic, 2 x 1 Gb should be fine. Friggin' DDR2 RAM prices have doubled recently too.

So our Asrock Dual SATA2 "Band of Brothers" are becoming scattered in the wind.

Looks good. Using less than half my RAM right now with only Firefox running, which I don't think is too bad.

The real test is when I install a few games, iTunes, etc.

 

[DeadSmiley]

Hey RT!

I am still running this machine. It is no longer "my" machine, it is the family machine as I got married in Oct of 2010.

We use it every day and nobody complains one bit. Still running with 2GB RAM too. Ha!