ASRock 939Dual-SATA2

wee96 said:
I havent looked into it yet, its just the newest one and I had 1.20 when I got it.

I'm having a pretty significant problem with my video card though, ive got an x800pro AGP and my framerates after getting this board are terrible in all games. Im wondering if theres something im missing, ive got it on 8x and set to 256mb. There must be something I can do, its literally like my framerates are cut in half. Ideas anyone?
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Are you getting the "8X" part from your bios or your video card drivers setting? I had an issue when I installed the agp driver from Asrocks page. It would stick the AGP at 0x even though it was set correctly in the bios. I had to install the unified drivers from uli's site.
 
magnetik said:
Are you getting the "8X" part from your bios or your video card drivers setting? I had an issue when I installed the agp driver from Asrocks page. It would stick the AGP at 0x even though it was set correctly in the bios. I had to install the unified drivers from uli's site.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I never thought about that and when I checked in ATI's control panel it states the AGP bus is off :confused: however in Everest it claims 8x. I'm just going to reformat instead of trying to figure it all out, im sure its probably a confliction between the old board and the new, I was trying to take the easy way out and not format :D I'll post if its fixed when im done, or if im screaming cuz its still doin it, we'll see..
 
Well I reformatted, and nothings changing. This is depressing. Where exactly did you get those drivers from uli if you dont mind me asking? I could only find a driver 2.10 for the M1695 and when ran says it cant find the chipset. Hmm. I'm pretty much at a loss of what to try, are there any programs you guys recommend to check if its somehow running at 0x? Its gotta be something like that I would think.
 
Does anyone know how to work around the boot up issue past from 310-up FSB? I can't restart w/o powering off and powering back on again, and its freaking annoying. LMK
 
just a little note it doesn't directly affect this board (yet) but today Nvidia announced

"NVIDIA to Acquire ULi Electronics, a Leading Developer of Core Logic Technology"

TAIPEI, TAIWAN and SANTA CLARA, CA—DECEMBER 14, 2005— NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc. (ULi), one of the PC industry’s most highly-regarded core logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_room.html

As one of the guys at work said. It looks like Nvidia might be getting a little scared by how well the chipset performs

My board is coming today :D
 
r_shortt said:
just a little note it doesn't directly affect this board (yet) but today Nvidia announced

"NVIDIA to Acquire ULi Electronics, a Leading Developer of Core Logic Technology"

TAIPEI, TAIWAN and SANTA CLARA, CA—DECEMBER 14, 2005— NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ULi Electronics Inc. (ULi), one of the PC industry’s most highly-regarded core logic developers. Headquartered in Taipei, ULi also has offices in Hsinchu; Shanghai; Shenzhen; and San Jose, California.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/press_room.html

As one of the guys at work said. It looks like Nvidia might be getting a little scared by how well the chipset performs

My board is coming today :D
Click to expand...

THATS HUGE NEWS!
 
Ok, been monkeying around with this thing and my opty 170 and here's what I have so far:

1) Can't get past 2.5 (2.55 actual) stable
2) Can't get my multiplier past 255 @ 10X multiplier
3) Can't get past 260 @ 9X multiplier, even lower of an o/c there
4) Prime stable, 53c max at above speeds, won't boot higher though
5) Voltage only goes up to 1.4, and with my temps not going to mod
6) Tried 1.3 and now on 1.5 bios, same results
7) Multiplier (8X, 9X, etc) does not always take when saving bios settings
8) Yes I have kept HTT under 1000 (250X4, etc)
9) Floppy drive placement sucks, still got my Audigy2 ZS in there somehow though ;)
10) My 6800 GT works great (AGP)
11) Offical bios versions suck, complicated, wrong terminology, etc
12) God love the person who does a FAQ for this motherboard... I'm not talking a posted thread FAQ like on OCW, I'm talking like the nice web based ones I've seen done for other mboards.

Edit: Settled on 246X10 (2460), as I can get my ram 2-3-3-6 IT at those settings

Questions:
1) How are peeps reaching these high multipliers? Even when I drop ram divider and HTT I cant go higher.
2) Should I try the OCW bios? When you tried it did you see a difference?
3) My HD is two raided raptors, does raid have a divider? Am I overclocking my raid sata drives without knowing it? Is it a known issue the o/c will be affected by raid or non-raid sata drives?
4) Any help or ideas I should try?


Overall though I am happy ;) 2.5 from a 2.0 chip, I'm not complaining. Just want to make sure there is nothing else I should tweak or check before I give up, thanks!

Edit: Also considering I got my 170 for $356, looking at current pricing it's like I got the mb for free, so no complaints!
 
To all who have been experiencing this problem...
I had this problem too, where the computer would restart when visiting a shockwave site, but I then installed shockwave proper and it doesn't reboot on me anymore...
here's the link (no, it doesn't crash you if you don't have it installed)

http://sdc.shockwave.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi

Also, I've had some of the 1t/2t issues, for some reason even if i set 1t in MA timing, it still uses 2t... i have 2x512 corsair valueselect, x2 3800+... bios 1.21 (same as 1.20 but with a lower voltage for cool'n'quiet). it uses 1t if i run ddr333, but not ddr400 =(.

Oh one more thing... awdark, where was this issue mentioned at ocw forums? i'd like to let them know too.

awdark said:
Oh yes... Asrock users
Please visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=9oCTkwpSgnY (rather disturbing... but OCWforums led to that as one of those sites that kill you when you run 1T.. so far in 2T it works okay.. EDIT closing the window killed firefox. im pissed.)
http://www.us.playstation.com/holiday2005/build.aspx
and some other site with swf... in 1T it restarted. In 2T the thing just killed firefox. :mad: Who makes a motherboard incompatable with SHOCKWAVE?!! I mean tons of adds are shockwave powered. Low powered ones like banners are okay, many interactive ones are killers... Bios issue? chipset issue? Or what

Besides that, the board is solid and very stable. -_-
Click to expand...
 
Edit: Bleh, didn't realize until now that E4 Venice 3200+ isn't supported by the mobo without flashing the bios. Anyone know if a place like Microcenter would have a processor I could use to flash to a newer bios?
 
wee96 said:
Well I reformatted, and nothings changing. This is depressing. Where exactly did you get those drivers from uli if you dont mind me asking? I could only find a driver 2.10 for the M1695 and when ran says it cant find the chipset. Hmm. I'm pretty much at a loss of what to try, are there any programs you guys recommend to check if its somehow running at 0x? Its gotta be something like that I would think.
Click to expand...

it's because your using the drivers from Asrock.. I had to reformat and use the uli drivers to get it to work right. I found the uli drivers on this very thread. Here you go... ftp://www.uli.com.tw/driver/Integrated210.zip but you already have them. I went through the same "why the hell are my framerates so crappy" routine :p I also ran into the same thing as you when I tried to reinstall over the asrock drivers... I had to format before it would work.. I didn't feel like digging through registry entries

try formatting again and use the drivers from uli straight from the beginning
 
Hi guys. After reading all these ppl having good results i've opted to drop £45 and get one. It'll let me be able to use my new machine until my new X1800XT card arrives :mad: - I WANT IT NOW!!!

Was going to get an AN8-Ultra but after a bad review on [H] plus i wouldn't of been able to use it (will be robbing a GF2 out of old PC) until i get my new card - i know, not great, but it will atleast allow me to use my new PC. :D

Plus, it's only £45 as apposed to nearly £80 for the Abit AN8-Ultra!

Should arrive on Friday i hope as i've paid for next day shipping.... :eek:

Fingers crossed all will go well!!! Just wait and see. :D

neo out
 
My experience has been pretty positive, especially for the 70 bucks.

Opty 144, 2.4 stable @ 165. That is the top end of the fsb, hit a brick wall after 165. Using official 1.4 bios. Tried ocw beta 3 but still tops at 165.

I've been undervolting my opty to 1.250 and it is perfectly stable and drops temps very nicely, loads at 38c when at default load goes up to 45-46c on stock hs. Only thing that sucks about this is if you reboot it reverts to stock 1.450 voltage. So if I reboot I have to change voltage back manually.

Hate the placement of the floppy and ide connectors. Had to bust out some ultra long cables. Will be a problem for some!

6600gt works flawlessly.

So all in all, great upgrade board, fair overclocker. But for 70 bucks, hard to complain.
 
For me BIOS 1.50 solved reboot at flash sites and improved RAM stability (running 400Mhz@T1 now).

BTW,bad news that nvidia bought ULI.We can now say goodbye to cheap chipset that can compete with nforce.Nvidia did the right thing for her,killed a competitor at its birth,now has access to some ULI knowhow that could benefit her (see SATA and IDE benchmarks below) and gave a headache to ATI.

And this is the new ULI1697.Abit,Epox,Jetway and AsRock have announced boards coming out.

10286.png


10287.png



10289.png


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2641
 
I picked up one of these mobo's after grabbing a 3400+ from the FS/FT forums - I have a gig of Ballistix and an AGP 6800GT, so a $200 jump to s939 was right for me being on a budget. The 3400+ is an OEM only chip that's bascially a 3500+ with an 800 Mhz rather than 1000 HTT - but it runs fine at 1000.

So far I've had no issues at all with this board. I've only pushed my 3400+ to 2.43 (3800+) since I'm running a stock cooler for now. I've been able to keep my RAM timings to 2-2-2, but am only running it a 220Mhz, so no biggie there. Everything else solid. The memory throughput is impressive on this board. Running some benchies with Sandra and hammering it with Memtest, it's right up there with any other chipset.

I think I"m running the 1.4 BIOS - I'll nab the 1.5 and give it a whirl - after the stability issues I was having with my NF2 board with my IDE, I'm happy as a clam where it is now, but even some more would be happy. The biggest thing I've noticed is this new set up is folding like it's possed, cranking out work units twice as fast as my OC'd XP2800+ could.

Peace,
Tim
 
I was thinking of getting that processor from Mwave.com (since Newegg does not have it yet). You mean it won't even boot without a bios update? 1.20 is most likely what the board comes with. April 15, 2003 is when I got my current NF7-S board, so it is about time to move on up.

Fynath said:
Edit: Bleh, didn't realize until now that E4 Venice 3200+ isn't supported by the mobo without flashing the bios. Anyone know if a place like Microcenter would have a processor I could use to flash to a newer bios?
Click to expand...
 
You won't have to flash the bios if using an opteron, it will run an E4 with version 1.20. In fact, I'm using this board right now with an E4 Opteron. The board came with BIOS 1.20. Official support doesn't mean a lot on this board.

EDIT: Apparently this isn't true for venices, which is weird, so be careful.

See post below if using a venice.
 
Niloc, my E4 3200+ Venice won't work with it.. it POSTs, but at the end it says the revision is unknown. So yeah, I have to flash the bios. :p

Exact Message:
****** Warning: Unknown Processor Revision ******
The processor(s) installed in your system are of an unknown revision.
Please contact your BIOS vendor for appropriate updates.
Fatal Error... System Halted.

So, yeah.. it recognizes it as a 3200+, it just doesn't like the revision..
CDBHE 0543TPMW <-- processor.
 
Good to know. I hope it runs for me as well as this NF7-S board. I hope they open up the bios a little if possible on the voltages and such. I think my wife bought me the ram, but I'd probably want to wait until xmas before I placed the rest of the order.

Niloc said:
You won't have to flash the bios, it will run an E4 with version 1.20. In fact, I'm using this board right now with an E4 Opteron. The board came with BIOS 1.20. Official support doesn't mean a lot on this board.
Click to expand...
 
KrankKnot, check the post above yours, Fynath did have trouble with a venice and a 3200. I was thinking that they were basically the same chips, but I was wrong.
 
Yeah, and I have no other 939 pin cpus to flash the bios with. :| Any suggestions?
 
Does the 1.2 bios that i assume ships with the board support x2 3800+? as this is the chip i'll be putting in my board.

It's coming tomorrow hopefully - well, they told me it's been shipped :D and it's on a next day parcel force dlivery, so anything could happen in reality... :confused: :(

neo out
 
Fynath said:
Yeah, and I have no other 939 pin cpus to flash the bios with. :| Any suggestions?
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Maybe try badflash.com if you need it really bad. I think they can put whatever version you need on it. Would probably cost you about $10. Or if you have more time than money, you could try an RMA.
 
According to this link ASRock CPU support list all BIOSes are supposed to support the E4/CG stepping of the 3200+. I'd want another cpu just to confirm it myself. What are the differences between the BP and CG revisions?
 
On speedfan, I'm showing my Vcoreb goes from 2.18~2.22, what is Vcoreb and is this ok, if not, how the heck do I lower it in bios?

Also, my "remote temp" in speedfan is 57c idle ~ 72c load. Again, on AsRockSata2 what is this?

Thanks! I only ask about these two because all my other temps are below 40c.
 
magnetik said:
it's because your using the drivers from Asrock.. I had to reformat and use the uli drivers to get it to work right. I found the uli drivers on this very thread. Here you go... ftp://www.uli.com.tw/driver/Integrated210.zip but you already have them. I went through the same "why the hell are my framerates so crappy" routine :p I also ran into the same thing as you when I tried to reinstall over the asrock drivers... I had to format before it would work.. I didn't feel like digging through registry entries

try formatting again and use the drivers from uli straight from the beginning
Click to expand...

Worked, thanks for the help. I actually used the new 2.13 version.
 
ok well I am having some problems. I need to reinstall using the uli unified drivers to see if that would help. I searched and tried to skim over the 16pages of this thread to make sure what I believed to be the real problem wasn't already covered. If it was someone yell at me..

System setup:
4400+, 1gb pc3500 (from the last board I had.. brought over), 6800gt agp (pny)
2 36.4gb raptors and an ide hard disk, and 2 ide cdroms.

I am just going to act like a complete noob to get all the information I can. Perhaps I don't know something, that I think I know.

The sata, using raid was a pain in the ass to figure out. I thought there was minimal documentation on it, but there is plenty of help online. That aside on my nforce 2 board, I had both of my raptors set as master I believe. I didn't change this for this board. I BSOD sometimes and when it does reboot after a BSOD the report to microsoft crap comes up and I let it submit, and it tells me that the error is from not being able to read/write to the hard drive for certain ammount of time.

The first time I tried to format them, it failed. The second time I tried, it worked. I've had problems booting where the windows logo gets totally whacked and pixelated. I'm beginning to have doubts that the raid on this board is worth anything. I also wanted to know if there was another way to make the raid driver diskette other than booting the asrock cdrom and making it that way.

I've experienced the bad FPS in games (they were ok, but even more choppy than my 2700+). Dual core fix/cool'nquiet being turned off did not help. I read in this thread that using the ULI provided drivers solved some of that. Dear god I hope it fixes all of my problems. I tried installing them on top of what I have now (2.13s anyway) and I'm unsure if it made any difference. We shall see.

Thanks for your help.
 
Hi all, got y mobo this moroning and installed it without a hitch. One problem that i have is there is no backplate on the back of the cpu retention bracket for the installation of my heatsink. I know this was mentioned earlier. Will try and find a replacement from somewhere.

One question - like the clockgen, is there any windows overclocking tools for this board. I've got MBM to monitor the voltages and the heat from the CPU and the mobo, but can't find an app for overclocking.

Overclocking this is a bit different to the last Athlon XP's. What are the main settings and on which tab are they. Why 2 values for NB and 2 settings for another one??? :confused: :eek:

ANyone could shed any light, more than happy.

neo out
 
The first time I tried to format them, it failed. The second time I tried, it worked. I've had problems booting where the windows logo gets totally whacked and pixelated. I'm beginning to have doubts that the raid on this board is worth anything. I also wanted to know if there was another way to make the raid driver diskette other than booting the asrock cdrom and making it that way.
Click to expand...

Here's the difference between this and your nforce2 board... things have changed! I know because I came from intel and there are big differences. Plus, this m/b and bios are quirky as hell. Anyways... You should probably start over. However, read the online (cd) manual first! I followed that and had zero problems, but if you dont READ EVERYTHING FIRST you will run into problems. Don't bother reformat now though just kill the partition and re-create it. Also download the 2.1 drivers from the ULI website and put them on a thumb drive, cd, etc. That should be the very first thing you install once windows comes up. Think of them as Nforce m/b drivers, they go loaded first.

Ok, now where the windows logo gets whacked and pixelated... this freaked me too. Ok, now remember your AGP card is placed different (further down) than it used to be. In other words the AGP slot is even further away from the cpu on this board. I'm saying this because it's a SEATING issue. Yes, once it's all put together press down hard on that puppy (don't break it) to make sure it's seated good. Mine appeared seated but obviously it wasn't and getting it in there good fixed that issue for me.


Overclocking this is a bit different to the last Athlon XP's. What are the main settings and on which tab are they. Why 2 values for NB and 2 settings for another one???
Click to expand...

If I'm reading this right...(???)
Anyways there are NB speed and SB speed, NB speed is HTT, and cant be over 1000, which is weird on this board because it's labeled as 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000. These are really multipliers of 1,2,3,4 and 5. Think of them like that instead.

Don't let your FSB times your HTT go over 1000. So if your FSB is 250 your NB speed (HTT) cant be more than 800 (4). From what I've read setting it lower does not incur a penalty so you could even go 3.

Ok, SB speed. This is your two ULI chips talking. That's all I know. What to set it as? Dunno, can't find out myself. Logic would say the same as HTT, but there is no logic to this board. :confused:

... and you guys haven't even TRIED to o/c yet... hehehe... this board is awesome but the bios... omfg.... it's built to confuse. Setting don't take, sometimes they do but a restart undoes your settings... I still can't get vcore and multiplier to stay put.

Alot of peeps seem to have the best luck with OCW1 bios. Weird thing is you'd think later versions would be better/fixed... nope. I personally use official 1.5 and stick with a 420Mhz overclock, but I'm dual core and can't take the chance my system won't boot with an earlier bios. Good luck.

Edit: A good way to look at this board is to see it as nothing more than a life extender for those who have a 6800GT (AGP) or better. Some people have amazing overclocks with this thing and some don't. Mine is about average or just under. But don't get frustrated. Some of these people could take their same CPUs that get a 309X9 o/c, put it in another AsRock board with the same bios version, and only get a 200Mhz overclock. It's really all about just playing with settings and what you get, you get. This board is going to hold my CPU for about 6 months, after that the R580 will have been out and the 32X SLI motherboards will be lower. That will bring more options. But for now, just look at as a value temporary mb. My 2 cents.
 
I figured out my problem. I had to remove the auto setting on the command rate.. it just seems like the bios is really laid out gay, what I've always seen called command rate, it called MA timings. Setting it directly on 2T fixed my problem. I met up someone who was randomly rebooting and this fixed his problem as well. Except he could reproduce his problems. I couldn't exactly. However it still seems to have worked...

EDIT: Just finally BSOD'd same problem again. Sigh, I'm not sure wtf.
 
My ASRock died upon transfer from Antec 1080AMG to Antec SuperLANBoy. :(

Now that I have a 7800GT, will be pursuing an NForce4 ultra board.
 
@Defuseme2k

I assume you already have BIOS 1.50 (it is the most stable for me).I would suggest to leave your comand rate to 2T and play with the timings.All instability problems i had,were RAM related.Try running memtest for DOS too.I also imagine you made a format and clean install the first time.
 
I just wanted to let everyone know that the zalman cnps7700cu fits fine, I just installed it today
 
This is a long thread, so sorry if its been pointed out, but I was wondering:

I'm looking to pair the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 with a A64 3000+ (or 3200 if 3000 stock doesnt show up soon) and, Geil 2x512MB PC3200 and a BFG 6800 AGP. Now, I've read one or two issues about the 6800 and this motherboard, how are those as of right now? Any particular BIOS that I should/shouldnt use?

I'm looking forward to s939, but not really ready (well rather, my wallet isnt) ready for a new graphics card. So any advice would be very well apperciated on this.

Also, I read something about the SATA2 ports being controlled by a 3rd party chip but would added on to the south bridge in a later update, is that the case now? If not, how good is the included SATA2 support/performance?

Thanks.
 
Skrying said:
This is a long thread, so sorry if its been pointed out, but I was wondering:

I'm looking to pair the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 with a A64 3000+ (or 3200 if 3000 stock doesnt show up soon) and, Geil 2x512MB PC3200 and a BFG 6800 AGP. Now, I've read one or two issues about the 6800 and this motherboard, how are those as of right now? Any particular BIOS that I should/shouldnt use?

I'm looking forward to s939, but not really ready (well rather, my wallet isnt) ready for a new graphics card. So any advice would be very well apperciated on this.

Also, I read something about the SATA2 ports being controlled by a 3rd party chip but would added on to the south bridge in a later update, is that the case now? If not, how good is the included SATA2 support/performance?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


I am using a BFG 6800 and this board without any problems, nor have I heard of any problems with this combo.

-=R=-
 
I am a wild man and got the CG stepping of the 3200+ (revE4) so it it possible I may not have the bios 1.3 or higher to initially run it. ASRock said for $15 they would send me a bios.

I think the M1697 chipset supports SATAII natively, with no need for a southbridge. It would be nice if they would pair it with a M1567 for the AGP crowd. Manufacturers would only do that after I get my ASRock together. I'll report here what goes on with my setup.

KrankKnot

Skrying said:
This is a long thread, so sorry if its been pointed out, but I was wondering:

I'm looking to pair the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 with a A64 3000+ (or 3200 if 3000 stock doesnt show up soon) and, Geil 2x512MB PC3200 and a BFG 6800 AGP. Now, I've read one or two issues about the 6800 and this motherboard, how are those as of right now? Any particular BIOS that I should/shouldnt use?

I'm looking forward to s939, but not really ready (well rather, my wallet isnt) ready for a new graphics card. So any advice would be very well apperciated on this.

Also, I read something about the SATA2 ports being controlled by a 3rd party chip but would added on to the south bridge in a later update, is that the case now? If not, how good is the included SATA2 support/performance?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Well, got my board in yesterday. Will do the rebuild thing tonight if I have time...if not then it will have to be sometime over the break next week (work at a university).

...On a related note, anyone want a busted MSI Neo2 Plat mobo that MSI RMA won't honor because of some unrelated "physical damage" (their words - not much more than a slight bend in the corder away from all the components on the board....bastards)? :rolleyes:
 
Just got one of these motherboards, with the 1.20 bios. The bios files listed on the asrock support page say that I need to get a later version to add cpu support code for Opteron cpus..or something like that..

What I'm basically asking is, would it be possible to update the bios to a later version using the Opteron, or does the board not support it whatsoever at version 1.20 bios?
 
KrankKnot said:
I am a wild man and got the CG stepping of the 3200+ (revE4) so it it possible I may not have the bios 1.3 or higher to initially run it.
KrankKnot
Click to expand...
Good luck! :D Let us know how it goes.

sirlemonhead said:
What I'm basically asking is, would it be possible to update the bios to a later version using the Opteron, or does the board not support it whatsoever at version 1.20 bios?
Click to expand...
You should be okay. Using a 146 here, and the board came with 1.20. Haven't seen anyone have problems with the dual core opterons.. CG stepping A64's are apparently the risky ones.
 
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