ASRock 939Dual-SATA2

sniperx said:
Hey I had a very similiar setup to yours. Before my upgrade I had a 2800xp. Overclocking was very limited and the like. I had my x800 at the time as well. Paid $200 for my mobo/cpu and havent looked back since. Once a bios comes out with higher vcore I can easly hit 2.7-2.8 Until then ill be at 2.4 and blowing the heck out of my 2800xp for now. Believe me I recieved a huge increase on performance on my upgrade.
Click to expand...

My sentiments exactly. Upgrading to a XP64 has got to be an improvement in itself.

I noticed your 3DMark scores. Mine with a 5900XT/2800+ (3DMark03) were 5014/596 and with a 6600GT/2800+ (3DMark05) were 3371/2758. I did try to score the 5900XT on the Mark05 with poor results near 1000. Not sure how the CPU scores are done, but they are different. Other than that no change to the system but the graphics were much better. I can only assume that the 64 system would improve the score.
 
For my son, coming from a P4 2.6GHZ platform used for gaming mostly, ANY A64 was an upgrade. This board is a cheap alternative to K8t800 or nforce3 chipsets and on top it gives you the ability to get a PCI-E card later on.

Tell me excactly why NOT to chose this board?
 
Okay, now that I've actually set up the board:

There is NO need for SATA driver disks if you are not running in RAID mode. Setting either the SATA ports or the SATA II port to IDE mode allows you to install without driver disk as on the nForce3/4 mobos.

The integrated ULi driver covers everything but the SATA II port (and maybe the Audio but I have it disabled)

Chipset stays extremely cool even in a very low airflow case. I pulled both heatsinks, cleaned, applied AS5 and reseated.

I'll update more once I have the full thing set up and can do some testing on my A64 X2 4400+, 2GB OCZ PC3200, and ATI X1800XL in games and apps as well as check out the overclockability given that I'm running fanless on the CPU with a Ninja, and have installed a Zalman Vu-700 Cu on the X1800 (still in that 24 cure period for the ramsinks according to Zalman).

So far so good.

Oh, a couple of other things. Why is there a Hyperthreading option in the BIOS :confused:

Also, the manual really needs work but given the price point it's expected I guess.
 
Bar81 said:
Okay, now that I've actually set up the board:

There is NO need for SATA driver disks if you are not running in RAID mode. Setting either the SATA ports or the SATA II port to IDE mode allows you to install without driver disk as on the nForce3/4 mobos.

The integrated ULi driver covers everything but the SATA II port (and maybe the Audio but I have it disabled)
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Sweet , i just orderd my SATA II drive, and starting makeing driver disks thinking this might be a pain... hopefully i can just plug into the sataII part and install windows?
 
codymac said:
Sweet , i just orderd my SATA II drive, and starting makeing driver disks thinking this might be a pain... hopefully i can just plug into the sataII part and install windows?
Click to expand...

Right, just make sure the SATA port for the drive you are installing windows on is set to IDE mode. But if you want to use NCQ (a SATA II feature - everyone seems to be excited about this even though it does nothing on a desktop system) then after you install windows install the SATA II driver. Then reboot and in the BIOS set the SATA II port from IDE to SATA mode.
 
Bar81 said:
Right, just make sure the SATA port for the drive you are installing windows on is set to IDE mode. But if you want to use NCQ (a SATA II feature - everyone seems to be excited about this even though it does nothing on a desktop system) then after you install windows install the SATA II driver. Then reboot and in the BIOS set the SATA II port from IDE to SATA mode.
Click to expand...
Thanks, sounds simple, but just for Knowledge, why does SATA need to be set to IDE before install?
 
codymac said:
Thanks, sounds simple, but just for Knowledge, why does SATA need to be set to IDE before install?
Click to expand...

Because what it's doing essentially is masking the SATA port to make Windows believe it's an IDE port (which Windows supports natively). If you have it set to SATA, then you'd need a driver disk as Windows doesn't include the SATA driver and it would be seeing the SATA port as what it is, a SATA port.
 
Okay, a couple more things.

One, disable the memory flexibility option in the BIOS. If you don't it will underclock your memory no matter what setting you put the memory at. I had it set to 200 and it was at 133 in reality. Once I disabled it it was at 200.

Two, a very nice thing is that the native ULi SATA ports report S.M.A.R.T. information even in RAID mode so you can monitor your hard drives. I have a Mirror going and unlike my old Promise RAID card, I can now see temps.

Lied, one more thing. With the 1.20 BIOS memory is set to 2T even with only two sticks. Looks like it's time to upgrade to 1.3 for that 1T option, not that it matters performance wise but I'm picky that way ;)
 
Bar81 said:
Lied, one more thing. With the 1.20 BIOS memory is set to 2T even with only two sticks. Looks like it's time to upgrade to 1.3 for that 1T option, not that it matters performance wise but I'm picky that way ;)
Click to expand...


I have 1.20 and i was able to set it to 1T in the bios...
 
What sort of warranty does this board carry? Its not listed on the Asrock site. (At least I couldnt find it).

Has anyone had any experience with the "Newegg Extended Warranty Plan"?
 
Thanks for the responses guys. I was probing the situation myself - see I have a P4 2.8 with a 6800 GT. I thought to myself, hey, I can upgrade to 7800 GT for like $50, that's cool. Then I realize, no I can't, I need to change the damn mobo and CPU to get to PCI-E to get the 7800 GT!

I am just not sure if I should wait until I can afford a 7800 GT + motherboard + CPU, because I don't think I will see much performance increase in games using the same 6800 GT just by switching from P4 to A64. Games these days are so GPU intensive. I can see going from AXP to A64, though.

I'll probably hold off because I do want to go SLI, and I am just fine with my P4 for now.
 
Maybe I'm going blind but I don't see a 1T option. Anyone care to point out exactly where it is?
 
If i remember correctly, it;'s the bottom option on the cpu setup. I'll look later.
 
BTW for anyone interested, some people report lower overclocks with the new 1.3 Bios from ASRock. Appearantly they have reduced the voltage in that Bios (either by mistake or who knows why).

So, as an overclocker, you might want to stay with 1.20 Bios for now.

PS: The voltage mod also doesn't work anymore with 1.30 Bios. If you want to have the working mod, use 1.20.
 
New system build (all new) with the ASROCK Dual board. Received the board last week with 1.1 bios, now running 1.3, never tried 1.2. Here's what I have so far. More work to be done this weekend with HTT and memory timings.

ADA3000DAA4BP
LBBLE 0524APGW
Z705966F51681

270x9 Prime95 torture test stable @ 41C Stock Cooling 1.45v core but BF2 Graphics tearing badly. Mem voltage set to high (ASROCK only has high setting)
260x9 Prime95 stable. BF2 random crash
255x9 Stable

166MHz divider 2.5 2 2 8 @ 260 & 270x9
200MHz @ 255x9

3K+Venice
ASROCK Dual SATA2
2x512 OCZ PC3200 VX DC
ATI X800XL 256 AGP
WD80
Neo Power 480
 
SuperDuty said:
Received the board last week with 1.1 bios...
ADA3000DAA4BP
LBBLE 0524APGW
Z705966F51681
Click to expand...

1.1? Were did you get the mobo from? And what does this mean?

ADA3000DAA4BP
LBBLE 0524APGW
Z705966F51681
 
Board came from New Egg last week along with the rest of the components. The numbers posted are from the Athlon 64 3000+ Venice CPU. I had posted these in the AMD OC thread originally but thought they might be usefull here as well.
 
ScYcS said:
If i remember correctly, it;'s the bottom option on the cpu setup. I'll look later.
Click to expand...

I had to update to 1.30 as I have an X2 4400+ Now the 1T option is there. Anyway, so far overclocked to 4800+ speeds and everything looks good. Gonna install F.E.A.R. and Quake4 and see how everything runs.

So far so good. Too bad the overclocking tool in the wild for my X1800 doesn't work properly. No big deal still excellent performance at 1280x768 all settings max no soft shadows and 2x AAA/8xHQ AF.
 
All I can say is this board is phenomenal. It's handling CPU, RAM and GPU overclocks with aplomb (ha!) Just a great board and I really like the layout, especially how the PCI slots are as far away from the PCI-E x16 slot as possible (so I can use a Zalman VF700 CU and not lose any of them.) Would've been nice to have the ATX and 12v connectors on the other side of the board but not a huge deal. Too bad no firewire but that's easy to fix for $15-20 and the use of a PCI slot ;) Just a killer item and with ASRock's tops in the industry support it's a no brainer.
 
Update!

272x9 Stable. Anything over 272 results in no post.

----------------------
CPU-Z version 1.30
----------------------

CPUID Output
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of CPUs 1
APIC ID 0
Name AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Code name Venice
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
Family/Model/Stepping FF0
Extended Family/Model F/2F
Brand ID 4
Package Socket 939
Core Stepping DH-E3
Technology 0.09µ
Instructions Sets MMX, Extended MMX, 3DNow!, Extended 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
Clock Speed 2450.8 MHz
Clock multiplier x9.0
HTT Bus Frequency 272.3 MHz
P-Rating 3000+

Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge ALI M1695 rev. 00
Southbridge ALI M1563 rev. 70
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Frequency 222.8 MHz (CPU/11)
CAS# 2.5
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# Precharge 3
Cycle Time (tRAS) 8
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 12
DRAM Idle Timer 16
 
I told you all this board was going to make great strives in the enthusiast/value groups... no one believed me... no one wanted to be the first to go get this board. One certian [H] did not want to evaluate or review this board on his website... cuz it wasn't [H] enough...


Now everyone wants one... go me...



-=R=-
 
lordroy said:
One certian [H] did not want to evaluate or review this board on his website... cuz it wasn't [H] enough...

-=R=-
Click to expand...

We want names!

PS: The only thing the board really needs is a couple more voltage options. Sure, there are voltage mods, but not everyone wants to use a soldering iron on such small pieces.
 
this is a great board. No FLUFF, which I'm sure is why they can make it so cheap. Passive cooling is such a huge plus to me along with a single NIC, honestly the whole dual onboard nic baffles me. www.anandtech.com was right to recommend this board and is a great read if anyone needs further convincing before they pick it up.
 
I have to agree. This board offers much more that just a niche solution for AGP users.

The options, though not overwhelming, do satisfy the needs of the casual overclocker. This is what I consider myself to be. "Casual" meaning the ability to achieve the best price/performance ratio with minimal to moderate risk.

Running stock PIB cooling, you can't get the cpu hot enough to worry about. This provides a nice safety net for those looking to cut their teeth in tweaking performance. In addition, I don't have an infinite amount of discretionary free time as my wife likes to be tweaked once in a while also.

Now, running at 272x9 all weekend, I did have two instances where BF2 crashed to the desktop. Both occasions occured around the 2.5 - 3.0 hours mark of continuous play. I haven't been able to isolate this failure yet. CPU temp was 35C at the time of the incidents. Prime95 torture test ran overnight with no failures @ 41C. I'm starting to think this might be game related but haven't ruled out a memory or video driver issue.

Any suggestions on event capturing or event logging would be greatly appreciated.
 
is the SATA2 port backwards compatible with standard SATA drives? anyone tried a standard SATA drive on it?
 
yes standard SATA drives are compatible with the native SATA 150 support through the Uli chipset as well as the Jmicro SATA II onboard chipset.
On another note the OCworkbench forum has a new FAQ for this board at this link.
 
Sending my S939 Dual Sata back to Newegg. Cold boot problems, even at stock speeds. Getting a VNF4 Ultra.
 
kurt454 said:
Sending my S939 Dual Sata back to Newegg. Cold boot problems, even at stock speeds. Getting a VNF4 Ultra.
Click to expand...

what bios are you running?
 
I am new here but posted this back at ocforums. I have got the board paired with an athlon 64 3200+, and crucial balistix 1gb stick. I was able to easily achieve 238x10 on the board. I hit a wall there with the processor. I did the vcore mod to get 1.475, 1.50, 1.525, and 1.55 for option for the voltage and was able to get it up to 250x10 stable for all applications and prime for 24hours. I am waiting for a way to get more voltage to my ram so I can use the balistix how it was meant to be used at 2.8V and higher.

250x10 = 2500mhz
Ram 1:1 ratio
Hypertransport at 600
 
lordroy said:
Have you tried 1.30?


-=R=-
Click to expand...

No. I had 30 days that I could send the board back to Newegg. I have already shipped it back for refund. Checking over at OCWorkbench, some people there claimed the 1.30 bios did not help there cold boot issue at all. Also, the board got to where it refused to post at all, so I could not flash it with a new bios. Might have just been a bum board. :mad:

Since I now have a bought a pci-e video card, I will stick with a pure pci-e motherboard.
 
I've mentioned this in other threads, but wanted to start a new one to hopefully solve this issue.

I've read about others having "cold boot issues" and most of the posts talk about the system not even posting. I am able to POST, but Windows won't load without multiple presses of the reset button.

Here is what happens after my PC has been turned off:

Press power button, PC posts and begins to load Windows. It then sits forever on the Windows loading screen with the blue bar moving across the screen. The hard drive light flashes normally and then it comes on and stays on solid. I also noticed that the red light on my USB optical mouse never comes on during boots when I get stuck at that screen (normal boots it comes on while that screen is displayed. Not sure if this is indicative of anything or not)

I then press the reset button and go through the same process up to 5 times and Window will eventually load.

This behavior occurs sometimes at stock speeds, and it happens every time when the PC is overclocked (even if I choose 205 MHz for HTT) Once Windows does load, it is stable and the temps are cool. I can run Prime95, etc, without any problems. THE CPU can handle running at various overclocks, the issue is just getting the PC booted. (I set the BIOS to run Asynchronously, so the PCI bus should be limited)

This happens with every BIOS version I have tried (1.2, 1.21, 1.3, OCWB1, OCWB2). I also performed the .20 volt mod increase (VID3 to SGND) and increasing the voltage doesn't help the issue.

I tried to remove 2 of my 4 DIMMs to see if the problem was caused by having all 4 banks full and that didn't fix it. Specs on my memory are supposed to be 2.5-3-3-7-1. I've changed the settings in the BIOS to 3-4-4-9 and set the voltage to High and that didn't help. The memory dividers I use always keep the speed of the memory under the DDR433 limit of my DIMMs.

I've tried unplugging every card/device except those necessary to get the PC booted (keyboard, video card, hard drive) and the problem still exists.

I don't know what to do at this point. I'm able to run my chip on this board at 270 HTT x 10 @ 1.5 V and it is rock solid once I can get it booted. I'm just getting tired of the hassle of getting it booted.

I have performed a clean installation of Windows on this drive and that didn't fix the issue.

I have tried both the normal JMicron SATA2 driver and th beta "performance" driver from the ASROCK web page and that didn't help.

I just received a new drive from Hitachi and the same problem happens, so my old drive wasn't faulty. Maybe just an incompatibility with Hitachi drives?

Anyone have this board with an overclocked CPU and an SATA2 drive (set to run in SATA2 mode and connected to the SATA2 controller) have this same issue?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Well, I've noticed something that's a little bit annoying. My multiplier will not change no matter what I set it in the BIOS. I have a X2 4400+ and it's stuck at 11x with the 1.30 BIOS
 
BIOS 1.30 locked the multiplier and the voltage. You can change them, but the actual settings won't change.
 
SHStormont said:
BIOS 1.30 locked the multiplier and the voltage. You can change them, but the actual settings won't change.
Click to expand...

lovely :rolleyes: So either I go with a 2T setting for memory or I have locked settings. This is a nice board for the price but as soon as the Sapphire PURE hits this thing is gone.
 
No one is sure if the issue with 1.30 is a bug in this version of the BIOS or an actual lock implemented by ASROCK.

You can install either the OCWB1 or OCWB2 BIOS versions which will give you the 1T option. They are beta though.
 
SHStormont said:
No one is sure if the issue with 1.30 is a bug in this version of the BIOS or an actual lock implemented by ASROCK.

You can install either the OCWB1 or OCWB2 BIOS versions which will give you the 1T option. They are beta though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll poke around and report back. Edit, apparently my CPU is still not supported as the beta BIOSes are off 1.20. Besides there are WAY too many issues with them for me to be interested in trying it. Guess I'm going back to 1.20 until I can get a new board.
 
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