So far I am impressed with this little budget board. I heard sounds in a game I had not heard before when I was using an old soundcard with my old Athlon 2500XP.

I have to learn a bit more to get the 3700 CPU o/c beyond 4200, but that is ok. My old chip was only stable at 3200 speeds or so.

If you have a decent AGP card and are thinking about upgrading to the 64 bit AMD CPU's, it is worth looking into.

ASRock 939Dual-VSTA ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail at Newegg.com

I have only used the AGP port, but this has a PCI express port also. I have heard it is limited, but have not tried it.

Have a good one!

E

How about some benchmarks? (Sandra CPU and Mem, Super Pi 1MB, and anything else you wanna run)

I think the PCIE slot runs only at 8x instead of 16x, wich I don't think is a real huge deal anyways.

Those odd hybrid boards have there place, they can often fill a a gap in between hardware upgrades when you need to hang on to your old hardware while saving up for the next round

Review: [OCWORKBENCH.COM] ASRrock 939Dual-VSTA ULi M1695 Review Intro 1/6

It's weird how the hybrid chipsets tend to be unique to one manufacturer, or at best, one firm is the only one who really makes a success of it. You'd think a lot of firms would see the value in hybrid boards.

ASRock did real well with the 939Dual-SATA2 (which I think is the same but without Vista certification), but I know no other ULI hybrid boards... only pure AGP and pure PCI-E.

I think they're also the only ones who did a dual-x16 ULi board... which is a nice board even if it won't run SLI or CF.

ECS did monster well with the K7S5A and its SDR/DDR compatibility, but the only other SiS 735 board I recall was a poor-selling MSI one.

The only differences I can see between the 939Dual-VSTA and my 939Dual-SATA2 are the easier voltage control (BIOS based, available in the 939Dual-SATA2 via third party BIOS) and the Vista Logo certification, everything else looks the same. In fact I'm half tempted to re-flash my board with the VSTA BIOS just to see if it still works, but only half-tempted.

If only there was something I could do with my 939SLI32 to get voltage tweaks. It tops at 1.45 v, and my processor is a Winchester-core so it runs at 1.40 to begin with. It will boot at 2250, but I want 2500... I was able to boot it at 2500 on an Abit AV8, but I didn't like how much voltage (and heat) it was needing to be stable.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro How about some benchmarks? (Sandra CPU and Mem, Super Pi 1MB, and anything else you wanna run) I think the PCIE slot runs only at 8x instead of 16x, wich I don't think is a real huge deal anyways. Those odd hybrid boards have there place, they can often fill a a gap in between hardware upgrades when you need to hang on to your old hardware while saving up for the next round Review: [OCWORKBENCH.COM] ASRrock 939Dual-VSTA ULi M1695 Review Intro 1/6

I am planning on doing some benchmarking this weekend. How do you get the SuperPi do show a validation number? I think I saw that. I need to do some reading on getting screen shots on my posts. I know that info is on this site.

Sorry about the delay, multiple computer problems have been worked out this week. I should have more info this weekend.

E

BAM! Info on posting screenshots!

I'm glad to see your good fortune with the ASRock board. I was looking at THIS socket 775 board for doing some upgrading. I have a 3.2GHZ Celeron D and some ddr-2 that could make a temporary home in that board until I can afford a good Core2Duo processor.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to seeing your benchmarks and good lucky with the system.

Here are a few benchmarks. Let's see if I can follow instructions on posting them. My computer seemed to do ok on the CPU tests, but got smacked down by the AMD FX and the Intell...

E

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Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo If only there was something I could do with my 939SLI32 to get voltage tweaks. It tops at 1.45 v, and my processor is a Winchester-core so it runs at 1.40 to begin with. It will boot at 2250, but I want 2500... I was able to boot it at 2500 on an Abit AV8, but I didn't like how much voltage (and heat) it was needing to be stable.

There are alwasy ways to do voltage tweeks, it depends on how far you are willing to go!
(And of course you skill levels, soldering and reading of schematics may be neccesary)


You can check out this interactive 939 "Pin Mod" method, that may do the trick possibly, other wise, start reading up at VR zone on how other people hard modded there boards..sometimes it can be done with a pencil, sometimes is requires soldering.

OverClocked inside - Redaktion ocinside.de PC hardware page

NOTE:
Important, if there's already a Vcore setting in the BIOS, this option should be
deactivated before! the modification.
Otherwise one receives a combination of the AMD Socket 939 Pinmod and the respective BIOS setting
(this can be partially quite meaningfull, however only after successful pin modification, see in the help).



Unfortunately, after checking it out myself. I could only get it to show 1.45 this way, the 1.5 and 1.55v options did nothing (No results) and you are no farther ahead..unless you can somehow fool the board into thinking its another cpu, or combining the pin mod and raising the vcore in the bios..it may be a bad combo though as stated in the note above..but read up and see if there is another loophole, I saw a few other links and notes too!

Looks kinda like you may have to hard mod the board, or get another one with better options...sorry!

Here are the VR guides
VR-Zone : Technology Beats - Guides

EDIT: By the way, I forgot to comment on your results Fred-G, the Sandra CPU test shows you performing like a 3700+ but says you have a 3400+ CPU, so is that Overclocked? And what CPU speed is that?

Your 32 sec pi time is quite respectable by the way, you must have tweekd a few things to get that kind of number!

There is also a new version of it out, you have the realy old one, it now lists milliseconds!
Super PI Mod

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Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro There are alwasy ways to do voltage tweeks, it depends on how far you are willing to go! (And of course you skill levels, soldering and reading of schematics may be neccesary) You can check out this interactive 939 "Pin Mod" method, that may do the trick possibly, other wise, start reading up at VR zone on how other people hard modded there boards..sometimes it can be done with a pencil, sometimes is requires soldering. OverClocked inside - Redaktion ocinside.de PC hardware page NOTE: Important, if there's already a Vcore setting in the BIOS, this option should be deactivated before! the modification. Otherwise one receives a combination of the AMD Socket 939 Pinmod and the respective BIOS setting (this can be partially quite meaningfull, however only after successful pin modification, see in the help). Unfortunately, after checking it out myself. I could only get it to show 1.45 this way, the 1.5 and 1.55v options did nothing (No results) and you are no farther ahead..unless you can somehow fool the board into thinking its another cpu, or combining the pin mod and raising the vcore in the bios..it may be a bad combo though as stated in the note above..but read up and see if there is another loophole, I saw a few other links and notes too! Looks kinda like you may have to hard mod the board, or get another one with better options...sorry! Here are the VR guides VR-Zone : Technology Beats - Guides EDIT: By the way, I forgot to comment on your results Fred-G, the Sandra CPU test shows you performing like a 3700+ but says you have a 3400+ CPU, so is that Overclocked? And what CPU speed is that? Your 32 sec pi time is quite respectable by the way, you must have tweekd a few things to get that kind of number! There is also a new version of it out, you have the realy old one, it now lists milliseconds! Super PI Mod

Thanks for your time and comments $Solids$. The CPU in fquestion is a 3700 I think I have overclocked to 4200 speeds (2.6Ghsomething). I am used to the old socket A overclocks, FSB, and FSB and multipier if you have an unlocked chip. Now I have to think to o/c! Damn progress! I will get it figured out eventually.

I can't seem to find the link, but there is a solder mod I can do on the Mobo to get some nice CPU voltages. Right now I am at 48C or so at load, so I am a little leary of extra voltages. But winter is right around the corner!

Have a good one!

E

Have you adjusted the LDT ratio? (5 is stock, try 4 or 3) that is the first thing you will run into that will cramp your OC!
(I can explain this more if you don't know what I am refering to)

What cooling are you using now? There are ways to improve just about any HSF that are inexpensive from PROPERLY applied AS-5, a quick lapping of the base, to adding a new fan.

Don't forget having poor case air flow can seriously effect CPU temps, if your case is done right, it should be within 1 or 2c of ambients!

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Have you adjusted the LDT ratio? (5 is stock, try 4 or 3) that is the first thing you will run into that will cramp your OC! (I can explain this more if you don't know what I am refering to) What cooling are you using now? There are ways to improve just about any HSF that are inexpensive from PROPERLY applied AS-5, a quick lapping of the base, to adding a new fan. Don't forget having poor case air flow can seriously effect CPU temps, if your case is done right, it should be within 1 or 2c of ambients!

It is dead as far as I can tell. I will try my nice shiny new PCI video card in it to make sure.
I tried to boot with a 300 FSB and 9 mult. No boot. I cleared CMOS, no boot. Pulled the power cord again, reset the cmos, even pulled the battery. Nothing. No beeps, fans spin, I did test the voltages, looked good. Tried it with no video card, or with no RAM, just sitting there with the fans spinning... No beeps, I even tried another monitor.

I just hope the CPU is ok. I should have known, budget=crap usually.

Oh yeah, the cooling was a TT Venuce on the CPU, TT Soprano case with 2 120mm fans. I replaced one lazy fan with a panaflo.

Well, unless you have any ideas on this computer, I am going to bury it with my new video card I can't use, and get the old 2500 running again.

Have a good one, sometimes life is just a bit#h. No more ASRock for me.

Eric

Well, my OC adventure isn't going any better. Dropped the LDT to 4x ("CPU-NB link = 800MHz"), memory divider to 166, and dialed the FSB to 240... it rebooted after five minutes.

I've noticed that seems the most common failure mode for me. If I OC'd my Duron 1.6 to 1980/165, it would reboot instead of any other possible crash forms.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Have you adjusted the LDT ratio? (5 is stock, try 4 or 3) that is the first thing you will run into that will cramp your OC! (I can explain this more if you don't know what I am refering to) What cooling are you using now? There are ways to improve just about any HSF that are inexpensive from PROPERLY applied AS-5, a quick lapping of the base, to adding a new fan. Don't forget having poor case air flow can seriously effect CPU temps, if your case is done right, it should be within 1 or 2c of ambients!

It's alive! What is the LDT? I am going to check out the BIOS and see if I can find it.

Thanks for taking the time to help me $Solids$

E

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo ECS did monster well with the K7S5A and its SDR/DDR compatibility, but the only other SiS 735 board I recall was a poor-selling MSI one.

As much as I hate ECS and generic PC Chips crap, the K7S5A is in my top three Socket 462 motherboards, just because of how well it had SDRAM and DDR support, without having to change a bunch of jumpers like the P4 variant.

I used to have one, that board was awesome.

LOL, you overclock, think you killed your board, declare the board mfg is crap. It all makes logical sense.

EDIT: after reading this thread: http://forums.pcapex.com/anything_go...iot_but_a.html I'd like to take back my flame-bait as you owned up to the problem.

Quote: Originally Posted by Peng Lord LOL, you overclock, think you killed your board, declare the board mfg is crap. It all makes logical sense. EDIT: after reading this thread: http://forums.pcapex.com/anything_go...iot_but_a.html I'd like to take back my flame-bait as you owned up to the problem.

Yeah, it is easy to mistake problems with the hardware and problems with the user! You get frustrated and just want to lash out at someone. Usually the hardware makers.

So I hereby apologize to the makers of the ASRock board. I am stuck right now at 2.6GHz, damn ASRock! lol! Maybe that is my max, I do not think so, but if it is, that is ok, this is much faster than my old rig, and my new video card will be here Monday!

Have a good one Peng Lord!

Eric

Quote: Originally Posted by j-dogg As much as I hate ECS and generic PC Chips crap, the K7S5A is in my top three Socket 462 motherboards, just because of how well it had SDRAM and DDR support, without having to change a bunch of jumpers like the P4 variant. I used to have one, that board was awesome.

I had two: the first one bought when it FIRST came available, couldn't find it in a city of 3 million, I had to mail away, and the second bought just before it fell from the market completely (free with purchase of 2000+ processor) The first one, its low price allowed me to retire a really sucktacular KT133 board and get an Athlon 1200C instead of the 1000B I had planned on. The latter is still sitting with a Duron 1.6 and 384M of "PC100 but passes tests at 133" memory for a reason to live.

Just thought I would post an update on my o/c attempts with this board. Kinda stuck at 2.62 GHz. I tried the solder volt mod, no luck with that, I am just happy I did not fry the board! My soldering skills are, well, I have a soldering gun! And solder too!

I did get it stable where I get 32.something Super Pi scores! In a previous post I had a benchmark screenshot of a 32. xx Super Pi, but it failed Prime95 in about a min.

I have an old video card that no longer works, I think I will practice soldering on it and maybe try the mod again next weekend.

Hope you had a good weekend!

Eric

And the pict is my new stable Super Pi time!

I got several EUE's on folding, dropped the FSB down. I have my work cut out for me on this board and o/c!

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The LDT is the mutiplyer for the HyperTransport i think.