**The ASrock 939dual-SATA2 (ULi M1695) thread**

Right, I should have this little fella delivered tomorrow. Mainly because:

1. The AGP/ PCI expressx16 dual goodness - I've got a Galaxy 6800GT at the moment which is still strong, but will probably upgrade in the next 6 months or so...

2. I have the dreaded NForce 3/ 6800GT pausing and freezing problem. I've tried EVERYTHING for the last year to sort it. If in doubt see this massive thread at NVnews http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32759

I've been running my 6800GT at 380/1100 at 1.4 volt modded for the last 6 months or so. This works ok in most stuff, but gets the checkerboard effect in some games and 3dmark 2001. Apparently via based boards can run the 6800 series at normal volts ok, fingers crossed this one can do too (I've really had it with fannying aroung with this nforce 3 - MSI neo 2 plat by the way)

So, is anyone else planning on getting the new ULi M1695 based board, if so post your thoughts and results here...

Bumpage...

The Amtrak man has just this second arrived!
Got to reformat and reinstall so much stuff....this could be a long day.

I am planning to purachase one of these boards as well. The only thing that has held me back is that I have read that there are on Oc'ing options in the currnet shipping BIOS. I have read that there is a newer BIOS available, but have not read if it is any good.

I plan to purchase an A64 3000+ at the same time, so I kinda need those Oc'ing options to get the performance I'm looking for.

I am also curious to know if anyone has heard if any manufacturer other than Asrock is going to make this board.

I've got one with the new BIOS. The OC options are a little limited and you can't up the voltage above stock but I've got my 3000+ running at 2.2 at present. It's a nice board.

Would be nice if OCUK would stock it, or if one of the manufacturers that are stocked would bring out an equivilant.

I would love it if other Mobo manufacturers would stick an AGP and PCI-E sockets on their boards.

Would save me having to upgrade the mobo and GFX at the same time (expensive )

Ocuk havent really shown any interest in this niffty 50 quid wonder board....

It looks good obviously if u crave everything to be perfect and want the speed/features u gotta spend £100+

Right, I've finally got it up and running. All went quite smoothly actually.
You're right about the lack of overclocking options though. With this bios the only thing you can change CPU wise is the multiplier, which on my Newcastle 3500+ won't go above 11, so I am stuck at the default 2.2GHz (11x200). Why is there no FSB/ HTT option, am I missing something? I'm sure I read in the anantech preview they overclocked their board massively.

Spell - how did you get your 3000+ to 2.2? Was it just with the multipier settings or something else? Also which new bios is it you've got, and where cam I get it?

6800GT wise I've currently got it at at default 1.3 volts, 380, 1100 with Fastwrites on. Seems to be ok so far, will do some more tests...

Have just been running the 6800GT at 400, 1080 with FASTWRITES ON!!! This is at default 1.3 volts too!
All running very very well, no freezing/ pausing as yet. Running the core at that speed even with FW off with the neo 2 plat would freeze up instantly. So far so good.

If a bios is released that lets you up the fsb then this board is a little beauty.
What are the chances that it will happen???

wunkley,
Is your RAM reported right in SANDRA?
I'm running 2 x 512mb Crucial DDR400 and 2 x 512mb Elixir DDR400 and SANDRA says it's running at 266mhz but the BIOS says DDR400 and Dual Channel on POST.
BF2 and F.E.A.R. demo run smoother with 2Gb of RAM rather than 1Gb but benchmarks are slightly lower.
No stuttering with my Galaxy 6800GT now either.

You need to flash the bios to get overclocking options, once this is done you can change fsb. Remember to set the agp pci lock to asynchronous. The bios is available here:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/asrock/bios/939DM21.15.zip

I've had the board for a few days now along with a x2 4200, I'll post my results tommorow am tired now, good luck with overclocking it.

Ive contacted ULi regards which mobo manus will support the chipset:

Me said:

Hi,

Could you please inform me which motherboard manufacturers will produce a motherboard based on your new M1695 chipset (S939, AGP/PCIe) and any details when these will be available in the U.K.?

Also it seems your \'ULi Powered Products\' list does not include the M1695 chipset - is it possible to update this please.

Quite a few informed consumers are interested in the chipset and would be willing to buy one if you ensure supply to the U.K. (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17449928)

Thanks

Click to expand...

Sharon @ Uli said:

Dear Sir,

The M/B manufacture will be Asrock & they have announced this product in Europe. Meanwhile, they also plan to have a roadshow activities in the end of Aug. to do the formal announcement. You can check their website http://www.asrock.com.tw for the detail.

Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any question.

Best regards

Click to expand...

So I guess the ASRock will be the only mobo manu supporting the chipset for the forseeable future...

Can anyone confirm exactly what o/cing features there are and the ranges please...

P.S. Anyone had issues sourcing the metal backplate required to fit a non-stock cooler on the S939? I should be OK since Im just going to use the stock X2 cooler which is meant to be quite good...

ps3ud0

edger said:

You need to flash the bios to get overclocking options, once this is done you can change fsb. Remember to set the agp pci lock to asynchronous. The bios is available here:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/asrock/bios/939DM21.15.zip

I've had the board for a few days now along with a x2 4200, I'll post my results tommorow am tired now, good luck with overclocking it.

Click to expand...

Yep, I found this beta bios last night (1.15)
All flashed ok and I can now up the fsb! At the moment I'm only running 210 with memory at 1:1 and the timings tight as they'll go - 6,3,3,2. Am prime 95 testing as I write and have been for about 2 hours so far, no problems. This is much better than the neo 2 plat, couldn't even run that board past 205fsb with the memory at these timings!

This is a great board so far. Only £50, is better than my neo 2 plat (which was double that when I bought it), I can now run my 6800GT at ultra speeds with fast writes on at stock volts and not get the dreaded pausing issue (I need to test this further though before I can say it's 100%), and it has a PCI express slot for when I want to upgrade the graphics. Fantastic.

How do you set the AGP lock? It only mentions PCI (asynchronous or desynchronous) in the top option of the CPU bios bit and I'm using an AGP 6800GT....

Can this mobo support SLI?

And you does it run on 20PIN PSU's?

wunkley said:

Yep, I found this beta bios last night (1.15)
All flashed ok and I can now up the fsb! At the moment I'm only running 210 with memory at 1:1 and the timings tight as they'll go - 6,3,3,2. Am prime 95 testing as I write and have been for about 2 hours so far, no problems. This is much better than the neo 2 plat, couldn't even run that board past 205fsb with the memory at these timings!

This is a great board so far. Only £50, is better than my neo 2 plat (which was double that when I bought it), I can now run my 6800GT at ultra speeds with fast writes on at stock volts and not get the dreaded pausing issue (I need to test this further though before I can say it's 100%), and it has a PCI express slot for when I want to upgrade the graphics. Fantastic.

How do you set the AGP lock? It only mentions PCI (asynchronous or desynchronous) in the top option of the CPU bios bit and I'm using an AGP 6800GT....

Click to expand...

I think it locks AGP at the same time mate. Incidentally have u had any luck running your memory at 1T?

Just done a looping benchmark run of 3dmark 05 - each graphic test 10 times so 30 in a row. Worked like a charm, no pauses/ freezing and got an average score of 5640, my highest ever. This was at 400 core, 1080 mem, fastwrites on.

To answer some other questions from above

1. My RAM is at 1:1 with the fsb (at at 400 in the bios) so is at 210 at the moment. Timings are 6,3,3,2 and at 1T. There are a few other ram settings I'm not familiar with so have left those at auto for now. One important ram setting I've found is one called "ram compatibility" or something similar. If you don't disable this it makes the ram run at 166 speeds I think.

2. SLI - it only has one PCI Express (x16) slot so no, not out of the box. However, the anandtech review (I think it was) mentioned the possibility of a future plug in card that you could fix 2 PCI express cards to. I'm not too fussed about SLI though, at the resoltions I run (1280 x 768 on my widescreen tft) it's not really worth it, and I can't justify forking out for 2 cards at the same time. Plus, by the time you've messed around there will be a new generation single slot model out from nvidia or ATI that will be just as good.

3. PSU - I'm running an Antec 480w Truepower, which has the 20 pin lead and a seperate 4 pin lead. This board is the same as my MSI neo 2 was in that respect and takes both these (ie no 24 pin power cable needed). So, no new PSU required either, another bonus of this motherboard, as most PCI express boards need a 24 pin psu so I believe.

4. Bios - on this current one (1.15) the fsb will go all the way up to 300 in increments of 1. It doesn't have as many features as the neo 2, but does have some I'm not familiar with.
It has a very basic RAM volts adjustment which you can set to normal or 'high' - no idea what volts this actually is though as I have no program that can tell me and it doesn't show in the bios (any suggestions???)

Any more questions I'll gladly answer....

Looks like a nice little board, shame i dont need to upgrade/change anything at the mo

Yeah I'm having the problem determening memory voltage too, kinda annoying. Good news about your memory working @ 1T, I can't manage that which is a bit of a pain - even at stock it doesn't like it. Keep me informed of your progress

wunkley said:

1. My RAM is at 1:1 with the fsb (at at 400 in the bios) so is at 210 at the moment. Timings are 6,3,3,2 and at 1T. There are a few other ram settings I'm not familiar with so have left those at auto for now. One important ram setting I've found is one called "ram compatibility" or something similar. If you don't disable this it makes the ram run at 166 speeds I think.

Click to expand...

Good suggestion, disabling the Flexibilty Option now shows up as 200mhz in SANDRA and CPU-Z