ASRock 775Dual-VSTA for Conroe (Core2) with both AGP/PCI-E and DDR1/DDR2 support

Frank Grimes said:
Need some help. I have ddr500 memory that I want to run at the cpu fsb of 1066. The option in the bios limits me to selecting ddr400. How do I overcome this?
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ddr400 just means 1:1. So if youre running normal FSB of 266, then the memory will be running at just over 500.
 
1st post, here goes...

Thought I'd share my experiences with everyone as it's been a sort of bumpy ride :eek:

I had an x800xt PE flashed from X800pro VIVO and a gig of DDR400 to go with my XP3200+ system.

I'd always been a bit of an AMD and ATI nut but the new Conroe completely won me over so I saw the ASRock board and thought to myself, for around £250 I could use the leftover components along with a E6600 and build a budget rocket that would be a serious upgrade to my old system.

Got the board and CPU only to find that Windows wouldn't load as soon as the Catalyst drivers were installed. I hunted around the forums and found that a lot of people had a similar problem with the x800 series AGP and this board.

A few hours later I got pretty annoyed and did what any normal human being would do...... bought a 7900GTO PCI-E for around £180. Turned out to be a great move. That card will easily do 700MHZ(GPU) and 1600MHZ(mem) and the whole system is flying.

I was happy for about a week before I started overclocking. My DDR1 didn't let me go above 275MHZ FSB. Seems like a waste of a good overclocker so I did what any normal man would do..... bought 2x1gig Corsair Value DDR2 667(£130!)

To summarise, the mem is running at tight timings (3-3-3-3-9) and the CPU is running at 299MHZ(2.7GHZ core) and the Graphics card is also paying dividends.

11294 3dMarks2005
6233 3d mark2006

Not bad as a starter for 10. Suppose my next stop will be a new Mobo when they come down and then really crank up that FSB.
 
smarks51 said:
I was happy for about a week before I started overclocking. My DDR1 didn't let me go above 275MHZ FSB. Seems like a waste of a good overclocker so I did what any normal man would do..... bought 2x1gig Corsair Value DDR2 667(£130!)
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Just for anyone who is in a similiar situation, if you have DDR400 RAM try setting the speed to DDR333 in the BIOS and that will set the divider lower thus letting you set a higher FSB. I have my DDR400 RAM running as DDR333 with a real bus of 187 on a FSB of 300.

However smarks I'd just like to point out that you now have all the components needed to move to a good quality DDR2 conroe board like the ASUS P5 or Gigabyte DS3/4 and overclock your cpu to 3.5~ on air :)

If you have IDE harddrives then make sure the board you get has more then one IDE channel to run both the CD drive and the two or three harddrives. If you have just one IDE harddrive then you can run that and the CD drive on the one IDE channel that the above mentioned boards have.
 
yeah.. its odd to have the money for all that stuff.. yet get a dualvsta?

but in my case.. the dualvsta may just allow us to get a e6300.. was planing on a cheap board and an amd3700+.. but hey i decided to save for a pci-ex card..

the dual vsta looks the go-er.. hopefully mum can aford all of the cpu and mobo.. and i can spend all my money on the vga :)

7900gs i rekon..
 
Going by their AGP list which didn't have the 7600GT last time I checked then I'd say not very often. So long as the card doesn't need a PCI-E slot greater then 4X then it should work ok.
 
Im chuffed with mine. Got a E6300 with a new oem HS and Fan for £85. This MB for £36 (total £121) and have Sold my old MB AMD3400 and HS&Fan to a pal for £70. Making a jump from single core AMD to Duo2Core for £51 :)

Running at 7*295 - 2065Mhz. I cant get it to go at 7*300 so kept it at 295.

Runs everything nicely and sort of nice to be back with Intel, haven't had an Intel in my main system since the 1st Athlon. Last Intel was a Celeron 300@450 ! during the original OCUK days :)
 
Changed my 6600gt agp card for a 7600gt pci-e today and as I feared it's now a lot less stable. I've increased the pci-e bus from 100 to 107 & then 109 as suggested earlier which seemed to limit the freezes during games I'd been experiencing since installing the pci-e card but I'd like advice from anyone else using pci-e with this board.
What's the consequences with increasing the pci-e bus? How far have you gone with it? Whats the best stable fsb you've managed using pci-e?
I'm going to reduce my fsb overclock from it's current 300mhz and see if things improve. I really want to ditch the agp card as I promised it to my kids to use in my old system as soon as this Dual/Vsta is running without problems.
 
ron3003 said:
Changed my 6600gt agp card for a 7600gt pci-e today and as I feared it's now a lot less stable. I've increased the pci-e bus from 100 to 107 & then 109 as suggested earlier which seemed to limit the freezes during games I'd been experiencing since installing the pci-e card but I'd like advice from anyone else using pci-e with this board.
What's the consequences with increasing the pci-e bus? How far have you gone with it? Whats the best stable fsb you've managed using pci-e?
I'm going to reduce my fsb overclock from it's current 300mhz and see if things improve. I really want to ditch the agp card as I promised it to my kids to use in my old system as soon as this Dual/Vsta is running without problems.
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Have you got the latest 2.2 bios. I read somewhere anything from 1.8 is recommended if you have PCI-E.
 
ron3003 said:
Changed my 6600gt agp card for a 7600gt pci-e today and as I feared it's now a lot less stable. I've increased the pci-e bus from 100 to 107 & then 109 as suggested earlier which seemed to limit the freezes during games I'd been experiencing since installing the pci-e card but I'd like advice from anyone else using pci-e with this board.
What's the consequences with increasing the pci-e bus? How far have you gone with it? Whats the best stable fsb you've managed using pci-e?
I'm going to reduce my fsb overclock from it's current 300mhz and see if things improve. I really want to ditch the agp card as I promised it to my kids to use in my old system as soon as this Dual/Vsta is running without problems.
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Highest I can do is 290 FSB with 109 on the PCIE slot. No corruption, system instability whatsoever. Latest Bios 2.2.
 
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Bios is v2.10, v2.20 hurts my ears :D
Thanks for your input bilston, much appreciated, tried your advice and lowered to 290fsb, I've given FlightsimX a run and whereas at 300fsb/109pci-e it would crash the system on exit, this time it shut down nicely.
Reading between the lines here I always got the impression that agp and ddr1 gave the best overclocks with the dual/vsta. If 290 with a e6600 is the best I can achieve it still pleases me as this board was always a stepping stone to something better when DX10 setups become more affordable. I'll keep fiddling with the asrock settings to find what's best. Cheers.
 
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I upped my PCI-E freq to 120 and have had this board running at 315 FSB (not stable), I'm now on 300 FSB and 120 on the PCI-E and not getting any of the freezes I had with lower freq. Bios v2.20.
 
I have just bought this mb and i am having problems my spec is


c2d e6600
Asrock dual-vsta Bios 1.90
BFB nvidia 7800gt OC
1gbmushkin xp4000 dd1
sb fatality
samsung spinpoint hd
latest 4in1 drivers from via

Temps at idle in xp are 31c and 33c for the cores.


So far the pc seems ok with general xp use but when playing 2142 i can get random lockups which need a hard boot. Also when it locks up I get a highpitched noise from the speakers. I also ran 3dmark and i get the same lockup and high pitched noise.

Any ideas?
 
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wnb said:
I have just bought this mb and i am having problems my spec is


c2d e6600
Asrock dual-vsta Bios 1.90
BFB nvidia 7800gt OC
1gbmushkin xp4000 dd1
sb fatality
samsung spinpoint hd
latest 4in1 drivers from via

Temps at idle in xp are 31c and 33c for the cores.


So far the pc seems ok with general xp use but when playing 2142 i can get random lockups which need a hard boot. Also when it locks up I get a highpitched noise from the speakers. I also ran 3dmark and i get the same lockup and high pitched noise.

Any ideas?
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Change the DDR Divider to 166 and the voltage to High in the bios.
 
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