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

Munky1080 · 2 Aug 2007 at 00:35

chello said:
Hi all, what would u reconmend a q6600 or a e4500 for the asrock 4core. It will be an upgrade from my A64 3500+,i want to re use my 2gig kinston 3200 and x1950 pro. Also do u think an antec 480 psu will do the job.
Thanks in advance.
Chello

I'd go with the e4500, the 11x multiplier is what you want, and I think the q6600 with its higher FSB would be bottlenecked by the motherboard. as a matter of fact i'm thinking about upgrading to the e4500 as well. Our motherboard can only get ~300FSB. I reckon your psu will be fine as well mate

aeronic · 2 Aug 2007 at 15:59

max fsb is 285 on my mobo by the way. Certainly not cpu limited as I run 9*285 = 2.565 ghz.

also, I have an Antec 400W, although not very powerful GFX card.

chello · 2 Aug 2007 at 19:33

Em tricky one this,so it will be a 2core at 3.3 max or a 4core at 2.7 max if i can get 300 fsb.Looks like i am in the same boat as most poeple then 2 or 4,think ile do a bit more research thanks fellas.

aeronic · 3 Aug 2007 at 10:43

I think your answer lies in cooling.
The quad will kick out a lot more heat than the dual, so if you're using the stock heatsink, i would recommend the dual.

Nullvoid · 3 Aug 2007 at 11:20

I've got a ye olde 775dual-vsta and I run my e6300 in it most of the time at 7x286 giving a nice round 2ghz. I've had it up at 300 but it craps out somewhere between there and the 305 I would need to reach the stock speed of the e6400. I've been loathe to keep it up at such high values however since I have yet to get any aftermarket cooling for the northbridge, and it runs pretty far out of spec when overclocked that high (methinks it is the limiting factor of the dual-vsta series of boards).

I also run a pci-express x1950xt in it but, without having used it in a different board, I couldn't tell you how much its performance gets throttled.

Nullvoid · 3 Aug 2007 at 12:51

I did have one question about overclocking on this board.

As I said I currently run an e6300, which has 2mb L2 cache and runs at 1.862 ghz with the default fsb of 266.

If I was to buy an e2140 and then ramp the fsb up from its default 200 to 266, resulting in a speed of 2.128 ghz, would the extra 266mhz make up for the 1mb less onboard cache?

aeronic · 3 Aug 2007 at 15:33

not sure its worth changing for that.

However I have an e2160 which is 1.8ghz default, runs at 2.4ghz (by upping fsb from 200 to 266) beautifully - even with stock cooler.

ih8modem · 3 Aug 2007 at 23:35

Nullvoid said:
I did have one question about overclocking on this board.

As I said I currently run an e6300, which has 2mb L2 cache and runs at 1.862 ghz with the default fsb of 266.

If I was to buy an e2140 and then ramp the fsb up from its default 200 to 266, resulting in a speed of 2.128 ghz, would the extra 266mhz make up for the 1mb less onboard cache?

Why do you keep it that low if the board and CPU are capable of so much more ? Also why not OC the e6300 ?

Nullvoid · 6 Aug 2007 at 16:56

I do run my e6300 at 2ghz most of the time, it's not much but still

Oh and I was just using 266 as an example since, whatever fsb I overclock to, the e2140 would only ever be running 266/286/300 mhz faster than my e6300. It was more a hypothetical question than anything since for £5.87 more than an e2140 I could get a DFI Infinity P965-S Dark which would undoubtedly be able to take my e6300 much further than this 775dual-vsta ever could.

As I mentioned before, I think the limitation on these boards is the northbridge since there is no way to lock it or use lower dividers to ensure it doesn't run out of spec. Hence why I refuse to overclock my cpu more without getting a superior cooler than what is on the northbridge by default.

aeronic · 6 Aug 2007 at 18:11

It would seem to me that if you want an upgrade, the obvious thing is to get a decent mobo - something with a decent chipset and known overclocking.
Your 6300 is an excellent cpu and just needs to be stretched.

esiemi · 9 Aug 2007 at 14:50

hi guys

i bought this board for my mate and im having problems with it, hope you can help.

here is the spec:
E4300 @ Stock
1GB (single) Corsiar DD2-667 @ Stock
Radeon 9550 AGP 256mb (Latest vista drivers)
Segate HDD
running Vista Ultimate

and the problems
1. when in windows screen goes black and on the monitor it says "no input", the only solution to this is to turn off the computer and leave it for about 10-20 min then turn it on and everything is fine, and then it happens again.

2. tried testing the board using a PCI-E X600 pro, but i get no output. fan starts on the card but no output at all.

is this board faulty??

thanks

ron3003 · 9 Aug 2007 at 15:50

Sounds like it might be a duffer but check first that you've mounted it correctly in the case. Pay particular attention to the standoffs, make sure they are only fitted where there's a corresponding hole for a screw in the motherboard as any rogues can cause shorts and booting without gfx output.

ih8modem · 10 Aug 2007 at 00:07

sounds like heat to me

The symptom of the gfx card turning off sounds like heat related. Is the GFX card active (fan) cooled or passive (large heatsink).

Check all your connections, pay attention to the main connector and the 4pin ATX connector being plugged in firmly. On mine the ATX connector did not go in very easily, too close to the PS, and it failed to boot.

Also disconnect everything non-essential. All front connectors / usb headers etc. See if you can re-create the problem only in the BIOS, ie turn on machine and go to BIOS, open hardware monitor, and then let it run like that for 15-20 mins. See if problem occurs, and keep an eye on all temps.

In the BIOS, what are your temps? CPU/System ?

artaxerxes · 13 Aug 2007 at 00:42

You don't mention the PSU in the spec, this sort of intermittent failure might be down to an old substandard one. Care to share details?

As noted above though, this could be a symptom of insufficient cooling.

To see if it is the cooling of the Chip; run the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool [TAT]. Note that TAT reports the temperature 15ºs too high. (it was for the chips before Core 2 Duo with a different Tjunction). Set that on 100% load and see if the system falls over.

ATItool will allow you to watch the temperature of your 9550 and see if that is the issue.

Munky1080 · 13 Aug 2007 at 11:50

artaxerxes said:
To see if it is the cooling of the Chip; run the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool [TAT]. Note that TAT reports the temperature 15ºs too high. (it was for the chips before Core 2 Duo with a different Tjunction). Set that on 100% load and see if the system falls over.

Where did you hear that TAT reports temps 15 degrees too high?

esiemi · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:47

ok guys...

1. GFX is passive cooled (not warm on touch)

2. PSU is just a standard PSU that came with the case, its 450W coloursit one. its new so it could be a faulty :confused:

.

3. temps seems fine

the thing i dont get is why x600 PCI-E card dont work too?
thanks

artaxerxes · 13 Aug 2007 at 17:12

Munky1080 said:
Where did you hear that TAT reports temps 15 degrees too high?

The TAT tool is written for pre Core 2 Duo chips. Core Duos I think.

They had a Tjunction of 100º, the Core 2 Duo has 85º. Tjunction is the temperature at which the chip throttles.

Temperature is reported as a delta (difference) to that number by the on chip diode.

In TAT, this difference is subtracted from Tjunction and then turned into the temp reading you see. So when the diode says delta 40º from Tjunction, that means 45º for the C2Duo, but 60º for the older chip. 60º it what TAT displays.

TAT was never meant for public release in any event http://i4memory.com/showthread.php?t=3265

You can see the delta from Tjunction (85º) most clearly in Core Temp which allows display of this delta directly. You can then look up the Tjunction on Intel's website. 85º in the case of the E4300 and indeed all Core 2 Duos.

You can also test this by showing clock speed and letting TAT go above 85º, it does not throttle until 100º... because of the 15º reporting difference. Even though Intel docs state 85º.

[edit to add] discussion with pics here

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=131008

artaxerxes · 13 Aug 2007 at 17:40

That the heatsinks are cool is not necessarily a good thing. They might be cool if they are not touching the hot chip!

We need to see the results of TAT for the chips and something like ATitool for the graphics.

If it always falls over at a certain temperature then we have new information for our diagnosis.

I googled the colorsit, seems to be solid, albeit basic PSU.

When you say the X600 doesn't work, what do you mean? No boot? The X600 has significantly higher power requirements than the 9550, which suggests the PSU might not be up to the job.

esiemi said:
ok guys...

1. GFX is passive cooled (not warm on touch)

2. PSU is just a standard PSU that came with the case, its 450W coloursit one. its new so it could be a faulty .

3. temps seems fine

the thing i dont get is why x600 PCI-E card dont work too?
thanks

esiemi · 14 Aug 2007 at 11:42

when i put the X600 in, there is no output :confused:

, i know that the PCI-E on this board is only 4x but that shouldnt be a problem. i looked in BIOS for any PCI-E options (e.g. ennable/disable) but couldnt find nothing

Munky1080 · 14 Aug 2007 at 17:49

There is something inthe BIOS where you set the video mode, the choices are AGP, PCI, and PCI-E