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

[Rudeboy]

I'd say it's an excellent budget board but I would, I've got one....but if you want to seriously overclock; I'd think twice.

It's for my sister as a replacement system as her XP2100 mobo packed up last week. She's not interested in overclocking, just wants the best mobo, cpu and gfx card i can get for £280.

Buying this at £45 leaves me more money for CPU and gfx.

 

[Netphreak]

So does anyone have the agp controller listed in there device manager?
Mine appears to not want to install as its not even detected.

 

[Nicksy]

So does anyone have the agp controller listed in there device manager?
Mine appears to not want to install as its not even detected.

Yep, under system devices. ULi AGP v3.0 Controller.

 

[smithy1983]

So does anyone have the agp controller listed in there device manager?
Mine appears to not want to install as its not even detected.

yep

 

[Angilion]

I'd say it's an excellent budget board but I would, I've got one....but if you want to seriously overclock; I'd think twice.

I've got the CPU o/c by 25% and two sticks of cheap memory bought a year apart running in dual channel mode with a 35% increase in bandwidth from o/c and BIOS tweaking. I haven't tried very hard and my CPU o/c is conservative compared with the o/c many people do on this board.

To overclock, you will need to flash the BIOS. I suggest the 1.20 or 1.21 version from OC Workbench, not the 1.20 from Asrock, because the 1.20 version from Asrock has a couple of settings removed compared with the 1.20 setting from OC Workbench. 1.10, which the board ships with, has no o/c settings.

There is one huge o/c limit on all of the BIOS versions for this board, even the o/c orientated beta under test at the moment - vcore is extremely limited. You can overvolt by 0.05V max. No typo - 5 hundreths of a volt only, e.g. 1.45V instead of 1.40V on an A64 3000 Venice.

 

[dunno]

would an akasa evo 120 fit on this mobo? Looking at the picture of the asrock and the way the evo 120 should be pointing blowing air out the back of the case the psu 20 pin psu connector looks like it might get in the way?

 

[Rudeboy]

Not too worried about overclocking so this board sounds ideal.

 

[smithy1983]

can somebody help me with my front audio cant seem to get it right

anybody edit the pic to show which wire go where please thanx

 

[Angilion]

would an akasa evo 120 fit on this mobo? Looking at the picture of the asrock and the way the evo 120 should be pointing blowing air out the back of the case the psu 20 pin psu connector looks like it might get in the way?

It's a good question and the cable from it must disrupt airflow a little (probably not much if it's sleeved), but it is definitely not in the way. The EVO 120 is well clear of the 20-pin connector and does not block the cabling from it. The cable will be between the EVO 120 and the rear case exhaust, but in my PC it is well clear of both.

If I had a decent camera, I'd take a photo, but the bottom line is that I'm using an EVO 120 on this motherboard without any issues apart from the lack of a mounting plate with the motherboard That's a rather big issue, as it means that you have to get one separately. That's true for most coolers, though, since they usually need a standard K8 mounting plate and assume you get one with the board (which you should do, but don't with this board).

 

[dunno]

It's a good question and the cable from it must disrupt airflow a little (probably not much if it's sleeved), but it is definitely not in the way. The EVO 120 is well clear of the 20-pin connector and does not block the cabling from it. The cable will be between the EVO 120 and the rear case exhaust, but in my PC it is well clear of both.

If I had a decent camera, I'd take a photo, but the bottom line is that I'm using an EVO 120 on this motherboard without any issues apart from the lack of a mounting plate with the motherboard That's a rather big issue, as it means that you have to get one separately. That's true for most coolers, though, since they usually need a standard K8 mounting plate and assume you get one with the board (which you should do, but don't with this board).

With the evo 120 dont you get a backplate with it? Ive read a lot of reviews and the evo 120 comes with its own backplate and the actual cooler itself has metal wings with holes in them to mount it to the backplate it comes with.

 

[Netphreak]

yep

Thanks for the conforimation.
I actually appear to have 2 more PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI bridge than you.
Hmm... wonder why that is.

 

[Angilion]

With the evo 120 dont you get a backplate with it? Ive read a lot of reviews and the evo 120 comes with its own backplate and the actual cooler itself has metal wings with holes in them to mount it to the backplate it comes with.

It comes with a Socket775 backplate. Maybe a Socket478 one too, I forget. It does not come with a Socket754/939 backplate. Nor does any other cooler that I know of.

The cooler does come with those "wings" and the S939 ones are pre-fitted (they remove easily to fit the others, also supplied, for other socket types). But no backplate.

EDIT: Maybe Akasa have added one within the last few weeks. I doubt it, but you never know.

 

[smithy1983]

Thanks for the conforimation.
I actually appear to have 2 more PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI bridge than you.
Hmm... wonder why that is.

remove them all and let windows find them again maybe windows has got mixed and detected pci to pci bridge insted of the agp controler

 

[dunno]

It comes with a Socket775 backplate. Maybe a Socket478 one too, I forget. It does not come with a Socket754/939 backplate. Nor does any other cooler that I know of.

The cooler does come with those "wings" and the S939 ones are pre-fitted (they remove easily to fit the others, also supplied, for other socket types). But no backplate.

EDIT: Maybe Akasa have added one within the last few weeks. I doubt it, but you never know.

So you used the neo backplate and it worked ok? Did u just attach the cooler to the neo backplate or is the supplied backplate resting on the neo backplate?

ediy: Could you not just use the provided backplate on its own? I dont see why it would be any differnt from having a motherboard backplate or not :S

 

[Netphreak]

remove them all and let windows find them again maybe windows has got mixed and detected pci to pci bridge insted of the agp controler

Thanks for that I'll give that a try.

I was thinking of trying to remove the 2 extra ones I have but of course there is the problem of which 2 to remove.

So I'll try your idea.

 

[Angilion]

So you used the neo backplate and it worked ok? Did u just attach the cooler to the neo backplate or is the supplied backplate resting on the neo backplate?

ediy: Could you not just use the provided backplate on its own? I dont see why it would be any differnt from having a motherboard backplate or not :S

Neo backplate?

The EVO 120 screws into a backplate that fits underneath the motherboard. Two threaded pillars fit through holes in the motherboard, allowing the cooler above the motherboard to be screwed into the backplate below it, sandwiching the CPU, CPU socket, motherboard below it and a small part of the motherboard around it between the backplate and the cooler.

It is not possible to use the backplate provided with an EVO 120 (or other coolers) on a Socket939 (or 754) board because those backplates are for S775 or S478. The holes in the motherboard are in different positions on motherboards of different socket types. You would have to drill holes through the motherboard, which would ruin it.

It might be possible to physically fit the cooler without a backplate, by gluing it to the CPU. I wouldn't care to try, unless the motherboard was being mounted horizontally (a la desktop case) rather than vertically. The backplate is there for sound mechanical reasons. Without it, the cooler might cause sufficient torque to damage the CPU socket.

What I did was to obtain a K8 CPU mounting backplate (i.e. a backplate for Socket754 or 939) and used that. I got two, in fact. I bought one from Akasa (this is not normally possible, as they don't sell to the public) and I was given one at OcUK (this is also not normally possible, they just happened to have one available at the time from a dead motherboard) while I was waiting for the one from Akasa to arrve in the post.

It should be possible to use the K8 mounting backplate you can buy from Thermalright. You have to buy one separately - it is not supplied with Thermalright coolers (I checked an XP90). They sell them because Gigabyte S939 boards don't come with a standard K8 mounting backplate, so you can't use a standard cooler on them. Obviously, they're intended for people buying Thermalright coolers, but they seem to be a standard K8 mounting backplate (they would have to be, or you couldn't attach an XP90 or XP120 to them, as those coolers require a standard K8 mounting backplate).

 

[Mister Me]

Wish me luck...

 

[Netphreak]

Well I tried removing the PCI-to-PCI bridge's and tried forcing an install of the AGP driver via add hardware but windows won't load it keeps restarting before it loads windows.

Luckily 'Last know settings that worked' is able to allow me back into windows.
I'm getting quite annoyed now...

I'm guessing theres either a problem with SP2 though I would have thought that would only stop me installing the driver but wouldn't stop windows installing a driver for it or a problem with my motherboard.

It just making want to upgrade to a PCI-e card sooner than I would have liked but I guess I'll just wait till ATI's new cards are out and then see whats the best card I can get for my budget at the time.

 

[almus!]

Wish me luck...

why r u getting it from the us?

 

[dunno]

Neo backplate?

The EVO 120 screws into a backplate that fits underneath the motherboard. Two threaded pillars fit through holes in the motherboard, allowing the cooler above the motherboard to be screwed into the backplate below it, sandwiching the CPU, CPU socket, motherboard below it and a small part of the motherboard around it between the backplate and the cooler.

It is not possible to use the backplate provided with an EVO 120 (or other coolers) on a Socket939 (or 754) board because those backplates are for S775 or S478. The holes in the motherboard are in different positions on motherboards of different socket types. You would have to drill holes through the motherboard, which would ruin it.

It might be possible to physically fit the cooler without a backplate, by gluing it to the CPU. I wouldn't care to try, unless the motherboard was being mounted horizontally (a la desktop case) rather than vertically. The backplate is there for sound mechanical reasons. Without it, the cooler might cause sufficient torque to damage the CPU socket.

What I did was to obtain a K8 CPU mounting backplate (i.e. a backplate for Socket754 or 939) and used that. I got two, in fact. I bought one from Akasa (this is not normally possible, as they don't sell to the public) and I was given one at OcUK (this is also not normally possible, they just happened to have one available at the time from a dead motherboard) while I was waiting for the one from Akasa to arrve in the post.

It should be possible to use the K8 mounting backplate you can buy from Thermalright. You have to buy one separately - it is not supplied with Thermalright coolers (I checked an XP90). They sell them because Gigabyte S939 boards don't come with a standard K8 mounting backplate, so you can't use a standard cooler on them. Obviously, they're intended for people buying Thermalright coolers, but they seem to be a standard K8 mounting backplate (they would have to be, or you couldn't attach an XP90 or XP120 to them, as those coolers require a standard K8 mounting backplate).

Cheers for the info. The neo backplate is full called the "Thermalright Neo plate" I hope this is the same plate that you are talking about :S