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

Right. So I'm thinking that unless I can get my chip to 2.9GHz or more, I'd be better off at ~2.5GHz, because it allows a higher htt multi (i.e. 4 as opposed to 3), right? An alternative, of course, is to lower the CPU multi and run a higher htt.

BTW, I've got my cheap ram (Kingmax) stable at 2.5-3-3-10 1T, dual channel and 225MHz. Nothing spectacular, but I thought the 1T was noteworthy, seeing as a lot of peeps have had trouble with this setting. Once I update the BIOS I might get more out of them. (I assume the 1.2 BIOS is holding back my OC, because it tops out at exactly 275, as others have reported.)

Ginga
 
just ordered the motherboard this afternoon, along with the following:-

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)

all arriving tomorrow sometime..........cant wait

cocker92
 
GingaNinja said:
Well I finally managed to get my rig together. My 146 went to 270htt no problemo, but 280 was a bit too far. I'm currrently on the 1.2 bios, so I hope updating this to one of the OCW bioses might allow me to go higher. Unusual findings are as follows.

(1) 3DMark2k3 was slower at 270htt (2.7GHz) than at 250htt (2.5GHz). I set the htt multiplier down to 3 for 2.7GHz (as opposed to 4 for 2.5GHz).
(Ginga
Click to expand...

That is unusual, as other tests show no difference with the HTT running at much lower than specified speed. It isn't a bottleneck. I wouldn't have thought that running it at 810MHz instead of 1GHz would make any difference, let alone enough to more than offset a 200MHz increase in CPU speed.

What width did you have the two HTT links set too? Maybe 810MHz at 8-bit would drop the bandwidth enough to be an issue.
 
I think you're getting confused. Ideally the HTT should be as near as 1000mhz as possible with as high as HTT as possible, but base speed is more important than final (after multiplier) speed.

The memory controller on an AMD 64 system is on the CPU not in the northbridge. So, for example, 270HTT is going to be far more efficient than 240HTT because the CPU and the cache/memory bus to northbridge is all going to be at 270mhz, even if the RAM memory is down at 183mhz etc.

Therefore as any good AMD64 overclcoking guide will tell you, maximise your base HTT speed and dont worry too mcuh about whether its its stable at 3x or 4x as long as its below 1000mhz overall, you will better off with a higher HTT and lower (say 3x multiplier).
 
Goodness, I do have a lot to learn! I really haven't mucked about with the settings in the BIOS much - I thought I'd try to update it to a more OC-friendly version first. As soon as I manage to get that done, I'll report my findings. Ideally, on my CPU, I'd like to achieve 9x330, htt multi set to 3, and ram divider at 2/3. That way I'd have an overall htt of about 1000, a cpu speed of about 3GHz, and my ram would be within spec.

I'll report my findings.

Ginga
 
GingaNinja said:
Right. So I'm thinking that unless I can get my chip to 2.9GHz or more, I'd be better off at ~2.5GHz, because it allows a higher htt multi (i.e. 4 as opposed to 3), right? An alternative, of course, is to lower the CPU multi and run a higher htt.

BTW, I've got my cheap ram (Kingmax) stable at 2.5-3-3-10 1T, dual channel and 225MHz. Nothing spectacular, but I thought the 1T was noteworthy, seeing as a lot of peeps have had trouble with this setting. Once I update the BIOS I might get more out of them. (I assume the 1.2 BIOS is holding back my OC, because it tops out at exactly 275, as others have reported.)

Ginga
Click to expand...

Change the bios to the OCWBETA1 or OCWBETA2 version as they will allow greater than 274 HTT. The others don't.
See :- http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=005271;p=0
System will not post if I set HTT higher than 274MHz, why?
BIOS v1.20 AND NEWER have a “block” on HTT, max working HTT you can get is 274MHz. If you want to get around that problem, use BIOS OCWBeta1. We have seen OCWBeta1 BIOS go as high as 400 HTT.

BIOS with HTT capped @ 274
- v1.20
- v1.30
- v1.40
- OCWBeta3 <- It's based on BIOS v1.40, so YES, it has the cap.

BIOS without HTT cap
- OCWBeta1 <- cpu speed on POST screen is wrong, you have to check cpu speed in windows.
- OCWBeta2 ? <- I have not tried this myself, can someone confirm it?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks guys. I'm currently struggling to get my BIOS to update. I've downloaded the bios file (ocwb1 from ocworkbench.com), the flash utility (from ASrock website), and formatted a floppy in WinXP to boot into MSDOS. When I get to the 'A:' prompt and type in 'flash', it claims there's no such file, even though the 'dir a:' command lists the file in the contents of the disk. Any ideas?

Ginga
 
GingaNinja said:
Thanks guys. I'm currently struggling to get my BIOS to update. I've downloaded the bios file (ocwb1 from ocworkbench.com), the flash utility (from ASrock website), and formatted a floppy in WinXP to boot into MSDOS. When I get to the 'A:' prompt and type in 'flash', it claims there's no such file, even though the 'dir a:' command lists the file in the contents of the disk. Any ideas?

Ginga
Click to expand...


Download both the OCWBETA2 and OCWBETA3 zip files.
Unzip the OCWBETA3.zip file to a folder.
Unzip the OCWBETA2.zip file to the same folder.
Delete the file called 'ocwbeta3.bin'.
Rename the 'ocwbeta2.rom' file to 'ocwbeta3.bin'.
Make a DOS boot disk.
Copy the contents of the OCWBETA3 folder (with the now renamed ocwbeta2.rom file in it) to the DOS boot disk.
Boot from that floppy and run 'flash'.
Follow the on screen instructions.
 
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Randell said:
I think you're getting confused. Ideally the HTT should be as near as 1000mhz as possible with as high as HTT as possible, but base speed is more important than final (after multiplier) speed.

The memory controller on an AMD 64 system is on the CPU not in the northbridge. So, for example, 270HTT is going to be far more efficient than 240HTT because the CPU and the cache/memory bus to northbridge is all going to be at 270mhz, even if the RAM memory is down at 183mhz etc.

Therefore as any good AMD64 overclcoking guide will tell you, maximise your base HTT speed and dont worry too mcuh about whether its its stable at 3x or 4x as long as its below 1000mhz overall, you will better off with a higher HTT and lower (say 3x multiplier).
Click to expand...

If the memory controller is on the CPU, why doesn't it run at the same speed as the CPU?

I'm not convinced that the base speed, whatever people like to call it (I've seen several names used) is a key factor in overall performance, within a wide range. I suppose I should benchmark myself, to get data.

Hmm....9x195 and 8x250 would give almost the same CPU speed. 5x HTT multi on the first, 4x on the second, almost the same speed there. 5/6 memory divider on the first, 2/3rds on the second, nearly the same speed there.

If the base speed is so important, those two configurations should give significantly different performance, as the base speed is 28% higher in the second than in the first.

If the base speed is not important, those two configurations should give approximately the same performance, as all other factors are almost the same.

Has anyone done this sort of test? I don't have enough energy or time to bother re-inventing the wheel.
 
Thanks for the help woth the ROM flashing fellas. Finally managed to get it done, and my OC has gone up to 10x295. I haven't done the volt mod, so the highest Vcore I can give it is 1.45. Not bad eh? My ram (Kingmax 3500, 2x512Mb) is running dual channel at a 2/3 divider, with timings 2.5-3-10-3 1T. Just ran 3DMark2k3 and got just under 13,500 (GF6800ultra, AGP), and the max temp was 45.5C.

I might try the volt mod, because I'm sure a little extra juice would get me to a satisfying 3Ghz. Then again, I might not bother! This CPU and mobo is a killer low-cost combination.

Ginga
 
Took the plunge and ordered one of these yesterday (should be here today). Not got a CPU or memory for it but i have a few questions .

I see there has been a few problems with memory so what is the best to purchase from OCUK ?

Power supply ! Best mid range also from OCUK

CPU AMD 64 or Opt 144 !! for games performance ! ! looking to play the latest Quake4 etc

HDD S-ATA or S-ATA II i see some people having problems with S-ATA II has this been fixed with the new bios !

Input would be great

Edit : A little overclocking to be done but not hardcore !

Mark
 
I gave up with SATA2 due to the cold boot hangs I was getting - no matter which BIOS I tried. It seemed to get worse the more I used the board which is bizarre. Everything runs fine on the SATA1 port and I honestly can't notice any difference. Other than that a super board and my 2x512mb Geil Ultra-X runs fine.
 
Help need please!

My friend has just built a computer using this mortherboard, but he is have a few problem with an intermittent blue screen error meassage reads STOP: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x00000000, 0xb2000000, 0x00020151)
"MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" that keeps re-boots his machine.

Memory tested for 4 hours using memtest-86 no problems seen
PSU and Video Card was removed from a working machine, should be OK

XP Home SP2 was reloaded onto the new HD which was quick formated
He used only the MB drivers from the CD
and then loaded the ATI drivers 5.11

Components

Asrock 939Dual Sata II, Bios 1.40
AMD64 3200 'Venice'
2x512meg 3200 Crucial DDram, 3-3-3-8 2T Slot 1&2 on MB
ATI 9600 256MB AGP (X8) Video card
Maxtor 160GB SATA HDD
PSU Tagan 480w

Bios setting that he using

Most was left on default settings

Advanced / CPU Configuration:
Overclock Mode: Auto
PCIE Frequence (MHz) 100
Boot failure Guard: Enabled
Spread Spectrum: Disabled
Cool'n'Quiet: Disabled
Multiplier/Voltage Change: Manual
Processor Multiplier: x10 2000 MHz
Processor Voltage: 1.45 (note: max for this CPU. without m/b modification)

Memory Clock 200
Flexibility Option: disabled
Burst Length: 4 beats

SATA II Disable

Memory timings - 3.0 / 3 / 3 / 8 2T

Advanced / Chipset Settings

CPU - NB Link Speed: Auto
CPU - NB Link Width: Auto
NB - SB Link Speed: Auto
NB - SB Width: Auto
HTTtoPCI Bridge Decode Scheme: Auto
DRAM Voltage: High
Gated Clock Function: Disabled
PCIE1 Turbo Mode: Normal


Thanks

Simon
 
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