Associate
- Joined
- 14 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 563
- Location
- Dublin
benwade said:Thanks to Barry for emailing me the drivers
Yer welcome!
**The ASrock 939dual-SATA2 (ULi M1695) thread**
- Thread starter wunkley
- Start date
Yer welcome!
A bit of a review for anyone that may be interested....
Fitting The Board
Ths motherboard is very easy to fit, to my surprise i noticed it used exactly the same screw holes as my previous Socket A MSI board.
As usual, the I/O plate has those stupid spring things on the holes where your USB plugs etc go, so be careful of these when fitting the board to the case. I ended up with one in the USB slot so ive had to bend it the wrong way around.
Wiring
The below is said using an AGP 6800, i dont know if PCI-E is the same.
This is where the fun definately begins. I only have a standard sized case, but the IDE slot on the board barely reached my DVD drive on the top of the case with the supplied lead. It went, but only just, and it required some creative wiring to get it past my 6800. I had to take my GFX card out, push the wiring down by the board and then let the GFX cards overhang go over the IDE cable, only way it would reach.
I personally use a network card in the bottom PCI slot, which is right where the IDE for the floppy drive is, which once again was very fiddly to sort out, especially when trying to keep wiring neatish.
SATA cables. This was also quite fiddly, not because I couldnt get to the sockets, but because the HDD SATA slot and the slot on the motherboard were abot 1cm away from each other, and with a relativly stiff wire, and the fact you not supposed to bend SATA cables too much (is this true?) made it a pretty fiddly task.
Fitting the Chip
What can i say. AMD have certainly cracked it. The chip goes in like a standard sock A chp, by lifting the lever etc and dropping the chip in. The heatsink really has made life easy as it somes with a headpad already on the bottom upon peeling away the plastic, and instead of having to use a screwdriver and a lot of swearing to get the heatsink on the motherboard its an ingenous levering system. You place the two side of the heatsink clip in place then lock a lever in. its a 30 second jobs that even a n00b could do first time.
Fitting the Cards
Exactly the same as any other motherboard, but if your planning on using AGP with a card with a healthy overhang, i would advise you to wire the IDE cables up before fitting the card unless you have uber long IDE cables.
Setting the Jumpers/Headers
Couldnt be easier, one of the simplest yet best manuals ive seen, and almost everything is marked on the board for you. USB headers etc i got correct the first time around, as i did the reset switches etc. I do have one problem, but its more my case. My case' LED light is a 3 hole plug, with the middle hole being empty, whereas the case is a 2 socket plug which would need a cable to the middle and side sockets. In short i have no power LED, so it may be something to watch out for.
Switching On
Very different to any BIOS ive ever used, pressing F2 for access to the BIOS is a very strange feeling, but once oyur in the BIOS its very good. Not the most user friendly BIOS ive seen, but everythings there.
Creating the SATA boot disk
I was hoping it would come with the SATA driver on a floppy, but albeit no it didnt, however after reading the instructions on making the floppy it was simple. However, i would recommend making sure you have a spare PC at hand or you may get stuck as everythings in a PDF file. Making the disk was simple, but it was done in a method ive never used before.
Overall
This board is a very good board for the price, and i would highly recommend it to anyone interested in it. One thing I would say is that you should understand it can be a bit fiddly for working with at times, but considering you shouldnt need to be in the case that much its worth saving the money. For a first time builder it could be a bit of a pain due to the lack of technical help in the manual, but if you know about headers etc and how to set up a board then you should be fine.
Price - 10/10
Ease to use - 7/10
Overall 8.5/10 from me
Fitting The Board
Ths motherboard is very easy to fit, to my surprise i noticed it used exactly the same screw holes as my previous Socket A MSI board.
As usual, the I/O plate has those stupid spring things on the holes where your USB plugs etc go, so be careful of these when fitting the board to the case. I ended up with one in the USB slot so ive had to bend it the wrong way around.
Wiring
The below is said using an AGP 6800, i dont know if PCI-E is the same.
This is where the fun definately begins. I only have a standard sized case, but the IDE slot on the board barely reached my DVD drive on the top of the case with the supplied lead. It went, but only just, and it required some creative wiring to get it past my 6800. I had to take my GFX card out, push the wiring down by the board and then let the GFX cards overhang go over the IDE cable, only way it would reach.
I personally use a network card in the bottom PCI slot, which is right where the IDE for the floppy drive is, which once again was very fiddly to sort out, especially when trying to keep wiring neatish.
SATA cables. This was also quite fiddly, not because I couldnt get to the sockets, but because the HDD SATA slot and the slot on the motherboard were abot 1cm away from each other, and with a relativly stiff wire, and the fact you not supposed to bend SATA cables too much (is this true?) made it a pretty fiddly task.
Fitting the Chip
What can i say. AMD have certainly cracked it. The chip goes in like a standard sock A chp, by lifting the lever etc and dropping the chip in. The heatsink really has made life easy as it somes with a headpad already on the bottom upon peeling away the plastic, and instead of having to use a screwdriver and a lot of swearing to get the heatsink on the motherboard its an ingenous levering system. You place the two side of the heatsink clip in place then lock a lever in. its a 30 second jobs that even a n00b could do first time.
Fitting the Cards
Exactly the same as any other motherboard, but if your planning on using AGP with a card with a healthy overhang, i would advise you to wire the IDE cables up before fitting the card unless you have uber long IDE cables.
Setting the Jumpers/Headers
Couldnt be easier, one of the simplest yet best manuals ive seen, and almost everything is marked on the board for you. USB headers etc i got correct the first time around, as i did the reset switches etc. I do have one problem, but its more my case. My case' LED light is a 3 hole plug, with the middle hole being empty, whereas the case is a 2 socket plug which would need a cable to the middle and side sockets. In short i have no power LED, so it may be something to watch out for.
Switching On
Very different to any BIOS ive ever used, pressing F2 for access to the BIOS is a very strange feeling, but once oyur in the BIOS its very good. Not the most user friendly BIOS ive seen, but everythings there.
Creating the SATA boot disk
I was hoping it would come with the SATA driver on a floppy, but albeit no it didnt, however after reading the instructions on making the floppy it was simple. However, i would recommend making sure you have a spare PC at hand or you may get stuck as everythings in a PDF file. Making the disk was simple, but it was done in a method ive never used before.
Overall
This board is a very good board for the price, and i would highly recommend it to anyone interested in it. One thing I would say is that you should understand it can be a bit fiddly for working with at times, but considering you shouldnt need to be in the case that much its worth saving the money. For a first time builder it could be a bit of a pain due to the lack of technical help in the manual, but if you know about headers etc and how to set up a board then you should be fine.
Price - 10/10
Ease to use - 7/10
Overall 8.5/10 from me
benwade said:
Please take note of Stellios's comment above with regards to the positioning of the IDE sockets on this board. I really struggled to connect my optical drives(at the very top of my case)to the IDE socket at the bottom. If you have a gaming case(or similar)then it might be a good idea to buy some IDE cables that're longer than the stand 18inches.
Also, after you've connected everything and you fire it up for the first time and it either doesn't boot/boots so far and stops/doesn't detect you drives, just clear the CMOS and boot it up again. If you still have problems then, clear the CMOS again and boot the system with just one stick of memory in.
Cant believe i done that, spent an hour trying to find a fault.
is this a cold boot problem?
hi all, my pc set up had been running ok, for a while since a replaced my motherboard (as it was faulty)
last night i switched my pc off for the whole night (normally its on)
this morning within 5 mins of switching it on, i got a blue screen of death!!
this happened about 10 times !!
one message was
stop :c000021a unknown hard error
i rebooted in safe mode and run a virus check and all was well for over 2 hours in safe mode, ive now rebooted in normal to type this message
could it have happened because it had been off all night?
if so, how do i resolve this issue?
cheers guys
cocker92
i thought i had sorted all minor problems with my pc !!
hi all, my pc set up had been running ok, for a while since a replaced my motherboard (as it was faulty)
last night i switched my pc off for the whole night (normally its on)
this morning within 5 mins of switching it on, i got a blue screen of death!!
this happened about 10 times !!
one message was
stop :c000021a unknown hard error
i rebooted in safe mode and run a virus check and all was well for over 2 hours in safe mode, ive now rebooted in normal to type this message
could it have happened because it had been off all night?
if so, how do i resolve this issue?
cheers guys
cocker92
i thought i had sorted all minor problems with my pc !!
OK, need help,
just got a PCIe gfx card and if i install the drivers it locks up windows after around 30 seconds.
Ive had to do a full reinstall from before and still get the same problems.
Its an ATI card if it makes a difference. Whats wrong? It works OK without drivers installed for the gfx card.
HELP!
just got a PCIe gfx card and if i install the drivers it locks up windows after around 30 seconds.
Ive had to do a full reinstall from before and still get the same problems.
Its an ATI card if it makes a difference. Whats wrong? It works OK without drivers installed for the gfx card.
HELP!
Hi, yep ive cleared CMOS, everything is stock.
Ive installed the "integrated driver" drivers, but that was actually only the AGP driver. Is there anything else? Dont think you need PCIE drivers?
When I uninstall the cats and XP auto detects the gfx card it fails to install anything, so its not listed in device manager as such
Really trying not to flash the BIOS as it works perfectly without the cats. BTW i am switching from a 9500 PRO AGP card to x800 PCIE card so the system was fine beforehand.
Ive installed the "integrated driver" drivers, but that was actually only the AGP driver. Is there anything else? Dont think you need PCIE drivers?
When I uninstall the cats and XP auto detects the gfx card it fails to install anything, so its not listed in device manager as such
Really trying not to flash the BIOS as it works perfectly without the cats. BTW i am switching from a 9500 PRO AGP card to x800 PCIE card so the system was fine beforehand.
Angilion said:
Thanks for helping clear up this issue, has anyone had any experience of using a AC Freezer 64 Pro with the Thermalright backplate?
Please PM me if you have one spare and you would like to sell or let me know anywhere I might be able to buy one on-line.
Thanks!
Last edited:
Cyber-Mav said:
I have this HSF on the board. I had to do a bit of modding to the kit though. It comes with a foam things that sticks to the board. This needed to have a section cut out of it for it fit properly. If you require some photos of the reverse side let me know and i'll sort some out for you. But the HSF does fit very well and not had a problem with it at all since install. Hope this helps.
cool, some pics would be awsome. please post them up.
currently my setup is formatting now and windows will be installing soon.
tried running memtest and goldmemory but both keep freezing at certain points.
odd thing is that on 2 laptops i have just built the tests freeze at the same points so it seems like some software incompatability or something. very odd.
currently my setup is formatting now and windows will be installing soon.
tried running memtest and goldmemory but both keep freezing at certain points.
odd thing is that on 2 laptops i have just built the tests freeze at the same points so it seems like some software incompatability or something. very odd.
ok how do i go about overclocking this opteron 146.
ram is standard crucial value stuff running at 400mhz, 3-3-3-10.
also whatsthe best tras for this board? currently the 10 setting.
want to keep ram to 400mhz so need some assistance.
looks like there is some more maths involved with A64 cpus.
ram is standard crucial value stuff running at 400mhz, 3-3-3-10.
also whatsthe best tras for this board? currently the 10 setting.
want to keep ram to 400mhz so need some assistance.
looks like there is some more maths involved with A64 cpus.
ok guys here is some news for you all, in bios set ram to 133 divider and htt is set to 274 (since i read its no use on latest bios 1.60 to go higher since its will not be stable).
274 htt is giving me a speed of 2740mhz on me opteron 146. voltage in bios is set to one notch below stock so its at 1.375v. forgot the core code but its date is 0602.
ram is at 180 summing mhz thin 188 not sure will check again in a few mins.
happy with this opteron, snm is still running on it. max load temps so far are 45.8c.
will let snm run for an hour or so before i start installing all other apps etc.
also latest version of snm does not run, says something about a io.sys file can't be extracted or something. v1.7.6beta that is.
using 1.7.2 now insted. if someone else has a newer version of snm that runs on A64 please let me know where to get it from thanks.
also how do i get a bios to go over 274htt??
274 htt is giving me a speed of 2740mhz on me opteron 146. voltage in bios is set to one notch below stock so its at 1.375v. forgot the core code but its date is 0602.
ram is at 180 summing mhz thin 188 not sure will check again in a few mins.
happy with this opteron, snm is still running on it. max load temps so far are 45.8c.
will let snm run for an hour or so before i start installing all other apps etc.
also latest version of snm does not run, says something about a io.sys file can't be extracted or something. v1.7.6beta that is.
using 1.7.2 now insted. if someone else has a newer version of snm that runs on A64 please let me know where to get it from thanks.
also how do i get a bios to go over 274htt??