Overclocking is possible, but not by much, so it won't really fix locked low multiplier. SATA should work on all, excluding SATAII south bridge.

I do not overclock my cpu so I cant answer that question.

Also I'm not sure about the revision question, Mine runs SATA under 98 but I'm not sure what revision it is.

I've got 775Dual-880pro.
I'm wondering what is the hardware difference with -vsta line of motherboards.
I cant find much information on 880pro motherboards.
880Pro motherboards only supports pentium processors so would it be possible to flash -vsta bios to my motherboard and gain core 2 support, or is there some hardware limitations?

Different VRM, BIOS and old incompatible LGA775.

So what is the overall consensus for those Asrock 775Dual-VSTA & Core4Dual motherboards?
Are they good candidates for Windows 98/XP machine?
It seems they don't have official Windows 98(SE)/ME support like 775Dual-880Pro and P4Dual-880Pro.
But people seem to use them with Windows 98(SE)/ME even though they have different chipset and no official support for Windows 98(SE)/ME.
How is that possible?
Is that because difference in the chipset is very small and 775Dual-880Pro drivers work on them?
They have the same or almost the same northbridge (VIA® PT880 Pro/Ultra) but slightly different southbridge (775Dual-880Pro has VIA® VT8237R, 775Dual-VSTA and 4CoreDual-VSTA have VIA® VT8237A, 4CoreDual-SATA2 has VIA® VT8237S).
Not sure what are the differences between those southbridges.
I am not expert in this.
But I found that VT8237A uses HD Audio instead of AC'97 and VT8237S in addition to this (using HD Audio instead of AC'97) also uses SATA-II instead of SATA-150.
So it looks like on VT8237A (775Dual-VSTA and 4CoreDual-VSTA) we won't be able to use on-board sound (but I could live with that if PCI sound card would work) and on VT8237S in addition to not working on-board sound (but I could live with that if PCI sound card would work) also SATA(2) might not work under Windows 98(SE)/ME (but I could and I planned to use only IDE drives under that OS) because of lack of VIA chipsets drivers for that aspects under Windows 98(SE)/ME, if I am understanding/processing this correctly?
But every other (VIA) aspects/functionalities and (VIA) drivers (like motherboard USB drivers, PCI slots, etc.) should work, if I am understanding/processing this correctly?
Could someone confirm this or correct me if I am wrong?
Does someone have any of those 4CoreDuals motherboards and/or 775Dual-VSTA motherboard and can confirm that there are not any more problems (than I mentioned) under Windows 98(SE)/ME and that this OS(es) works correctly/perfectly on this motherboards and can recommend those motherboards for this OS(es) or correct me and say that those motherboards are bad for those OS(es) and there will be more problems (than I mentioned) and tell me to not use them?
I am seeking/looking for 100% confirmation from someone who uses those motherboards because I don't want to buy dozen motherboards for testing purposes and would like to have fully functioning Windows 98(SE)/ME.
I am sure people already know answers to all of this.
I am looking for answer from someone who is familiar with those motherboards.

Ugh, formatting.

Don't mind formatting (it is not my strong side). Just answer the questions(s) please. I would like to start buying stuff and going on with this build already. But this is holding me.

Sephiroth, The Great wrote on 2023-06-19, 10:58:

So what is the overall consensus for those Asrock 775Dual-VSTA & Core4Dual motherboards? Are they good candidates for Windows 9 […]
Show full quote

So what is the overall consensus for those Asrock 775Dual-VSTA & Core4Dual motherboards?
Are they good candidates for Windows 98/XP machine?
It seems they don't have official Windows 98(SE)/ME support like 775Dual-880Pro and P4Dual-880Pro.
But people seem to use them with Windows 98(SE)/ME even though they have different chipset and no official support for Windows 98(SE)/ME.
How is that possible?
Is that because difference in the chipset is very small and 775Dual-880Pro drivers work on them?
They have the same or almost the same northbridge (VIA® PT880 Pro/Ultra) but slightly different southbridge (775Dual-880Pro has VIA® VT8237R, 775Dual-VSTA and 4CoreDual-VSTA have VIA® VT8237A, 4CoreDual-SATA2 has VIA® VT8237S).
Not sure what are the differences between those southbridges.
I am not expert in this.
But I found that VT8237A uses HD Audio instead of AC'97 and VT8237S in addition to this (using HD Audio instead of AC'97) also uses SATA-II instead of SATA-150.
So it looks like on VT8237A (775Dual-VSTA and 4CoreDual-VSTA) we won't be able to use on-board sound (but I could live with that if PCI sound card would work) and on VT8237S in addition to not working on-board sound (but I could live with that if PCI sound card would work) also SATA(2) might not work under Windows 98(SE)/ME (but I could and I planned to use only IDE drives under that OS) because of lack of VIA chipsets drivers for that aspects under Windows 98(SE)/ME, if I am understanding/processing this correctly?
But every other (VIA) aspects/functionalities and (VIA) drivers (like motherboard USB drivers, PCI slots, etc.) should work, if I am understanding/processing this correctly?
Could someone confirm this or correct me if I am wrong?
Does someone have any of those 4CoreDuals motherboards and/or 775Dual-VSTA motherboard and can confirm that there are not any more problems (than I mentioned) under Windows 98(SE)/ME and that this OS(es) works correctly/perfectly on this motherboards and can recommend those motherboards for this OS(es) or correct me and say that those motherboards are bad for those OS(es) and there will be more problems (than I mentioned) and tell me to not use them?
I am seeking/looking for 100% confirmation from someone who uses those motherboards because I don't want to buy dozen motherboards for testing purposes and would like to have fully functioning Windows 98(SE)/ME.
I am sure people already know answers to all of this.
I am looking for answer from someone who is familiar with those motherboards.

I've used my 4CoreDual SATA2 R2.0 for awhile and, while I love how flexible it is for parts and O/Ses, it has a bug in its AGP implementation for Win98 that cuts 3D performance almost in half. This bug only affects later BIOS revisions for this series of boards, so if you go with an older one, you can avoid this bug. You can read my musing about that build and all the problems and workarounds I have for 98.

You are correct about about the NB and SB chipsets, VIA provides 98 drivers for all of them even if the motherboard manufacture doesn't support 98 specifically. Networking is hit or miss. Some boards, like mine, have a 98 compatible network adapters. Some don't. Obviously HD Audio is a no go for 98, but SoundBlaster Live! and Audigy 2 cards work in my board. SB16 emulation for DOS works too. Vortex 1&2 cards should also work.

I will say though that using a SB Live! was causing lots of weird issues like locking up all input or hanging the computer for several second at random while EAX was enabled. Only in some EAX games though.

SATA works on my board in RAID mode, if you install the drivers for them in 98. I don't know if you can install 98 directly onto a SATA device this way, or with RLoew's AHCI driver. There's no SATA compatibility mode on my motherboard. Using the IDE interface is perfectly fine though.

The PCIe slots on the PT880 motherboards also work in 98, if you choose to use it.

I don't want to buy dozen motherboards for testing purposes and would like to have fully functioning Windows 98(SE)/ME.

Dayum.

Sephiroth, The Great wrote on 2023-06-19, 11:20:

Don't mind formatting (it is not my strong side). Just answer the questions(s) please. I would like to start buying stuff and going on with this build already. But this is holding me.

A little double spacing goes a long way.

Will 775Dual-VSTA start/post with Core 2 Duo E7600 and will I be able to update a BIOS to this modded one with this processor already installed? Or would I have to start it with different processor, update BIOS and then install Core 2 Duo E7600 (I would prefer not, it sound like pain)?
What is the cut-off for PCI-Express graphic cards? Do PCI-Express 3.0 cards work? If not, then why?

List of officially validated CPU:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/via/775dual-vsta/#CPU

Most powerful cards you can install are Radeon HD 6970 and GeForce GTX 580. Maybe some Nvidia Kepler based GPUs which have PCIe 3.0 disabled by default in firmware.

I am not talking about officially supported processors. I am talking about processor supported by latest modded BIOS. So I ask again my CPU question:
"Will 775Dual-VSTA start/post with Core 2 Duo E7600 and will I be able to update a BIOS to this modded one with this processor already installed? Or would I have to start it with different processor, update BIOS and then install Core 2 Duo E7600 (I would prefer not, it sound like pain)?"
Why is that PCI-E 3.0 GPUs don't work? In theory PCI-E 3.0 should be able to go down to 1.0. I know theory does not always equal practice. But I wonder what's the explanation of this in this case.

I tried E7600 on 4CoreDual-VSTA and it posts but it won't boot from any devices,
so probably it's the same for 775Dual-VSTA, you need another cpu to update the bios to modded one.

Sephiroth, The Great wrote on 2023-06-20, 09:29:

Why is that PCI-E 3.0 GPUs don't work? In theory PCI-E 3.0 should be able to go down to 1.0. I know theory does not always equal practice. But I wonder what's the explanation of this in this case.

They don't, because VIA didn't stick to PCIe specs hard enough.
Even Fermi requires disabling stuff in BIOS to work properly (after driver installation).
Kepler PCIE 2.0 also won't work. I think it's vBIOS/BIOS issue on top of PCIe spec.
Oh, and no - AHCI PCIe 2.0 M.2 also don't work in that PCIe x4 slot.

GTX 590?

GTX590 is a dual-GPU solution. We've got several reports (including the OP) that all kinds of such GPUs do not work with this motherboard.

I don't see any reports about GTX590 specifically in this thread, however I do know that The Serpent Rider has one and most likely has already tested it 😉

The fastest card you can install is GTX580 and its AMD counterpart.

Hi all.

One question about ASROCK 4COREDUAL-SATA2 R2.0 .

Do you know if the integrated sound card is compatible with ms-dos using VIAFMTSR and VIAUDIO.COM ?

Thanks a lot

Hi guys I need some help, I’m just trying to make the Ocz revodrive 350 works on the 4coredual-sata2 but it won’t post, everything is working fine until I put the SSD on my pci-e riser, I think this revodrive is 2.0 and I set in bios video output agp by default and the 2 options with pcie disabled.

You need to check if it works without riser first.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-07-07, 15:01:

You need to check if it works without riser first.

The revodrive works ok in another pc with g41 chipset, the same as the riser, idk if I need some tweaking on the bios in order to work with this ssd or maybe there’s a conflict in the chipset when a agp and pci-e is connected at the same time, but I read some ppl with succes working with this type of pci-e ssd’s

this type of pci-e ssd’s

Depends on which Revodrive it was. Original Revodrive has different controller with more typical RAID setup.