As written in first post, no luck for me with dual GPU cards: "I've also tested dual GPU cards, the HD4870x2 and the GTX295, none works"

Did you tried them with Disabled PCI-e Options (they have to be Disabled for Fermi to run) ?

agent_x007 wrote:

First I would recommend changing GPU drivers. What OS are you using ? I tested this board with 7900 GX2, and it worked fine (but […]
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exxocet wrote:

Hi guys, I'm running a 4core Dual Sata2 R2.0 / Quad Core 2 Exterme QX6700 / GTX 570 / 4GB DDR2 / SSD […]
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Hi guys,
I'm running a 4core Dual Sata2 R2.0 / Quad Core 2 Exterme QX6700 / GTX 570 / 4GB DDR2 / SSD

I've upgraded my old HD3850 AGP only to fully benefit from video hw decoding and to play Silent Hunter 3 in better conditions. And yes, GTX 570 is damn fast, but the video quality in SH3 is RUBBISH - the watter in distance is flickering and shimmering like crazy, Ansiotopic Filtering is garbage. I'm considering sellig nVidia card and go back to ATi/AMD, HD6970 or HD6990.
As far as I know HD6970 will run fine, but a double GPU card as HD6990 would pair with this mobo? Any experience with 2 GPU monsters ?

Thank you.

First I would recommend changing GPU drivers.
What OS are you using ?
I tested this board with 7900 GX2, and it worked fine (but PCI-e x4 hit could be seen on results).

3DMark03 SLI mini.png

PS : Dual GPU's will limit max. RAM (as in System memory), available to OS.
Nothing you can do about it : It's chipset limitation (ie. no Memory Remap).

Win 10 Pro 64bit / latest nVidia official drivers. I'm not familiar with nVidia tricks, I've ran only ATi for two decades.
Very interesting, indeed, that's no point in dual GPU on this mobo, soemtime I just forget about PCI-E limitation.

vetz wrote:

As written in first post, no luck for me with dual GPU cards: "I've also tested dual GPU cards, the HD4870x2 and the GTX295, none works"

I knew I've read somewhere, it was your statement, indeed. So, no go with GPUx2, I guess HD6970 and GTX580 are the most powerful graphical card that can be installed o this motherboard.

agent_x007 wrote:

Did you tried them with Disabled PCI-e Options (they have to be Disabled for Fermi to run) ?

Yes, I did (as mentioned in first post by disabling PCIE Downstream Pipeline and PCIE VC1 Request Queue).

Any luck with other PCIE 3.0 card? I would have thrown a HD7950 to it, but as vetz had no success with HD7970, I guess that's no hope.

i got an old AsRock 775Dual 880Pro in my hands from an scrap PC

This mobo seems to be like the 775Dual-VSTA, but only support Netbrust CPUs like Pentium 4 and Pentium D

Interesting thread.

Still have Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 running with a E6600 and a HD6850.
Was wondering.. will a quad core improve performance for gaming? it cost nothing now, I can also find a X6800.
I also noticed games who support WinXP perform better compared to win7 for some reason, or its because 2GB ram?
HD6850 works perfect here, also used a HD4890 (died) and a 7800GS AGP on this.

You can do BIOS mod for 4GB support : LINK
C2E X6800 (without VID mod), will OC to a number between 3,2 - 3,46GHz.
Q6600 won't even get close to that on this boards (so, if you play games that don't use 4 cores, it sucks compared to X6800).
Q6700 is simply "factory overclocked" Q6600 (usefull, since this MB can't OC locked CPU's far enough).
If you have enough $$$ you can get a QX9650/QX9770 and with VID mod you should be able to overclock it to 3,6GHz 😀

DO NOT BUY 45nm Dual Core CPU's other than E5700 or higher (high multiplier and low FSB are required for optimum OC).
DO NOT BUY 45nm Xeon's or 45nm Quad's with locked multipliers.

Soldier wrote:

Interesting thread. […]
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Interesting thread.

Still have Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 running with a E6600 and a HD6850.
Was wondering.. will a quad core improve performance for gaming? it cost nothing now, I can also find a X6800.
I also noticed games who support WinXP perform better compared to win7 for some reason, or its because 2GB ram?
HD6850 works perfect here, also used a HD4890 (died) and a 7800GS AGP on this.

For games, well, that depends if the game engine knows how to deal with multi-core CPU. For that will surely help, it's x2 CPU power compared with a dual core.
Older games (with exceptions) will use only one core, and in that case you'll need sheer speed only. At least 3 Ghz will be compulsory, so in order to benefit in both situation you'll need a fast Quad CPU.
I run a QX6700, multi x12, 3.2 Ghz, without FSB OC, 1.36V Vcc (0.04V Vdrop on hig load). Probably I would be able to squeeze another 100 MHz with higher FSB, but above this stage you'll have to raise Vcc to ~1.5V and that will generate lots of heat and will require water cooling or some oversized cooler.

@up Just getting it out there : There are no BIOS options to control VCC (or CPU's Vcore) on these motherboards.
The only way to increase Vcore, is by doing VID mod (on CPU underside) and that is REALLY CPU specific, since it modifies default VID voltage.
Simply put : Precise control of Vcore is impossible.

That's right - no BIOS CPU voltages control, only RAM and AGP & Northbridge voltages are available via BIOS.

I've modded the mobo by using a variable resistor on the feed pin of L6714D voltage regulator IC. Also, Vagp (Northbridge voltage too) to go over than BIOS settings values. Vram is useless, as the default voltage is high enough and Vtt should not be modified - I've managed to fry an E7500 playing with Vtt.
The settings for my previous CPU E7600 (1.36V) were fit for quad core too - it was fed with 1.35V when I've installed it, without modifying variable resistor's value.

Hello, anyone has enabled 8-way bank interleave without any problems? Another question: is gt 730 a compatible vga with 4coredual-sata2? I would like to use an nvidia vga for physx purpose.

Still have mine working.
one of my two asrock motherboard, never have any problem with them <3

x689thanatos wrote:

Still have mine working.
one of my two asrock motherboard, never have any problem with them <3

So no absolute problem enabling 8-way bank interleave on 4coredual-vsta What are your hardware features?

Hello. I have a 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 flashed with the latest German modded BIOS and can boot and display properly with 2 graphics cards: Sapphire HD 3850 AGP and PowerColor HD 4350 PCIe 2.0. This was done on Windows 7. No further tests or benchmarks, actually I'm just going to keep the AGP card and discard the PCIe one. I also tried an HD 7750 GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 without success (no boot/no display), so as stated here, later generations of AMD cards don't work on this board/boards (don't know about NVIDIA ones).

At least for me, the real deal for this board would be to load a Marvell chip PCIe 2.0 x2 SATA III controller card. I really doubt it is possible, unless someone here has managed to do so.

Thanks.

Just got my 4CoreDual Sata 2 Rev 2 board in and appears to be dead. As soon as plug in the P4 Connector I am unable to get any power (Definitely using the right 4 pin connector too). I have tried removing the Cmos battery, different CPU, PSU works on a different motherboard. Doesn't appear to be any shorts and I have tried to boot with no additional hardware.

Any ideas?

Asomodai wrote:

Just got my 4CoreDual Sata 2 Rev 2 board in and appears to be dead. As soon as plug in the P4 Connector I am unable to get any power (Definitely using the right 4 pin connector too). I have tried removing the Cmos battery, different CPU, PSU works on a different motherboard. Doesn't appear to be any shorts and I have tried to boot with no additional hardware.

Any ideas?

Your board is most likely dead, as you've said. Although I would check all the components again and again just to be sure. Check the CPU for alignment and pin deformity. Plug a GPU to the board and see whether it posts.

Good luck!

I am getting a 775Dual VSTA in the mail next week. I have two questions:

1. Will a Q6600 work on this MOBO? (MOBO meant for DUAL CORE CPU, NOT QUAD CORE)

2. Will a low profile GPU such as a GTX 750ti or HAD 7850 work on this board, regardless of them being PCIe 3.0?

If someone could test this out and let me know I would me immensely grateful.

valentyn_l wrote:

I am getting a 775Dual VSTA in the mail next week. I have two questions: […]
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I am getting a 775Dual VSTA in the mail next week. I have two questions:

1. Will a Q6600 work on this MOBO? (MOBO meant for DUAL CORE CPU, NOT QUAD CORE)

2. Will a low profile GPU such as a GTX 750ti or HAD 7850 work on this board, regardless of them being PCIe 3.0?

If someone could test this out and let me know I would me immensely grateful.

I'd be surprised if they did work as these boards have a junk chipset that had tons of bios revisions just to get cards that were out at the time working.

If you're running a 775 cpu with a pci-e gpu , I would use a different board than this , definitely not the best option or even a good budget option. More of a novelty and "oddware" than anything.

vetz wrote:

So I've gotten myself one of these dual PCI-e and AGP boards from Asrock (see offical page). It's a interesting board with Windo […]
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So I've gotten myself one of these dual PCI-e and AGP boards from Asrock (see offical page). It's a interesting board with Windows 98 to Windows 10 support, but let me go through my experiences with it so far. Hopefully some more members here can chime in with their experiences.

CPU support:
The Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 is the fastest CPU you can install (3.06ghz) stock wise. It is also a very cool running CPU and it's very easy and cheap to get hold off. The board will boot with this CPU installed with any BIOS, but it will cause all kind of errors getting it booting on any floppy, USB or harddrive. Installing the latest unofficial BIOS from PCtreiber (see attached) is a must. From an OC perspective the Core 2 Extreme X6800 is the best, more on OC in the section below.

GPU support:
The board features both AGP and PCI-Express support. The AGP works with any 1.5V and 0.8V (4-8x) AGP card and I've had no problems with bridge based cards. There is a setting in the BIOS to set which type is the primary video, meaning you could in theory have three videocards installed at the same time, AGP, PCI-Express and PCI.

The PCI-Express support is a bit wanky, especially in the earlier BIOS'es. With the PCTreiber BIOS support have gotten a bit better, and even GTX480 works. I've tested the following PCI-Express cards with success:

-7950GT
-8800 Ultra
-GTX285
-GTX480
-X800
-HD3850
-HD4890

I've also tested dual GPU cards, the HD4870x2 and the GTX295, none works. So far it seems single GPU cards only.
The main problem with PCI-Express is that it is limited to 4x generation 1 speed, meaning newer cards do get bottlenecked with a quick CPU. By overclocking the PCI Express bus from 100mhz to 108mhz I increased the 3DMark 2006 score by around 1000points, from 12800 to 13800!

In Windows 10, there can be an issue installing drivers for a PCI-Express, but just run the following command and you're good to go:

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1    Open the start menu and type cmd in the search box
2    Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator
3    In the command window, type bcdedit /set pciexpress forcedisable
4    Reboot your computer

In any Windows version, if you have problems installing the PCI Express graphic card drivers (I had to do this with the GTX480), go to BIOS and change the following settings:
PCIE Downstream Pipeline to DISABLE (Auto is default)
PCIE VC1 Request Queue to DISABLE (Auto is default)

Memory support:
Supports both DDR and DDR2 memory (only one type at the time). I've had no problem using 2x2GB DDR2 memory with low timings in dual channel mode. Maximum addressable memory is 3.3GB due to chipset limitation! Other users report no performance difference between DDR and DDR2. Since the board have both DDR and DDR2 support, the BIOS memory section is quite difficult to figure out in my opinion.

Harddrive and I/O connections:
The board only features 2x 150mb/sec VIA SATA RAID connectors, which can be too few depending on your intended use. The main problem with the board is the location of the IDE connectors. If you have a large PCI-Express video card install you can't have anything in the IDE connectors, or else the video card won't fit! That means you either need to use AGP, a smaller card, install a PCI ATA-133 card or just use the SATA ports.
The VIA Hyperion Prodrivers is needed for Windows XP, but is included in Windows Vista and above

Overclocking
The board is a bad overclocker. I can only get the FSB from the standard 266 to 276! Other users are reporting the same and it's a miracle if you get above 290! Same goes with the PCI Express bus, anything above 110 creates problems. You can't control the CPU voltage and the DRAM voltage can't be specified. You can change the CPU ratio, but only downwards if the multiplier is locked. Here is why the X6800 CPU probably is the fastest CPU you can get as it allows the multiplier to be changed in both directions. This allows greater overclocks than 3.2ghz (which is the maximum I can get through FSB with the E7600).

OS support
The board supports almost all Windows versions that exist! It officially supports Windows 98, and I had no problem running Windows 10 64-bit on it! So this makes for a great retro system that can cover almost all Windows games that have been released, even up to the modern ones! For WIndows 98 you could have a Voodoo 5 PCI and with swapping the monitor cable (or using a VGA switch) for great Glide experiences, and then on a reboot enjoy gaming in Windows 10 with a GTX480 (or even faster!)

Other versions
ASRock made several versions of this board based on the VIA VT880 Pro/Ultra chipset called Core4Dual. These boards also support Quad core's (not 45nm), but at a cost of -5% FSB. The Core4Dual SATA2 also comes with a 300mb/sec SATA controller, but this controller does not have Windows 98 driver support. In my personal opinion, running quad's is not worth it because of the FSB hit and few of the games supporting quad cores.

Hey I need help because I am upgrading this board- Asrock 4core dual SATA2. I want to run a space simulator called Space Engine which needs a 1 GB video card and 4 GB of RAM. I am running it with 2 GB of RAM and a 640MB 8800 GTS 112 SP SSC video card but I have to keep the resolution at 1024x768.

I have some upgrades in mind but not sure if I should do them. I already have 2 GB Crucial RAM, do I need to use a hacked bios to be able to use 4 GB? On another site, they said a hacked BIOS from PCTreiber can use up to 8 GB RAM?

Here are my specs.

Right now I have a Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2 GB DDR2-667 memory, 640 MB Geforce 8800 GTS 112 SP graphics card. I set my computer to allocate 2 GB for video memory (640 MB from the video card and the rest from RAM.) I am using XP Home x32 which does not use much RAM so I allocated most of my RAM for SE. I run SE in a 1024x768 window so that should hopefully minimize its video memory usage

2 GB RAM is the most this motherboard will allow, however there is a bios hack that will allow it to take up to 4 GB RAM (but only 3.3 GB will be usable, even if I install a 64 bit OS.)

The two upgrades I am considering are:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?I … 7-216-_-Product

EVGA GeForce GT 730 DirectX 12 04G-P3-2739-KR 4GB 128-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Video Card

4GB 128-Bit DDR3

Core Clock 700 MHz

2 x DVI-I 1 x mini HDMI

PCI Express 2.0

I want the dual DVI ports since I run two monitors.

The other upgrade is

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?I … 8-111-_-Product

Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA667

DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Cas Latency 5
Voltage 1.8V

Should I do one or both upgrades, considering I will be limited by the motherboard to 3.3 GB RAM even if I go from 2 GB to 4 GB? Also should I do the upgrade from the 640 MB graphics card to the 4 GB graphics card even though the 4 GB graphics card is slower? See this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

On this hierarchy chart, it's 3 levels below my current graphics card, and my current card isn't the standard one, it's the SSC version with 112 shader processors, instead of 96, and performs more like an 8800 GTX (5 levels above the 4 GB card.) Problem is this motherboard is a PCI-e 4x board so the graphics slot might be the bottleneck anyway and the motherboard doesn't support anything higher than PCI-e 2.0 I am considering the two upgrades though because they are relatively inexpensive and I already bought a 2 GB hard drive and a copy of Windows 10 32bit/64bit Home. I'm not having any issues running the program in a 1024x768 window, however the program hangs upon closing and I have to kill the process in the task manager to close it (or tell Windows to close it in the pop up window.) I also worry that future editions of SE will have higher requirements- is there any news about that or will the current requirements to run SE hold for foreseeable future versions? I noticed that the video memory and RAM requirements have gotten higher with more recent versions. The other thing is I noticed via EVGA Precision that SE uses over 95% of my graphics card, is that dangerous to the long term health of the card and will it shorten its life? Would that be just as bad with the new card, should I get it?

Incidentally, what video card is giving you a 3DMark06 score that high? With my 8800 GTS 640mb card I get close to 9500.