Hi All,

I have a couple of 775Dual-VSTA questions and hoping someone in here might have the answers!

I'm hoping to get one of these motherboards, and i'm wondering about what the fastest supported CPU might be for it. I was looking at the microcode support of the 'asrock_775dual-vsta_bios_3.19a_pctreiber.net_' bios. It seems to support Xeon E5440 CPU's as CPUID 10676 is listed in it when opened with the MC Extractor tool. Are any other Xeon chips supported on this board? Is there a newer bios update that might support more? Lastly - as pctreiber.net doesn't seem to work any more - is that the latest modded bios?

Hoping anyone can help - Thanks!

Fred

This is the CPU support list from the Asrock site

https://www.asrock.com/mb/via/775dual-vsta/#CPU

Now if you really do mean Fastest then I guess going by Ghz it would be the P4 570J Presshot . .now yes its indeed the fastest but well im guessing you actually mean Powerful then it would be the Core2 Extreme X6800, now its possible that it could run a few of the Xeon processors but you would need to mod the CPU to allow it to fit the 775 socket and possibly mod the BIOS to allow it to recognize the Xeon and be able to boot with it. But you do seem to have a modded Bios for it already so assuming you know how to mod a 771 CPU to fit a 775 socket you should be all set.

https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASRock/775Dual-VSTA.html

Also lists the 3.19 Ghz E8400 which is a much better CPU than the X6800 and can easily be overclocked to 3.3Ghz E8600 speeds, the E8400 is a very good CPU for a Core2 retro rig. (They are also dirt cheap and can be had for 5 bucks on eBay)

My personal choice would be the E8400 as its a drop in CPU and requires no modding or modded Bios and OCed to 3.3Ghz it'll make short work of any period game you throw at it.

775Dual-VSTA can support quads with modding, so best CPU you can install is QX9650. It is important to have CPU with unlocked multiplier, because these boards are very limited with FSB clock, not even standard 1066 Mhz bus is possible with quad core. Should you do it? No, because 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual have very weak VRM and unless you're planning a full recap with VRM modding - you're better off with dual core CPU, which doesn't stress VRM much.

Best dual cores you can install are Core 2 Duo E7500/E7600 and Core 2 Extreme X6800. Dual core Xeon are mostly not worth the hassle, because E7500/E7600 are readily available for peanuts. And X6800 just allows you to squeeze more mhz with unlocked multiplier. E8xxx and Xeon counterparts are useless for that board, due to 1333 Mhz bus with low multiplier, which is not possible to achieve without heavy hardware modding.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-07-21, 13:10:

775Dual-VSTA can support quads with modding, so best CPU you can install is QX9650. It is important to have CPU with unlocked mu […]
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775Dual-VSTA can support quads with modding, so best CPU you can install is QX9650. It is important to have CPU with unlocked multiplier, because these boards are very limited with FSB clock, not even standard 1066 Mhz bus is possible with quad core.
Should you do it? No, because 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual have very weak VRM and unless you're planning a full recap with VRM modding, you're better off with dual core CPU, which doesn't stress VRM much.

Best dual cores you can install are Core 2 Duo E7500/E7600 and Core 2 Extreme X6800. Dual core Xeon are mostly not worth the hassle, because E7500/E7600 are readily available for peanuts. And X6800 just allows you to squeeze more mhz with unlocked multiplier.
E8xxx and Xeon counterparts are useless for that board, due to 1333 Mhz bus with low multiplier, which is not possible to achieve without heavy hardware modding.

Weird that its listed in the possible upgrades for that board, if what you say is correct about the bus speed then by rights it shouldn't work.

Since I have one of these boards .. I should really investigate if that CPU upgrade is possible.

It is but its locked to 2.4Ghz which isn't bad at all taking into account the improvements with heat and power use due to the smaller process also having the huge 6Mb cache of the later dual cores is good too, even at 2.4Ghz it would easily beat the X6800 due to the 6Mb Cache.

That said my choice remains the same . .the X6800 is good but its stupidly expensive.

E8xxx can work on 1066 MHz FSB just fine, but it's just slower.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-07-21, 13:21:

E8xxx can work on 1066 MHz FSB just fine, but it's just slower.

So . .not useless.

I do agree that going Xeon would be useless and not worth the hassle.

It is useless in context of best CPU. +50% L2 cache can't cover mhz difference between E8600 and X6800.

Thanks!

My end goal is to find the fastest 775 cpu I can on this board to squeeze out as much performance as I can from my AGP HD 3850. It's so I can cover it on my Youtube channel. I've been searching eBay daily for months for any of the Core 2 capable 775 boards with AGP listed on LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots , but having got bored with the daily search grind I think i'll pull the trigger on one of these boards being sold in Italy. I can always get it ,then go CPU trawling. I have an E8500 to hand, but with https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASRock/775Dual-VSTA.html saying the 8400 runs at 2.4 I was wondering about modding the socket and going the Xeon route!

You'll be stuck at 2.2 Ghz with Xeon E5440. And most benchmarks and games which 3850 can play, without crying bloody tears, couldn't care less about quad core.

I see! So what FSB parts should I be ignoring then, as it sounds as though quite a lot are going to be throttled down to 2.4ghz? Also - not that this makes any difference probably - this'll be for Win XP & 7

Already listed multiple times in this thread.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-07-21, 13:28:

It is useless in context of best CPU. +50% L2 cache can't cover mhz difference between E8600 and X6800.

It can when the X6800 costs considerably more, Currently listed for around $450 USD unless you want to take a chance at a Chinese seller who have it for 80 USD ...Chinese seller with their business listed as being in London and shipping from mainland China . .sounds legit to me.

E8400 ..between 5 - 10 USD ...so yes its a bit slower .. but the cost more than makes up for that tiny gap and for gaming .. Cache is king always has been.

As you said the board has a weak VRM . .so how much faster do you expect that X6800 to go when that chip is a power hog, run very hot to begin with and is already pushing that weak VRM hard. I have a lot experience with these CPUs and even I wouldn't use a X6800 on this board, its a silly mismatch.

So if I understand correctly - and there's a fair chance i don't:

1333 fsb chips will probably work but will downclock to 1066 - including the e8xx series
Quad core 1066 chips will stress the board too much so go dual core..

Just get an E6700? Looking at https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-P … 00/m2030vsm8640 it seems to be a better bet than the X6800

EDIT: nope - that's the wrong 775 socket E6700 - a https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/pro … ifications.html.. how confusing!

TrashPanda wrote:

so how much faster do you expect that X6800 to go when that chip is a power hog, run very hot to begin with and is already pushing that weak VRM hard

LMAO

Cache is king always has been.

LMAO

RETROKOMODO wrote:

Just get an E6700?

Also works, but E7600 is better. 3 Ghz plus a lot of overclocking headroom.

Just bought an E7600 on eBay for £5.17 and I have a lead on an X6800 😉

WOOHOOO! I was the only one bidding on a 775Dual-VSTA and I got it for £46.50! It's boxed, it has it's IO shield, it even has 2gb DDR2 with it - AAAND - an E6600!

I'll immediately be swapping out the ram for a Kingston Hyperx 4gb kit I have, and it will be the new home for my AGP HD 3850 which just got a new cooler installed. I also have on the way SLB9Y Core 2 Duo E7400, SLGTE Core 2 Duo E7500, and SLGTD Core 2 Duo E7600 for testing/benchmarking. So right now - i'm a very happy Fred. All my silliness will be up on https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroKomodo at some point - if there's any interest, my AGP HD 3850 cooler replacement video should be live this evening 😉

How hot does the chipset get on these boards? My board didn't have basically thermal paste on it. Just white dried stuff on the sides. Also 2 spring loaded mounts are not optimal for so small chip. I had 2 corners cut on the chip from some time gotten hit from CPU cooler installation.

I decided to switch nonexistent thermal paste to 0.5mm thick thermal pad that covers the die and also sides completely to help it not chip the corners like Athlon XP CPUS.. Hope the thermals will good enough with C2D E6300 and with upgraded E5800 OC.

Time for a disappointing update. I had my 775Dual-VSTA bios updated and all was well - benchmarked a bunch of different ram sticks and all was fine. Thought it about time to switch out the Celeron D 341 I had in for some more power, so popped in the E7600 Core 2 I had through the post.

Fans etc came on during boot but there was no video signal and there was also a hint of burning.. Turned it all off. Inspected the board for scorching - found nothing. Removed the E7600 which also looks fine, and put the Celeron back in. No change on boot, and the cpu is cold.

PC now fully taken apart and board inspected all over - not a hint of a burst capacitor or anything anywhere.

775Dual-VSTA now dead.

Looking for a replacement for it could take a while! I only have 775 chips so not looking to go down the 939 route.

Has anyone encountered any weird behaviour after 775DUAL-VSTA Bios flash? I flashed from 3.10 to pctreiber 3.19a with AFUWIN 4.40 which is recommended way. I clicked the program all blocks and Destroy CMOS checksum like the guide said. The 1st boot said CMOS checksum error and BIOS menus load slower with modded bios.

After loading default settings and setting raid controller to sata-mode everything works fine now though. Next CPU upgrade to e5800 and fixing ram speed. 😁

Normally you should set the BIOS to defaults before you flash it, yup it seems weird but well you just experienced the reason why 😁