This is another 775 mobo I get for the sole purpose of fun and pushing the AGP limit(s) with some serious CPU's. The mobo does support not only AGP, but also PCIe and not only DDR(1) rams, but DDR2 as well: http://hwbot.org/hardware/motherboard/775dual_vsta/ So, it is a remarkable piece of hardware Also after updating the bios to latest official P3.10 version ( http://www.asrock.com/mb/VIA/775Dual-VSTA/ ), there are plenty of bios options to play. More that I imagined:
And that is not all! There are existing modified bioses ( http://pctreiber.net/asrock-bios-downloads?did=103 ) that since v3.10a give the possibility to boost the maximum supported ram from 2G (2x1G, you cannot use DDR and DDR2 rams at once, lol) to 4G (2x2G sticks). Current unofficial bios version is 3.19a. Of course the really available ram on 32bit systems are something around 3.3GBy (all the buffers and your GFX card memory must fit into 4G address space), but it is still a good leap forward, compared to being stuck with "just 2G of ram." What attract me on the board is 4 phase regulator and good overclockability. When the poor Celeron D 336 on ASRock 775i65G R3.0 hit the wall at FSB 154 ( http://valid.canardpc.com/lregg7 ), the same CPU is not having problems at FSB 164 with this mobo ( http://valid.canardpc.com/rnd2tg ) and when pushed beyond stability, then 175MHz FSB is possible: http://valid.canardpc.com/fxw94m Sure, sure, 3677MHz from 2.8GHz CPU is nothing spectacular, but w/o incrasing the Vcore it is not actually bad And it looks like that incrasing Vcore could be done by just replacing one SMD resistor with zero resistance to another SMD resistor: http://www.controsensi.it/Mods/4CoreDual-SATA2/Contents_Eng.htm That is quite good and what it even better is, that near the CPU socket, there are place for 4 (!) stolen CAPS for Vcore regulator! That empty places could get very nice polymer (and small-enought to fit under the heatsink mount) caps. And on the bottom side, there is place just under the CPU for two serious tantal-polymer caps :nana: So I see a big potencial in this mobo. Just if I understand the settings a bit... PS. flashing bios is a "little" nightmare, the mobo refuse to boot from CD I create (all other computers do boot), USB flash... and when it finally boot from floppy, not even uniflash was able to flash the bios...! So beware, you really need to use the Windows flasher and NOT latest version but v4.xx (v4.48 from there works: https://www.wimsbios.com/amiflasher.jsp ) as mentioned in this guide (page 2): http://pctreiber.net/2006/howto-biosflash-asrock-motherboards.html For future reference, there is the latest 3.19a bios WITH the flashing tool: http://depositfiles.com/files/9ran5etgd http://www.mediafire.com/?x4518tmwc312wsg https://mega.co.nz/#!PYMX1CaB!p7lk1NkWWSCv86ykDNRYwvWM4mTDVWh0UYbt2nEnsdU
That is a wicked board dude and project. Reminded me of my plan to build a retro game system Using a socket 775 celeron with ddr.
yea, I loved this board back in the day, it has its little "issues" though. I am running a nvidia 7800 GS agp with e6600 in this board in my lab still. thanks for the info, was not aware of the beta bios and other details.
AC_Avatar100400 - well, we see, howthis will all work out. Hopefully I get soon my first batch of caps, so I can recap the Vcore regulator at least That should give me some hint, as how things will went down later on. holler - My biggest issue with this board is the nonworking E8600 in it, but that could be attributd to bad pin in the socket - I have to test the E8600 in another PC to be sure... Second "little problem" is the booting issue. Booting into Windows98se install CD or into DOS CD's does not work, no matter how hard I try. Not only using SATA DVDROMs, but PATA too. Maybe I try even disconnect the SATA DVDROM, but that is just desperate tries... And my aim is to concentrate usefull informations too, about the board. So you see, you learn something new along the way xxbassplayerxx - I'm everywhere ...and yes, it can take on even the Core 2 Duo E8600 "Wolfsdale" CPU, as visible on this score: http://hwbot.org/submission/2322337_matti_oc_3dmark2001_se_geforce_7800_gs_48003_marks That CPU did not have unlocked multiplier like my Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800, but it feature 45nm process, less TDP (65W as oposed to 75W) and higher overclockability. On top of that, 6MB L2 cache really counts, compared to "just" 4MB on X6800 Overal it could reach 5GHz when in luck, average O/C is 4.6GHz: http://hwbot.org/hardware/processor/core_2_e8600_3.33ghz/ (me getting bad ideas ) All-in-all, it is rather interesting board and we see how well it will overclock. So far I only have a little troubles with it, probably related to previous used bad behaviour: there is one pin on the CPU socket with added melted ball on it. Everything works, but it is just weird and hopefully other CPU's (beside the tested Celeron D) will work well too. And I cannot fully push down the 24pin ATX PSU connector into the ATX 20 pin. There is visually nothing that get in the way, but somehow at the end of the connector (neat the CPU) it just leave about 1,5mm from the fully seated connector. Could be because of using 24pin PSU connector and the need to cut a bit the plastic at the end, I check this later to see. Other than this I just could not wait to get good caps to the mobo, mod it (Vcore increase) and see, how far it will go with the overclock. Also I try to persuade guy, who made a ASRock Conroe885 bioses with different memory dividers that the default ones (like 5:4 and 1:1 forced settings) to try something like that for the ASRock 775i65G ... and when possible for the VIA PT 880 Pro chipset, then for this mobo as well. Dunno, how if this old chipset could handle for example 400MHz on the DDR2 rams (PC 8000 with 2:3 divider) ... but if it can, then I'm sure that some records will be broken
