ASRock 775Dual-VSTA. A cheap upgrade to Core 2?

Anvar · Post by **Anvar** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:40 am

Just saw the test over on Anandtech of this board. That sounds like an ideal budget upgrade path for many of us with older AMD processors. Looks like DDR-400 is just as fast as DDR2-533 on this board. Not bad at all. And you can start with your old AGP card and upgrade to PCI-e later on. So basically what I would need for this upgrade path would be this board, cpu, and cooler. Hmmm.

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 5:33 am

Yes, this is my thoughts as well. A good upgrade path choice indeed.

Seems its not the best performer, but bang for buck is extremely good in my opinion.

zenboy · Post by **zenboy** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:02 am

Just set up a friend with one of these, and a Pentium D 915 until Conroe supplies work themselves out. Pretty zippy little box, and no complaints about the board.

FraGGleR · Post by **FraGGleR** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 11:02 am

I am using this board with an e6300 and some corsair valueselect ddr2 ram. runs circles around my "old" p4 2.8ghz machine. can't complain at all. easy to setup, would definitely recommend until the 965 chipsets matures. I got it for less that $60. I mounted a Scythe Ninja on this in a P150 and it all fits well (a whole centimeter to spare on the ninja in the case!)

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:07 pm

I haven't seen one yet, but I'd have to agree. Asrock's 939Dual has pleased many users, and the 775Dual adds Conroe to the same equation. Very cool! I wish to thank Asrock in public for providing these affordable upgrade options.

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:08 pm

I wonder how it handles Overclocking of the CPU?

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:09 pm

JohnnyWakko wrote:I wonder how it handles Overclocking of the CPU?

FSB 297 according to Anandtech. http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=10

it looks very intresting...the mainproblem is that I hate VIA. Way to much trouble with them in the past

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:24 pm

What does FSB mean? (Front side bus?) Is that good?

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 3:14 pm

JohnnyWakko wrote:What does FSB mean? (Front side bus?) Is that good?

Why ask about overclocking if you don't have that basic knowledge? I'm not trying to be meen or anything, just seems a bit odd
But your guess is correct.

It isn't good in general but for that price it's definatly good.
It's 11% overclock and since I'm sitting on 10% overclock currently it would be enought for me.
Accordiong to this then the top performer is FSB 400 but consider the price. That card costs about 5 times as much.

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:56 pm

McBanjo wrote:
JohnnyWakko wrote:What does FSB mean? (Front side bus?) Is that good?
Why ask about overclocking if you don't have that basic knowledge? I'm not trying to be meen or anything, just seems a bit odd
But your guess is correct.

I'll refrain from replying to your "not trying to be mean" comment with something just as useless. If you fail to realise that a value lacking comment such as that would encourgage me to retort in a defensive way, then you know far to much about overcloking and SFA about human behaviour. Let me stress that I don't have a problem with you, I only have a problem with your behaviour.

But thanks for the knowledge in the rest of your reply, thats the stuff that is constructive and useful, keep that up, it will help colour your personality. Hope you have a damn fine day!

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:29 am

FraGGleR wrote:I am using this board with an e6300 and some corsair valueselect ddr2 ram.

Can someone who owns this board please try running CrystalCPUID to see if you can change VCore and report back. Mention which CPU you are using if you do. Thanks.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:48 am

Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed. And if it's anything like the Asrock 939DUAL board, there's zero fan control and limited voltage options (without modding).

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:05 am

Amourek wrote:Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed. And if it's anything like the Asrock 939DUAL board, there's zero fan control and limited voltage options (without modding).

ASRock make better boards than this for C2D for only a little bit more money. The only point I can see in buying one of these is if you want to use your old DDR RAM and AGP card. Otherwise, it doesn't seem at all attractive to me.

Anvar · Post by **Anvar** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:08 am

smilingcrow wrote:
Amourek wrote:Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed. And if it's anything like the Asrock 939DUAL board, there's zero fan control and limited voltage options (without modding).
ASRock make better boards than this for C2D for only a little bit more money. The only point I can see in buying one of these is if you want to use your old DDR RAM and AGP card. Otherwise, it doesn't seem at all attractive to me.

Which is exactly what I would use it for

I have a 7800GS that hasn't been used at all. I bought it because I thought my 9700Pro had died, turns out it was the M/B that had died

JohnnyWakko · Post by **JohnnyWakko** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:09 pm

Amourek wrote:Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed.

Can someone confirm or deny this please, and also substantiate thier claim? I would like to know that this really is the case.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:29 pm

JohnnyWakko wrote:
Amourek wrote:Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed.
Can someone confirm or deny this please, and also substantiate thier claim? I would like to know that this really is the case.

Anandtechâ€™s review suggests this is the case.
Another Anandtech articlelooks at the performance of this board versus a few others and might help to a degree in determining whether this is a real issue for your purposes.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:27 am

JohnnyWakko wrote:
Amourek wrote:Don't buy it if you're a gamer because the 16x PCI-E slot is crippled at 4x speed.
Can someone confirm or deny this please, and also substantiate thier claim? I would like to know that this really is the case.

Anandtech compared AGP v PCIe on this board today and it shows that the PCIe slot is held back by being only 4x and that an AGP card is slightly faster.