Asrock AM2CPU addon Board

[xu^]

hi

Doubtful ill get much response about this but is worth a go anyway

I have bought a Asrock AM2CPU future CPU expansion card for a friends Asrock 939dual-vsta mainboard.
Unfortunately we have no idea on how to find on what the max supported AM2 X2 CPU is ,the guy i bought it from on Ebay said he was running a X2 5600+ on it ,but you all know what Ebay is like

I've checked Asrocks website and the CPU compatibility list for the 939dual-vsta and tbh i think its well out of date.The board has the latest bios thats available.

If any1 has any idea on what X2 i could put in this it would be great ,ive also emailed Asrock 2 days ago and of course no reply.

we are hoping to be able to put in a X2 6000+ ,but if not poss then anything will do as either way itll be faster than his current 939 4000+ single core

 

[stanhemi]

I read some test on that addon board 2800mhz seem to be the max.Only 1.45 vcore

 

[suraswami]

why can't you put in the 5600 and OC a bit. make sure you get the 2.8ghz 5600 aka F3 Windsor not the Brisbane one.

 

[xu^]

that could be a problem ,we tried OC his 3200+ and the baord didnt like it at all ,kept random crashing constantly due to the OC ,so when he got his 4000+ he wasnt interested in OC at all ,id say he will no doubt feel the same about the X2 when i can get him 1.

So which is why i/we was after the fastest supported cpu it will take.

 

[phanbuey]

lol asrock and their weirdo board... ditch that setup altogether... maybe a new board and cpu combo? like a 3800+ and something else? or save the money on the 6000+ and get a 5600 then OC to 6000+ levels... or better yet, grab a e2xxx and a chep lga775 with some cheap memory and ur good to go!

 

[xu^]

lol asrock and their weirdo board... ditch that setup altogether... maybe a new board and cpu combo? like a 3800+ and something else? or save the money on the 6000+ and get a 5600 then OC to 6000+ levels... or better yet, grab a e2xxx and a chep lga775 with some cheap memory and ur good to go!

The whole point of this is that "he cannot afford to buy a new board" therefore this is his only option.If he could afford to upgrade to a 775 system he would,,but as it stands this is his cheapest and only alternative.

 

[suraswami]

that could be a problem ,we tried OC his 3200+ and the baord didnt like it at all ,kept random crashing constantly due to the OC ,so when he got his 4000+ he wasnt interested in OC at all ,id say he will no doubt feel the same about the X2 when i can get him 1.

So which is why i/we was after the fastest supported cpu it will take.

Try to open up a separate thread under OC here and post all the settings in Bios and windows (eg CPUz). Then we might help you OCing that 4000. BTW is that 4000 939 or AM2 single or dualcore?

The whole point of this is that "he cannot afford to buy a new board" therefore this is his only option.If he could afford to upgrade to a 775 system he would,,but as it stands this is his cheapest and only alternative.

on egg (don't know in UK) you can find some cheap Jetway or Biostar mobo for S775 for real cheap, E series cpus for cheap and ram is dirt cheap, i bet you can finish your entire build for under a bill if you catch something on sale, for that matter you can try here for some used ones.

once again with the daughter board, cooling will be issue, as you have to go for better heavier cooler if you go with higher clock speed especially the 6000 as it might run hot and get into crashing issues due to improper cooling.

Do you already have a good cooler, ram etc so you are looking for only cpu?

 

[phanbuey]

an amd 6000+ cpu is $76

and AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ is $39
then grab a 690G board for $40 and youre $3 over just that chip.

 

[rodneyhchef]

He lives in the uk, it's not so easy. But the people who have said get a new board have a point...

The 939Dual is perhaps one of the best boards ever made for 939s, just have a look at Wizzard's Review for it. (ok it's not the vsta it's the earlier version but it's the same board) If you put that board on ebay, with the AM2 add on board, you'll get at least £50 for it, you can grab a half decent AM2 motherboard from scan for less than that. If you already have the AM2 CPU and the DDR2 memory (pretty sure the add on board won't work with the native DDR1 on the mainboard), as long as you have A PCI-E graphics card you're pretty much there.

If the bios hasn't been updated for ages then it's unlikely to properly support anything newer than when the bios was released. Having said that, I would've thought it would recognise anything with a windsor core as the only difference between the 5600 and a 6000/6400 is the multiplier.

 

[xu^]

in the UK prices are way way higher then what you quoted ,eg the cheapest reasonable board for 775 is probably equiv to $150 ,and E21xx cpu another $100 etc ,we already have the am2board for his asrock (ebay ) so all he needs is a am2 cpu.(already has 2gb of 667 ddr2 ram)

even if he was to sell it ,he would still need to buy a board + cpu and he is struggling to afford a cpu on its own tbh.

in the uk we'd kill for prices like newegg have ,but unfortunately we have to put up with overinflated prices.

anyway ,he will not upgrade as he cant afford it,so this is what he has to work with. which brings me back to my original question about the max cpu supported

 

[rodneyhchef]

in the UK prices are way way higher then what you quoted ,eg the cheapest reasonable board for 775 is probably equiv to $150 ,and E21xx cpu another $100 etc ,we already have the am2board for his asrock (ebay ) so all he needs is a am2 cpu.(already has 2gb of 667 ddr2 ram)

even if he was to sell it ,he would still need to buy a board + cpu and he is struggling to afford a cpu on its own tbh.

in the uk we'd kill for prices like newegg have ,but unfortunately we have to put up with overinflated prices.

anyway ,he will not upgrade as he cant afford it,so this is what he has to work with. which brings me back to my original question about the max cpu supported

He'll have to buy the ram too either way, you cant use the DDR1 ram. Trust me, these boards sell well on ebay. I was after one for ages but decided they were too expensive. If you sell the CPU, etc separately then you'll easily cover the cost of a replacement board and some half decent DDR2 memory. As for the CPU support, see previous.

 

[xu^]

as stated above he already has 2gb of 667 ddr2 ram (that i gave him for free)

he only needs the cpu ,its just which 1..
if i bought a am2 x2 cpu for this card and it turned out it was not supported ,is there any chance it would work at a lower speed?
if i cant find out for sure wat the max supported is ,im considering buying a x2 5400+ 2.8ghz for it,and "hoping" it will be ok ,as the seller did tell me he ran a 5600+ on it fine for 6 months.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140713


if at some point he manages to get the funds to upgrade properly then yes im sure he will ,but theres no chance in hell he will let me sell his stuff and have no computer for a week or so while its being sold and new parts bought lol

 

[lemonadesoda]

I think that is a really cool, funky, product! I do like those engineers at AsRock. They work on a shoestring yet come up with nifty stuff. Sure, it's not the fastest system in the world. But it works, and is fun, and adds new scope to bog-standard mainboards.

 

[rodneyhchef]

Sorry, didn't see the bit about the DDR2 Ram, don't see why you cant Increase the FSB to arrive at the original clockspeed of whatever CPU you fit. The max supported multiplier seems to be 14x according to asrock, but I don't see why 15 wouldn't work too. Even at 14x you're almost there, only requiring an FSB bump of about 15MHz. Just steer clear of 65nm CPUs, just incase...

You could test what FSB the board is capable of with that 4000+ (I assume it's a San Diego?) They are usually good overclockers, I've got one here that'll do 3GHz with 1.5V (250x12) That and another one I've got will do 2.7 on stock volts. The board should do it no problem based on Wizzard's review. What sort of cooling does he have?

 

[rodneyhchef]

Perhaps I can be of some use afterall!

http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=77038

 

[EiSFX]

well according to that link Rodney a 6000+ works just fine with the AM2 upgrade board just as long as you have the 2.31C BIOS installed on the mobo and you should be fine

 

[rodneyhchef]

well according to that link Rodney a 6000+ works just fine with the AM2 upgrade board just as long as you have the 2.31C BIOS installed on the mobo and you should be fine

Exactly!

 

[xu^]

thanks ,hopefully it should work ok then ,but... the board my friend has isnt the sata2

he has the 939dual-vsta ,im not sure if its older than the sata board or not,time to go hunting i guess

at least reading that gives me some hope

 

[xu^]

well i got a reply from Asrock and very helpfull they was.

this is there reply..

Hello,
please update to attached BIOS 1.30d (before you change the CPU), it support Rev G CPU and AM2 Athlon64 X2 5600+, 6000+ and 6400+ CPU

Best regards,

ASRock Support

ASRock Europe B.V.
Bijsterhuizen 31-51
6604 LV Wijchen
The Netherlands
www.asrock.com


So if it works ill be most impressed with Asrock

thanks again for all the comments and help ppl.

 

[rodneyhchef]

VSTA is the newer version of the SATA2.