Overclockable 939 Motherboard

[hatsumi]

I've got an Asrock Dual SATA2 motherboard, just waiting on delivery of my Opteron 144 (due tomorrow from scan!!)

It'll be teamed with the items listed under my system. Will let you know how well the overclocking goes!

[BUFF]

I've got an Asrock Dual SATA2 motherboard, just waiting on delivery of my Opteron 144 (due tomorrow from scan!!)

It'll be teamed with the items listed under my system. Will let you know how well the overclocking goes!

You'll need a modded BIOS for over 274HTT

[hatsumi]

You'll need a modded BIOS for over 274HTT

Where is the best place to look for a modded BIOS?

[BUFF]

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2005/asro...s/betabios.htm

[davethechamp]

I prefer the look to the Abit board, simply because there will be more room between the CPU cooler and GFX card on it compared to the Asus.
Plus the Abit has edge connectors for ATA, tends to make the case neater and have better air flow I think?
Cheaper to?!?

Will look forward to see how hatsumi gets on with the Dual sata2 (asrock) though!

Dave

[StormPC]

DFI NF4 SLI-D for EXTREME overclocking and Asus A8N-SLI Premium for everything else.

[BUFF]

I prefer the look to the Abit board, simply because there will be more room between the CPU cooler and GFX card on it compared to the Asus.
Plus the Abit has edge connectors for ATA, tends to make the case neater and have better air flow I think?
Cheaper to?!?

Will look forward to see how hatsumi gets on with the Dual sata2 (asrock) though!

I've got both & I much prefer the Abit but the Asrock has it's own little niche for people with very good AGP cards upgrading to 939 whilst keeping an eye out for PCI-E.

[Synergy6]

DFI NF4 SLI-D for EXTREME overclocking and Asus A8N-SLI Premium for everything else.

Hmm, right ho. Perhaps you'd point to the page on Scan.co.uk which has either of those boards for under £55-£60? No offense, but reading my original question would be much appreciated.

Otherwise, I'm really looking between the Abit, Asus (around £57 each) and the Asrock. Really depends whether I get the 7800GT or not.
Synergy6

[StormPC]

Hmm, right ho. Perhaps you'd point to the page on Scan.co.uk which has either of those boards for under £55-£60? No offense, but reading my original question would be much appreciated.

Otherwise, I'm really looking between the Abit, Asus (around £57 each) and the Asrock. Really depends whether I get the 7800GT or not.
Synergy6

Scan does not have any decent overclocking boards in stock for the price you want. This is the best board out of what they have available right now:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=299635

At least it's the NF4 Ultra.

[kalniel]

Looking at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p=8 the Asrock doesn't look too bad at all But, it's AGP and PCI-E, SATA 3GB, a decent overclocker, and £37. There's gotta be a catch somewhere, right?
I quite like the idea of the Asrock, as it would give me the options of getting the 7800GT now or keeping my 9800 and getting the (wild guess) x1900xl with my bonus in April.

Synergy6

There is a catch - you can't run 1T command rates so lose a tiny %, and there's only one sata2 port (but four sata1 ports as well). But I would say the flexibility is worth it and the increase in speed of the new cards later on more than makes up for the tiny % you loose from not having 1T

[jimborae]

Scan does not have any decent overclocking boards in stock for the price you want. This is the best board out of what they have available right now:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=299635

At least it's the NF4 Ultra.

I'd say the Abit the Abit KN8 Ultra is better than that Gigabyte board. Better layout, better build quality, better bios support & I've alway found Abit to be better overclockers than Giga****e boards.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=265397

[BUFF]

, and there's only one sata2 port (but four sata1 ports as well)

Only 2 SATA 150 ports & CPU usage in RAID is horrendous if anyone was thinking about it.

[Synergy6]

Only 2 SATA 150 ports & CPU usage in RAID is horrendous if anyone was thinking about it.

Wouldn't be using more than one SATA drive, and definitely not RAID.
Synergy6

[StormPC]

I'd say the Abit the Abit KN8 Ultra is better than that Gigabyte board. Better layout, better build quality, better bios support & I've alway found Abit to be better overclockers than Giga****e boards.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=265397

I am not a huge fan of Gigabyte boards, but the newer stuff is better than the newer Abit stuff IMO. Since Abit lost their best engineer to DFI they have never quite recovered.

[hatsumi]

Will look forward to see how hatsumi gets on with the Dual sata2 (asrock) though!

Dave

Got everything up and running now. The board appears to have a a slightly modified 1.2 bios. The box is covered in extra stickers proclaiming out of the box support for X2 processors, all 'E' steppings and it recognised my Opty 144 (CABNE 0545) straight away.

The bios shows as having 'FSB' up to 300Mhz, yet refuses to post past 274, even with ram at 133 divider and all HTT at 600Mhz (x3).

I have decided to keep to 270 FSB, with ram at 133. Cannot push enough voltage through the ram to keep stable above a ram speed of 215Mhz, as the board only allows 2.7v max on the ram. Its Corsair CMX3500, based on the BH5/6 chips so likes voltage, although I have some nice timings, which are normally good up to 205Mhz on 2.7v.

[BUFF]

The bios shows as having 'FSB' up to 300Mhz, yet refuses to post past 274, even with ram at 133 divider and all HTT at 600Mhz (x3).[/IMG][/URL]

I told you that you would need a modded BIOS to go past 274HTT