# Phenomenal: Phenom II X4 AGP rig



## TRWOV (Dec 28, 2012)

I really like Asrock and their little nifty boards, they always cater to some specific needs: 2011 board with a floppy connector? check. 865G AGP based board released in 2012 for no apparent reason? check. A board drafted for 775 P4s that at its EOL supports Core 2 Quads? got you covered. 

One of those curious boards is the AM2NF3-VSTA. It really shows a lot of Asrock's ingenuity: supports AM2, AM2+ and AM3 CPUs up to 125w, DDR2-1066 and AGP cards. Basically a dream machine for any AGP user with a "high-end" card (HD 3850/4670).

There's a caveat though: due to nVidia's shenanigans, the nforce3 chipset doesn't have a working multi-core GART driver for 64bit OSes; only single core CPUs work in that configuration and, because of that, the usefulness of using a modern OS is lost and if you stick to XP 32bit with a working multi-core GART then you can't take advantage of the 4 DDR2 slots. My intent is to research this issue and, hopefully, get to a working solution.

Will I be able to overcome all of that and become an internet hero  or will I cry frustration tears like all others before me? 



Current specs:








Phenom II X4 965BE C3








HIS HD3850 IceQ3 Turbo AGP








Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA








8GB OCZ PC2-8500 Platinum LV








Asus Physx P1








Cooler Master Geminii








Cooler Master Extreme Power 600








KMEX CG-6B6C








Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 Reds everywhere


Planned mods:
- Sleeve PSU cables
- Put a black acrylic panel to cover the 3.5" bays and provide space to hide cables
- Add red LED strips at the front


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Dec 28, 2012)

I hope you figure it out and become a hero man.


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## Crap Daddy (Dec 28, 2012)

It sounds like a real thriller. Let us hear more.


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## darkangel0504 (Dec 28, 2012)

What the ......


> Support for Socket AM2+ / AM2 processors: AMD Phenom™ FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core / Athlon X2 Dual-Core / Athlon 64 / Sempron processor
> NVIDIA® nForce3 250 Chipset


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 28, 2012)

Be really careful overclocking that 965BE as my 940BE @ 3.4GHz/1.425v turned my CPU VRM area noticeably brown in about a month's time (granted, I crunch on it full time). My board still works fine but I replaced the CPU with an X3 720BE @ 3.4/1.35v and it still runs great, if not better for some reason. Make some custom heatsinks and tame those evil D2PAK MOSFETs that release so much heat.


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## TRWOV (Dec 28, 2012)

darkangel0504 said:


> What the ......



Look at the CPU support list: http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/AM2NF3-VSTA/?cat=CPU



Jstn7477 said:


> Be really careful overclocking that 965BE as my 940BE @ 3.4GHz/1.425v turned my CPU VRM area noticeably brown in about a month's time (granted, I crunch on it full time). My board still works fine but I replaced the CPU with an X3 720BE @ 3.4/1.35v and it still runs great, if not better for some reason. Make some custom heatsinks and tame those evil D2PAK MOSFETs that release so much heat.



Got me some Enzotech MOS-C1s  Besides the 965 is newer silicon (C3 125w) so I might have a little more wiggling room. Re-capping the board is also in the plans.


Also bought a Sempron 145 for research. Got both new for ~$100.


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## darkangel0504 (Dec 28, 2012)

^
i know
but i surprised that Phenom II can run AGP slot


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 28, 2012)

Yeah, I bought a Biostar A780L3B/Sempron 130 combo earlier this year (specifically for testing single core functionality on my AM2NF3-VSTA) and I found that even with that processor and Windows 7 x64with working drivers on my 3850, anything DX10 seemed to crash. Ran the cheap board for 6 months with the X3 720 @ 3.4/1.35v and it died a couple weeks ago.


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## Frick (Dec 28, 2012)

Oh asrock i love that company. 

lots of mario in the op, hosting problems?


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## Krazy Owl (Dec 28, 2012)

Do you already have that HIS ? I could have to sell a HD4670 1gig hdmi.


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## TRWOV (Dec 28, 2012)

Frick said:


> Oh asrock i love that company.
> 
> lots of mario in the op, hosting problems?





no, that means I already have that part 





Krazy Owl said:


> Do you already have that HIS ? I could have to sell a HD4670 1gig hdmi.



Got it but TY for the offer


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Dec 29, 2012)

I haven't had the privileged to be able to play with one of those boards. So if this question sounds dumb ignore it and smack me in the head. But does that board have core control in the bios?


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## TRWOV (Dec 29, 2012)

Don't think so but I guess Justin should be able to tell us. Asrock doesn't mention it on the overview but then again AM3 support isn't stated either.


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 29, 2012)

As far as I can tell, no. I haven't seen any options to control the active core count in the BIOS. Also, another crappy restriction is that core overvoltage is only allowed if the processor has an unlocked multiplier. My Phenom 9750 (no longer have), Sempron 130 (if I recall) and my Phenom 8550 exhibit this, while my 720BE, 940BE and 955BE could all be overvolted to 1.55v (which is pretty much lethal for the board). If it did have core control, I would happily dual boot, turn off all but one core and overclock the hell out of it for Win7 and enable them all at a modest OC for XP x86.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Dec 29, 2012)

Jstn7477 said:


> As far as I can tell, no. I haven't seen any options to control the active core count in the BIOS. Also, another crappy restriction is that core overvoltage is only allowed if the processor has an unlocked multiplier. My Phenom 9750 (no longer have), Sempron 130 (if I recall) and my Phenom 8550 exhibit this, while my 720BE, 940BE and 955BE could all be overvolted to 1.55v (which is pretty much lethal for the board). If it did have core control, I would happily dual boot, turn off all but one core and overclock the hell out of it for Win7 and enable them all at a modest OC for XP x86.



Thats exactly why I was asking. I was wondering if you could shut down cores for testing and such.


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## TRWOV (Dec 29, 2012)

Got the PSU and fans in:


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## drdeathx (Dec 29, 2012)

Jstn7477 said:


> As far as I can tell, no. I haven't seen any options to control the active core count in the BIOS. Also, another crappy restriction is that core overvoltage is only allowed if the processor has an unlocked multiplier. My Phenom 9750 (no longer have), Sempron 130 (if I recall) and my Phenom 8550 exhibit this, while my 720BE, 940BE and 955BE could all be overvolted to 1.55v (which is pretty much lethal for the board). If it did have core control, I would happily dual boot, turn off all but one core and overclock the hell out of it for Win7 and enable them all at a modest OC for XP x86.



You can disable cores through windows.


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## TRWOV (Dec 29, 2012)

what software is that?


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 29, 2012)

drdeathx said:


> You can disable cores through windows.
> 
> 
> http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq77/AAdeath/cores_zpsebc49cc7.png



Pretty sure that the cores have to physically be turned off in BIOS or hardware and the PC can't be changed from a multiprocessor to a uniprocessor PC via selecting how many cores Windows itself uses.


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## Xenturion (Jan 2, 2013)

I had no idea ASRock has such a long history of bizarre motherboard creations. I remember when I picked the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 up a long time ago for a friend. Not only does the board offer AGP and PCIe on the same board, but it has the legendary "Future CPU" port. They offered an addin board that, with a complicated series of jumpers, could be configured to run an AM2 processor with DDR2 memory. Never ended up using that feature, but the AGP/PCIe slots definitely made the generational transition to PCIe easier on my friend's wallet.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/ULi/939Dual-SATA2/

Subbed to see this beast in action.


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 2, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> what software is that?



That is MSCONFIG

Goto start then run then type in MSCONFIG


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## theubersmurf (Jan 2, 2013)

I think the physx card may be something of a waste, I'm pretty sure nvidia stopped writing drivers that worked with those cards a while ago, and most modern implementations would demand a card that can run CUDA.


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## TRWOV (Jan 2, 2013)

I don't plan to use this rig much, it's mainly for the (hopeless) technical challenge. That and I have a few parts lying around including the HD3850, N520, case and the mentioned Physx card. The PPU will be useful if only to benchmark with 3D Vantage (the second Physx test supports addon cards).

Once completed I think I'll give it to a relative or something, don't have much use for a third backup rig.


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## theubersmurf (Jan 3, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> I don't plan to use this rig much, it's mainly for the (hopeless) technical challenge. That and I have a few parts lying around including the HD3850, N520, case and the mentioned Physx card. The PPU will be useful if only to benchmark with 3D Vantage (the second Physx test supports addon cards).
> 
> Once completed I think I'll give it to a relative or something, don't have much use for a third backup rig.


I get you. Actually, I'm curious how it will turn out, your nforce chipset issue sounds a bit itchy and scratchy. I guess I'm subbed now so I can watch as it moves along. good luck with it.


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## TRWOV (Jan 3, 2013)

Installed the PSU to take some measurements.






It's going to be a tight fit.


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## waspman3372 (Jan 3, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/920/phenomenal.png​
> 
> I really like Asrock and their little nifty boards, they always cater to some specific needs: 2011 board with a floppy connector? check. 865G AGP based board released in 2012 for no apparent reason? check. A board drafted for 775 P4s that at its EOL supports Core 2 Quads? got you covered.
> 
> ...



Dude looks like a sweet rig. Just looking at it makes me want to configure one of my own again.


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 4, 2013)

I added fet sinks to my AM2NF3-VSTA and a few of them are still loose for some reason after a day of the 2 part glue curing, but so far they are running at a cool 50c under full load from an X3 8550 from what my IR thermometer gun is telling me. I'll leave it running for another day and make sure the sinks are solid before I dare mount it back in its case and put the 965BE back in.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

Heatsinks installed:


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 5, 2013)

Those came out good. I'm embarrassed to look at my board and the sloppy arctic cooling sinks I glued on, but they work great and my VRM temps are like 55c max now @ 3.5GHz/1.35v on my 965BE.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

I was planning to change the capacitors but they are nichicon and Panasonic. I guess I'll test with them first.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

Window installed:







I've hit a wall it seems. The bios that shipped with the board is 2.50, going by the sticker, and it seems that it doesn't want to boot with the Sempron... although there's a weird thing: the PSU fires up as soon as I turn on the PSU's switch.

I removed the RAM and CPU but it still turns on. No beep codes. Short? I'm using it outside the case.




EDIT: Unplugged everything, including the CPU and the PSU fires up as soon as I plug the 20pin connector. What would cause this?


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 5, 2013)

Did you clear CMOS and everything? If Power ON after AC Loss is enabled, the board will instantly turn on when power is reapplied.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

yup, cleared CMOS before turning it on


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 5, 2013)

Darn, might be bricked unless the PSU is DOA. Not quite sure on that one.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

PSU is fine, used a tester on it before. mmm... I guess I'll have to buy a Sempron 3200 or something, I had thought it would at least boot... but I find the lack of beep codes disturbing.


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 5, 2013)

I'm pretty sure my Sempron 130 worked out of the box. I don't know why it wouldn't besides outdated AGESA code although I did originally run my board with a Phenom 9750 and may have done the BIOS upgrade to 3.40 then.


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## TRWOV (Jan 5, 2013)

Ok, I don't know what I did but the PSU is behaving normally now. Still no beep codes.

I guess I'll hunt for an AM2 CPU.


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 6, 2013)

I have an X3 8550 if you're interested.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 6, 2013)

use a spare PSU, if that board has a power switch on it- could be cause, check the front panel button headers too.



TRWOV said:


> Window installed:
> 
> http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4418/img0984y.jpg
> 
> ...


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## Jayzilla (Jan 7, 2013)

Man. You just never let the AGP die. I'm so glad to see this work-log. You have finished 2-3 systems and I haven't got close to 15%. 

So you aren't using any Zotac PCI for Physx? Looks like Cooler Master is your sponsor for this project.




TRWOV said:


> Ok, I don't know what I did but the PSU is behaving normally now. Still no beep codes.
> 
> I guess I'll hunt for an AM2 CPU.



When I got my board it has the P2.50 sticker on the BIOS chip. I don't remember the version it actually has, but an AM2 chip was needed to flash the bios. I still having the booting problem sometimes....but I'm not sure what is the cause. As for now I am fine I guess. I hope you don't experience the issues I had. I am just doubting the stability for this board with the Phenom II X4 chips. One small thing with this rig is you'll need to do the restart/shutdown manually.


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## Cuzza (Jan 7, 2013)

AGP ftw! A few years ago I wanted to go GPU folding on my AGP board so I dug up a AGP 3850. Never got it to work. Haven't used AGP since. I will be watching with interest!


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## TRWOV (Jan 10, 2013)

Ended up ordering an updated bios chip on ebay.


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## 3870x2 (Jan 10, 2013)

Just the chip? are you going to have to solder that on?


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## Jstn7477 (Jan 10, 2013)

3870x2 said:


> Just the chip? are you going to have to solder that on?



It's a socketed PLCC package CMOS chip, pictured to the left of the PCI slots.


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 11, 2013)

Jstn7477 said:


> It's a socketed PLCC package CMOS chip, pictured to the left of the PCI slots.



thank goodness, I hate how board makers have went back to soldering the chips.


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## TRWOV (Feb 1, 2013)

A small change. The case used will be this:


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## theubersmurf (Feb 1, 2013)

I like the older case better, why the change?


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## TRWOV (Feb 2, 2013)

The bottom of the frontal panel looks like a helmet somewhat and gave me an idea, plus it has a black interior and has more room.

I still have the other one so I can always swap again.


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## TRWOV (Apr 19, 2013)

Small update. Got an X-Fi XtremeMusic for the build.


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## TRWOV (Apr 29, 2013)

Got a pair of 160GB drives to install both W7 x64 and XP to get started with the testing.


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## TRWOV (Apr 30, 2013)

First build attempt. 







Got a few things wrong in the building order so it looks messier than it should. Took note of the things I'll need (extensions, covers, etc.).

That's a GT430 PCI over the top right corner, I was planning to use it for Physx but the board won't post with two GPUs installed. 

The top mesh over the CPU cooler (if you're wondering, that's a CM Geminii) can fit two slim 120mm fans although I guess it's really intended to hold a radiator installed over the case. 

Haven't decided what to do with that. I was thinking about putting a pair of CM Turbine Masters over the case as intakes.  (might look tacky)


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## TRWOV (May 1, 2013)

First issues creeping up:

- The board is very picky with AM3 CPUs. I disabled the IDE channels and the board would get stuck looking for hard drives on post. After clearing the CMOS the board wouldn't post. I had to install an AM2 CPU to get the board to post and then put the 965 back in again.

- Soft and hard reset don't work, the board doesn't post in that case. Soft shut down sometimes resets the machine and sometimes shuts it down.


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## TRWOV (May 2, 2013)

Windows XP installed and customized:





now to tackle W7...


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## Cheeseball (May 2, 2013)

Are you running with all 4 cores enabled on the 965 BE?


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## TRWOV (May 2, 2013)

yes


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## TRWOV (May 5, 2013)

First benchmarks:





















It managed to break my previous 3dmark06 record with the 3850 AGP: http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm06/17254875/3dm06/17075086

Issues: 
- For some reason I can't get my RAM to work at 1066. I change the speed in the bios but CPU-Z shows 533Mhz. Flexible mode is disabled.
- CnQ doesn't seem to work, is there a setting I should change for this? CnQ is active in the bios. EDIT: Changing the energy plan to "minimal power" enables it.


As for Windows 7 I've hit the common roadblock. I found a thread _discussing another thread_ on the nVidia forums that said how to use the XP x64 GART driver on Vista x64 but, of course, the original thread was deleted. Can't let users know of your bullshitting, right nVidia?

This is a gem: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2041



> The NVIDIA nForce3 core logic predates multi-core CPU's and was not designed to support them.



Then why do multicore CPUs work just fine on XP32? It's not a 32bit thing since W7x86 exhibits the same problem. Way to go nVidia.  I don't really mind keeping XP on this machine but I'd like to take advantage of the extra RAM somehow.

Anyone knows about a good RAMdisk software that can use the unmapped memory and keep an image file on disk (to restore the ramdisk)? Primo RAMdisk seemed to fit the bill but it doesn't detect my unmapped memory for some reason. eboostr does use the unmapped memory but it isn't very customizable and I can't tell if it copies the ramdisk on disk.


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## TRWOV (Jun 8, 2013)

A small change to the build: it will now house a CX430 V2; it comes with all the cables sleeved so it'll be a time saver. 

I was considering water-cooling this rig so that's why I bought the Extreme 600 in the first place but right now this will do. I've also decided that this won't have an optical drive. Picked up an LCD panel and a 5 channel fan controller.



So far I haven't found any turnaround for the x64 GART situation  

I don't know why but sometimes it fails to boot and I have to clear the CMOS again, it has been like this since I installed the second 1066 kit. I'll shuffle the RAM in the slots to see if that solves the issue. RAM is temperamental sometimes.


Pics on Sunday.


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 10, 2013)

Very nice build, Don't ever let go of it!

I also just got my hands on a AM2NF3-VSTA, and I have a radical idea of modding the CPU micro code in the bios, upping mosfet cooling and trying a 1090T in it? (Even though the bus speed will cap it to death)

This will cause fireworks!? 

If it works, and lasts a few hours of Prime95 i'll shall send you a bios file.


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## de.das.dude (Jun 10, 2013)

suubbed


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## TRWOV (Jun 10, 2013)

LegendofMadness said:


> Very nice build, Don't ever let go of it!
> 
> I also just got my hands on a AM2NF3-VSTA, and I have a radical idea of modding the CPU micro code in the bios, upping mosfet cooling and trying a 1090T in it? (Even though the bus speed will cap it to death)
> 
> ...



If you should try I'd say use one of the X6 95w models. I don't think the board has enough juice for a 125w X6 CPU.


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 11, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> If you should try I'd say use one of the X6 95w models. I don't think the board has enough juice for a 125w X6 CPU.



Yeah good idea, The 95w ones were improved with the same transistor count if I remember?

I wish I had the tools to install all solid gold caps and new alloy chokes on this board.  And also hot wire a 8pin cpu power plug


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## George_o/c (Jun 11, 2013)

I loved these hybrid boards from ASRock back in the day. I've tried all of them - 4CoreDual SATA2 R2.0, 4CoreDual-VSTA and M2NF3-VSTA the one you used (still have that one). 

Phenoms are incredibly strong in 3DMark05 & 06 with AGP cards, in case you want to climb up the 3850 AGP hwbot rankings  

Congrats on your hard work, this rig is incredibe sir


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## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2013)

I think I killed my HD3850 Turbo


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## Jstn7477 (Jun 26, 2013)

LegendofMadness said:


> Very nice build, Don't ever let go of it!
> 
> I also just got my hands on a AM2NF3-VSTA, and I have a radical idea of modding the CPU micro code in the bios, upping mosfet cooling and trying a 1090T in it? (Even though the bus speed will cap it to death)
> 
> ...



I pretty much couldn't go higher than 3.5GHz on my 955/965BE C3 chips when I had them, and they turned the back of my board a toasty brown color after about a month or two of 24/7 load. I'm currently running an Athlon II X4 640 and it seems to throttle even at stock unless the vcore is reduced to 1.25v. IntelBurnTest at stock 3GHz/1.25v gets me ~25 GFLOPs and overclocked to 3.4GHz gets me like 17. Once it's dead, I think I'll go back to the 4CoreDual-SATA2 and try to volt-mod my X6800 or pick up a QX6700 and sell off the X6800 and Xeon X3210. Not looking to put much more money into this old stuff though, only reason I got it in the first place was because Geeks.com was selling these boards for $25 each and I picked up an AM2NF3-VSTA, 4CoreDual-SATA2, 775Xfire-VSTA and K8NF6P-VSTA for just $100 to get some old parts running again.


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 26, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> I think I killed my HD3850 Turbo



How the hell did you manage that?


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## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2013)

LegendofMadness said:


> How the hell did you manage that?



I tried to install a Thermalrigth RAD-2 on it but one of the capacitors was in the way (the rightmost 330uF cap) so I desoldered it and put it on the back of the card. The solder was pretty hardened so I had to use some flux cream and the flux spilled over nearby components (about a half inch wide area) but I cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush and cloth afterwards . Now it won't send a video signal  

There was no sudden loss of signal or something, nothing that would indicate a short or anything so there's the possibility that the capacitor was killed in the ordeal. I'll get a replacement cap and try again. *crosses fingers *


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 26, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> I tried to install a Thermalrigth RAD-2 on it but one of the capacitors was in the way (the rightmost 330uF cap) so I desoldered it and put it on the back of the card. The solder was pretty hardened so I had to use some flux cream and the flux spilled over nearby components (about a half inch wide area) but I cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush and cloth afterwards . Now it won't send a video signal
> 
> There was no sudden loss of signal or something, nothing that would indicate a short or anything so there's the possibility that the capacitor was killed in the ordeal. I'll get a replacement cap and try again. *crosses fingers *



That really sucks,  I hope you fix it!
I learnt my lesson trying to mod my HIS 4670 PCB.  The poor thing is dead now and looks damn sexy on my wall!

You should get a HD3870 Waterblock?.  They seem to line up with everything on the HIS 3850 PCB.  It will make an insane overclocker.


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## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2013)

What sets fear in my hearth is that I have a 6200LE with half its caps blown but it still works so unless this 330 cap closes the circuit or something I can't get how it doesn't at least send a video signal.


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 26, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> What sets fear in my hearth is that I have a 6200LE with half its caps blown but it still works so unless this 330 cap closes the circuit or something I can't get how it doesn't at least send a video signal.



Damn, If I see a 3850AGP here in Australia I'll buy it and sell it to you for a good price


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## Frick (Jun 26, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> What sets fear in my hearth is that I have a 6200LE with half its caps blown but it still works so unless this 330 cap closes the circuit or something I can't get how it doesn't at least send a video signal.



Is flux cream conducitve? Is it possible some was left on the card and it shorted something out? I assume you did it properly but still... I have a HD 2400 pro which has every single cap on it bulging and it still works as a charm.


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## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2013)

Frick said:


> Is flux cream conducitve? Is it possible some was left on the card and it shorted something out? I assume you did it properly but still... I have a HD 2400 pro which has every single cap on it bulging and it still works as a charm.



It isn't. It's regular flux with a creamy additive that evaporates as soon as the soldering iron touches it. I've used it several times to recap motherboards. Never had a problem. 

Got a radial cap and soldered it to the card. No go.  I can't fucking believe this 

Not that I had a need for it but this certainly sucks. Now I'll have to get another card  I got this baby to 824/1197, I doubt I'll get another like it. :shadedshu All of this for trying to get 25Mhz more.


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 26, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> It isn't. It's regular flux with a creamy additive that evaporates as soon as the soldering iron touches it. I've used it several times to recap motherboards. Never had a problem.
> 
> Got a radial cap and soldered it to the card. No go.  I can't fucking believe this
> 
> Not that I had a need for it but this certainly sucks. Now I'll have to get another card  I got this baby to 824/1197, I doubt I'll get another like it. :shadedshu All of this for trying to get 25Mhz more.



The real shit thing is the rareity of these cards.  Im lucky the DirectCU cooler fit without mods, they are such a fragile card.  If it works dont touch it lol


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## TRWOV (Jun 26, 2013)

With the card installed there's no beep but if I remove it there's two short beeps so the card is being detected. The heatsink gets warm so the GPU is working too, it just won't boot. I placed the original cap back in its place and there's no change. 

I just can't wrap my mind around this, I've modded game consoles (Genesis Crystal Audio mod, S-Video mod, SNES region mod, etc) recapped motherboards and graphic cards and now this happens in a simple cap swap.

I'll try to boot with a PCI card and see if Windows recognizes the 3850 somehow.



EDIT: Holly molly. Two guys with 3850 turbos selling them for >350.  I'll have to try with a sapphire or powercolor then.


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## Frick (Jun 26, 2013)

You didn't touch up some other component at any time with a heatsink or something? Or the static discharge fairy (whom I have never seen IRL actually)..


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## TRWOV (Jun 27, 2013)

Ordered a Sapphire 3850 on ebay, seller had it at $75 but agreed to a $50 offer. It should take about 10 days to get here by International Priority. In the mean time I'll try to get the 3850 Turbo to work.





Frick said:


> You didn't touch up some other component at any time with a heatsink or something? Or the static discharge fairy (whom I have never seen IRL actually)..



Well, the only component that touched the heatsink was the mentioned cap. The caps near  the 8 pin connector had about  1mm of clearance from the edge of the heatsink so they didn't need to be removed, everything else fit snugly under it. If the cap would have been 3mm shorter this shouldn't have happened 

Maybe I'm passing something up but I just can't phantom what would it be...


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## Nostalgic Hardware (Jun 27, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> Ordered a Sapphire 3850 on ebay, seller had it at $75 but agreed to a $50 offer. It should take about 10 days to get here by International Priority. In the mean time I'll try to get the 3850 Turbo to work.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wooooooh!
Can the ICEQ 3 cooler fit onto it?, I'm surprised you even found a 3850, I was hunting for another 3 of them for agers


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## McM4r (Sep 18, 2013)

*config*

hi friend, u can post ur bios configuration? i have the same rig but i put the hd4670 instead the 3850 and a phenom 945 instead of 965, i noticed in games like black ops 10 more FPS with fraps when i put the aperture size in 512mb in the bios, when i put 64 or 128 drops 10 or more fps (only in some games), other issue in this building is when i set manually the nb frequency at the most value x11 2000mhz i think (i dont remember) the cpu don't pass the intel burn test, the system shutdown and restart, the same thing happen when i play call of duty, this problem fix when i set to automatic the multiplier of the nb freq. in automatic the value is 1600mhz, btw my ram modules have 2 pair of corsair xms2 800mhz 5-5-5-18 
thanks in advance


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 21, 2013)

system specs please



McM4r said:


> hi friend, u can post ur bios configuration? i have the same rig but i put the hd4670 instead the 3850 and a phenom 945 instead of 965, i noticed in games like black ops 10 more FPS with fraps when i put the aperture size in 512mb in the bios, when i put 64 or 128 drops 10 or more fps (only in some games), other issue in this building is when i set manually the nb frequency at the most value x11 2000mhz i think (i dont remember) the cpu don't pass the intel burn test, the system shutdown and restart, the same thing happen when i play call of duty, this problem fix when i set to automatic the multiplier of the nb freq. in automatic the value is 1600mhz, btw my ram modules have 2 pair of corsair xms2 800mhz 5-5-5-18
> thanks in advance


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## McM4r (Sep 23, 2013)

eidairaman1 said:


> system specs please



hi buddy my system specs are
-ASROCK AM2NF3-VSTA MOTHERBOARD
-PHENOM II x4 945 (95W)
-2x2 gb CORSAIR XMS2 1.8v 5-5-5-18
-HIS HD4670 AGP (H467Q1HDAP)
-1TB WESTERN DIGITAL BLUE 
-TT COMMANDER MS-I

that's all, also i have errors (BSOD) related to the "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" i think its a IRQ problem the agp slot can't handle video and digital audio signal at the same time.


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## TRWOV (Sep 23, 2013)

Disable the High Definition Audio in the device manager, that worked for me. You might have to log into safe mode if you get BSOD at boot.

BTW, I have an X6 1065t (2.9Ghz 95w) incoming for this  I'll order a few more parts and get done with it.

Case changed to a CM Gladiador 600 (my old case).





LegendofMadness said:


> Wooooooh!
> Can the ICEQ 3 cooler fit onto it?, I'm surprised you even found a 3850, I was hunting for another 3 of them for agers



No, (oddly) the Sapphire doesn't have a reference design. I got a Scythe Mushashi that fits.


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## McM4r (Sep 24, 2013)

can't disable the uaa bus audio because when i disable and restart the system that damn thing change to enable for itself! again and again, but the solution for me was delete the main driver of that thing allocated in c: windows/system32/drivers with the name "hdaudbus", hope that helps to anyone trying to fix that.
since that fix, no BSOD anymore 

***TRWOV  help me to configure mi bios pls i want the best performance for my rig


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## Jstn7477 (Sep 24, 2013)

I retired my AM2NF3-VSTA to home Minecraft server duties with an Athlon II X4 640, 6GB DDR2, GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64. I decided to switch back to my 4CoreDual-SATAII some time ago so I could get rid of XP for good. It's currently running an E7500 @ 3.06GHz but I have a QX6800 SLACP (G0) arriving in two days to experiment with. Core 2 Duos just aren't enough for more modern games on the 3850 like Borderlands 2, Minecraft, etc.


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## TRWOV (Jan 20, 2014)

A few updates on this:

- I finally got an spare board for testing.
- Legend of Madness, you said that you got a 1090t working with this board? How? I installed the 1065t but it didn't boot. Both have the same CPUID and core stepping so I don't know what to make of this. Did you use a modified bios or something? Could it be due to turbo boost? The 965BE doesn't have that feature. Is there some setting on the bios that I should turn off before installing the X6?

Everything is working fine right now on XP. I think I'll try RAID now since an SSD is  no-go ATM.

Got an used half functioning H80 (the pump works but the fan controller doesn't). I have my own fan controller so that issue is moot for my goals.

I also got another HIS 3850 Turbo to replace the Sapphire.  I'll move the Sapphire to the P4 machine (overkill, I know).


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