# Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA Memory Problems



## Brutalfate (Aug 16, 2007)

Hi there, I recently had to replace my old mobo (Gigabyte Ga-8IPE775), I bought the Asrock 4coredual VSTA.. (t'was cheap and all i needed for my older system..)

However, the RAM I'm using in it, 2x 1GB Kingston DDRII 667 (PC 5300), runs at 533Mhz oposed to 667Mhz.

Any Ideas whats up? Also has anyone else had any experience with this board? 

Oh, and whats the dealio with the Pci-E lane supporting 16x Cards, but only running at 4x? Would that mean the AGP 8x lane would be effectively faster?


All help appreciated... Thanks.


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## JrRacinFan (Aug 16, 2007)

Brutalfate said:


> Hi there, I recently had to replace my old mobo (Gigabyte Ga-8IPE775), I bought the Asrock 4coredual VSTA.. (t'was cheap and all i needed for my older system..)
> 
> However, the RAM I'm using in it, 2x 1GB Kingston DDRII 667 (PC 5300), runs at 533Mhz oposed to 667Mhz.
> 
> Any Ideas whats up? Also has anyone else had any experience with this board?



Board only supports up to 533mhz. Meaning you could probably tighten the timings on the ram and get it to perform a little better.



Brutalfate said:


> Oh, and whats the dealio with the Pci-E lane supporting 16x Cards, but only running at 4x? Would that mean the AGP 8x lane would be effectively faster?
> 
> 
> All help appreciated... Thanks.



I would say the 16x@4x bandwith only cuts performance down I would say 5-7%, not really much to justify using an AGP card over PCI-e.

Hope I helped you.


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 16, 2007)

yep jrracinfan right it a combo board it only runs DDR 400 and DDR2 533Mhz most combo board only could run the 1st DDR2 that got released


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## Brutalfate (Aug 16, 2007)

Ahhh Lame!

I thought the VSTA version could run dual channel DDRII 667...

Thats what the manual is telling me anyway. 

Thanks for your help guys. Appreciated.


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

your board can run DDR2 667 looking at Asrock web site have you tried a bios update try useing cpuz to see what speed its really running at


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## francis511 (Aug 17, 2007)

pci-e has more advantages on boards like that.i ran aquamark with same card on asrock dual vsta and gigabyte ga 965p ds3 and difference was marginal.i was going to get a q6600 for my old dual vsta board and then i realised it couldn`t handle the quad cores.now i`m just going to economise with e2160 or celeron 440.


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

Just did a Bios update, everything looks all good now..






thanks for all your help.





also.... i was thinking of upgrading my gfx card, so it would be worth getting a Pci-e card? any recomendations?


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

yer its worth switching to PCI-e are you thinking of buy a new board?


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

i wanna keep this board, atleast for now. 


If i were to upgrade to pci-e... I have no clue what card to get.. I do do quite a bit of gaming... (Bf2, bf2142, stalker,Rainbowsix vegas).. I guess I dont want to spend too much either. DX10 capable might be nice..


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

so you want a new AGP card? that will play most new games on high?


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

i'd probably get a pci-e card, my board supports both agp and pci-e.

Atleast then, when i do get a new mb, I'll already have a pci-e card, and wont still be stuck with agp. Plus, pci-e is usually cheaper now days, isnt it?


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

how much would you spend on a Pci-e card?


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

ill would go for a ATI Radeon X1950 Pro or some think like that or if you like Nvidia go for nVidia Geforce 8600GT i buy online off this site http://www.itsdirect.com.au/com_products.php?view=list&category_id=48&sub_category=134  they have some good deals


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

I wouldnt really want to spend much more that $200.. reakon that could get me anything decent?


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

Yeah. Those 8600's look pretty nice. I'm thinking this one maybe?

http://www.itsdirect.com.au/com_pro...tegory_id=48&Product_ID=1358&sub_category=134


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 17, 2007)

for 200 bucks man you have 2 options really...

if you have a generic type psu and want dx10 then I would go for either a 2600xt or 8600gt.

If you have a slightly better psu then I would go for either a x1950pro or 7900gs.

The latter 2 card perform better in games and will play all games atm really well but don't have dx10.  

imo I would probably save that little extra and grab a 320mb 8800gts....  It would be the best upgrade for your money....

http://www.ozdirect.com.au/product_info.html?products_id=6577

the other option would be to buy a 8600gt/2600xt now and then buy another one when you opgrade your mb, so you would have either crossfire or sli


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

hmmmm.. my psu (atrix 650t) does 40A max in 12v.. 3.3v at 3.31v and the 5v at 5.08..

thats all i know about it really.


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

you should be fine your PSU is more than enough to power either one of those card my mate has a 430w and has np running 8800GTS


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## DrunkenMafia (Aug 17, 2007)

yeah you should be ok with that one bro...  I would probably either go for a X1950pro/7900gs or save a little for a 8800gts 320mb.


msy.com.au 

have some pretty cheap vcards, check them out.  Their order process isn't the fastest but they do have really competitive prices...


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

Alright sweet.

yeah. msy is great. I get heaps of my stuff from them, i live close to there auburn branch too, I might go there this weekend.


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

What do you think of this one?

http://www.pacstarcomputer.com.au/index.php?productID=3304

Or the 512mb version for $230.


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## Mussels (Aug 17, 2007)

Brutalfate said:


> Hi there, I recently had to replace my old mobo (Gigabyte Ga-8IPE775), I bought the Asrock 4coredual VSTA.. (t'was cheap and all i needed for my older system..)
> 
> However, the RAM I'm using in it, 2x 1GB Kingston DDRII 667 (PC 5300), runs at 533Mhz oposed to 667Mhz. I guess we should update his bios too.
> 
> ...



I've got a friend with this board, he has 800MHz ram.

Yes the board only supports 400/533 ram. Yes, 4x PCI-E can be limiting, but its under 2% until you get to midrange (by my standards) cards like the 1950pro and the 7800gt

Only cardsl like the 8800 series will really suffer on a 4x slot, as the 8800GTX loses maybe 3% on an 8x slot and ~10% on a 4x slot. (again its not much, but it IS a loss)

Also to be noted is that you have EPP ram, which only runs full speed on Nvidia Nforce 6 SLI  boards. You should keep that in mind


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

he hasn't got EPP ram you can't get EPP ram in DD2 667 lol
im guess he has Kingston value ram


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

yeah yeah, Kingston Value Ram.  haha. Sorry. I should have mentioned that.


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## LiveOrDie (Aug 17, 2007)

thats some good ram i got a good oc to 900Mhz from 667Mhz when i was useing my Kingston Value Ram so what type of video card you think of getting?


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

damn. nice 


ahh. well. atm. most likely this one 

http://www.pacstarcomputer.com.au/in...productID=3304

+ I live 5 minutes away from the shop. heh.


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## JrRacinFan (Aug 17, 2007)

Its a broken link Brutalfate.

Nice find about the bios update, I didnt even think of that ......  myself

I would opt for the X19x0 series seeing as you have the psu to handle it.


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## Brutalfate (Aug 17, 2007)

Ops. Sorry. 

This one should work:


http://www.pacstarcomputer.com.au/index.php?productID=3304


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## Johhny B (Aug 31, 2007)

Brutalfate said:


> Just did a Bios update, everything looks all good now..
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have the same board and have used the same value ram you are using. You can tighten up the timings if you care to try. I had mine running 295MHz 1:1 @ 3-3-3-9 1T and 368MHz 4:5 @ 4-4-4-14 2T. Quite a bit better than the SPD for it.


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