Asrock ConRoe865GV review

Discussion in 'Processors, Motherboards & Memory' started by The_YongGrand, Feb 11, 2007.

  1. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    I bought this motherboard somewhere in LowYat plaza, and the price is so darn cheap. Okay, let me review this first Asrock board I have here:

    Pros:
    1.) Cheap price. RM160. And it can supports most 65nm cores and even the lowest end E4300* there. Well, no need for PCB board revisions and the scary BIOS updates. As long as it shouted ConRoe, you will know that it's all for the 65nms. You can recycle your DDR sticks when you want to change into dual-core. Legacy devices like two-IDE is still present. :haha:

    2.) Manual book is complete. Quite surprising - I thought it's very shoddy at the first sight. Package contents are complete and no problems at all. Box design is also clean and wonderful. Love to keep the box too.

    3.) Asrock driver CD contains the processor installation video. Great for first-time system builders.

    Cons:
    1.) Overclocking tool very questionable - couldn't find it at all. Maybe it'll only allows FSB change. Let me do some more experiments there...

    2.) Temperature monitoring tool in Windows is not included. Get a third-party program.

    3.) Processor supports only up to Core E4300. Other than this Core, no way. :silenced:

    4.) AGI slot is questionable - it's NOT really an AGP slot. So please check the video card support matrix before attempting to put in AGP card there. Some might not work, some refuse to work properly. The worst thing is, 9550/9600 Radeons are NOT supported at all. :wall:

    5.) The PCB layer is way too thin and flimsy. I thought I might warp it when I install the processor. Even a Cheddar cheese slice is thicker than it.

    Anyway, the board's still great for those who use it for Internet rigs, simple word processing tasks and all the mom and pop stuff. You can stick in a Pentium D here with your DDR sticks still recycled. If you want to game on this board, it's a totally difficult thing to do. Might as well as getting an Asus P5PE-VM. :mrgreen:

    !WARNING! This board can take Allendale E4300, NOT Conroe! They give the wrong label onto it! Please take note if you are buying a E6300 for that board - it won't work!


    (thanks to Max_87 for the info about the Cores!)

    Overall rating: 6.0/10 (minus the 0.5 for the trick that they wrote Conroe there. They should write Allendale and become honest with that!!!!!)
     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2007
  2. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    Just to clarify something here.

    E4300/4400 = Allendale
    E6300/6400 = Conroe 2M
    E6600 onwards = Conroe

    Asrock got it wrong I guess =\ or they just want to trick people...
     
    1 person likes this.
  3. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Oh, no wonder something smells fishy in this board - I totally forgot that this board only takes Allendale cores! Yes - the manufacturer got it really WRONG or they wanna trick the crap out of these customers. :faint:

    They should rename this instead: AllenDale865GV.

    Wouldn't it sound nice with AllenDale865GV? :mrgreen: :haha:

    Anyway I did some more testing on this board - turned on for six hours - quite nice. Next time I'll really torture this thing. :twisted:
     
    1 person likes this.
  4. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    This mainboard definitely provides you the cheapest route if you want to upgrade your processor but have a very tight budget. The allendales are easily faster than any low end AMD line of processors, best of all you can recycle DDR RAM! (DDR2 is one of the primary reason why I did not migrate to C2D when my Opty144 was damaged :lol: )
     
  5. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Yeah.The AGI slot is also very deceiving. I'm not sure whether you can still stick a cheapy 7300GT for AGP there, but found out that the 7800GS is supported there. I don't know whether the AGI slot only takes the particular brand listed or its GPU brand only. But I got really annoyed when the 9550/9600 couldn't be supported there because I found tons of 'em selling in cheap price!!! :wall:

    The best thing is you can recycle the DDR RAM as you said. Lovely cheap board. But too bad it's that AGI slot. Why are they so kaypoh and create that AGI slot? Why not directly the AGP? :haha:
     
  6. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    AGI slot? I thought it was a typo LOL
     
  7. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

    Hm... so it's an AGP slot... but uses PCI-E bus? :confused:
     
  8. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Wrong la, E6300 is Allendale, only E6600+ are conroes.
     
  9. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_2

    :mrgreen:

    CPU-Z says conroe too
     
  10. Papercut

    Papercut Newbie

    But some of the E6300/6400 on the market now are true Allendale cores. Initially they were just Conroes with 2MB cache disabled.
     
  11. Max_87

    Max_87 huehuehue

    Okay so there are two versions of E6300/6400 :think: Early versions are Conroe 2M and now they are switching to Allendale...

    Thanks for clarifying that
     
  12. popm8

    popm8 Guest

    I won't buy Asrock , no matter the price
     
  13. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Asrock's motherboards are just medicore to average quality - depends mostly on its chipset. The 865GV and the 945 are still okay and decent but the board's construction is not really good. It's cheap, and special. Very cheap enough to make many users to buy it.

    Okay, yesterday I found something peculiar - the temps of my Celeron D (65nm core) is 47~52 degrees celcius in BIOS no matter how the condition it is - idle or full load.

    Before that I thought it was overheating maybe of pins not popped deeply enough. I reseat it.

    Still the same.

    Reseat it and squished the thermal-material. Too bad - fortunately I have nice Coolermaster pastes around. Put a coin-sized shaped paste onto the processor.

    Still the same.

    Then I decided to prime it for 1h 17m and no throttling happened whatsoever. Nothing wrong happened, and the heatsink is just warm like a cup of lukewarm water. No more, no less. :eh:

    Then again later I realized that the thermal diode in the board is BUSTED!! The Speedfan reported 40~47 degrees only in idle and 52 in full load. I don't know, but the system is running just fine all day long. Maybe it's REALLY the thermal diode... :shock:

    Asrock boards are good if you are using it for light-use, or small rig, or an experimental rig. But better not to rely on it for crucial stuff. :haha:
     
  14. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    Another update:

    Tested it today with mixed RAM sticks - mixing single-sided with double sided (different brands) will *never* work at all. So a note to the ConRoe865GV users - try not to mix different brands with different side types (double side/single side).

    Meanwhile it works perfectly on both single sided with different brands each.
     
  15. silverchair

    silverchair Newbie

    I have a lil problem that maybe some of you can resolve, i have an ASRock motherboard , Conroe865GV with pentium D 2.8Ghz that supoorts ddr 400 333 266, and im using Major DDR 266 memory 1Gig 133 Mhz.

    BEfore im using my memory in ECS 741gxm and it runs properly, but when iu use it to ASRock motherboard my memory turned down to 512Mb.

    Ist a memory problem? A motherboard problem or is just not compatible??

    And BTW, I tried 3 ECS motherboard and this is what happend:

    741gxm - Memory appears good (1gig)
    KM400 - Memory appears good (1gig)
    761gxm - MEmory Appears half (512mb)
     
  16. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Probably contact problem. Have you tried other DIMM slots? :think:
     
  17. The_YongGrand

    The_YongGrand Just Started

    The Asrock's temp sensors are going bonkers - the fan is running too fast even CPU Quiet Fan is enabled. I have to use the Speedtemp to push down the fan speeds to a tolerable level. If you cannot happen to change the PWM speeds, in the Speedfan, check the "Configuration" area and change the fan speed into "Manual PWM control".

    And also, the board is freaky - not really suitable for new builders - sometimes when I turn it on, it turned off quickly. But the another attempt will make the board to boot normally. :wall:

    Now I'm looking at Asus' P5PE-VM...
     

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