Asrock Conroe Series Motherboard compatibility help request

Hi guys, I'm pretty new in ARP forum. I heard that here have alot of hardware experts who gives good suggestion.

So I have some question, here in my hand I have 2 type of Asrock motherboards;

a)Asrock ConroeXFire-eSATA Motherboard
b)Asrock Conroe865GV Motherboard

1:What's the most recommended Processor for these motherboards?

2:Which graphic cards are most suitable for these motherboards?
[
Price Range for motherboard:
a) RM700 and below
b) RM250 and below
]

Thank you in advance

 

1. i'll go for AMD if it supports it.

2. i think that's what he is asking..recommendations for graphic cards at those prices which can be used on those mobo's.

 

Yes, what you said is correct and I apologies for my vague description Mr. Chai. Well, about the chipsets, just that it wasn't my choice but customers' own decision to choose that. From my research on the motherboard, I found that motherboard (a) support Core 2 Duo as (b) support Pentium D but for some reason I'm not very confident on the information provided by the website so I prefer expert opinion.

As for the Question 2, after last night call from customer, they decided to lowered the price of the motherboard (b) to RM 150 and below so I think might as well just throw him an ATI 9250 which is the cheapest price I saw around my region (Kuching) but for motherboard (a) I really do need recommendation from expert in this forum.

That all about it

P.S: Sorry if my English is bad.

 

Dude, I was thinking of this Asrock boards too because I'm doing a little research on budget components. Furthermore, I'll be torturing it too.

1.) If you have sticks of old DDR1 RAM, and also an AGP graphics card, and want to recycle it, you better get the Asrock 775 Dual-VSTA. But you better take some risks here and be prepared - these boards are ALWAYS unstable in overclocks, and couldn't work properly on some graphics card. Besides that, it's quite picky in terms of RAM too. Be warned that if you use a high-end PCIE 16x card too on that board, the PCIE slot is only 4x. So better be very careful when you decide on this board.

2.) The ConRoe 865GV* is a viable option for those who can't part with their beloved AGP** cards (if he/she happened to purchase it in an expensive price) and the DDR1 sticks too. You stick in a Core 2 Duo (E4300 ONLY PLEASE!! BE WARNED!! No E6xxx processors will be supported on that board!!). Another one is the Asus P5PE-VM, that one can really support E6300. Check the documentations for this.

3.) If you have DDR2 sticks, and a PCIE gfx card, you better get something else than Asrock - try the MSI 945 ones or the Asus.

*note: Check the CPU support matrix first - newer PCB revisions can support Dual-Cores and 65nms for the ConRoe 865GV. Inspect the board first - I think they might print out the BIOS revision there.

edit: If your customer uses the computer for normal work purposes only, tell him/her to save the RM150 and use the onboard one. Use the 150 ringgit for more RAM perhaps?

**erratum: The AGP slot in the ConRo865GV is NOT an AGP slot - apparently it's an AGI slot. I don't know why is it called AGI slot - it is built using Asrock's seperate techniques. Check the AGP cards in the 'Supported Video Cards List' before attempting to put it inside. 9550/9600 is NOT supported at all in this board.

 

You have my thanks, The_YongGrand. It's a good adivce that you have given to me. I'll take some more consideration on these motherboard now before actually recommended it to the customer for purchasing. (*need of thinking a way to convince them to change the motherboard >.>)

 

Asrock boards are still good if you want something more exotic, like the hybrid model Dual-VSTA, or something very cheap. The ConRoe865GV can provide support for most dual-cores and one E4300, provided if you don't game on this machine because it doesn't have a PCI-E slot. Other than that, it's very good already.

The Dual-VSTA's PCI-E slot is very deceiving - only the PCI-E is 4x. Be careful if you want to really buy this. Either stick the AGP video card or stick a low-end PCI-E videocard there. You don't want a serious bottleneck.

If your customer is not gaming on it, get the ConRoe865GV or the 775i65GV board - it's already VERY sufficient. If you want a rock-solid one, try the Asus P5PE-VM - if there's stocks of this model.

To have an effective cheap model - stick a 1GB ram into it and some more hard-disk space. You can use the on-board video, and keep the extra cash on a better PSU.

 

Just purchased a really dirt-cheap Asrock ConRoe865GV paired up with a Celeron D 347. Quite a great price, but it's quite limited for power-users. I got this pair because I found it it was a good deal and then a replacement for my spare rig. Now I'm testing it...