Anyone used an ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 mobo

[Martin C]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

Has anyone used this motherboard? Although Toms Hardware website seemed to
think it was ok, I have very little experience in what is a good mobo and
what is not. Unless I trawl through every board on Toms site to find what is
best for me to use, I have no real way of knowing if this ASRock mobo is the
one for me.

The big advantage for me is that it can use either an AGP or PCI-E graphics
card, so is fairly future proof. It also allows me to use my current AGP
graphics card while I save up for a much better PCI-E card. My existing card
is nothing to write home about, but would do for a while.

Basically, my question is - do I go for this mobo, to allow me to upgrade
the graphics card later, or should I forget it and go for a PCI-E only mobo
and use the onboard graphics (assuming it has one) until I can upgrade
properly? A comment from someone that actually uses the ASRock mobo would be
great!

If the latter, could anyone recommend a decent mobo?

Currently, although I do play games, none of them are very modern (my
current PC is OLD). I mainly use it for graphics work, internet and the
older games.

TIA
Martin

 

[Michael Hawes]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

Has anyone used this motherboard? Although Toms Hardware website seemed to
think it was ok, I have very little experience in what is a good mobo and
what is not. Unless I trawl through every board on Toms site to find what is
best for me to use, I have no real way of knowing if this ASRock mobo is the
one for me.

The big advantage for me is that it can use either an AGP or PCI-E graphics
card, so is fairly future proof. It also allows me to use my current AGP
graphics card while I save up for a much better PCI-E card. My existing card
is nothing to write home about, but would do for a while.

Basically, my question is - do I go for this mobo, to allow me to upgrade
the graphics card later, or should I forget it and go for a PCI-E only mobo
and use the onboard graphics (assuming it has one) until I can upgrade
properly? A comment from someone that actually uses the ASRock mobo would be
great!

If the latter, could anyone recommend a decent mobo?

Currently, although I do play games, none of them are very modern (my
current PC is OLD). I mainly use it for graphics work, internet and the
older games.

TIA
Martin

This board was reviewed in Custom PC magazine. They said it was fine.
They used it to compare the AGP and PCIe versions of a high end card
(FX6800GT ?) and found no difference in performance.
Mike.

 

[Sean Cousins]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

I have this mb and it is working well for me. Lots of people have
bought this mb and like it. It's cheap too.

 

[Conor]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

Has anyone used this motherboard? Although Toms Hardware website seemed to
think it was ok, I have very little experience in what is a good mobo and
what is not.

Yes. Just got one from Scan. Took the plunge as I had a 6600GT which I
didn't want to upgrade immediately.

I've always bought high end boards. This is the first budget board I've
bought in half a decade. For a budget board, the packaging, manuals and
accessories put alot of the expensive ones to shame.

The board doesn't feel cheap either and I had no problem overclocking
my AMD64 3500+ to 3800+ speeds with default voltages on it.

Buy one, you'll not regret it.

 

[Sean Cousins]

The board doesn't feel cheap either and I had no problem overclocking
my AMD64 3500+ to 3800+ speeds with default voltages on it.

What ram and HTT settings do you use? I have AMD64 3500+ on the same
mb but I haven't tried overclocking it yet because I came from P4 and
how you OC an AMD64 is quite different to a P4.

 

[Bob M]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

Has anyone used this motherboard? Although Toms Hardware website seemed to
think it was ok, I have very little experience in what is a good mobo and
what is not. Unless I trawl through every board on Toms site to find what is
best for me to use, I have no real way of knowing if this ASRock mobo is the
one for me.

The big advantage for me is that it can use either an AGP or PCI-E graphics
card, so is fairly future proof. It also allows me to use my current AGP
graphics card while I save up for a much better PCI-E card. My existing card
is nothing to write home about, but would do for a while.

Basically, my question is - do I go for this mobo, to allow me to upgrade
the graphics card later, or should I forget it and go for a PCI-E only mobo
and use the onboard graphics (assuming it has one) until I can upgrade
properly? A comment from someone that actually uses the ASRock mobo would be
great!

If the latter, could anyone recommend a decent mobo?

Currently, although I do play games, none of them are very modern (my
current PC is OLD). I mainly use it for graphics work, internet and the
older games.

TIA
Martin

Go for it. I just upgraded my computer yesterday with one. I installed
an Opteron 148 and have it overclocked right now to 2690 mhz. Very easy
board to install and so far it is rock solid. I got a combo special at
Monarch Computer. The only gripe I have about the board is the IDE2
connector is mounted on the board in a spot where it's hard to connect
the ribbon to a CD or DVD drive. I had to really stretch the cable. But
like I said the board is solid as a rock so far.

Bob

 

[Hackworth]

I recently came across the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 motherboard while I have
been investigating upgrading my PC.

Has anyone used this motherboard? Although Toms Hardware website seemed to
think it was ok, I have very little experience in what is a good mobo and
what is not. Unless I trawl through every board on Toms site to find what
is
best for me to use, I have no real way of knowing if this ASRock mobo is
the
one for me.

The big advantage for me is that it can use either an AGP or PCI-E
graphics
card, so is fairly future proof. It also allows me to use my current AGP
graphics card while I save up for a much better PCI-E card. My existing
card
is nothing to write home about, but would do for a while.

Basically, my question is - do I go for this mobo, to allow me to upgrade
the graphics card later, or should I forget it and go for a PCI-E only
mobo
and use the onboard graphics (assuming it has one) until I can upgrade
properly? A comment from someone that actually uses the ASRock mobo would
be
great!

I've assembled 7 or 8 systems this year, all with different motherboards. I
recently bought one of these after reading fairly good things about it from
the usual sources online. I bought it from eWiz and added it to my
"stockpile" of parts. About five weeks later, I finally got around to
putting a box together using this mobo. Regrettably, it was DOA. Although I
had the part past eWiz's 30-day return/exchange period, they gave me an RMA
anyway after I explained the circumstances about the delayed opening of the
package; the catch was that they couldn't at that point exchange the unit
from stock and instead would have to send my defective board back the
factory (in Asia) and await the replacement. It took a couple of weeks but I
did finally receive the new board. I have it set up and running bare on the
workbench with an Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice) and it seems to be fine so far.
I have to agree with others here who have said that it doesn't look or feel
like a "budget" board.

 

[Martin C]

Thanks very much to everyone that replied. Looks like I shall be going for
the board after all.

Cheers,
Martin