Hi all,
I was hoping I might be able to ask Sean about this directly, but it seems his PM's are currently disabled, so perhaps he will be able to chime in here if nobody else knows the exact answer. :)
I recently received a 4Coredual-SATA2 R2.0 (pre-installed BIOS version 2.20) and a Core 2 Quad Q9550 (E0). Per the CPU support list on ASRock's page (ASRock > Products > 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 > CPU Support List), the Q9550 is supported in all 3 revisions, with only the single caveat that the "FSB may be reduced 5%." My problem is that since installing the CPU, it runs at a 266 MHz bus speed, with a capped 8.5 multiplier (it can be reduced in the BIOS, but not increased), resulting in a CPU speed of 2.26 GHz rather than its potential 2.83 GHz stock speed or the "advertised" 95% speed of 2.69GHz.
As the support for this processor was explicitly added to the R2.0 version of this board, is there a setting somewhere that I might have missed that is supposed to add make-shift compatability for this processor at "correct" speeds, that may not be properly documented in the manual or somesuch? It has been suggested that the only way to try to get any closer to the stock speed of the processor would involve overclocking the fsb, but the purpose of getting a fast "supported" cpu in the first place was to try to achieve good performance without the need for any kind of overclocking and risking stability and undue hardware wear and tear.
I know it might be hoping for too much to think that there might be a "magic" solution to the problem, but if there is not, I would probably not be alone in thinking that this CPU should really not be on the supported list for this motherboard on the ASRock page, or should come with a warning that the FSB (and total cpu speed) would be reduced by 20%, not 5%... After all, I was so excited about the upgrade I thought I would be making, only to be disappointed and have a bit of a bad taste left in my mouth. :( HEEEELLLLLLP! lol
Thanks in advance,
JWK
Edit Oct. 2nd, 2010: Additional information has been added to this thread in my last post, after finally hearing back from ASRock. As it stands, they have so far stood by the statement that the processor should run with the equivalent to its normal speed with a maximum of a 5% clockspeed reduction, but have been unable to provide a solution to reach those speeds for my specific case. I would greatly appreciate it if Sean C. or other ASRock sources could help me to get past this dead end.
I was hoping I might be able to ask Sean about this directly, but it seems his PM's are currently disabled, so perhaps he will be able to chime in here if nobody else knows the exact answer. :)
I recently received a 4Coredual-SATA2 R2.0 (pre-installed BIOS version 2.20) and a Core 2 Quad Q9550 (E0). Per the CPU support list on ASRock's page (ASRock > Products > 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 > CPU Support List), the Q9550 is supported in all 3 revisions, with only the single caveat that the "FSB may be reduced 5%." My problem is that since installing the CPU, it runs at a 266 MHz bus speed, with a capped 8.5 multiplier (it can be reduced in the BIOS, but not increased), resulting in a CPU speed of 2.26 GHz rather than its potential 2.83 GHz stock speed or the "advertised" 95% speed of 2.69GHz.
As the support for this processor was explicitly added to the R2.0 version of this board, is there a setting somewhere that I might have missed that is supposed to add make-shift compatability for this processor at "correct" speeds, that may not be properly documented in the manual or somesuch? It has been suggested that the only way to try to get any closer to the stock speed of the processor would involve overclocking the fsb, but the purpose of getting a fast "supported" cpu in the first place was to try to achieve good performance without the need for any kind of overclocking and risking stability and undue hardware wear and tear.
I know it might be hoping for too much to think that there might be a "magic" solution to the problem, but if there is not, I would probably not be alone in thinking that this CPU should really not be on the supported list for this motherboard on the ASRock page, or should come with a warning that the FSB (and total cpu speed) would be reduced by 20%, not 5%... After all, I was so excited about the upgrade I thought I would be making, only to be disappointed and have a bit of a bad taste left in my mouth. :( HEEEELLLLLLP! lol
Thanks in advance,
JWK
Edit Oct. 2nd, 2010: Additional information has been added to this thread in my last post, after finally hearing back from ASRock. As it stands, they have so far stood by the statement that the processor should run with the equivalent to its normal speed with a maximum of a 5% clockspeed reduction, but have been unable to provide a solution to reach those speeds for my specific case. I would greatly appreciate it if Sean C. or other ASRock sources could help me to get past this dead end.
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