ASrock 775Dual-VSTA is the first non Intel based chipset board we tested that runs the Pentium4  LGA775 Dual Core processors and support the Extreme edition Core 2 Duo. ASRock 775Dual-VSTA comes with 3 DUALS. The first is that it is the first non Intel chipset board based on VIA PT880Pro which supports the Intel Dual Core processors. The second is that it supports 2 memory types - DDR2-667 and DDR400. Users with existing DDR400 memory need not buy the extra DDR2 memory to tap the power of Core 2 Duo. Thirdly, this board comes with 2 graphics interfaces, a AGP 8x and a 4x PCIe. Although the PCIe interface is a PCIe x4, it is quite sufficient for most tasks. The AGP 8x slot allows one to use your older expensive AGP 8x cards like my ATi Radeon 9800XT with ease. If you wish, you can connect two monitors to each card and you have a surround video system with 4 monitors. That might be a solution for the stock brokers. The chipsets are relatively cool to touch under test runs.

Compared to the 975X and 945P chipset, the PT880Pro/8237 does have its shortcomings. On this board, you don't get the SATA II, GbE interfaces. The PCIe slot is also only 4x instead fo 16x. It can be seen that the graphics benchmark scores are a bit weaker as well compared to the Intel chipsets.

Just like any ASRock board, the package comes with sufficent accessories to get the board up and runninng. The multilingual manual is a plus for many users in Europe. Although I wouldn't say that everyone will rush out to buy a high end Conroe processor, but I am sure that the E6 lower end series would be good fits for this board. Performance wise, this board has pretty good processing speed when compared the 955x.

The board has some basic overclocking features with adjustments of the AGP voltage, CPUCLK, ASync settings, ram timing adjustments. You can check the gallery for more details. Although we are using a ES, the BIOS has the multiplier locked,  we can o/c the board to 300MHz FSB x 11.

Overall, we did not have any issues with the board pairing it up with the highest end processor and graphics card we have on hand. This board is definitely a choice for budget users who needs the processing power of the Core 2 Duo. It is definitely a recommended choice for those going for ray tracing and HD and video editing. IF you still have DDR400, AGP cards lying around and want to tap the power of Core 2 Duo, this is defiitely the board for you. Check pricing link below.

Latest : 4CoreDual-VSTA is a newer version of this board is released and it supports Quad Core QX6700.  http://www.ocworkbench.com/2006/asrock/4coredual-vsta/g1.htm

Pricing

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Pros

• 8 USB 2.0 ports
• Dual Memory type supported DDR / DDR2 selection
• Core 2 Duo support
• Dual AGP 8x and PCIe graphics interface
• Surround video

Cons

• Limited memory up to 2GB for DDR or DDR2
• No 1394
• No SATA II
• No Wi-Fi
• No GbE

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.