What is the diffence on the PCI Express Slots for the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA and the Asrock 775Dual-880Pro?

Question

The VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra Chipset is used by Asrock on their motherboard 775Dual-VSTA

http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm

This motherboard is very similar to the older model 775Dual-880Pro

http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-880Pro.htm

Looking thru the manuals I can’t seem to find any differences or benefits attributed to the VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra Chipset compared to the VIA PT880 Pro Chipset?

I was hoping that it would provide a PCI Express Graphics slot (x16) instead of (x4) like the older board.

Any information on this chipset or pci express slots would be welcomed?

http://download.asrock.com/Manual/775Dual-VSTA.pdf

http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/Manual/775Dual-880Pro.pdf

Thanks

Let me explain my question...

Then manual for the Asrock 775Dual-880Pro Motherboard says the pci-e slot does not read pci-e cards at 16x speed but a 4X. The Asrock 775Dual-VSTA is the same board with some added features but the manual doesn't say its pci-e slot reads at 4x like the older board. Before I buy this new board I wan't to make sure its pci-e slot reads at 16x. I hope you understood my question. Thanks.

Answer 1

Threre is no difference to the PCI-E slot on the -VSTA model. The only difference between the two motherboards is in their overclocking functionality. The original board has the fronst side bus (FSB) clock linked the the PCI/PCI-E clock. this means that when you overclock the front side bus, you also raise/overclock the PCI clock. Having the PCI bus linked the FSB can severely limit overclocking potential because several of your PC components have to function at an overclocked bus rate. The other components are just as prone to instability. The newer -VSTA model allows the user to unlink the FSB and PCI bus. This allows you to overclock the processor only, while leaving the PCI bus at it's stock/clock speed. I would love to play with the -VSTA. When I overclock the original 880Pro it scrambles my RAID0 array. Prior to that running an IDE boot drive, I kept getting a "this is not a system boot disk" when I would overclock to high. I am convinced that it is the PCI bus that is causing overclocking instbability, and not the FSB. I have a Pentium D930, which should clock to 4.0, so it's pretty frustrating not being to overclock at all if I want SATA Raid0. Unfortunately, the new -VSTA model does not support processor voltage modification either. Regardless Intel processors are known for stable front side bus overclocking. Intel also is known for locking multipliers, so that adjusting the FSB is the only way to squeeze more out of the processor. If you are looking for a full PCI-E 16 slot, you will have to look for it on a motherboard that is not based on the 880 PRO/Ultra chipset. This lowest-end Via chipset was specifically designed to support users as they upgrade from DDR to DDR II, and AGP to PCI-E. There are some drawback/limitations. If you already have DDR II and a PCI-E graphics card, you may be better served researching some of the more performance oriented chipsets. The Via 890 chipsets supports PCI-E 16. So do several of the Intel chipsets. Personally, I am running on the same DDR and AGP card that powered my AMD XP3200. I am stoked to be able to enter the world of dual core 64bit computing without having to drop the money for new processor/ram/mb/Graphics card all at one time. What these motherboards do very well is make it possible to step up to new technology dirt cheap.
If it is any consolation, I have read that the PCI-4 on this motherboard keeps up in benchmarks with a standard PCI-16. You would have to have an incredibly brutal GPU to push the bandwidth limitations of the PCI-4. Current GPU's do not come anywhere near utilizing the PCI-16's full capabilities. The faster interface in and of itself does not raise your performance without the graphics card to push the info. You should check out this review of the original 880-Pro:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=245&num=1

For the record, contrary to their oppinion, I am running an Gforce 6800 AGP card, and the performance in Q4, UT2K4, and Doom 3 is stellar. I maybe missing some performance, but it sure doesn't seem like it to me.
I wish you well on your quest.

Answer 2

A few sites, such as NewEgg, have stated that the 775Dual-VSTA does now have a full 16x PCI Express slot. However, NewEgg in particular has been wrong about this numerous times in the past. It does not appear that anyone has info from ASRock that says for sure it is supported - they are just assuming it is because ASRock no longer specifically says otherwise. My bet is that it is, and I may very possibly buy this motherboard this weekend, but it is hard to say for sure. However, unless you are using a very high end video card, you can't exceed the bandwidth of a 4x PCIe slot. And I doubt that anyone spending $400+ on a video card will be interested in this motherboard. If you need a motherboard that will support Pentium D or Conroe, has both AGP and PCIe (of any speed) support, and lets you use either DDR or DDR2 memory, you don't have many choices. I have read of a few video card compatibility issues with the pre-VSTA version of this board, so I suggest buying from a place that will guarantee compatibility, or has a liberal return policy.

Answer 3

I guess I don't quite understand your question. Isn't PCI-e on one mobo the same as the PCI-e on another? The only difference that you may encounter is the chip-sets, The North-bridge and the South-bridge may be different in the mobos.

PART 2--Thanks for the clarification! I believe that PCI-e X4 slot will accept a 16X video card. The X4 probably means that the slot will be 4 times faster than the AGP slot. Which makes some type of silly sense, if its a 4X AGP multiply by 4=16X?? The closest video cards I could find for the "775 Dual-VSTA mobo" are these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121193

Maybe this will help some more?? This is the first video card on the manuals list of compatible video cards for the "775 Dual-(Core-"Conroe"-not available yet) VSTA (Microsoft's VISTA Operating System-not available yet)".

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1905438&CatId=0

Now, I've looked at the asrock product pages, the only big diffrence in these boards is that the 775Dual-880Pro is for current P4 and P4 Dual-Core processors. The 775 Dual-VSTA is basically the same mobo, just the newest version ready to support the future Intel "Conroe" processor and Microsoft's "VISTA" operating system. Get the newest version mobo, if you are ready to build.