Overclocking Results:

stock max. oc motherboard speed: 200 mhz 230 mhz if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

Even though ASRock openly advertises the overclocking features of its motherboards, you should not forget that most of ASRock motherboards are still targeted towards the entry level markets. At its heart, ASrock maybe a division of ASUS, but it is by no means on overclocking brand.

Before beginning to overclock the ASRock AM2V890-VSTA motherboard, the CPU clock multiplier was adjusted to 6x and the memory to run in DDR2-533 MHz mode. these changes ensure that neither the processor nor memory will hold the motherboard back.

Starting from a motherboard clock speed of 200 MHz, the clock speed was increased in 2-5 MHz intervals. The ASRock AM2V890-VSTA motherboard easily passed 220 MHz, but just as quickly topped out at around 230 MHz. We tried a few higher settings, but system stability was mediocre and thus unacceptable. The ASRock AM2V890-VSTA did not post the best overclock we've ever seen, but I suppose it's not too bad for a non-overclocking pedigree budget motherboard.

The ASRock BIOS:

The BIOS that ASRock employs with the AM2V890-VSTA motherboard is a bit different from the standard layout were mainly familiar with. The options are in different locations, but they are all there aside from extensive overclocking tweaks.

The AM2V890-VSTA motherboard clock frequency can be adjusted between 200-300 MHz in 1 MHz increments. You can also adjust the PCI Express and PCI frequencies. It's a good idea to leave those at stock speeds. ASRock includes multiplier controls, and you can raise the CPU voltage slightly as well. In the case of the Athlon64 FX-62 processor PCSTATS uses for testing that translated into a maximum of 1.45V.

In the same menu you'll find a comprehensive list of memory options. From CAS Latency to RAS-to-CAS Delay, Burst Length and more, they're all there. Advanced memory timings are somewhat unnecessary with a budget minded motherboard such as the AM2V890-VSTA, so we'd suggest you just leave them alone.

DDR2 memory voltage can be set from 'Normal' to 'Ultra High', whatever that means. Several basic peripheral adjustments can also be set. Now it's time to benchmark this motherboard

The details of how the ASRock AM2V890-VSTA motherboard test system was configured for benchmarking, including the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below. In the second column are the general specs for the reference platforms this socket AM2 VIA K8T890 based motherboard is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system reference system #1 reference system #2 processor: amd Athlon64 FX-62 Intel Pentium D 940 Clock Speed: 14 x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz 16 x 200 MHz = 3.2 GHz Motherboard: ASRock AM2V890-VSTA (VIA K8T890) Asus M2N32SLI-DLX (NF 590 SLI) Foxconn C51XEM2AA (NF 590 SLI) Foxconn 975X7AA-8EKRS2H (975X) Videocard: MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E Memory: Corsair Twin2X2048-8500 Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x PowerSupply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI Heatsink: AMD Athlon64 FX-62 Reference Thermaltake Jungle 512 Software Setup: Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 VIA 4in1 5.09a nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 nVIDIA Forceware 9.35 nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 Intel INF 7.22 nVIDIA Forceware 91.27 Benchmarks: SYSMark 2004 Business Winstone 2004 Content Creation 2004 Super Pi SiSoft Sandra 2005 PCMark05 3DMark05 3DMark06 FarCry Doom 3 Quake 4