939Dual-VSTA, the improved VISTA ready edition of the 939Dual-SATA2 enhances the feature set of the popular board based on the same ULi 1697+1567 chipset. The 939Dual-SATA2 is the most discussed board in our ASRock section of the forums.

With its native AGP implementation, the 939Dual-SATA2 based on the ULi M1695 solution breaks this myth that you can't have the best of both worlds on the same board at performance levels that are comparable or even better than existing AGP or PCI-E solutions. The best of all is you can even do surround video connecting up to 6 screens playing Quake 3 or Flight Simulator.

Features wise, the 939Dual-SATA2 has some unique feature. As it is based on the M1695+M1567 pair, it supports native AGP and PCIe, the board also supports all Athlon 64 X2, FX, Sempron processors. ASrock bundled in a Jmicron chip to add on as a third SATA port which supports SATA II with NCQ. On top of all this, it supports the AM2Board allowing one to upgrade to AM2 processor. 

In terms of BIOS options, the board supports ASRock U-COP, Boot Failure Guard, CPU Multiplier Adj, CPU Vcore Voltage Adj, CPU Freq Stepless Control, AGP/PCIE Freq Control, NB and SB voltage adjustments, DIMM Voltage Adj, CPU Quiet FAN. The 4 pin CPU fan connector and 2.8v for Vdimm are just some of the enhancements to the board. The CPU CLK range now defaults to 200 ~ 400MHz for user selection.  The audio codec is also changed to CMEDIA CM6501 which is VISTA Premium Ready. From my understanding, current 939Dual-SATA2 will be able to run VISTA but on board audio will not be compliant to VISTA requirements and you will only get stereo sound instead of the 7.1 ch audio.

In our overclocking tests, we were able to easily POST up to 350x6 by just setting the CPU CLK to 350, multiplier to 6, vdimm to 2.8v, NB,SB voltage to HIGH and at ASync DDR200.

In conclusion, 939Dual-VSTA extends the life of the highly acclaimed ULi 1695/1567 solution for AMD Socket 939 users. If you are looking for such a board that can do surround display of up to 6 screens, VISTA ready and upgrade options to AM2. The only board to look for is the ASRock 939DUAL-VSTA. No other boards come close to it.

Pros

• Native AGP 8x and PCIe
• USB 2.0 
• Jmicron SATA II/NCQ
• Surrond Display
• MS VISTA Ready

Cons

• No GbE