ASRock Rack EP2C602 + Windows 10?

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ycp

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Jun 22, 2014
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Hey

I have seen many reports about windows 10 not working well with the AsrockRack EP2C602-4L/D16.

But what about the plain ASRock Rack EP2C602. Will that play well with windows 10?

Also in the future i hope to use windows server 2016 with this board.

Also does the plain ASRock Rack EP2C602 support the newer 10XX series nvidia graphics cards?

Thanks for the help.
 

Bill1950

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Aug 12, 2016
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If you're not in a hurry, watch the sales at newegg. I got an EP2C602-4L/D16 for $290 a couple of weeks ago.

In the case of either board, plan to add an audio card and maybe a USB expansion card.

I can't say how the newest nVidia cards play with C602 chipset. I'm using a GTS 750Ti with no problems. Just make sure the video card is plugged into one of the PCIe adapter slots intended for that use. Not all are.
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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I imagine the two asrock boards are very similar so you should anticipate the same win 10 problem. if you are really settled on win 10, you should try another board. I can vouch for the S2600CP (which does have the c602 chipset) running smoothly with win10 myself. I installed a gtx 1060 on my s2600cp2j setup and worked perfect in win10. you would still need to have a usb3.0 and sound card as both those are not included on most server based c602 MB.
 

ycp

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Jun 22, 2014
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From looking at the forums if i turn off the sleep features from the Asrock Mobo from the Bios will that make it stable in windows 10. Does anyone have any experience with it this way?
 

wildpig1234

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Aug 22, 2016
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I saw the article before. It's interesting to note that they used win10 and didn't seem to have any problem mentioned. Guess they didn't test it out as extensively?

Also I questioned their decision not to use ECC DDR3 and use regular DDR3 which costs $35/8gb. Basically paying over 3x what they should have spent? oh well...

From looking at the forums if i turn off the sleep features from the Asrock Mobo from the Bios will that make it stable in windows 10. Does anyone have any experience with it this way?
hmm, that's interesting. so there is a setting in bios to disable S3 or S1 sleep? I thought a lot of these instabilities people mention weren't related to sleep or it going into sleep or waking up...
 

ycp

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Jun 22, 2014
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Well what do guys think about windows server 2016. will the ASROCK EP2C602 work stably with Server 2016?
 

Kevin

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Aug 9, 2016
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Winnipeg, Canada
If you don't care about using standby (and really if you use SSD's for boot do you NEED standby?) then I don't think there's any problem with the asrock boards. I've been using ep2c602-4L/D16 since April using Win 10 Pro and have not had any issues (currently running 2 weeks without a reboot). I've used R9 290x and 980 ti both without issue. I started with regular ddr3 but switched to 128GB registered, SB1040 sound card. SSD boot drive, 4x 1TB intel sw raid 0, couple standalone 4tb drives.
 
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Sazz Somewhere

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Feb 7, 2017
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If you don't care about using standby (and really if you use SSD's for boot do you NEED standby?) then I don't think there's any problem with the asrock boards. I've been using ep2c602-4L/D16 since April using Win 10 Pro and have not had any issues (currently running 2 weeks without a reboot). I've used R9 290x and 980 ti both without issue. I started with regular ddr3 but switched to 128GB registered, SB1040 sound card. SSD boot drive, 4x 1TB intel sw raid 0, couple standalone 4tb drives.
How did you install Windows 10? From scratch?
 

Bill1950

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Aug 12, 2016
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I think you can put the ASRock driver disk into the DVD drive and start poking around the drivers until you find the right one. Probably the board drivers will work.

You should connect your primary system drive to one of the two C602 SATA III connections, not into the Marvel or Intel Rapid Storage drive connectors. I had no problem at all with drivers during W7 Ultimate install using the C602 SATA III connection. I suspect you might be trying to install one to a drive connected to the Marvel or Intel Rapid Storage connection.

Also, be careful of the sleep mode on the EP2C602-4L/D16. I'm not sure if it actually powers down the video card, but might just power down the video card fan. I have noticed elevated GPU temperatures on a GTX-970 when coming out of sleep mode. YMMV.
 

Kevin

New Member
Aug 9, 2016
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Winnipeg, Canada
I've done upgrade from win7 pro to win10 pro, and then later did a clean install on mine but I don't remember having any problems with either one. I was using just a single ssd boot drive plugged into one of the sata 3 ports for windows. I think the only thing I have plugged in to the marvell controller might be a dvdrw... and thats only because I needed to fill an empty bay and figured what the heck but I've never actually used it.

Do you have sata mode set to AHCI or RAID in the bios?