Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4

[cubeless]

seems that i'm settling @ 7x485 @ 1.425... had to push up the memory to 2.2v... 45c on the hot core... putting the side cover (with the 250mm fan) cooled me off a couple more c...

just followed the vr tips...

have u tried putting a fan on the nb??? it is smoking hot without it... all it takes is a tiny fan to cool it... attach directly to the hs...

anyone get this to run 1t? i just hang in boot @ 1t...

 

[Kromis]

Although I did want this board, I opted for the DS3 instead!

 

[chunkychunkz]

Cubeless, you have a fan attached to the NB heatsink? What kind of fan could be attached to it? Or are you telling me that you have a fan thats just simply lying on it?

You're right, its pretty god damn hot...

 

[cubeless]

it's a little coolermaster fan that was in my junk box... it probably came off an old vid card or old nb hsf... i just ran 2 screws through it into the hs fins ... not the greatest mount, but solid enuf... it just covers the middle of the hs, but the whole thing cools down now...

makes a huge difference... the problem with a passive copper hs is that copper grabs heat great, but doesn't release heat so fast... it's kind of the inverse of aluminum... u need to get some air between those fins...


i'm really surprised that they didn't put a fan on this thing...

 

[DukeN]

OK I got it today and totally disappointed. Board does not power up, no power or anything, bummer.

Will update next week or whenever RMA gets here.

 

[Webgod]

Try it outside the case in the event you have a standoff shorting it all out.

Anyways I think I'll be picking this board up, but I want to read all of the discussions about it that I can. I've never used a Gigabyte brand board before. Seems the 680i board is having boot up issues that currently rule it out.

 

[DukeN]

Originally posted by: Webgod
Try it outside the case in the event you have a standoff shorting it all out.

Anyways I think I'll be picking this board up, but I want to read all of the discussions about it that I can. I've never used a Gigabyte brand board before. Seems the 680i board is having boot up issues that currently rule it out.

Thanks, I'll try that. Just to clarify the board does not beep or anything, but the CPU fan (connected to the MB), as well as the PSU fan, and other case fans come on.

No VGA display, no beeps at all, even without CPU and/or RAM. I think it's the board, will try a spare PSU just to double check.

 

[alaricljs]

The board doesn't have a speaker. Unless you have an external hooked to it, you're not going to get a beep.

 

[chunkychunkz]

mmm... Not necessarily true.
The motherboard actually beeps. I had a problem where it booted up to a LOUD CONTINOUS, NONSTOP BEEP and I didnt have any speakers for it. The only solution was to take out the battery in the motherboard to reset the cmos.

If you check the FAQ at the back of the manual, it tells you what different beeps mean.

Originally posted by: alaricljs
The board doesn't have a speaker. Unless you have an external hooked to it, you're not going to get a beep.

 

[Kromis]

Hot damn...

Guess this board is either a hit or miss...

Damn you VR-Zone review!

 

[alaricljs]

Interesting. I couldn't find one on the board, and since it doesn't do a standard boot beep I assumed it really wasn't there.

 

[chunkychunkz]

Update on the board.

As advised by Cubeless, I placed a SUPER DUPER mini-fan onto the NB heatsink, and oh boy, the fins were cold! Not only that, my cpu temps went down by 5c and video card went down by 8c.

Well, aside from that, it did NOT open any more room for overclocks. I was able to get it to load into windows at 380FSB and it'll lock up after a bit.
I tried to go higher and see what happens.

For everything above 380, it will freeze while posting, which is something I never achieved w/o a fan. But I still can't load into windows, so there was really no point.

So i started to increase all of my voltages a little at a time. Came to me that it was due to the voltages that froze/locked up while posting. So I tried lowering them until it wont lock up. Then... without the increased voltages, it can't support the 380+ FSB. It will take longer than usual to boot up, and if it does boot up, it will tell me that it had a cmos error.

FINE. So then I sucked it up and went down to 360FSB where i can actually get into windows and start typing here at normal voltages.

Currently my E6600 is running at 3.24ghz,
Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1000 is running at 720mhz.

Might try another 650i board instead

 

[davidb72]

Depends what features you want...

http://tinyurl.com/2j5nzp

Sli? Firewire?

 

[chunkychunkz]

Originally posted by: davidb72
Depends what features you want...

http://tinyurl.com/2j5nzp

Sli? Firewire?

Nothing on gigabyte as far as im concerned now!
Just ordered a DFI P965-S!

I loved their DFI lanparty for socket 939.

 

[peter121]

Have had this board for 2 weeks now and got it running at 8x425FSB with memory in sync.Running an E6420 chip with stock cooling,Some good Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2 6400 RAMat 2.2v.I followed the review to the letter..NB/HT link Voltage +0.35
FSB Volt..+0.35 Southbridge Volt..+0.3 VCC12_dl Volt +0.20 CPU volt at 1.5000.
I actually have the RAM set at 427 but it reads 425........850
The Temps are in the low 40's ...full tilt goes only to 48.
This RAM should be good for 1000.............a goal I aim to achieve when I purchase a new CPU cooler
great board

 

[fpoverflow]

I had basically the same exact experience as peter. Same processor, 8x425, memory linked and in sync (850), rock solid. I don't know if this is a strap issue, but 416-390 is a dead zone for me. Also, at 8x425 only linked and synced memory works, even if I unlink and set it lower than 850. So, there are some quirks with the memory config.

 

[JohnDoe2]

Are you all using fans on the northbridge? I put an 80mm fan over it because without one the NB seemed like it was about to melt. The NB on this board is a horrible design. It would have saved a lot of trouble if it was a regular NB with 40mm fan, not this huge and useless chunk of molten copper that blocks CPU coolers. Gigabyte should put out a fan for it, so it doesn't need to be jury-rigged.

Can't say anything else about the board yet, just started setting it up.

 

[Assimilator1]

So it would seem that VRs review with getting 520FSB was somewhat of a fluke.
Seems that most people are getting in the range of 380-430MHz.About the same as the MSI 650 IIRC.

Any other reviews of this mbrd?

 

[peter121]

here is a tread
http://www4.tomshardware.com/2007/05/24/seven_650i_sli_motherboards_compared/

comparison of 7

 

[chunkychunkz]

Well, I switched over to a DFI inifinity P965-S
Currently running at 500x7 with barely raised voltage settings.
Good luck to those that are still using a gigabyte 650i

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: chunkychunkz
Bah! It looks like I am having the same problems as Smit. Instead of the FSB barrier of 400, mine is limited at 375. I am currently using F5 -- but then again it keeps switching back and forth and .... well, I don't really know which bios version I am switching the settings at anymore.

I cranked every voltage up: Dram at 2.2v, cpu voltage at 1.5 and I can barely make it to my windows with a FSB of 370 and it'll still crash. Ram is currently underclocked to 742.

I disabled every setting in the BIOS, C1, etc, etc, and lowered the LDT frequency from 5x to 4x as suggested in the review by VR-Zone. (What does LDT do anyway?)

Still cant get anything past 370
I know the CPU could go higher as I have gotten it to post and into windows at 3.6Ghz on the ASUS 650i board.
Is there any hope left for me in this Gigabyte board?

I read in a review of the 650i MSI P6N SLI Platinum, that the highest FSB that the reviewer could reach stably was 375. I wonder if this is a limitation of several 650i-based boards?

 

[Assimilator1]

Yes Xbits ,but a couple of other reviews I read got the MSI to ~430MHz.
Well I'll find out soon as my one turned up today

Originally posted by: peter121
here is a tread
http://www4.tomshardware.com/2007/05/24/seven_650i_sli_motherboards_compared/
comparison of 7

Dead link

 

[DukeN]

I just got mine up and running yesterday, seems like a bad PSU..grrr another Antec.

Question guys - my Ballistix need 2.2V, and in the BIOS settings I have an incremental voltage setting (+0.02, +0.03, etc are available options). What's the default voltage the board pushes out to the RAM? I.e. what setting do I use to supply 2.2V to the RAM?

Thanks again.

 

[alaricljs]

Default is 1.8v. +.4 is what you want

 

[DukeN]

So after a few hours, it tops out at about 360 for me for an E6420. Set RAM to 950 as well using unlinked, linkd/sync'd didn't seem to work well.

Only RAM +.4 voltage setting so far. Tried various combinations of voltage raises to get it higher but unsuccessful so far, so any advice is greatly recommended.

I have all EIST, C1E, spread spectrum, Firewire, etc disabled and have LDT set to 4X.
Have an Antec P900 case with all Yate Loons, and two on the side. Also an Arctic Cooling Pro 7 for the CPU. Cabling is extremely neat and tidy, and airflow is nice. The CPU HSF is cool to touch after running, the NB one is definitely warm/hot despite two fans blowing air from the case window in the general direction - will have to find a way to attach a small fan to this.

More info:

BIOS F5
E6420
4X 1GB pc2-8000 Ballistix CAS 5
Arctic Freezer Pro 7 CPU cooler
Antec 900 case with Yates everywhere
Default vcore settings except RAM upto 2.2V and CPU 1.375

Also, anyone know if the Spirit II will fit the mobo with an Arctic Freezer cpu hsf?

Thanks again.