Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4

[DukeN]

Update.

Got the system working at 3.0 ghz by removing two of the RAM sticks. Guess giving +.4 to all four RAM modules didn't leave much for anything else.

19 hour orthos stable, so guess its running Ok for now.

Edit: One other thing, F7 BIOS is out for a while, I just realised now.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...Type=BIOS&FileID=12820

 

[Assimilator1]

So what sort of FSBs are you people getting out of these?

Looks like my MSI P6N Plat is going to top out at around 412MHz.

 

[Nnyan]

While using the F4 and F5 bios I got this running at 3.2Ghz (8 * 400) at stock vcore using the review guidelines (never had time to tweak them downwards). My problems with this board have been the problems running memory in dual channel mode. Whenever I did this the board would be unstable (sometimes at boot up other times minutes after I reached desktop). If I ran a single stick or the memory in 64bit non-dual channel mode I would be rock solid (Orthos 48+ hours). This was using three different memories (Wintec, G.Skill and Corsair) but they were all matched 2GB kits, not sure if it would have worked with 512 sticks or something. I RMA'd the first board and I got the same results on the 2nd one I got.

Upated the BIOS to the new F7 and this seems to have fixed the issues with the 1GB modules in dual channel mode. Tested rock steady after 8+ hours of Orthos. But this is NOT stable if you use all the memory slots (4GB on Vista x64). I get the same type of instablity i saw with the dual channel mode problem. Sometimes it hangs on boot other times within 10 or so minutes after I reach desktop. On the positive side with the F7 bios this board seems to go over the 400mhz FSB limit I was hitting (more testing tonight).

At this point I'm ready to give up and do some research on which mobos work fine with 4GB.

 

[marcool]

I'm using F7 and a E4300 , running at 3150 (9x350). Can run at 8x400, but little unstable. More testing on weekend.

 

[Nnyan]

Ok spent the last few days playing around with this. With just 2GB (2 * 1) this thing OC's like a fiend. But I really want to be able to use 4GB (yes I have Vista x64) so thats where I've been focusing.

It seems that the DS4 does not like big pushes. I got lazy and had started pretty high on the FSB and I quickly ran into stability issues. This time around I started at stock and slowly increased the FSB (turned off all bios extras, LDT to 4x, etc...). I currently have two of these boards to play with and they do seem to have FSB holes and they don't always match up so it seems to vary from board to board. Haven't had a chance to map them yet.

Up to around 400 FSB sync'd mode seems to work best. I slowly increased the FSB until I hit instability AND then slowly increased the volts until stable, rinse and repeat (yeah yeah I know standard OC proc). Going this route I was able to hit 3.2Ghz (8 * 400) with all four memory slots full (4 * 1GB). Running Orthos, two instances of Super PI Mod 1.5 and a full run of 3DMark06 this thing stayed rock steady. I left Orthos and Super PI this morning (almost 2 hours when I left). If it's still running when I get home I will be over 10 hours, I'll consider that a stable OC.

After I save those settings to a profile I'll work on tweaking ram and see if I can get the OC to 3.4 (got to just above 3.5Ghz with just two sticks but it wasn't stable) with 4 sticks. Once I've got it rock steady I'll post some screens.

 

[DukeN]

Originally posted by: Nnyan
Ok spent the last few days playing around with this. With just 2GB (2 * 1) this thing OC's like a fiend. But I really want to be able to use 4GB (yes I have Vista x64) so thats where I've been focusing.

It seems that the DS4 does not like big pushes. I got lazy and had started pretty high on the FSB and I quickly ran into stability issues. This time around I started at stock and slowly increased the FSB (turned off all bios extras, LDT to 4x, etc...). I currently have two of these boards to play with and they do seem to have FSB holes and they don't always match up so it seems to vary from board to board. Haven't had a chance to map them yet.

Up to around 400 FSB sync'd mode seems to work best. I slowly increased the FSB until I hit instability AND then slowly increased the volts until stable, rinse and repeat (yeah yeah I know standard OC proc). Going this route I was able to hit 3.2Ghz (8 * 400) with all four memory slots full (4 * 1GB). Running Orthos, two instances of Super PI Mod 1.5 and a full run of 3DMark06 this thing stayed rock steady. I left Orthos and Super PI this morning (almost 2 hours when I left). If it's still running when I get home I will be over 10 hours, I'll consider that a stable OC.

After I save those settings to a profile I'll work on tweaking ram and see if I can get the OC to 3.4 (got to just above 3.5Ghz with just two sticks but it wasn't stable) with 4 sticks. Once I've got it rock steady I'll post some screens.

I have a rig identical to yours, and had a similar experience.

Same board
e6420
4X 1GB Ballistix pc2-8000
Corsair 620W

Max I could get stable was 2.8 with 4 sticks in there, all needing 2.2. I think there wasn't enough voltage to be supplied after the sticks were in there to the NB/CPU for extra juice. And yes, I had to do it in increments too.

Cutting down to two sticks, got it running at 3.0. Will try with different RAM probably over the weekend and see if there's any difference with the new F7 BIOS.

By the way, what voltage settings did you use (vcore,NB, SB,DIMM)? Thanks.

 

[Nnyan]

Ok, so having hit 3.2Ghz pretty rock solid I moved on to 3.4Ghz. That one was a real pain in the ass I had to do constant little tweaks. I got it to be stable inside vista but it would die while running 3DMark06 or Orthos. If I gave it too much volts then I would bluescreen. I don't remember the vcore or DIMM volts that I'm using but all the others are maxed out. I think I'm really close to having this solid at 3.4Ghz, when I get home I'll post the details.

I tried 3 different types of ram and they all had problems with 4 sticks when OCing, so I think its a mobo/chipset issue.

 

[DukeN]

I can't get over 3.0 GHZ with 4 RAM sticks. Just getting it to boot going from 375 to 380 FSB needed big jumps in voltage (eg +.1 to +.25).

Guess I'll have to run this for now, happy to get my 8GB working

 

[mewmew]

Ram trouble here as well.
I've had this E4300 at around 320fsbx9 on an msi board with 3gb ram (TwinMOS 6400 2x1gb 2x512mb) which i swapped for a Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4
Highest combination i've been able to run it at is with 2gb ram only and fsb at 286 making it 2.6ghz. Which is kinda crap and it ran higher (stable) on the other mb. Unstable on the other board the FSB was up to 340 or so with the 3gb ram.
Reading stuff here and on other forums seems to indicate that this mb is a bit random with regards to ram.
The particular ram I'm using uses 1.8 volt by default, and messing with the voltage doesn't make a difference. I manage to boot up with 3gb and default CPU speed but its veeery unstable. Upping ram voltage doesn't seem to make any difference. Tried 2.2v
Also, I took out the 2x1gb and put in the 2x512mb, and it runs fine with that combo as well in dualchannel... Also tried to move them between red and yellow controllers and either is fine as long as its only 2 slots being used (yellow+yellow or red+red for dualchannel. dualchannel works fine for me.)
It just stops working when i fill more than 2 ram slots. Asking a friend to bring his OCZ ram over to see if i can clock it higher with that ram instead of 2x TwinMOS.
setup:
E4300 with a Noctua 12, arctic silver 5 between em, fan mounted on top sucking it from the cpu cooler to the psu. (wouldn't fit on the other side because of the passive nb cooler. 80mm fan aimed at the nb. Haven't seen the cpu be over 49 degrees ever. That's overclocked with 2x prime95 at max power/heat thingy, one on each core)
600w seasonic psu
xfx 8600 gt
TwinMOS DDRII PC2-6400 Dual-Channel Kit 2GB (2x1GB) 1.8v
TwinMOS DDRII PC2-6400 Dual-Channel Kit 1GB (2x512MB) (not plugged in atm) 1.8v
3 pata disks 2 sata disks an old cd burner and an external usb2 dvd burner (hence the overkill psu plus i might do a cheap sli)

Oh and, I can boot it at 1.325v in bios, ends up showing as 1.21v in cpu-z (that's quite a bit of vdroop) but is actually stable even then. I increased until it shows 1.325 in cpu-z which is slightly below 1.4v

I like this MB but would like a solution which doesn't involve me burning more money on hardware :F

 

[mewmew]

its 289*7=2.6ghz, can do stock voltage, FSB: DRAM ratio at 3:4, thats ram at 770, if i up it to 800 it wont post.
I tried just now taking out one of the 1gb ram things leaving it with only 1x 1gb stick, then tried upping ram and/or cpu. It made zero difference, no post at higher settings but perfectly stable at this one. Tried 320 fsb too just in case it's a thing around 300. No such luck. (it ran stable at 320 on the msi p35, but that mb was faulty for other reasons)

 

[marcool]

Hello, I'm running an E4300, but my C2D have a BSEL mod (with silver paint), because i did it for my old mobo (ECS 945P-A).
The Mod it's perfectly recognized by the board, and by default boots at 2.4Ghz (9*266).
Right now, am running at 9x366.7=3.300Mhz 1.48v, and my patriot memory (2x1Gb EP) at 800 4-4-4-12-2t 2.1v

 

[marcool]

Someone have problems with EasyTune 5??
When i run the program, after a few minutes, the aplication freeze, and i have to finish from the task manager.
The problem happens only with this program.

Thanks

 

[DukeN]

The easytune app is the worst - just use the BIOS.

 

[marcool]

ok, i think it's the best way.

I'm very happy with my mobo.

 

[peter121]

I've had this mobo for awhile now and originally had it going at 8x450 with an E6420 chip and HUGE increases in Voltages.........then summer came!!!
So I turned the FSB down to 400 and played with the voltages until I found the minimum it would run with.....CPU at 1.4 DDR at 2.00 NB/HT Link +.25 FSB volt +.25 southbridge +.2
and VCC12_DL +.20.
At those setting and the default Intel cooler it ran fine with a idle temp of 32 case...34/35 CPU Core...But the problem was when I ran Orthos small ffts...within a 1/2 hour I would be up to 55 and in another 1/2 hour i was at 65..........time to stop!!
And that damn northbridge would go from 65 to 85.
Well times changes and I changed my case fans to a 120mm Vantec Stealth in the back and a 120mm S-Flex SFF21E( 1200rpm/49cfm/20dba) in the front.Then I took off the Intel Heatsink and installed a Thermalright HR-01 775 Cooler and attached a S-Flex SFF21F 120mm fan..1600rpm/63cfm/28dba to it. The darn thing just fits...mm to spare between it and the northbridge heatsink.
Case temps dropped to 29....Core temps dropped to 32 but the Northbridge went to 83.
Letting it idle for 2 hours nothing changed..........time to run Orthos.
Surprise......case temps 30.........Nothbridge.....83
and after 1 hour core temps of 57..........after 2 hours core temps of 57...3 hours..same.
The case and NB never increased in temps and the Cores stayed at 57 forever.
I should also mention that today was a scorcher of a day..38 outside and 8 degrees higher room temp than the last time I ram Orthos where I shut it down after one hour because it reached 65.............cant wait for cooler weather to try this again.
peter

 

[marcool]

I just put a 80mm fan on top of the northbridge heatsink, and the temperatures drop a lot, try that.
Before doing that, I could not touch the thing without burning my fingers.


Marco.

 

[peter121]

How the hell did you manage to attach a fan to that wavy heatsink??
any pics??

 

[marcool]

I will try to take a picture with the cellphone, i'll post it soon.

 

[goodguy2k]

Alaricljs,

Thanks for the great pics - I have a question.

I am trying to figure the space for the CPU Cooler.
From your pics, it appears you are close to the top fan with the Thermalight 120 Extreme.

In my case I have 1.5 inches between the uppermost motherboard mounting screw and the top fan (using an Antec 900).

How far is it from you uppbermost MB mounting holes to your fan?

Thanks.

Any update on the board - the VR review had me hooked on the Gigabyte 650i SLI but I am now looking at an 680i LT SLI as they are only $20 more currently. What do you think?

One more question - Gigabyte vs. EGVA vs XFX motherboard considering warranties - what do you think?
Essentialy, to get the evga in a 680i LT version with lifetime warranty you have to pay $40 more than the Gigabyte 650i - is the 680i LT and the warranty worth $40 ???

THanks

 

[alaricljs]

I'll have to take a look when I get home to answer the space question, but I do know that the HSF is very close to the top fan. From memory, the edge of the mobo when mounted is just a couple mm from the fan, so I'd estimate 30mm between the standoffs and the ceiling of the case.

I just watched the Antec video for the p182... Oh my god, the guy sounds like he's doing a really bad Capt. Kirk attempt, or something.

As for the mobo, it's been stable for me at moderate OC'd speeds. I couldn't get Orthos stable over 375FSB. I haven't tried the F7 bios yet since I've already decided to upgrade the mobo/cpu (e6420). I'm building a rig for my sister and am using it as an opportunity to get a P35 and e6750.

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: peter121
How the hell did you manage to attach a fan to that wavy heatsink??
any pics??

I used a spare slot bracket that I drilled a hole in and bent to hang over the northbridge, sort of like this:

http://www.freebsddiary.org/im...eon-fan-left-small.jpg

The other end is attached to the Intel heatsink with a twist tie so the fan doesn't move around. I also modded the fan to 7v so that it's silent.

Zalman sells brackets designed for this, if you want something a little more "professional" looking:

http://www.rhyshaden.com/images/cpu_fan.jpg

 

[alaricljs]

Here's a shot from SPCR of the inside of a P180 (same as the 182 in this location) (2nd pic, fixed link) pic It's the inside view of the top and rear exhaust fans and should give you an idea of the space in that area to compare with your 900.

 

[Assimilator1]

Ref your link.

The following error occurred:

You are not permitted to access the requested URL
Please contact the Webmaster with any queries.

On my rig I suspended a fan for the NB using just cable ties lol, doesn't look great but it works ,I am a little tempted by those Zalman brackets though.......

 

[valgatiag]

I bought this board because it seemed to fit my needs perfectly, but I've run into what might be a major issue - on most specs it's listed that the board supports 1333MHz CPUs, but on the Gigabyte site it claims that it's only compatible with 6x50 chips on the F7 BIOS. I plan on putting a 6750 in this, but now I'm worried that it won't be compatible and I'll either have to RMA the board and get a P35 or RMA the CPU and get a 1066 FSB chip.

I contacted GB support and they responded that the board probably won't post with a 6750 unless it's on F7. But I can't flash to F7 without a compatible CPU, right? So where does that leave me?

 

[alaricljs]

valgatiag: What they mean is that the F7 BIOS *ADDS* support for the 6x50 CPUs. Flash away.