Gigabyte : new series of P965 rev 3.3 boards ...

[luie]

I'll report when mine comes. lol.
I got one from Mwave for $111.41
($126.41 shipped -$15 because of paypal when i get the rebate in May)

I used the $10 new froggle mwave user discount and used the $7 3-days Fedex Express shipping.

*crosses fingers that mine will be rev.3.3 too*
Happy Lunar New Year. oink oink.

 

[luie]

There's review on this in China.
http://www.pconline.com.cn/diy/main/reviews/0702/967464_6.html

It says they got 500FSB stable.
510FSB was good but not stable.

They used E6400.
They used KingBox DDR2 512M×2 PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) [no, i have never heard of "KingBox" RAM before either.]

Settings are:
Vcore = 1.55V
Vdimm = 2.2V
"northbridge" (MCH i think.) = +0.2V
"front"something (FSB overvoltage control?)=+0.2V
PCI-E = "locked" (101Mhz?)
"keep CPU internal" (i don't know what that is) = 1/2
BIOS version = F10

(The motherboard over there cost US$177. lol. :-D )
(Apparently, when the rev.2 version came out, it costs $190. Now, price went down by around $20 for all DS3's versions.)

 

[JJordan]

My ClubIT board was Rev. 3.3

 

[irrationalJohn]

Originally posted by: JJordan
My ClubIT board was Rev. 3.3

Reassuring to hear that. BTW, what memory did you finally decide to go with? Just curious as I've got to buy some memory myself sometime this week to be ready when the DS3 shows up.

-john

 

[JJordan]

I bought the corsair memory. Memory. It booted just fine. I cannot figure out how to tell if it is running dual channel or not .... Been too long since I built a computer. My 8800GTS video card and CPU cooler come today so I can get it all running and check temperatures and see if I can figure out how to overclock it in a week or so.... Just loaded XP Pro on as the operating system.

 

[MTDEW]

Mem should be in the same colored slots for dual channel.

Also, CPUZ will tell you if you are dual channel or not under the memory tab.

 

[JJordan]

Thanks. I ran it - says "Dual" under the memory tab so I assume I am Okay ! And when I bought the memory above it had a $40 rebate.... And I hope the $15 PayPal credit some day.

 

[Bozo Galora]

That corsair ram linked above is trouble free for DS3
5-5-5-12 1T @1.9V and will boot at that - 2GB in dual channel
will SPD at 555 18, so you change that to 12 in bios
(hit cntrl+F1 to see ram settings EACH time you go in bios)
sets ratio at 2:3 (266/400) on DS3 automatically or 800/PC2-6400

now at ZZF @ $205 less $40 MIR or $165 free ship
good choice for those not wanting to go bezerk on O/C
the 444 12 stuff will give better benches (lower latency), but is more expensive and you will never feel the difference

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85025-5

 

[JJordan]

Thanks. SO far I have been unsuccessful in getting into the hidden bios so I will ask a stupid question. You hit delete to get into bios on boot up. Once there, hitting Cntrl F1 does nothing for me. But when I try hitting Cntrl F1 on boot up, it blows right by the bios and boots. Any idea what stupid thing I am doing wrong?

 

[Bozo Galora]

you hit control F1 at first main bios screen, it just blinks doesnt look like it does anything, but additional fields show up when you get in there

Edit: and theres the handy F11 and F12 options in bios.
Hit F11 and save your tweaked bios settings as a profile (up to 8)
and bring it back with an F12

comes in handy when you have to set failsafe defaults - like before and after a bios flash, tho DS3 has sparse settings compared to something like asus commando.

 

[irrationalJohn]

Originally posted by: JJordan
And I hope the $15 PayPal credit some day.

Not sure if I was looking at the same $15 PayPal rebate you used, but the one I looked at contains the following restriction (among others): "You are only eligible for this offer if you receive this offer in an email sent to you directly from PayPal".

The offer I saw contained this qualifying sentence: Exclusive offer for eligible PayPal users only. You only see this restriction if you follow the eligible PayPal users link. :|

-john

 

[Bozo Galora]

and FWIW:

prob the greatest cause of "DOA" "Bad" ram stick >IMHO< is the following:

handling RAM stick at any time without a grounded anti-static wrist strap ($& at Fry's)

Inserting/removing RAM when computer off, but PSU "On". Turn rocker switch on PSU to "O" - push PC "on" button for 5-10 seconds to discharge caps, reverse proceedure when done.
This is easily seen with mobo with red led RAM lites

 

[madmax2232]

bozo you got your motherboard yet. how do it clock, many problem . I hope not I just pull the trigger on this board also

 

[Bozo Galora]

Originally posted by: madmax2232
bozo you got your motherboard yet. how do it clock, many problem . I hope not I just pull the trigger on this board also

I have built around half dozen DS3's - rev 1.0's, Rev. 2.0's, 965G rev. 1.0 (an absolute nightmare), and now rev.. 3.3. I have run all bios from F2 - F10 (F8i is best overclocker - F10 best all round) Rev. 3.3 ships with F10.

As I hinted - I am not an extreme overclocker
A CPU running @ 3.2GHZ 1:1 400FSB X 8 multi PC2 6400 800 MSB 1.9V super pi stable is just fine for me.
And as I said, assuming STOCK CPU bus (266) you can run corsair @ 2:3 or 800 Mem side bus, just change JEDEC SPD 18 to 12 and set dimm volts to +.1 = 1.9V Corsairs rating.
Badda bing, badda boom.

You use your basic trouble free associated hardware
Rock solid Corsair (Seasonic) 620W semi modular ($123 AR @ ZZF)
Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA or IDE
And I am now awaiting the new Buffalo 212 SATA 18X multi drive (Pioneer rebadge) - I will get two of these REASONABLE priced drives.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/#4715

You make sure you dont use an aftermarket HSF that has a metal underbracket - if it does you tape it.

You keep 2 items handy for bios corruption/no boot probs -
A PCI (not PCI-E) VGA vidcard and a stick of cheap value ram with 1.8V spec and loose timings.

You flash only with 2 floppies in DOS
1 floppy with win 98 setup
second floppy with rom file and flasher
The first gets you to an A prompt

Your overclocking depends on 2 things - the multiplier that comes with the CPU, and how much money you wish to spend on ultra frequency RAM

Say you set the processor side bus at 400 on an 8X CPU (theoretical CPU bus 1600 - quad pumped)
8X times 400 - 3.2GHZ
The same thing on a 9X CPU
9X times 400 - 3.6GHZ
3.2GHZ is doable on both Allendales
Kinda iffy at 3.6GHZ - depends on the CPU you get
Both would run 400 CPU bus @ 1:1 or 800 Mem side bus
Another unknown is the new L2 stepping Core2Duo's - Jan 07
http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ProcFam=2558&sSpec=&OrdCode=

Heres a little table
CPU to RAM ratio/corresponding multiplier (@ allendale/conroe stock FSB)
266.6 @ 1:1 (X2) = 533.3X8 = PC2-4266
266.6 @ 4:5 (X2.5) = 666.6X8 = PC-5333
266.6 @ 2:3 (X3.0) = 800X8 = PC2-6400
266.6 @ 1:2 (X4) = 1066X8 = PC2-8533

@ 400 FSB on the CPU you run out of air real quick - it'll take $600 memory to play @ fast RAM speeds
400@ 1:1 (X2) = 800 X 8 = PC2 6400
400@ 4:5 (X2.5) = 1000 X 8 = PC2 8000
400@ 2:3 (X 3.0) = 1200 X 8 = PC2 9600
400@ 1:2 (X 4.0) = 1600 X 8 = PC2 12,800

So, to recap, the CPU FSB depends on the CPU and how extreme your cooling, the MSB depends on the ratio you set and how much you want to spend - its all a big balancing act. Most peeps just buy stuff on impulse and site reviews with no PLAN.
If you want the big numbers - you WILL have to loosen timings and up the voltage - drastically in some cases.

You want 500FSB (2000 quad pumped) on your CPU? Even at 8X multi you will need a cpu that can do 4.0GHZ, and at lowest 1:1 strap, you will need 500 X 2 X8 or PC2-8000 RAM at the very minimum, at like 2.4V.
So now you are talking RAM cooling, active NB cooling, and water or phase change on the CPU.

So, you gotta stop and think ahead of time what you want to do???

Edited: For typos

 

[nutxo]

Originally posted by: zjohnr

Originally posted by: JJordan
And I hope the $15 PayPal credit some day.

Not sure if I was looking at the same $15 PayPal rebate you used, but the one I looked at contains the following restriction (among others): "You are only eligible for this offer if you receive this offer in an email sent to you directly from PayPal".

The offer I saw contained this qualifying sentence: Exclusive offer for eligible PayPal users only. You only see this restriction if you follow the eligible PayPal users link. :|

-john

LOL. I need to give em a call. I did that thing through my login page. If they tell me Im not eligible after following the link through my log in page Ill be livid.

 

[3LEMENT0]

So what's the deal with rev 3.3? Have all the bugs been fixed on this version? I read somewhere(probably TOM's or HardOCP) that some folks would have their DS3 run for a time then just suddenly run into the cold boot issue. Is this a QC issue with gigabyte? I've been eying the DS3 for overclocking but with the issues I've been reading I've been holding off and considering ASUS or ABIT boards. my NF7-S(latest rev) has been running with no issues from OC day one (after 72 hrs of stress testing with PRIME, memtest, Super PI, CPU Burn, etc. to confirm a stable OC).

 

[madmax2232]

Thanks bozo , 400 fsb is cool with me. I wont be flashing the bios i dont think If I can get it up to that I will be content. I got a e6400 and patriot 667 ram 2gb. I dont have vid card as of yet thinking about 8800 gts but I might wait for the 8900 gs in the second qrt. if i can hold out that long.I am on a asrock board dual vista right now . Its stable but i as in the middle of changing to pci-e card. on a 6800gts agp for now. hey do you have NB cooling on your board now for 400 fsb.

 

[irrationalJohn]

The rev 3.3 DS3 I ordered from clubit.com arrived last Friday which is nearly a week ago by now. I still haven't migrated my primary system to it as I wanted to "play with it" a bit before locking into a set of configuration choices. While doing this I have noticed at least one nice change as well as some strange quirks ... for lack of a better word ... and was wondering if anyone else had noticed them and/or had any comments about them.

In particular, I was hoping to bring them to the attention of Gary Key and his reviewers. If AnandTech does a review of a rev 3.3 DS3, is it too much for me to hope that they might include some slight reference to one or more of the items below? I can dream, can't I?

FYI, the system I'm basing the comments below on consists of

• Core 2 Duo E4300
  Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro HSF
  Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 rev 3.3 with F10 BIOS
  2GB memory, Corsair DDR2-800 (XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400)
  eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Nvidia Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3

1) Hurrah! There are (now) more than two fan headers on the motherboard!
You may laugh, but one of the "big" concerns I had about buying a DS3 was that it had only two fan headers. Thankfully, my rev 3.3 DS3 has four fan headers. There are two 4-pin fan headers labeled CPU_FAN and SYS_FAN and two 3-pin headers labeled NB_FAN and PWR_FAN. (BTW, does anyone out there know what the heck PWR_FAN might refer to? All I can come up with is "Power Fan" but that makes no sense to me).

Quirk: While the NB_FAN is a 3-pin fan header there seems to be no way to detect the RPM's from it. All I have seen listed in the BIOS ... or detected by Speedfan ... were the speeds for the CPU_FAN, SYS_FAN, and PWR_FAN. Weird omission, no?

2) Extra fan headers are good because you will definitely want to put a fan on that Northbridge!
While I haven't measured the temperature, I have noticed that without a fan on it my Northbridge becomes so hot that I cannot keep a finger on it. This while running just Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic with the FSB set to 320MHz. I dread to think what temps it would soar to if I tried going to 400MHz or above.

Quirk: While I had no clearance problems when installing my Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, there is going to be a problem putting a fan on the Northbridge. The fins of AC 7 Pro heat sink and the fan casing actually overhang the Northbridge a bit. Not by much. Only an 1/8 of an inch or so. But it's enough to interfere with the installation of a fan on the Northbridge. Right now I've "securely" attached my Northbridge fan using scotch tape. But I'm not sure what I'm going to do as a longer term solution. (Any suggestions?)

Complaint: BTW, Gigabyte did not include a NB fan with the motherboard. The Northbridge fan I'm using is something I dug up out of my old parts bin.

3) The mystery of the vanishing (G)MCH/Northbridge and ICH/Southbridge temperature sensors.
The first time I booted my DS3 and entered the BIOS I was very happy to see that the motherboard included temperature sensors for the (G)MCH/Northbridge and the ICH/Southbridge. I knew they must be there because I saw the entries for these temps listed right under the CPU temp as soon as I entered the PC Health Status section of the BIOS. "Nice touch", I remember saying to myself at the time.

Then I rebooted the system and ... poof! ... they were gone. I thought I had only dreamed it, but then they showed up again the very first time I cleared the CMOS. This time I took the time to write down what I was seeing. There were definitely two "extra" lines in the PC Health Status section of the BIOS. One for the ICH tempature and one for the (G)MCH temperature.

And then, just like before, as soon as I booted out of the BIOS the readings vanished. And they have never showed up for me again even after clearing the CMOS. I'm very curious about this, but can't think of any way to get any meaningful answers about it. Given how hot that Northbridge tends to get I would really, truly, definitely prefer to have a temperature sensor available for it. But I guess I can also see that since the Northbridge gets as hot as it does, Gigabyte ... perhaps in hindsight ... might have decided they didn't want to advertise this information. As I say, it's a mystery. Oh, well.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that one of the first things I tried was to use CNTRL+F1 on the BIOS entry page to enable the "advanced options". Doing this allowed me to access the additional memory timing settings in the "M.I.T." section, but resulted in no changes in what was displayed in the PC Health Status section.

4) Once AHCI is enabled for the purple Gigabyte/JMicron SATA ports, it damn well wants to STAY enabled!
Having read in a review (from AnandTech?) that there could be problems with PATA IDE if RAID/IDE was enabled for the JMicron SATA ports on the DS3, I certainly had no intention of ever going there. But I was curious about AHCI. My understanding was that if I wanted to do "hot plugging" then I'd need to use the JMicron SATA ports on the DS3 and enable AHCI for those ports in the BIOS. So I went into the BIOS and selected AHCI for the JMicron ports to try this out.

It worked. I had to install the (so-called) Gigabyte SATA driver when Windows came back up, but once I did that I could hot-plug and also disconnect a SATA drive using the purple ports. My purpose accomplished I went back into the BIOS, set the JMicron ports back to IDE, rebooted Windows, and opened the Device Manager to verify that the GBB36X Controller was gone.

Only it wasn't gone. The GBB36X Controller was still there even though I had definitely turned it off in the BIOS. Puzzled, I uninstalled it and rebooted. Windows promptly detected the "SCSI/RAID" device and reinstalled the GBB36X Controller. Long story short, nothing I did in the BIOS seemed to get rid of the GBB36X Controller. I disabled the purple ports and the GBB36X was still there in Device Manager. I think the only way I was able to get rid of it was by clearing the CMOS and deleting the Gigabyte SATA drivers from Windows. Weird, no?

That's all I've got for now. Any thoughts, comments, and especially insight! on any of the above would be appreciated.

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy-in-transition dinosaur

 

[Bozo Galora]

My DS3 box is at home, and I am posting from my office PC, but I'm fairly certain the disappearing BIOS items is due to the extremely stupid need to hit cntrl + F1 in main bios menu to access "advanced options" EACH AND EVERY TIME.

The hot as hell NB is one of the greatest roadblocks to high FSB. Really scary even for people with stock clocks. May I suggest the following:
http://www.petrastechshop.com/jitijtchchco.html
http://www.jab-tech.com/Jing-Ting-Force...006-Offset-Chipset-cooler-pr-3450.html

I dont like mobo plastic mounting pins for NB/SB heatsinks. So I use a TINY TINY dab of mixed Artic silver epoxy in center only of NB to cement them on - you then know its flat.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm
Note that it is "permanent" so the less you use the easier it will be to remove by running system full bore and rotating HSF - you aint gonna pull it off.

Re: The hotplug issue:
I think your prob is due to WFP - windows file protection. I would say a careful assessment of what you are going to do on the JMicron (in BIOS) and then an XP reinstall.

The JMicron chip is truly a strange bird, True RAID (which includes AHCI) with no IDE, no RAID AHCI which conflicts with IDE mode, and IDE emulation on SATA and IDE, which cannot co-exist with AHCI, and both on the PCI-E bus.
http://www.jmicron.com/Product_JMB363.htm

Supposedly latest driver
ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/jmb36x
has helped this nonsense, but I dont see how AHCI and IDE can get along - cant have two type drivers on same controller. I dont know for sure because I run my 2 Seagate 320GB 7200.10 on Intel SATA (no R) in legacy mode and am getting 133MB/s burst in HDD tach - which is good enough for me, and I run my two burners on JMicron in IDE mode. My LG shows as UDMA 6 or ATA133 and my Pioneer shows as UDMA 5 or ATA100, which is good, because thats false Windows readings for the PCI-E bus.

If you want trouble free JMIcron RAID or AHCI, then your real solution is a PCI IDE card for opticals, or a 1X PCI-E NO SATA IDE card, which doesnt yet seem to exist.

 

[irrationalJohn]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
I'm fairly certain the disappearing BIOS items is due to the extremely stupid need to hit cntrl + F1 in main bios menu to access "advanced options" EACH AND EVERY TIME.

Thanks for pointing that out. I should have mentioned in my OP that I did try that ... many, many, many times in fact ... and it was not the reason the NB and ICH temps didn't show up in the BIOS. I'll edit my post to clarify this, but thanks again for pointing out to me that I failed to cover this.

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy-in-transition dinosaur

 

[Wags1974]

this dq6 rev3.3 was my first gigabyte motherboard, and it wont be my last. I havent flashed it since I took it out of the box and it has run flawless , overclocked cpu and memory mildly. 3ghz and ddr900. Not bad for a 4300 and the 4300 and this board combined cost the same as a 6400 and the ds3. I have to admit the main reason i went with dq6 was the heatpipe for the chipsets and now I am so happy I did. The chipset is easily ten degrees + celsius below what others using the ds3 are reporting , some even report ziptying fans to their northbridge heatsink. So I think I made the right decision. Awesome board!!!

 

[mothow]

Just got my DS3 Gen 2.0 rev3.3 from club it and my E6400 and ram from newegg today and so far its been awesome

GA-965P-DS3 Rev 3.3
http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

GA965PDQ6 Rev 3.3
http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830922

 

[yiranhu]

this patriot...

 

[irrationalJohn]

Gigabyte has added a Benefits of the GIGABYTE rev 3.3 Motherboards "article" to their Geeks Column of the Week section. While the main thrust of the article is of course to pump up sales of their motherboards, figured it was worth mentioning because it does say some (small) things I haven't heard before. Here are some quotes covering what I think were the changes mentioned between 3.3 and the early versions.

[*]While most of the GIGABYTE P965 rev 1.0 / 2.0 boards are also capable of supporting 1333MHz FSB through the latest BIOS update, GIGABYTE has made some hardware enhancements that squeeze maximum performance out of these next generation processors. To start, GIGABYTE has optimized the FSB routing design to improve signal quality for not only 1333MHz FSB CPUs, but for Intel quad-core processors as well. By widening the FSB trace routing, FSB impedance has been reduced from 50 ohms to 42 ohms. This impedance means there is less resistance for the electrical signal to travel between the CPU and the FSB, increasing the speed at which the signal travels and improving signal quality.

[*]GIGABYTE rev 3.3 motherboards also feature a 6 phase and above power design that is able to deliver steadier power and immediate current to the CPU and memory during heavy system workloads such as overclocking.

[*]For the rev 3.3 motherboards, GIGABYTE has used higher quality covered flat chokes.

[*]GIGABYTE has also added fuses for the USB ports.

[*]GIGABYTE has increased the number of audio capacitors on the rev 3.3 motherboards to ensure the most rich, high-definition audio experience possible.

Now if only I knew how much any of the above actually mattered.

Still, I figure it can't hurt, can it? And it is nice to see some a manufacturer making some improvements to a board. Gives me hope for future updates to the BIOS as well.

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy-in-transition dinosaur

 

[spinejam]

fyi: i just flashed my rev. 1 p965 "s3" w/ the "ds3" f10 bios and all is fine!