Gigabyte P35 Motherboard Thread

[cruser1068]

Thanks for the tips....I'll have a fiddle and see if I can get any of that to work. The main problem and difference to your situation seems to be that clearing the CMOS with the jumper is no longer guaranteed to cure my system. It used to but not any more for some reason. I cant see a pattern of when mine boots and when it doesnt...seems to be pot luck and generally the length of time to get it going is gradually increasing.

If I ever solve it I'll post back.

 

[Kougar]

Originally posted by: netjack
whats the difference between gigabyte GA-P35-S3, GA-P35-DS3, GA-P35-S3L?

All "L" versions have the Jmicron SATA2 chip removed.

Originally posted by: kallekill
How do you tell what type of memory you are getting? I plan to buy two of these to get 4 GB RAM:

Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 Xtreme 2x1024MB (tot. 2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz with Heatsink

Are those the ProMos 667 Mhz chips that can cause trouble?

Yes those are ProMOS chips. I can personally attest my DQ6 liked my Corsair 6400c4 RAM, I got over 1,000MHz out of them at 5-5-5-15 rock stable at only the stock 2.1v.

@lightzout i-Cool is a nasty program, it either crashes at startup or it causes problems on users systems from what I read about it. I would not install that, it at least sounds plausible it could have been behind your multiplier problem. I've never seen nor heard of anything having such a multiplier problem before on a Gigabyte though.

@mxnerd The CPU fan thing is because the board defaults to fan control, and any stock core 2 duo runs so cool that the board will keep the fan low until it gradually warms up. That is not a defect, and you can disable that in the BIOS if you wish. Regarding the floppy, it could be a miss installed cable since some are not notched correctly, and only work when plugged in with the twisted segment of the cable next to the floppy drive. Otherwise I wouldn't know about that one. About your #3 problem, that could be because of a changed BIOS setting, was this with default BIOS settings? Also be aware Win98/Me are no longer supported by Gigabyte on these boards... these boards were built with Vista in mind, such as the HPET setting and SATA hot-plug capability which only Vista can make use of. Sorry.

@cruser1068 Did you try the old unplug power cord + remove CMOS battery + press the power button then wait 15 minutes trick? That is guaranteed to fully clear a BIOS, and I've seen it work when the CMOS clear jumper just didn't fully clear for whatever reason. You should use Speedfan to check your RAM voltages, it is fairly accurate for a software reading. It will label it VCC or vcore2 or some such. "2.2" in BIOS = "2.21" in Speedfan = actual "2.27v" by my multimeter.

-------

Brief announcement to all Gigabyte owners: The recent released beta BIOS's on Gigabyte's website have fixed the lax MCH strap and tightened the memory settings. "Memory Performance Enhance" setting now controls the MCH Strap and sets it aggressively at low FSBs.

For DQ6 users: the beta F5L BIOS on Gigabyte's website has fixed the non-working "Memory Performance Enhance" feature and the board now self-tunes RAM sub-timings quite well. I've only just started testing, but these are some quick checks with 10 min stable Orthos runs using the 1:1 divider.

266FSB Stock
Standard= MCH Strap of 11
Extreme= MCH Strap of 3

333FSB
Standard= MCH Strap of 11
Extreme= MCH Strap of 7

400FSB Overclock:
Standard= MCH Strap of 11
Turbo= MCH Strap of 6
Extreme= MCH Strap of 6

501FSB Overclock
Turbo= MCH Strap of 9
Extreme= MCH Strap of 9

Standard seems to use default values in all cases. So far Turbo/Extreme settings have not once caused an error in Orthos. I highly suggest that if Gigabyte just published a beta BIOS for your specific board that you flash to it, the improved dynamic RAM sub-timings alone has helped stability on my board. Strangely enough I can now use Option 1 OR Option 2 for my Ballistix RAM, but I am still testing this.

 

[jny4916]

OK i know this is an easy question, but I havn't upgraded my MB/CPU in about 4 years. If I buy a '50 series CPU based on the 1333 FSB, and I buy DDR2 1066 memory to go with it. What speed is the memory/cpu going to run at on a P35 board?

 

[cruser1068]

Kougar, thanks for your comprehensive reply. No I havent tried that but will now. Speedfan does the job as you say, thanks. Its reporting 2.18 so about where I'd expect. You clearly have an indepth knowledge and I'd appreciate some more advice if you could spare it. This has been my first foray into overclocking and although it appeared to go well at first Ive obviously run into problems.....not necessarily connected with Overclocking though I might add!
You have a DQ6 so maybe you could advise me on the best settings for my setup?
As I say Im using 2x1GB OCZ PC8500 (OCZ2N1066SR2GK) in the red slots (though Ive tried the yellow too). An E6600 with an Akasa AK961 cooler. I have a BFG 8800GTS OC and an Xfi Fatality in the bottom PCI slot. I have two Seagate 7200.10 500GB drives running on the Intel SATA slots (but not set up for RAID) running with the AHCI driver. A couple of optical drives, floppy and a Jeantech 600W PSU (swapped from a 550W HEC). I dont use any esata ports but Im using about 8 of the USB ports.

I'm not looking to overclock it to the max and would be happy with around 3.2Ghz or less even. I was running at that speed with no probs before the cold boot issue started and even now I can run at that speed with no problems once I've got it to POST. Stability and a decent lifespan for the components is more important to me than squeezing every last ounce of performance out of the rig. The RAM is fine at 1066 5-5-5-15 2T. So what is the optimum FSB and other settings I should be looking at? I dont really understand what the "MCH Strap is???" can you elaborate? Option 1 or Option2? What are they? What do they do? And should I leave the multiplier at 9 and just up the FSB or is there any advantage to messing with the multiplier also (assuming it will let me?)
My previous board was an Asus P5N-E SLI and the beauty of that was I could adjust the FSB and the memory clock independantly of each other which seemed much easier than using the set multiplier figures that the Gigabyte board provides. I managed to fry the Northbridge though on that board (at least I think thats what went wrong) hence I went for the gigabyte.

Be grateful for an idiots guide if you can spare the time! Cheers.

 

[Kougar]

@Jny Just remember the FSB is always divded by 4, and your RAM is divded by 2. 1066FSB=266, 1066MHz RAM=533Mhz. That would mean you would run with a 2:1 ratio. The ratio will change to keep your RAM running at it's rated speed.

@Cruser, thanks for the compliment! I like to know all I can regarding my own hardware, and I've owned a Rev1 DS3 in the past which was good enough that I came back for the DQ6.

You should try setting your RAM to "Option 2" under the M.I.T. BIOS menu, it will change the physical DLL clock signals to enable better compaitbility with some types of RAM. After 8 hours of Othos stability using Option 1 I still got a BSOD whens starting WinAMP, so I can still say that Crucial Ballistix and other 8500 speed RAM users will most likely need to use "Option 2" for compatibility reasons.

Think of the northbridge as a CPU... it has an internal clock speed (MHz) and a clock multiplier... the MCH strap would be the multiplier... the looser it is the higher the overclock, the tighter it is the higher the RAM performance numbers because the memory controller is on the northbridge. Regarding lower CPU multipliers, they will tend to give you higher FSB overclocks. Often "8" is the sweet spot but not always.

The P5N is a Nvidia chipset, AFAIK only Nvidia and ATI chipsets are able to set asynchronus CPU/RAM straps to enable independant clocks. 1:1 Ratios (aka the 2x multiplier) will give roughly ~5% improvement in performance over any other ratio or asynchronous operation at the same speeds. For overclocking I would suggest just keeping it at 2x until you have figured out your best overclock to stick with, then at which point you can decide on what multiplier you want to use. Do keep in mind for overclocking EIST and C1E state must both be disabled within the BIOS for smooth results. They don't handle overclocks well...

 

[cruser1068]

Originally posted by: Kougar

The P5N is a Nvidia chipset, AFAIK only Nvidia and ATI chipsets are able to set asynchronus CPU/RAM straps to enable independant clocks. 1:1 Ratios (aka the 2x multiplier) will give roughly ~5% improvement in performance over any other ratio or asynchronous operation at the same speeds. For overclocking I would suggest just keeping it at 2x until you have figured out your best overclock to stick with, then at which point you can decide on what multiplier you want to use.

Its here I get confused!!! To maintain a 1:1 ratio with my 1066 RAM I would need an FSB setting of 533 right? That would put the CPU at 4.8Ghz...which even if I had watercooling is unlikely to work. Even dropping multiplier to 8 would still result in an obscene CPU speed of 4.26Ghz....way faster than Im ever gonna get stable with my rig. In the past I found going over 3.4Ghz and I would start to get into trouble. So how do you get this nirvana like state of 1:1????? Sorry if Im missing something obvious. Does it mean you have to run the RAM slower to compensate for a faster CPU? And is that really more beneficial than using a different divider. Thanks again for your time.

 

[Saizen86]

I thought this might be the best place for me to ask a question. I was planning on building a new rig with either the Gigabyte P35-DS3R or the ABIT IP35 PRO as candidates for the MB. I don't plan on overclocking, just an overall rock solid system. The rest of the components in my system include :

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W PSU
Mushkin XP2 PC2-8500 DDR2
Intel Core 2 duo E6750 2.66GHz
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
eVGA E-Geforce 8800GTS 320M

I would really love any input/opinions on a mobo choice. I know cruser1068 may hate the Gigabyte board, but I'm wondering if there are others out there that have different experiences with it and if it was just an isolated case. Compared to the Gigabyte board, is it worth paying extra for the IP35 PRO? I'd just like some justification, I hear a lot of good things about the IP35 but I want to direct this question for a comparison between the P35 DS3R and the P35 PRO. Any advice/opinion is welcome, much appreciated!

 

[kallekill]

Originally posted by: kallekill
How do you tell what type of memory you are getting? I plan to buy two of these to get 4 GB RAM:

Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 Xtreme 2x1024MB (tot. 2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz with Heatsink

Are those the ProMos 667 Mhz chips that can cause trouble?

Yes those are ProMOS chips. I can personally attest my DQ6 liked my Corsair 6400c4 RAM, I got over 1,000MHz out of them at 5-5-5-15 rock stable at only the stock 2.1v.

Is anyone running this memory on a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 without any problems or is it common with boot problems when overclocking? I might go for Patriot Extreme memory instead, but it is more expensive.

 

[otherwise]

Came to this thread to ask for memory reccomendations because the board did not like my Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4. Looks like I'm not alone!

Incidently, this is the 2nd P35 board I've had that did not like these chips, the other was intel branded. This might be a chipset issue.

Also wanted to comment, I noticed one or two people saying that their CPU fan wouldn't spin up. This is normal. I've had the computer unboxed on my desk for a week now and unless it's under load the CPU fan stops all the time. The HSF remains cool to the touch, so it's still cool enough. It's only under load that the the CPU gets hot enough for the fan to spin up again.

Scared me for the first day but I'm used to it now. I guess the termal management is just extreemly agressive.

 

[otherwise]

By the way, is there any chance that people who have working memory can post exactly what sticks they have? I need to order a new pair tonight and I really don't want to have to deal with the headache of a RMA again

The two I've seen mentioned in this thread are extreemly premium sticks, is there anything decent that is confirmed to work nearer to $100/2x1Gb?

 

[Bluebeam]

Otherwise, well I guess I am really confused now. Just building a new rig from the components I received from Newegg. I tried bench testing with just the CPU, CPU Fan, card and memory (both one and two sticks) and I am not getting a any beeps trying to post. I should get a short beep for OK.

Best of my knowledge (limited as only second build) a CPU always runs. You can put a speed control on it, but it always runs or you risk burning out your processor. I stand for more enlightened ones to correct me.

So now your getting a third person with the same problem of no CPU fan running. If that was normal and the fan only run when the processor was getting really hot how come nobody else has noticed this? I finally went to Best Buy and spoke with someone in the Geek Squad. He thought a bad mobo.

I turn it on and the VGA card fan runs, front panel lights go on, but zero for the CPU fan. I have the same problem SuicideReign had back on 7/10 and ended up finally RMA his board. Don't know what happened after that if he got a new board and everything worked then? I also have a problem turning it off. The front start button works, but holding it down to power down doesn't and it only worked twice out many numerious attempts to shut it down. Had to switch off the power in back. The other odd thing was when the power went out I got a blue flash from the CPU fan and brief fan movement, but not always.

I just packed my up for a RMA too.

GIGA GA-P35-DQ6
EVGA 8800GTS (640 MB)
Seasonic 650W
E6600
2GB Patriot eXtreme PC28500 (DDR21066)
Zalman 9500 LED using Arctic Silver5
LIAN LI PC-60APLUSII
Seagate Barracuda 7200
Samsung 226BW 22"


I didn't have a 1.8V stick to test to see if the memory a problem. I also pulled the PCIe power source from the 8800GTS and rebooted. In this case I would get a long continuous beep until I shut the power off. Once I plugged the power source back into the card the sound stopped. I get no other sound from bench testing when I should be getting a short beep that I posted. Am I wrong here?

 

[kallekill]

Originally posted by: otherwise
Came to this thread to ask for memory reccomendations because the board did not like my Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4.

What kind of symptoms are you having?

 

[otherwise]

Originally posted by: kallekill

Originally posted by: otherwise
Came to this thread to ask for memory reccomendations because the board did not like my Corsair CM2X1024-6400C4.

What kind of symptoms are you having?

Memtest runs fine with either stick, but it won't post with both sticks in dual or single channel mode.

 

[otherwise]

Originally posted by: Bluebeam
Best of my knowledge (limited as only second build) a CPU always runs. You can put a speed control on it, but it always runs or you risk burning out your processor. I stand for more enlightened ones to correct me.

So now your getting a third person with the same problem of no CPU fan running. If that was normal and the fan only run when the processor was getting really hot how come nobody else has noticed this? I finally went to Best Buy and spoke with someone in the Geek Squad. He thought a bad mobo.

I probably misphrased my reply. I am saying that when the CPU is not under load, the fan on the HSF does not run. The HSF itself is cool to the touch, and when in the BIOS (I haven't installed any monitoring utilities in windows) the CPU temps are well within specs.

The system runs perfectly fine, it just doesn't run the CPU fan except under load. I guess my room is cool enough that the CPU just doesn't get hot enough while idle to justify using the fan.

The other odd thing was when the power went out I got a blue flash from the CPU fan and brief fan movement, but not always.

I think this is normal. On bootup and powerdown the CPU fan comes to life for a split second regardless.

I tried bench testing with just the CPU, CPU Fan, card and memory (both one and two sticks) and I am not getting a any beeps trying to post. I should get a short beep for OK.

My motherboard never beeps, ever.

I also have a problem turning it off. The front start button works, but holding it down to power down doesn't and it only worked twice out many numerious attempts to shut it down.

This, however, is troubling

 

[Bluebeam]

Otherwise, thanks for your input. I am going to RMA it anyway just to be on the safe side. You maybe correct, but would like to hear from others about the CPU fan not always running. I asked a tech guy about the CPU fan always running and he said it should. So this is conflicting info.

As for not powering down don't have an answer or that. Is it the case or the mobo?

Anyone else with the P35 boards find there CPU doesn't run all the time or beep on posting? The manual says I should get a short beep. Unless I misunderstand the process here.

Cheers

 

[mxnerd]

I can confirm CPU fan is not always running and it won't beep. The CPU fan will not spin until about 5 seconds after machine is up. But according to Kougar, you can adjust the BIOS setting.

I did return the motherboard since it will not recognize any floppy drives I attached to it, either on-board or USB.

I have had enough bad experiences with these v.1 of P35 motherboards. I think I'll wait until v.2 comes out.

 

[mxnerd]

Oops, duplicate post.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Check out the Abit IP35 line. I like the IP35-E. IP35 would be better if you must have RAID. IP35 Pro is only okay due to its dismal 1394 throughput speed of 14.4MB/s. Check them out in the Motherboards forum.

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: cruser1068
Its here I get confused!!! To maintain a 1:1 ratio with my 1066 RAM I would need an FSB setting of 533 right? That would put the CPU at 4.8Ghz...which even if I had watercooling is unlikely to work. Even dropping multiplier to 8 would still result in an obscene CPU speed of 4.26Ghz....way faster than Im ever gonna get stable with my rig. In the past I found going over 3.4Ghz and I would start to get into trouble. So how do you get this nirvana like state of 1:1????? Sorry if Im missing something obvious. Does it mean you have to run the RAM slower to compensate for a faster CPU? And is that really more beneficial than using a different divider. Thanks again for your time.

Thats why very few people actually run their FSB at 533Mhz! Having 1066 RAM doesn't mean you have to run it that fast, the higher speed rating should allow more overclocking headroom if you keep the memory at 1:1. If you want to run your memory at 533/1066, then you need to pick another ratio other than 1:1.

 

[netjack]

Guys,

Max I can seem to run my e6850 w/ my P35-DSR is 3.6ghz at 1.325V (9X400). After that no matter what I do (increase FSB incrementally, increase volts (NB and CPU) incrementally, or fiddle w/ my ram settings), I can't get it to be stable in either Orthos or OCCT. I really don't think temps are an issue since I idle at ~20C on both cores and load at ~50C. Any advice?



My rig:

C2D 6850
P35 DSR
4x1gb Ballistix PC8500 1066mhz
Ultra 120 (lapped) w/ Scythe Ninja Fan
Antec P182 (5 case fans)
Corsair HX620 PSU

 

[Bluebeam]

Thanks everyone for your input. I am happy to say I successfully bench tested the GA-P35-DQ6. I called Gigabyte this morning and a very helpful tech support person walked me through. I had done something really, really stupid......I didn't plug in the second 8pin power supply.

Once I did that everything else when smoothly. I did find out that indeed the CPU fan doesn't run all the time. Newer mobo have sensors connected to the CPU that will regulate the fan to help reduce the noise when cooling not needed. So for this board the CPU doesn't run all the time. My start switch now powers down correctly too.

I posted with the CPU, CPU fan, video card and one stick of memory. There was no problem getting into bios using the Patriot eXtreme 1066. Tech support said all I had to do was set the correct voltage for the memory. On Abit the display is exactly what you want, but with the Gigabyte you have to add to the base voltage of 1.8v to bring it up to 2.3v. I didn?t realize this but again tech support walked me though it. I wonder if I can lower it a little down to 2.1v. I am not overclocking and 2.3v seems pretty high.

I was also happy because I was able to reset the Zalman 9500 fan correctly. When I first built it Saturday I couldn't get the support bar vertically installed and did it horizontally, but it would move a little (yes screws were tight) and I didn't like that. This time I was more patient and tried again and using (I don't know the name, but it looks like a plastic syringe, except three prongs come out of the base and I use it to pick up screws off the board) my screw picker upper I grabbed the screw and slide it in horizontally between the Northbridge and the Zalman and slid it into the hole. I then used a long screwdriver with Philips head and slid vertically between the Northbridge and fan (between the indent in the fan's middle) and was able to tighten the screw and then the other side was easy. Sorry not a very technical explanation, but I got it the way I want now. It's locked tight and doesn't move at all.


One more question (I hope) I have EVGA 8800GTS with 640 MB RAM and 2GB memory. With a 32 bit operation system your limited to ~3GB Ram. Does the video card's RAM operate independently of the system RAM and I can add another 1 or 2 GB (won't use the second gig) or am I at my limit now and be useless to get addtional memory? Thx.

Forgot to mention, YES the board did beep one short beep and all was well.

 

[otherwise]

@Bluebeam

The limit is 4Gb, i.e. 2^32 (4,294,967,296 bits / 4 Gb). That's where the "32" in 32-bit operating system comes from, a 64 bit operating system can address 2^64 bits of memory (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bits, 4,294 Petabytes) without any tricks.

This is system memory only, the Video Card's memory is addressed differently, so you are fine up to 4Gb of system memory.

 

[Colt4545]

Originally posted by: otherwise
@Bluebeam

The limit is 4Gb, i.e. 2^32 (4,294,967,296 bits / 4 Gb). That's where the "32" in 32-bit operating system comes from, a 64 bit operating system can address 2^64 bits of memory (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bits, 4,294 Petabytes) without any tricks.

This is system memory only, the Video Card's memory is addressed differently, so you are fine up to 4Gb of system memory.

The last sentence is incorrect. 32 bit OS'es handle 4 gigs total memory, which includes video card, sound card and other components' memory. Component memory comes first before system memory.

 

[bigsnyder]

I guess it depends on how the video card accesses the memory. Some devices can use dedicated memory that is not part of the overall system bus. Very interesting question.

 

[DAC21]

Originally posted by: cruser1068

Originally posted by: Kougar



Its here I get confused!!! To maintain a 1:1 ratio with my 1066 RAM I would need an FSB setting of 533 right? That would put the CPU at 4.8Ghz...even if I had watercooling it is unlikely to work .

Now there is the understatement of the year