Official GA-8IEXP Thread !!!! Able to hit 150 FSB with 3:4 ratio STABLE!!! RMAing board b/c i found a better board !!!!

[gsethi]

NO clue here......is it like the "Turbo" mode like on some other boards ? thats what i thought too that i would improve CAS timings but actually i have no clue as to what it does. maybe it does nothing and is just there to make you feel better ? Some "marketing" trick by Gigabyte ?

 

[metapy]

Originally posted by: looper
I pulled the trigger...can't believe it...

Ordered Abit IT7, P4 1.8a, Corsair XMS512-3200 memory, Gainward GForce 4-4400 Ultra, Antec 830 case w/430 true power, Santa Cruz sound, Lite-On Burner, Toshiba DVD Reader, Linksys router, Win XP...Haven't decided what HSF yet...thoughts?

Damn! I have an extremely similar setup and LOVE it,

I have a Abit IT7, P4 1.8A (overclocked to 2.4) Samsung PC-2700, Radeon 8500, Antec 880 case w/430 true power, Audigy sound, Lite-on 24x burner, Artec DVD reader, Cisco router (DSL router nothing serious), Windows XP

Runs great fast as hell for every days things and good when you need some real horsepower, encoding movies. As far as heatsink/fan combos go I went with the AVC Sunflower. All the reviews seem to rate it well and it is pretty quite as far as aftermarket HS/Fan cobos go. I would recomend the retail heatsink/fan and if you are not happy with the temps get a Sunflower. Full load I am running at 52 C according to Winbond don't know how accurate that reading is though...

 

[gsethi]

i can do 163 FSB with 3:4 memory ratio on Epox 4G4A+ 100% stable. I will give this board one last chance tomorrow and see if it can do this or not.

 

[looper]

Hey Metapy...

That's great...can I use you as a "buddy" if I get stuck at the end of next week when this new rig of mine comes in ?

It's been quite a while since I've gone into the Bios of my trusty BH-6 MB to tweak things...so I'm sure I'll be lost in the woods when the new one comes in...

Someone should start a thread for setting up the IT7...step by step...Guy at Asus boards,"Prometheus", I believe has one and is quite a pro at this stuff...

 

[Khanivore]

gsethi, thanks for keeping us all informed of your experience with the 8IEXP. I was thinking about getting it but now I won't. I think I'll hold on to my Asus P4B266 as now -- thanks to Deke/Shion/Thugsrook! -- it can do DDR400 at 150MHz FSB.

I think it's time to change the title of the thread since you're RMA'ing the board.

 

[JY93]

Does the Gigabyte 8IEXP support keyboard power on like the Epox motherboards? My Epox 8K7A will power on from a full off state when I press any key on the keyboard. will the gigabyte 8IEXP do this?

 

[Sukhoi]

It has to do something...when I enabled it my 3DMark2001SE score went up by over 100 points, though interestingly my SETI@home work unit time was the same to the minute compared to what I got with "Top Performance" off. I found that quite odd considering S@H is very memory dependent.

 

[gsethi]

what do you guys say ? Should i give this board one last chance today or tomorrow before returning it on Monday ?

I have my epox board all setup neatly inside my case now and i would hate to undo all that but i still got a gut feeling that this board might compete after all but i am still 50-50 on that.

here are some more issues that i found this this board:

1) PCB quality is poor as compared to Epox
2) This board definately undervolts.....my epox board overvolts
3) I was never able to make Promise RAID to work on this board despite several tries.....Highpoint worked on Epox on the first go (ATACOM guy told me that onboard highpoint raid was always better than onboard promise, but if you were to get a PCI RAID card, then get a Promise one)
4) I used to get random reboots when my system was unstable.....never got a single reboot on Epox even when Prime 95 would fail on first test.

Conclusion: Stay away from Gigabyte from now on.......imho...GA-8IRXP is much better than this board despite its rebooting issue. the quality of the GA-8IRXP seemed much more higher than GA-8IEXP. imo.....GA-8IEXP has just been made to look attractive but its not an overall overclocker friendly board.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

Originally posted by: gsethi
what do you guys say ? Should i give this board one last chance today or tomorrow before returning it on Monday ?

I have my epox board all setup neatly inside my case now and i would hate to undo all that but i still got a gut feeling that this board might compete after all but i am still 50-50 on that.

here are some more issues that i found this this board:

1) PCB quality is poor as compared to Epox
2) This board definately undervolts.....my epox board overvolts
3) I was never able to make Promise RAID to work on this board despite several tries.....Highpoint worked on Epox on the first go (ATACOM guy told me that onboard highpoint raid was always better than onboard promise, but if you were to get a PCI RAID card, then get a Promise one)
4) I used to get random reboots when my system was unstable.....never got a single reboot on Epox even when Prime 95 would fail on first test.

Conclusion: Stay away from Gigabyte from now on.......imho...GA-8IRXP is much better than this board despite its rebooting issue. the quality of the GA-8IRXP seemed much more higher than GA-8IEXP. imo.....GA-8IEXP has just been made to look attractive but its not an overall overclocker friendly board.

so now you don't like the Gigabyte Mobo? I was considering it because I saw all of the features that I wanted on it. RAID, USB2.0, FIREWIRE on it. and i figured Gigabyte was a good brand to get. I don't overclock so that shouldn't really matter to me. What Epox board are you talking about?

 

[Sukhoi]

What CPU do you plan on using?

 

[NeoMadHatter]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
What CPU do you plan on using?

P4 1.6A

 

[Sukhoi]

The board will run 100 MHz FSB DDR266 just fine, so it'll be ok since you aren't overclocking. But why not just try it a little? I have a P4 1.6A with the retail HSF running at 2.133 GHz (133 MHz FSB) at the default voltage 100% stable.

 

[maverick24]

Guys - I went the same way as gsethi...got a GA-8IEXP from newegg...had a lot of problems with the board. random reboots, XP Screen of Death, Lost Chains on my Hard Disk etc etc etc (NOTE: All of my other components were tested and worked fine on a reference Intel board).

So I finally returned the Gigabyte board and got an Abit IT7. Its rock solid and everything works fine.

Except for my CDROM/DVDROM.

The ABIT has a HighPoint controller that has a four channel DMA/ATA133 RAID Controller - but I found if I plug my CDRW or DVDROM into the HighPoint IDE Controller - it doesnt recognize the devices.

The CDROM and DVDROM work fine on the standard IDE1 and IDE2 channels.

I am really stumped because HighPoint claims that their controller works with ATAPI devices (CDROM)
HighPoint Link

So any ideas whats going on with my board ? Any ideas ? GSethi are u having similar problems ???


I am checking on the ABIT newsgroups and also with Abit Tech Support and will post my results here....

Ciao.

 

[maverick24]

OK Gentlemen,
Here's the deal right off the ABIT Tech Support Line (20 minute wait!!! - but the tech support guys are pretty good)

The HighPoint HPT374 4-channel UDMA/ATA133 Controller WILL NOT DETECT OR WORK WITH ATAPI/CDROM devices even though their website claims that it does.

HighPoint HPT374 ATAPI Support

According to ABIT tech support, the newer HPT374 is controller only works with high speed devices like hard disk and will not work with slower ATAPI CDROMS/DVD-ROMS.

This means you need to put your CDROM/DvDRom drives on IDE1 and IDE2 and move all your hard disk drives to the High Point Controller. You can boot off the hard disk on the ATA133/RAID channel using the BIOS setting.

This means if you have more than two CDROM/ATAPI devices they need to share IDE1 and IDE2. This sucks !!
Cos you cant take advantage of the 4 channel HighPoint controller anymore and you're stuck with sharing your ATAPI devices on the IDE1 and IDE2 channels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: NOTE: I checked about a BIOS upgrade to fix the problem, according to ABIT tech support, BIOS upgrades (available on HighPoint site - though not sure if it will fix this problem) do not affect components integrated on the motherboard - but only work for PCI add in cards.

This is really bad advertising on part of ABIT/HighPoint - cos one reads the manufacturer website before buying the products and if the manufacturers put up false claims then it hurts consumers!!!

I dont know if i plan to RMA ABIT back to newegg cos i already RMA'ed the gigabyte - and since I have only 2 ATAPI devices I can pop them on my IDE1/2 channels.

But this sucks big time and I will be more careful in the future instead of believing manufacturer claims.

Please post your view/comments/experiences .....

 

[Sukhoi]

This means if you have more than two CDROM/ATAPI devices they need to share IDE1 and IDE2. This sucks !!

Why the heck does it matter? It's not like you're going to notice any speed difference.

 

[maverick24]

OK - another update. I called HighPoint and here's their version:

According to the tech support guy - " it all depends on how the chip is implemented on the motherboard."

Currently the chip works only with HighSpeed devices - I asked whether it would work if I did a BIOS update - his response was :" that would change the function of the chip which was primarily RAID support"

So now i know for sure im stuck with a board which can only support upto 4 **shared** ATAPI devices and upto 8 ATA high speed hard drives.

and not the original 12 mixed ATAPI/IDE devices that I originally thought...

Man - this sucks big time!!!!

 

[maverick24]

Why the heck does it matter? It's not like you're going to notice any speed difference.

How about if i'm making a CDROM to CDROM copy on my CD-RW .... Wont that be slower if its on the shared channel ??

Or if im playing a DVDROM movie and try to burn a CD at the same time ?


My main gripe is that the manufacturer made false/misleading claims. That really sucks.

 

[Sukhoi]

For a CD-ROM to CD-RW copy you probably want them on separate channels. The same channel may work fine, I really have no idea.

So lets assume you have a DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, and CD-RW. Put the DVD-ROM and CD-ROM on channel 1, and the CD-RW on channel 2. Now you can watch a movie on the DVD-ROM while burning from the CD-ROM to the CD-RW, and you should have no problems at all.

 

[maverick24]

So lets assume you have a DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, and CD-RW. Put the DVD-ROM and CD-ROM on channel 1, and the CD-RW on channel 2.
Now you can watch a movie on the DVD-ROM while burning from the CD-ROM to the CD-RW, and you should have no problems at all.

Right now I only have two ATAPI devices so im cool - but I'll give your suggestion a try when i get a new 32x CDRW for cheap (hot deals thread seems to be full of them ) ...