*** Official Gigabyte 8KNXP/Ultra (875P) Thread ***

[fLoOdY]

Originally posted by: xxsk8er101xx
ShoNuff - why get a new cpu if you already have a 3.06ghz? by this time next year DDR-II and a new socket will be out requireing a new motherboard and
new RAM and a new CPU since it has a new socket. This is the real prescott i guess. After that in 2005 tejas is coming out at what, 6ghz or something?

i'm gonna run my 3.06ghz to the ground or until i see 6ghz chips. not worth spending 500 dollars for an extra 5% performance boost.

I would concur with that. Don't forget that along with Tejas, out goes PCI too. A very profound change overall.

Safe to say that we will continue with the continuing spiral of throwing money at them. A long time ago, I gave my wife The Computer Widow's Handbook. Everything predicted in it eventually came true.

She's just thankful that I am not into boats; a hole in the water one tries to fill with money.

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

If anyone missed it, like me, there is a review of the KNXP non Ultra at tweaktown last week. This motherboard with the AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 and a Optorite DD0203 would make me very happy...

 

[ShoNuff]

Originally posted by: xxsk8er101xx
ShoNuff - why get a new cpu if you already have a 3.06ghz? by this time next year DDR-II and a new socket will be out requireing a new motherboard and
new RAM and a new CPU since it has a new socket. This is the real prescott i guess. After that in 2005 tejas is coming out at what, 6ghz or something?

i'm gonna run my 3.06ghz to the ground or until i see 6ghz chips. not worth spending 500 dollars for an extra 5% performance boost.

For me it's all about being on the edge. This is a hobby. I enjoy "Tinkering" around with the system for every bit of performance I can possibly get. Secondly, gaming represents the biggest advantage for me. For the types of games that interest me the 200+ FSB subsystem that Canterwood brings to the table can't be beat.

Besides "Next year" is soooo far away. If something else comes along that I like more than what I have now, I'll get. If not, I'll wait.

As far as technology is concerned you could always be waiting for something better to come along.

 

[fLoOdY]

Ordered last night was a second pair of 512 TwinX 3200LL from GoogleGear @ $283 for the pair with free UPS 2. AFAIK I will be one of the first thrill-seekers in here to attempt 4x512 TwinX 3200LLs on the 8KNXP Ultra . I might have to relax the timings a bit more to get everybody stable. Should be interesting.

(Or, "Gee Honey, I have these two sticks of primo RAM unused... and I kind of need to build another new machine for the summer place to avoid having them going to waste.")

Why? Because I run VMware 4.0 Workstation to be able to boot just about any OS at will in virtual machines. It should be something to behold with the HyperThreading. We shall see...

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

ShoNuff:

lol ya but the difference bewteen 3.06ghz and 3.00ghz is like a difference between 3.06ghz and 3.2ghz lol! not much of a difference - 5ghz with PCI express and all that compared to today is a huge difference!

 

[DRaccoons]

Figured it out.

 

[Paradoxx]

Originally posted by: DRaccoons
Figured it out.

What did you figure out? I read this to learn, what was the problem and the fix? Thanks.

 

[element2k5]

ok.. ive been out of the loop for a long time.. when did giga-byte stop using promise raid controllers?

whats the difference between the promise controllers and the gigaraid? performance?

 

[element2k5]

also... i was wondering about the gameport header.. now how do i use that with my legacy joystick?

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

*shrugs* - i dunno - you buy a new joystick?

 

[fragme]

How much noice does the northbridge fan make?
Can you hear it over the other ones?
Had a IS-7 and it was noicy then anything I had in the box.

 

[Paradoxx]

Originally posted by: fragme
How much noice does the northbridge fan make?
Can you hear it over the other ones?
Had a IS-7 and it was noicy then anything I had in the box.

Not much, it isn't noticeable over the other fans in my system, I cant hear it over the stock Intel CPU fan, I think the DPS fan is a little louder though. All in all the system is much more quiet then my AMD system was.

My Fans:

Stock Intel CPU fan
Antec PSU 2 fans
2 case fans
DPS fan
Northbridge fan

 

[fLoOdY]

Originally posted by: Paradoxx

Originally posted by: fragme
How much noice does the northbridge fan make?
Can you hear it over the other ones?
Had a IS-7 and it was noicy then anything I had in the box.

Reportedly the ABITs have a 7000 RPM howler with a short bearing lifespan.
GA-8KNKP Ultra NB Fan is subaudible here too:

LL PC75 case with FrozenCPU 6 Port Baybus
4x Rear Panaflo Mediums (slowed)
2x Front Panaflo Highs (slowed)
PerformancePCs-Enermax VGA651 PSU with stock 92cm and 80cm Antec LED Fan
Zalman 7000AlCu (no FanMate)

Still have plans to R/R with Zalman Passive NB Sink and add Zalman Passive VGA HeatPipe. I think the NS fan beaings won't hold up for that long; so might as well get it over with before box is in production.

----
With regard to that ongoing AIC-7902W SCSI ASIC issue:
-Been going on for a month now.
-No BIOS releases since F5 on 30 April
-No response from complaint emails to Sales or Marketing on 2 continents
-Support consistently responds to each status update request with a terse "Taiwan is working on it" with no further elaboration.
---

If they have not placed a manufacturing ship/hold on this board by now, Gigabyte is apparently operating in bad-faith.

If you intend to actually use the SCSI HostRAID as marketed, caveat emptor.

This $3000 box is still not in use. The pretty lights, stress testing and benchmarking is interesting, but at some point I would like to USE the damn thing.

 

[slimysquid]

Originally posted by: AnandTech Moderator
In an effort to make finding information about the Gigabyte 8KNXP/Ultra (875P) motherboard easier for all forum members, please post and discuss your issues, problems, experiences, rants, raves and FAQs here.

AnandTech Moderator

You can find AnandTech's review of the Gigabyte 8KNXP Ultra here.

I have a question for you. The bios you used in your review? what was it? cause apparently the bios that was used in your review is not a official Gigabyte bios, cause nowhere can I find a bios that allows up to 1.76v on either the 8KNXP or 8KNXP ultra. Do reviewers get souped up bioses to make the motherboard look better then it really is?

 

[slimysquid]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Bobbyeyes
um... server boards have 64 bit pci slots to take full advantage of hard drives like mine:

You're missing the point. The fastest hard drive on the planet, the Seagate Cheetah 15K.3, tops out at 76 MB/s. So unless you have 3 of them in RAID 5, you don't need a 64 bit bus or even an Ultra320 controller.

Oh really? I think you have been misinformed there, if you would like I will link you to some scsi benchmarks that double that supposed speed you came up with if you like.

 

[slimysquid]

I got a 2.4C to 290fsb and 2.8C to 270fsb.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: slimysquid

Oh really? I think you have been misinformed there, if you would like I will link you to some scsi benchmarks that double that supposed speed you came up with if you like.

Please do. In the meantime, here's the only site that matters:

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200209/20020901ST373453LW_2.html

If the graphs confuse you, here's a quote:

"State-of-the-art areal density combined with a 15,000 RPM spindle power the 15K.3's sequential transfer rates to new heights. Outer zone rates shatter the previous record, held by Seagate's own 2nd-generation 15K RPM unit, by 26% with a score exceeding 76 MB/sec. An inner-zone score of 51.1 MB/sec is also impressive, though it breaks former records by a bit less of a margin."

 

[fLoOdY]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: slimysquid

Oh really? I think you have been misinformed there, if you would like I will link you to some scsi benchmarks that double that supposed speed you came up with if you like.

Please do. In the meantime, here's the only site that matters:

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200209/20020901ST373453LW_2.html

If the graphs confuse you, here's a quote:

"State-of-the-art areal density combined with a 15,000 RPM spindle power the 15K.3's sequential transfer rates to new heights. Outer zone rates shatter the previous record, held by Seagate's own 2nd-generation 15K RPM unit, by 26% with a score exceeding 76 MB/sec. An inner-zone score of 51.1 MB/sec is also impressive, though it breaks former records by a bit less of a margin."

My plan is to use my two new ST373453LWs striped for RAID0. But until they get around fixing the Adaptec BIOS, the SCSIselect Utility is unavailable to configure HostRAID for this or anything else in there.

 

[fragme]

Has anyone used the Easy Tune program?
I tried it and its not making any changes. It reports a new CPU speed of say 2.7 but in WCPUID the CPU spped is still 2.4. The program dont seem to work.
It also reports wrong Voltage 1.63V when its set at default.
CPUZ says 1.58. ????

The Gigabyte board is also problemous overclocking through bios. New words like CPU Host clock. Also the memory ratios are in a unorthodox manner 2.0 1.66 etc . I would prefer 5:4 and 3.2.

The worst is that I'm not able to overclock as good as with my Abit IS-7. A to high FSB will not post (FSB 240 or 250). On abit they posted and ran Prime95 fine for a while. On this board I have to disconnect the battery for it to restart. Not very overclock friendly.
Actually my overclocking on this board is a disaster.

P42.4C
Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 i875P
Samsung 3200 CL3 512 ones stick in no 5.
Radeon 9700
Antec 350W

 

[Blackbox]

Help.......

I love the features on the 8KNXP.

It seems perfect for a DV video editing system: up to 12 HDD's, firewire (even though it's only on the PCI bus) and an SPDIF input for my DAT machine.

But judging by the posts on this forum it seems to be totally unreliable.

Bottom line here..........Is this board a total dog?

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Blackbox


But judging by the posts on this forum it seems to be totally unreliable.

Given the posts on this forum you could say that about all the 875/865 boards. It's a very immature chipset.

 

[Schneider]

Originally posted by: fragme
Has anyone used the Easy Tune program?
I tried it and its not making any changes. It reports a new CPU speed of say 2.7 but in WCPUID the CPU spped is still 2.4. The program dont seem to work.
It also reports wrong Voltage 1.63V when its set at default.
CPUZ says 1.58. ????

The Gigabyte board is also problemous overclocking through bios. New words like CPU Host clock. Also the memory ratios are in a unorthodox manner 2.0 1.66 etc . I would prefer 5:4 and 3.2.

The worst is that I'm not able to overclock as good as with my Abit IS-7. A to high FSB will not post (FSB 240 or 250). On abit they posted and ran Prime95 fine for a while. On this board I have to disconnect the battery for it to restart. Not very overclock friendly.
Actually my overclocking on this board is a disaster.

P42.4C
Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 i875P
Samsung 3200 CL3 512 ones stick in no 5.
Radeon 9700
Antec 350W

Hey fragme wat timings are u using for ur RAM??

 

[fragme]

I'm using SPD wich is 3-8-3-3. (the memory worked at 2.5-6-3-3 at 400 FSB @default 2.4 GHz)
When changing the CPU Host clock I check that they dont change but I cant be sure. I had a Abit IS-7 and the timings changed. I couldn't set them manually.

I think I do it right now. I change the CPU Host clock to 220. The memory is auto changed and below 400. The AGP/PCI tim says fixed. I save F10. And it never reboots. Have to pull out the battery. Somethings bad since Easy Tune does not work either.

P42.4C
Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 i875P
Samsung 3200 CL3 512 ones stick in no 5.
Radeon 9700
Antec 350W

 

[bc120]

Does anyone know if the onboard scsi has its own bus or is connected to the pci bus?

 

[fLoOdY]

Originally posted by: bc120
Does anyone know if the onboard scsi has its own bus or is connected to the pci bus?

It's on the PCI bus. Adequate bandwidth for my needs; 2 Cheetah 15K.3s on Bus0 and SE devices on Bus1.

To obtain 64 bit SCSI support, you'd have to use a PCI/PCIX 64 bit Adaptec HBA on a server board with 64 bit slots such as a Tyan or Supermicro. And I am unaware of any of these that also have AGP slots, which make them essentially unsuitable for workstation use.