*** Official Gigabyte P965-DS3 Thread ***

[yellowflash]

I ordered a DS3 from newegg on Dec 14, and it arrived today (Dec 18). Unfortunately it was a rev 1.0. Im not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. I really want the 6 phase power on rev 2.0 for quad core support.

Originally posted by: redhawk56

Originally posted by: Undersea
redhawk,

Did you RMA or just buy another?

The F8J Bios killed mine and it was clear that GB was going to take about 6 weeks to replace it, so I rma'd it to newegg. I should have the replacement by the end of next week or a little later with the holiday delays. So I'm thinking new egg will ship me a rev 2.

I've seen people saying they have them, but really no confirmations of where they got them and what looks different. I've seen the pics on the website, but I'd like to see up close.

 

[Undersea]

It will support quad. 6 phase power? Well I think the original is a nice board unless you have plans at 500fsb for most micron memory.

I'm happy at 2.8 and rock stable with my 6300.

Oh yea some HD tachs screenies:

http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdlongyo6.jpg]

[/URL]
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/879/write1sandravz5.png

Benches pretty well.

The raid is set at 16kb

 

[yellowflash]

I know gigabyte states that the DS3 rev 1.0 "supports" quad core, while rev 2.0 is quad optimized. However, looking at an intel website they list the rev 1.0 as not supporting quad core. Perhaps the quad cores takes so much power that 6 phase is required? Can anyone comment?

Intel Link

 

[Undersea]

Hmm not sure. I think right here at anandtech they said the ds3 would, but optimized I have no idea. I'm guessing the power won't be a problem.

 

[EKTELESTES]

maybe the intel website is not up-to-date. Mind the quad core support in some gigabyte mobos is supported after a couple of bios updates... ^^

 

[jimbofoxman]

Originally posted by: yellowflash
I ordered a DS3 from newegg on Dec 14, and it arrived today (Dec 18). Unfortunately it was a rev 1.0. Im not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. I really want the 6 phase power on rev 2.0 for quad core support.

That's odd, cause I ordered mine just a little before you from NewEgg and mine was Ver 2

 

[redhawk56]

Originally posted by: jimbofoxman

Originally posted by: yellowflash
I ordered a DS3 from newegg on Dec 14, and it arrived today (Dec 18). Unfortunately it was a rev 1.0. Im not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. I really want the 6 phase power on rev 2.0 for quad core support.

That's odd, cause I ordered mine just a little before you from NewEgg and mine was Ver 2

See I think there is some confusion on what is ver 2 and what isn't. Can we get a pic of that board you have? EDIT.....actually GB calls it Rev 2.

Does your northbridge heatsink say Gigabyte on it in big letters?

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Undersea
Well I hope you get one. It looks real nice. Crossfire and the D9 bug fixed seems like a winner.

Oh yea ICH8R.

You have to let us know if the intel raid 0 performs better then the jmicron. I'm not blow away by the jmicron in raid 0.

I actually considered returning my second drive I just got because I think one drive felt faster for most stuff but I'll keep it til next windows reload.

The Rev.2 DS3 still uses the ICH8 (non-"R") chipset.
And still uses the JMicron ("Gigabyte SATA") controller.
Text

 

[tastyratz]

redhawk: look at my posts regarding rev 2 boards, thats about as conclusive as it gets. I can take a look at it if theres anything in specifics that your looking for, but ive been running off a rev 2 from newegg. Its very clear to tell the differences between a rev 2 and a rev 1 board, 2 has a straight finned northbridge headsink and the rev1 has a curley do nothing one. The pictures posted on gigabytes site are clear representations of it in reality. If you look in the corner of the board under all the pci slots it also prints right there rev 2.0 if its a 2...

silicone 0680 raid is 3.0.8.7 thats connected right now. Interesting fact. 2 drives from the raid set I had before

note that the new jmicron driver that came out within the last week (not the new jmicron driver from gigabytes site) fixed my no-cd rom issues I was having, I now see all my optical drives.

It appears that when 1 specific hard drive is connected to the raid controller windows wont boot. This was part of a raid set which worked when removed from my last computer, however now in this one windows will just load indefinitely if its connected there. If I connect the drive to the motherboard then windows will boot and see the drive as available. Funny as its 2 *almost* identical drives. Same size same packaging but looks like different plants, probabbly from the maxtor purchase ones made in china the other in thailand. Anythings possible that its a problem with the drive but it doesnt make sense that it would allow windows to boot on one controller, and not with it plugged into the other. Ill be doing a little more experimenting

 

[Undersea]

note that the new jmicron driver that came out within the last week (not the new jmicron driver from gigabytes site) fixed my no-cd rom issues I was having, I now see all my optical drives.

Could you post a link for the new jmicron driver?

Wow was I off on the Rev2. description.

OK,

This was a lttle confusing but there is a DS3 rev2 and a DS3P. Very different.

 

[redhawk56]

Originally posted by: tastyratz
redhawk: look at my posts regarding rev 2 boards, thats about as conclusive as it gets. I can take a look at it if theres anything in specifics that your looking for, but ive been running off a rev 2 from newegg. Its very clear to tell the differences between a rev 2 and a rev 1 board, 2 has a straight finned northbridge headsink and the rev1 has a curley do nothing one. The pictures posted on gigabytes site are clear representations of it in reality. If you look in the corner of the board under all the pci slots it also prints right there rev 2.0 if its a 2...

silicone 0680 raid is 3.0.8.7 thats connected right now. Interesting fact. 2 drives from the raid set I had before

note that the new jmicron driver that came out within the last week (not the new jmicron driver from gigabytes site) fixed my no-cd rom issues I was having, I now see all my optical drives.

It appears that when 1 specific hard drive is connected to the raid controller windows wont boot. This was part of a raid set which worked when removed from my last computer, however now in this one windows will just load indefinitely if its connected there. If I connect the drive to the motherboard then windows will boot and see the drive as available. Funny as its 2 *almost* identical drives. Same size same packaging but looks like different plants, probabbly from the maxtor purchase ones made in china the other in thailand. Anythings possible that its a problem with the drive but it doesnt make sense that it would allow windows to boot on one controller, and not with it plugged into the other. Ill be doing a little more experimenting

But I was asking jimbofoxman to clarify what he actually recieved. I didn't need an explaination. I just think he may be confused about what he has. Thank you anyway!

 

[Metaluna]

Originally posted by: Undersea
Wow was I off on the Rev2. description.

OK,

This was a lttle confusing but there is a DS3 rev2 and a DS3P. Very different.

Actually it's even worse than that, because the DS3P is also rev 2.0. Or I guess you could argue that it's less confusing since you wouldn't have people wondering if the DS3 2.0 was newer than the DS3P 1.0.

By the way, I noticed that some Gigabyte boards (DS3 2.0, DQ6) use the Marvell 8053 GigE chip, while others (DS3P, S3 1.0?) use the 8056. Does anyone know what the difference is? Is the 8056 newer/better or just different in some way?

 

[eternaljammer]

Can I use an enermax psu on a ds3? any compatibility issues?

 

[jimbofoxman]

Originally posted by: redhawk56
Does your northbridge heatsink say Gigabyte on it in big letters?

Yes it does....

 

[redhawk56]

Originally posted by: jimbofoxman

Originally posted by: redhawk56
Does your northbridge heatsink say Gigabyte on it in big letters?

Yes it does....

Ok.....good..........then we have verified that some people are getting the real rev 2 boards. I just hope I get one when my replacement comes from newegg. What bios came on it? Was it F7?

 

[jimbofoxman]

Yep, F7

 

[tastyratz]

yea f7 comes with the rev 2's, or atleast thats what mine came loaded with.
Maybe the quad core "optimized" is more in the bios than in the hardware? the rev 1 isnt quad core "optimized" and maybe thats because it comes with a pre f7 bios. There are other changes on the board but maybe thats the part that makes the difference.
Im starting to think that maybe that drive is just dead, because its only 1 drive doing it. I think it just happened to be more of a co-incidence that it died at the same time I upgraded, so im going to rma it.

 

[tastyratz]

Originally posted by: Undersea

note that the new jmicron driver that came out within the last week (not the new jmicron driver from gigabytes site) fixed my no-cd rom issues I was having, I now see all my optical drives.

Could you post a link for the new jmicron driver?

Wow was I off on the Rev2. description.

OK,

This was a lttle confusing but there is a DS3 rev2 and a DS3P. Very different.

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/jmicron.htm

 

[yellowflash]

I think its a hardware fix when Gigabyte says "optimized". The rev 2.0s have 6 phase power regulators, and I read somewhere that they also physically modified the path between the FSB and CPU (might have found that on Gigabyte's webpage). My rev 1.0 also came with the F7 bios preloaded. I think I'll wait till early January to exchange my board in hopes that Newegg's rev 1.0 inventory is exhausted.

Originally posted by: tastyratz
yea f7 comes with the rev 2's, or atleast thats what mine came loaded with.
Maybe the quad core "optimized" is more in the bios than in the hardware? the rev 1 isnt quad core "optimized" and maybe thats because it comes with a pre f7 bios. There are other changes on the board but maybe thats the part that makes the difference.
Im starting to think that maybe that drive is just dead, because its only 1 drive doing it. I think it just happened to be more of a co-incidence that it died at the same time I upgraded, so im going to rma it.

 

[yiranhu]

How do you exchange your board? Don't you have to pay like 15% of restocking fee?

 

[jimbofoxman]

Depends, I returned my Corsair XMS2 RAM (1.9v) because it doesn't like my DS3. I talked to an online rep via NewEgg's chat help and they had me call NewEgg Customer service and wave the fee, since I had already purchased another brand of RAM.

 

[yiranhu]

Sure I've done that before. I ordered ram for my Laptop that didn't work out. Newegg reps waived the fee. Now if we want to return a working motherboard for another one, that is surely reason for stocking fee...

 

[Gepidae]

Hey Ive been semi following this forum and wanted to know if
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220142
is good for this mobo. It has probably been answered but if someone could please reiterate it.

 

[jasonwllee]

Hey all, I wasn't sure whether to post this as a separate topic or not, then I dicided as a newbie, I'd better not clutter up the forum.

Right, I've just spent 3 hours putting together PC bits (my first build, I tell thee!). Everything seems to fit together, and it powers on. However, I'm trying to install Windows on the blank SATA drive, with CD-ROM/DVD as the second boot (after floppy) and it's then that I run into problems.

When I try to use my own copy of Windows XP SP2, it refuses to be recognised at all. When I put in the OEM that came with my sister's Dell, it loads up the setup and then states that there are no hard drives attached.

I read somewhere that you need to fiddle around with the Bios options to get SATA recognised, but I can't find the options in the Integrated Peripherals menu. There are also mentions of needing to install SATA drivers, but this doesn't seem to be the case as SATA is already shown in the Bios.

So...what do I do? And is there a way to use my version of XP rather than the Dell which looks to be primed to load up the hard drive with junk? I've already used my disk once to install Windows to a formatted drive, albeit IDE, but it should still boot the setup. Plus, it still works in this computer!

My specs are:

Gigabyte GA-965G-DS3
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
1 Gig Corsair DDR2 RAM
200 Gb Maxtor 6V200E0 DiamondMax 10

I've downloaded and unzipped this driver:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Moth ? ileID=2790

It's the penultimate one from the bottom on this page:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Moth ? A-965P-DS3

When I load up XP using the Dell CD, put the floppy in, press F6 during the Setup, I get the following message:

"Setup was unable to load support for the mass storage device you specified. Currently Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices

<none>

To specify additional SCSI adpaters, CD-ROMs or special disk controllers for use with Windows, including those for which you have a device support disk from a mass storage manufacturer, press S."

Then I press S

"Please insert the disk labelled:

Manufacturer supplied hardware support disk

into drive A. Press Enter when ready."

So I press Enter and the same message comes up. So now, I'm at a loss of what to do. My floppy shows up in the BIOS, but it's hard to tell if it's reading the floppy disk, since the light is always on.

Also, I'm almost certain that my version of Windows is SP2. Hmm.

I'm fairly sure the drive is plugged in properly, having never handled SATA drives before, with a power supply cable and a cable connecting it to the motherboard. Is there anyway of telling if it is working properly? Also, I've tried plugging in an IDE drive with XP installed on it and it can't load up Windows. It keeps restarting and then asking if I want to go into Safe Mode. Even with the Safe Mode selection it doesn't get any further.

Many thanks in advance!


Jason

 

[redhawk56]

OK I am confused. Or maybe i just didnt' read well enough.

You aren't trying to do raid...right?

Then there is no need to do the F6.

Regular Sata will function as IDE until windows gets loaded and you load the chipset and other drivers.

Does that fix your problem? Or do you still have an issue with your windows install cd?

Also, if the light is always on ...on the floppy, is is cabled incorrectly.