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

[henrikfm]

New BIOS for P965 GA motherboards are coming soon and they support 45nm CPUs.

Thanks to jaredpace I found the following webpages confirming it:

http://62.109.81.232/cgi-bin/s...show&forum=1&show=5946
http://www.jzelectronic.de/jz2...Mainboards&act=Anzeige


BETA BIOS names:

GA-965P-DQ6 - F12i
GA-965P-DS4 - F11e
GA-965P-DS3P - F6f
GA-965P-DS3 - F13n

No download links found, it looks like they are still testing...

 

[JJordan]

Not that it is necessarily true, but I asked Gigabyte Tech Support about compatability of This MB with new 8400 chips and they said (answer first - poor grammar and all)

Answer : hello,
sorry not , to run E8400 wolfdale need newer P35 or X38 chipset support .
Question - 559414
From : Jeff Jordan
Sent : 1/22/2008 04:56
Question : Is this motherboard compatible with the new Wolfdale chip from OIntel - the Core2Duo 8400?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model Name : GA-965P-DS3P(rev. 3.3)

 

[henrikfm]

Gigabyte just released the BIOS, here you can find them:

GA-965P-DS3 rev 1.0

GA-965P-DS3 rev 2.0

GA-965P-DS3 rev 3.3

It enables 45nm with "no offical support, due to Intel having no official guarantee for 45nm CPUs on non-3 series chipsets".

 

[Sworkhard]

I've ordered a e8400 and 2gb of corsair xms2 pc2-6400c5 ram for my rev 3.3, so I'll see how well they work together.

 

[Sworkhard]

I have the e8400 installed and it works no problem. I haven't tried overclocking yet.

 

[driftwood07]

Originally posted by: Sworkhard
I have the e8400 installed and it works no problem. I haven't tried overclocking yet.

good to hear . is this with the new gigabyte beta bios i assume? i have a ga-965p-dq6 rev3.3, so i assume they will work similarly . if you do any overclocking i would appreciate you post your findings.

 

[Sworkhard]

This is with the new beta bios.

So far I've overclocked the e8400 to 4.0 GHZ (445*9) @ 1.3v (1.280 after vdroop).

 

[Sworkhard]

Originally posted by: Crellion101
In F12 - there seems to be an AHCI ENABLE/DISABLE on the very top option of the INTEGRATED CONTROLLER menu... Is this for Intel ICH8? Does that mean the ICH8 for the DS3 will now have AHCI functionality?

Is so which one is the best to use performance wise - the orange or the purple SATA port? Currently I have it on the JMicron (purple) port with AHCI enabled and my HDTach benchmarks are terrible - burst at 133.5MB and 62.8MB Average Read (using a SATA II Barracuda drive). Is this normal?

AHCI is supported by the INTEL ICH8. If you enable it, you'll need to install the latest intel chipset drivers (they have the driver for the ich8), while booting off the JMicron controller. Once you've done this, you can plug you hard drives into the ich8 and still get AHCI.

You HDtach numbers sound pretty good to me. 62.8 MB/s sounds pretty good for a barracuda. Burst speeds don't really affect performance, as they indicate how fast data can be transferred from your hard drive to memory, (and usually limited by the hard drive controller), rather than how fast your hard drive can read and write, etc.

 

[fritzman]

Hopefully someone will come back with a decent solution...

I have the same problem...

Raid0 using 2 drives on the Gigaraid ports, and an ATA DVD-writer .

The raid array works and the chipset detects everything correctly during bootup, but once in windows... the DVD drive isn't there and there is the exclamation mark over the 2nd instance of the GBB36X in Device Manager.

 

[ThePiston]

Since this runs the e8400 and BIOS supports 45nm - this will run the Xeon 3110, right? Same core - different name. About $40 less: http://forums.slickdeals.net/s...p?sduid=52119&t=750443

I picked one up today - I'll let you know how it goes in a week or so

 

[ThePiston]

heh - well it came over night - I updated bios with my e6600 and booted into it with that cpu just fine. Xeon wouldn't post so I put in e6600 - and that wouldn't post eiehter. Not sure how I did it, but mobo is toast - sheeeeeiit

 

[Sworkhard]

Posting an update on my e8400 on my DS3 rev3.3

I've had this chip for a month now and it's been rock solid stable at 4.0 GHZ at 1.325v. Thermalright 120 Extreme Heatsink, +.1v on nb and fsb, crucial ballistix pc8500 ram.

I haven't tried for a maximum fsb overclock, but i was able to do 465x8 with +.1v on the nb and fsb.

 

[vpr]

There are lots of pages in this thread, and after sifting through some of them I haven't come across a clear answer to my question...

Currently I have a P965-DS3 rev 3.3 w/ E6300 processor, but I'm looking to upgrade the CPU. I also have 4GB of V-DATA generic ram I'm currently living in China, quality ram is hard to get. I'm returning to the states in a week and I'm planning to purchase new RAM. My question is which is considered to be quality ram (looking for a 4GB kit (2 x 2GB)) that can accomplish some over clocking. Please provide links if possible.

Thank you
vpr

 

[Markfw]

I just received word that my DS3 motherboard RMA was declined due to a scratch on the PCB. The problem is that both I and Duvie inspected the board before I sent it, looking for blown caps, or some reason why it died, and it was pristine. Here is exactly what they said:

Due to physical damage, the warranty on this gigabyte product is voided and

the item is being returned as is.

So I gave then 24 hours to rethink the denial, and if not, believe me I will be letting everybody know to NOT buy their boards.

 

[henrikfm]

I have just upgraded my DS3 rev3.3 with the E8400 after flashing the F13o BIOS and everything runs fine for now.

The E8400 is the coolest processor in the market right now, the proof is I had difficulties to get it. The first two shops I use to buy stuff from had the processor out of stock (one told me they had only E8200s and E8500s and the other told me they sold out all their 20+ units in less than one week). Finally I found one for 194?.

Definitely the E8400s are selling like candy near a school.

 

[Markfw]

Well, they sent me a picture of the so-called "damage", and it wasn't there when I sent the board in, but they stand by it. So thats the last gigabyte board I ever buy. I have Duvie as a witness that it was not damaged before I sent it in, but that won't go with them either.

They might be good motherboards while they work, but if you need an RMA, forget it. And they couldn't find a problem with my DS4 either, but I will retest when they return it.

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Well, they sent me a picture of the so-called "damage", and it wasn't there when I sent the board in, but they stand by it. So thats the last gigabyte board I ever buy. I have Duvie as a witness that it was not damaged before I sent it in, but that won't go with them either.

They might be good motherboards while they work, but if you need an RMA, forget it. And they couldn't find a problem with my DS4 either, but I will retest when they return it.

Well I can't attest to the nature of your situation but for what it's wort I'm done with this board too. The cold boot issue is the primary reason, it's just way too flakey. I'm now moving onto a MSI P7N Platinum. If you're in the market for a new board, I';ll let you know what my experience is like when I get it.

 

[Dragonix]

Hey
Does anybody know, if there's a problem if I put 4GB Ram onto this board? At the moment i've 2gb, but I need more and atm 2gb ram are really cheap
However, I've read multiple times, that there are boards / chip-sets that don't give you the whole memory, even under a 64bit os. (i've also read that there's a feature called "memory remapping", and that this feature is needed for full access to the whole memory)
So, is there anybody here that has this board and 4gb of ram plugged-in? Any problems?
Thanks

Sry for my english btw...

Hm..http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us The problem is describben (?) here:

Note When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed. For example, consider a computer that has an Intel 975X chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration.

And i think, that the "memory remapping" is able to override that. Does the board support memory remapping?

 

[jjzelinski]

Dragon, I'm sure I could be wrong and this is jsut the place for someone more knowledgeable than myself to to come along and correct me, but the "problem" you describe is actually quite normal behavior for an operating system. The PCI bus will always consume a certain amount of memory address space, however this is exacerbated even further by the limitations of available address space in a 32bit environment. Yes, you may have 4GB (~4096MB) of memory installed, however that number also happens to be the address limit of a 32bit OS and so a portion of that space MUST be reserved for the PCI bus or the PC could not operate; the best place to rob that memory address space is from your RAM. This explains why you will not see 4GB of RAM in a 32 bit OS.

Now hopefully your keen eye will notice this paragraph before having to wade through the other, but the 965P-DS3 very easily handles 4GB+ of memory in a 64bit environment; I've had 4GB installed on one myself for about a year now

 

[powerBar]

Problems with 4GB Ram & DS3 Rev. 3.3 + Q6600, Bios F12
Is there anyone here that has the above configuration running or are there some issues with my configuration?

I've upgraded my cpu from E4300 to Q6600 and started w/2GB RAM - the system worked great.
Next I upgraded to 4x1GB and could not get the system to work at all - loading memtest takes ages and the transfer rate is 70MB/s! After 10min and not single test completes (no errors or BSODs though).

Cleared CMOS, loaded default bios values, no OC
All sticks work as 1x1GB or 2x1GB and 3x1GB is ok, just 4x1GB is useless.

RAM tested:
4 identical Aenon PC6400 sticks
4 identical Corsair XMS2 PC6400 sticks

Any help would be greatly appreciated
cheers

 

[trinanjan]

I had issues in getting TWIN2X-6400C4D XMS2 to work on this board @ 4-4-4-12... I finally managed to pass memtest86+ with the settings in the final screenshot:

http://www.asktheramguy.com/v3...ead.php?t=67267&page=2

Leaving the advanced options to Auto causes memtest errors... Also +0.3 V Vdimm causes errors although it should imply 2.1V

Is my RAM faulty?

 

[voigts]

I have the exact same issue. 4x1gb was simply not stable. I just changed to 2x2gb RAM. I bought an E8400 that was a return at Microcenter that is supposed to work, but I can't get it to boot at all. So either the chip is bad, or this rev.3.3 board with the beta F13q just won't work with the E8400 for some reason.

 

[hamhead]

on my DS3 i am running OCZ Plats rev2 2x1gb DDR800. no probs at all. The bios automatically put +0.3V for the ram when i booted up the system.

 

[HellMind]

I got the DS3 rev 1.0

Oc its ok
But ich8 sata ahci isn't work, dunno why the setup let you enable that, if its enabled you can not use the hd connected to there because there are no drivers for it, it doesn't recognize anything

that's not a big problem, since we got the onboard jmicron sata, ok lets enable it

Oh what happen :S the onboard sound stop working

the same as the ich8 sata ahci, the realtek driver cannot be installed

I Don't know if this happen with rev 1 only

I think I've mastered this mobo, too many complications

I will try a p35 one

 

[judasmachine]

13x BIOS and still cold boot persists, I guess I'll just upgrade instead of overclocking.

e6300
DS-3 Rev.3.3
2x512MB Buffalo Firestix
2x512MB Crucial Ballistix Tracers
Radeon X1950Pro

edit: After finding an exhaustive list of all the setting, I am at 2.66GHz solid! This mobo is really sweet once you figure it out.