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

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by: vailr

Originally posted by: ricochet

Originally posted by: vailr

Actually, the best procedure would be: reset CMOS (with power cord unplugged), THEN flash the bios. In other words: don't flash the bios when overclocked, voltages other than default, etc.

That sounds well and dandy, but some of us with 19xx, 79xx, or 8800 series video card the massive heatsink is directly over the CMOS reset jumper. Add to that the complexity of the P180 case which has the PSU wiring come up from the bottom and you got yourself a mess to deal with.

Setting "Optimized Defaults" and rebooting does pretty much the same effect as: the CMOS clearing on the motherboard pins, using a jumper.

That is what I like to hear because that is what I did last time. I just didn't want to do any unnecessary painful steps if it's not required.

 

[Ricochet]

I updated to F9 bios as well. Absolutely no overclock gain whatsoever. The only good news is that my SB X-Fi seems to be fixed now.

 

[theelectic]

Originally posted by: ricochet
I updated to F9 bios as well. Absolutely no overclock gain whatsoever. The only good news is that my SB X-Fi seems to be fixed now.

F8 seemed to fix my XFi problem as well, though with F7, rebooting usually fixes it. It's maybe once every 10-12 reboots that it disappears with the F7.

I have (had) the same problem with the CMOS reset jumper, it's covered by my video card. When I tried 485x6, the computer beeped and restarted a few times, then started up and hung, black screen. Shut off and turn back on, same thing. Nothing could be done to revive it besides closing the CMOS reset jumper, which required removing the video card. I could have tried to remove the CMOS battery but that required removing the video card as well so I didn't bother.

I did not try S3 suspend with F8 or F9, that sometimes required a CMOS reset when the whole thing hung (same black screen as above - didn't even POST and couldn't get into BIOS). I *think* it may have been a PEG initialization issue, but since I don't have a PCI video card around to test with, I can't say for sure. Currently I'm just using S1 suspend with F7 which appears to work OK.

This sums it up for me:

F7 - XFi disappearing issues, no S3, S1 OK
F8 - XFi appears to be fixed, cold boot issue, S3?
F9 - XFi appears to be fixed, cold boot issue, S3?, same overclock as F7 and F8 required 0.0125V more Vcore

 

[redhawk56]

I got my replacement board today and it turned out to be a Rev 2 with F7. I flashed it up to F9 and it is running pretty well. They made some serious changes to this thing.

For one thing, the Vdroop is reduced a lot.

On the other hand the vcore sets about .04 below where you set it in the bios. So when I set it to 1.4v, it actually ends up at 1.36v (this is new with rev 2). Then under a full load it drops to 1.34v (That is much better than it used to be on the Rev 1 board). It used to drop between .05 and .06 under a load.

The power in general is a lot more stable on this board also. The way I can tell that is from my psu fan. I have an ultra x2 connect 550 and the fan on it was constantly up and down with the Rev 1 board. Now it is completely stable and never fluctuates hardly at all. That fan is controlled by the load on the psu not the temp, so that means the load was constantly fluctuating before.

My northbridge temp is about 5c lower also. It is still hot, but 5 degrees is 5 degrees.

The other noticable change is the memory multipliers. Keeping in mind that I have a Pentium D 920 and things are different with it, now it seems to want a 1:1 when it is overclocked at all. Before I couldn't get it to post with a 1:1.

So I am still learning my way through the differences in the way it acts, but for the most part I am happy with what I see so far. It is running at 4ghz just like it did before and I haven't tried to take it up higher yet. I want to see how it settle in first.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Hans Gruber]

You're wasting your time and ours by telling us about a Pentium 4 chip. Why not do yourself a favor and buy a C2D.

I still have my commodore 64, should I talk about that? Do you want to hear about my retired AMD Athlon 2500+?

 

[Geophagus]

First off I joined these forums to learn about computers not to read peoples views on cars economics and most of all how to insult people.

As for readhawk56 he is NOT wasting my time as any experiences with the board is helpful to those who WANT information.

As for comments on the CD6300, I have one and can well afford something more expensive if I so wish but I DON'T, I am also well educated, and perhaps people want the 6300 to see how far they can push it not just for the sake of a few $$$ in my case £££.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Tom's Hardware and Anandtech.com reviewers say otherwise. It's you life and money, you can do as you wish. Don't worry about what other people say. You know what's best for you. I think you're an idiot and I doubt your education. Devry university doesn't cut in this world.



Your insults are not welcome here. Take a week to cool your jets.
AnandTech Moderator

 

[redhawk56]

Originally posted by: Hans Gruber
Tom's Hardware and Anandtech.com reviewers say otherwise. It's you life and money, you can do as you wish. Don't worry about what other people say. You know what's best for you. I think you're an idiot and I doubt your education. Devry university doesn't cut in this world.

Hans,
I hope you remember how it all ended in the movie.

 

[termac50]

Any way to get around the cold boot - lost overclock settings issue? Another victim here.

 

[redhawk56]

I just had to go back to F7. F9 would sometimes hold the setting and sometimes not. At least on F7 I know where the ceiling is. F9, It just kept jumping all over.

But I am still overall impressed with the Rev 2 board. The other issue that is gone is the way it turns on. The rev 1 board would turn on and pause before it started the fans. This one doesn't do that anymore.

I'm going to take it down and put it back in Raid 0 today and see how that goes.

Then maybe I'll put my commodore 64 cpu in and give it a whirl just for Hans LOL.

 

[Daver69]

Lo All,

Just tinkering with my new watercooling and also my New DS3-Rev 2.0 board. I had a P5BDeluxe - WiFi Edition and it was pretty good until it died on me on the run up to XMAS. Contacted Scan for a replacement and they said I would have to wait until after 3rd Jan 2007 Poor Service that.

So I needed another board quickly, read loads of this thread and went for the DS3, Glad I did so far much much better than my Asus. I got the P5B to 500Mhz+ on the FSB with my E6300 but it was not very stable, had to back down to 450 to get stable and that was on a thermaltake water set-up.

I have now built my new WC rig consisiting of X2O Extreme Block 1/2" tubing (From my fish tank supplier only £2.00 per 2M), DD 5 1/4" Resevior, ThemalChill He90.2 Radiator, Ehiem 1250 Pump to my ThermaChill HE120 Radiator and back to the block. I am also using the CoolLab Liquid Metal Thermal materials.

Well so far pretty happy Sub 17sec SuperPi 1M, Idle Motherboard 32 CPU 26, Load Motherboard 36-37 CPU 33-35.

Currently running at 474Mhs FSB with my Std 7x Mutlipier. All good in the hood, Memory is Geil PC-6400 @ 950Mhz 5-5-5-15, tried tighter timings but it bombed all the time. VDimm +0.5V, everything else +0.1V and the CPU is at 1.4375

Extremly Happy will try to push further later today, great Board and I think the replacement P5B Deluxe WiFi may end up on the subs bench

Happy New Year all

Rgds

Daver

 

[xtknight]

What does the memory enhance option in the BIOS do on this board?

 

[redhawk56]

Well, I realize this is just a commodore 64 cpu, LOL..... but the rev 2 with F7 has increased my stable OC up to 4.48ghz.

Not bad for a 90$ CPU ...eh hans?

 

[theelectic]

Originally posted by: termac50
Any way to get around the cold boot - lost overclock settings issue? Another victim here.

The only thing that worked for was to go from F8 or F9 back to F7.

 

[redhawk56]

Last night while testing different memory multipliers, I had the FSB at 900 and was doing some testing. I put the memory on 2.5 which I believe is a 4:5 ratio. I saved out of the bios and it turned off like a bad overclock. It turned back on and off about 6 times, each time saying it was recovering the bios. It would stay on about 5 seconds and then turn off again. Then it just turned off.

When i turned it on, the bios was gone. No combination of clear cmos, removing battery, booting with only one memory stick and video, clearing cmos again, removing battery again, shorting the battery connections, Nothing worked.

It won't post ...........nothing on the screen...........and it wont flash from a diskette except through qflash and you can't get to that without posting.

So this piece of crap is back in the box and there will never be another GB board in my machine. I have my trusty C19-A SLI back in with all the same components and it is perfect. So it wasn't my components that did this. THE SECOND TIME BY THE WAY!!!

Buy someone elses board.

 

[termac50]

Originally posted by: theelectic

Originally posted by: termac50
Any way to get around the cold boot - lost overclock settings issue? Another victim here.

The only thing that worked for was to go from F8 or F9 back to F7.

You're right. Cause I cold booted up 30 mins ago with F9 after letting it sit 10 hours, it forgot my settings again. Went to F7, praying for the best.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: termac50

Originally posted by: theelectic

Originally posted by: termac50
Any way to get around the cold boot - lost overclock settings issue? Another victim here.

The only thing that worked for was to go from F8 or F9 back to F7.

You're right. Cause I cold booted up 30 mins ago with F9 after letting it sit 10 hours, it forgot my settings again. Went to F7, praying for the best.

Shouldn't have to pray too much. I've been running F7 for the last week, numerous reboots, both cold and hot and no complaints over here.

I just wish I had an extra IDE slot with this board, lol. I have 4 IDE HD drives and 2 optical DVD drives. I have the DVD's on the IDE slot and my HD's on a Promise IDE card which is working just fine right now but I know I need an SATA HD. It's always something more I need, lol... why can't they let me gracefully retire my old crap? :laugh:

 

[ir0nw0lf]

redhawk56, I am not sure if this will work on the Gigabyte board, but I was able to recover from a bad BIOS flash on MSI board a few months ago. (I flashed what I thought was the right BIOS for that board, it was not...) I believe the DS3 uses the Award BIOS (I have a DS3, never paid attention to whose BIOS it was). The link to MSI's site with the info on recovering from a bad BIOS flash: here. Like I said, it might work, might not. Worked for me on a AMI BIOS board that wouldn't show any initial post info at all.

 

[redhawk56]

Originally posted by: ir0nw0lf
redhawk56, I am not sure if this will work on the Gigabyte board, but I was able to recover from a bad BIOS flash on MSI board a few months ago. (I flashed what I thought was the right BIOS for that board, it was not...) I believe the DS3 uses the Award BIOS (I have a DS3, never paid attention to whose BIOS it was). The link to MSI's site with the info on recovering from a bad BIOS flash: here. Like I said, it might work, might not. Worked for me on a AMI BIOS board that wouldn't show any initial post info at all.

Thank you. I appreciate the post. I had already tried that. This board does not allow that kind of flash. I am not sure why. I am returning it to newegg for a replacement and them i'm selling it. All my water cooling equipment is going up on ebay tonight at 8pm eastern time.

 

[termac50]

Yep, F7 has been treating me right for a few days now. I wish the board had 2 ide spots too.

 

[imported_Cicero]

My new system (see sig) has been up and running since 24th December 2006 and I have had no issues with the ds3 rev 1.0 mobo. I'm running the F7 bios though the board came with F5 installed. I left F5 in whilst doing all the configuration and setup and only installed one of the sticks of ram until I had finished installing XP.

I downloaded the latest Intel and jmicron drivers which installed with no issues at all. As per my sig the E6600 is running at 3.4ghz (378 x9), vcore is at 1.315v with a Zalman CNPS9500 LED hsf. I found the Zalman a straightforward hsf to install. My case is a Gigabyte 3D Aurora. The cpu temps are 35deg (cpu core at idle) and 55deg under full load, temps measured using Core Temp 0.94. the Intel TAT gives almost identical readings.

The cpu will oc higher (have had it running at 3.5ghz) but I'll leave it where it is for the meantime.

I am quite satisfied with the DS3 though reading this and other threads some of you guys have had a frustrating time. I certainly won't be updating to the F8 or F9 bios' anytime soon.

 

[Kamyk]

Originally posted by: redhawk56

Originally posted by: Hans Gruber
I completely agree with th previous post. Why would anybody buy the 6300 when the 6400 has the higher multiplier. I will answer my own question. Becuase they're stupid, cheap, naive and uneducated.

I was going to leave this alone, but I can't.

I suppose the person who bought the 6600 would look down on you and say the same things? Or maybe they are a little more thoughtful and would hold their tongue, knowing that they might insult someone who had just put together a system they were very proud of.

I wonder what you will say about me when I purchase an E4300? No, actually I don't wonder.





I DON'T CARE!!

I totally agree !!!

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: termac50
Yep, F7 has been treating me right for a few days now. I wish the board had 2 ide spots too.

Dude, I totally agree. This board has worked sweet as can be for me but I had to put my IDE HD's on a Promise card and my two optical drives on the IDE or nothing worked right.

I know I need to break down and buy an SATA HD but it's hard to justify when you want to make all your old junk work with a new board.

 

[tastyratz]

well thats just it, you cant just throw away a perfectly good storage drive, and the majority of people still have 1-2 optical ide drives, and a few ide hard drives in their systems. Ive still got 4 ide drives in my system on a sil0680a pci raid controller.

just noticed your sig kamyk, your walking a pretty ragged edge with that PS even @ stock clock...

 

[amenx]

I converted my IDE drives to external USB units for backup and bought SATA ones for my rig.