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

[Undersea]

Well,

after spending nearly 5 hours on the f9 bios after the recent update on the Anandtech site, what a waste of time. Firstly just to point out I aint no nOOb, I have been a test engineer for Compaq/Hp for over 10 years and worked as a debug tech for 9 years in Compaq. I have been overclocking since the days fo 486's . Oh and recently I worked for Micron in the Engineering Department before they closed it down in East Kilbride

Spent a long time with this new Bios, was able to run my machine stable 24/7 with my new water cooling rig at 7x475 (E6300)@ 1.375volts, with my Geil PC6400 2Gig Kit running at 2.3Volts. MCH Normal and FSB, PCie normal also. Ran great actually until I read the Article saying how good the new F9 bios was, once again I made the mistake of listening to the article, just like when I rushed out and bought the ASUS A8R-MVP motherboard only to find out it was a cabbage.

Well with the F9 Bios I managed to get up to 7x500 and it ran stable for over an hour withe same 1.375volts on my CPU, 2.4volts on my Geil and all the rest normal oh, memory timings were 5-5-5-15, thought I would go for that magical 505Mhz that Anandtech had achieved, well sysytem bombed, would not re-boot and when i eventually managed to get it to re-boot, cleared cmos, using my cmos clearing tool, 2 pieces of wire attached to the jumper as I was so hacked off having to remove my 7900GTX everytime I wanted to access the jumper and manouver it around all the water pipes .

After the re-bbot would not go stable above 440mhz and thats with the watercooling keeping the CPU pretty cool at 28-29 on idel and no more than 40 on full load. Flashed back to F7 and cant get it stable above 450Mhz now, cmon gigabyte get a bios out that we really need Stable and Fast. I just hope that I have not limited my Dram or my CPU now. Tried it with more Volts on the CPU up the 1.5v used by Anandtech but it was worse off using the higher voltage the sweet spot for my CPU seems to be 1.375-1.3825

Anyone else had similar results?

RGds..................Daver

Well you just officially scared me off. Staying with Version 7. But I'm happy with my 400fsb. Plenty for my uses.

 

[dolphumous]

Are all of the online vendors selling rev2's now a days?

newegg is OOS but ZZF has it for $150 shipped...

 

[ThePiston]

Some guy posted in here last week that he got a Rev 1 (can't remember vendor), but the week before that I got a Rev 2 from newegg.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Daver69
Well,

after spending nearly 5 hours on the f9 bios after the recent update on the Anandtech site, what a waste of time. Firstly just to point out I aint no nOOb, I have been a test engineer for Compaq/Hp for over 10 years and worked as a debug tech for 9 years in Compaq. I have been overclocking since the days fo 486's . Oh and recently I worked for Micron in the Engineering Department before they closed it down in East Kilbride

Spent a long time with this new Bios, was able to run my machine stable 24/7 with my new water cooling rig at 7x475 (E6300)@ 1.375volts, with my Geil PC6400 2Gig Kit running at 2.3Volts. MCH Normal and FSB, PCie normal also. Ran great actually until I read the Article saying how good the new F9 bios was, once again I made the mistake of listening to the article, just like when I rushed out and bought the ASUS A8R-MVP motherboard only to find out it was a cabbage.

Well with the F9 Bios I managed to get up to 7x500 and it ran stable for over an hour withe same 1.375volts on my CPU, 2.4volts on my Geil and all the rest normal oh, memory timings were 5-5-5-15, thought I would go for that magical 505Mhz that Anandtech had achieved, well sysytem bombed, would not re-boot and when i eventually managed to get it to re-boot, cleared cmos, using my cmos clearing tool, 2 pieces of wire attached to the jumper as I was so hacked off having to remove my 7900GTX everytime I wanted to access the jumper and manouver it around all the water pipes .

After the re-bbot would not go stable above 440mhz and thats with the watercooling keeping the CPU pretty cool at 28-29 on idel and no more than 40 on full load. Flashed back to F7 and cant get it stable above 450Mhz now, cmon gigabyte get a bios out that we really need Stable and Fast. I just hope that I have not limited my Dram or my CPU now. Tried it with more Volts on the CPU up the 1.5v used by Anandtech but it was worse off using the higher voltage the sweet spot for my CPU seems to be 1.375-1.3825

Anyone else had similar results?

RGds..................Daver

Suggestion: clear the CMOS first, then flash or re-flash the chosen bios version. Never flash the bios while overclocked, or voltages other than default.
For what it's worth: my DS3 rev.1 [F9 bios, E6400 CPU & 2 GB of PC2 6400] is mildly overclocked, from 2.13 to 2.66 GHz, and does retain those settings on cold boot.
Yes, I agree that Gigabyte's engineers need to do more thorough testing of various memory types and speeds, to ensure a more stable F10 bios. The DS3 rev.1 may have it's design limitations, however. For those with unlimited resources, the best option may be to go with the DS3 rev.2, or other board designed for optimized compatability with the quad-core Intel CPU's.

 

[redhawk56]

I am glad I made the decision that I made. And that was to sell the board as soon as newegg returns my 2nd rma to me. The only problem with that is now newegg shows the DS3 as backordered and I'm sure that will stop them from replacing my board until that status changes. My experience with them has been that backordered means they wont have them any longer. Maybe they have gotten tired of replacing them. Who knows.

So when I was on the phone with them (before this backorder thing happened), they told me that since it has been more than 30 days, they will either replace the DS3 or give me a credit toward a motherboard of equal or greater value. I'm really not sure what to do. I've done some research, but I guess the post reply that I got on Extreme systems about this problem has made me think, maybe the problem IS me. Although I do find that humorous at times, It is possible that I just expected too much and pushed too hard.

So in trying to determine what board of equal value I'd get, I got a damn headache. This really shouldn't bee this difficult. I just want an ICH8R, one pci-e, ability to upgrade to C2D, some medium overclocking ability (since I cant be trusted not to kill the board ) LOL. ....

I came up with the ASUS P5B-E as a good middle road alternative. I think that is what I'll ask for when I see the DS3 replacement is backordered. Maybe I won't even wait that long. Maybe I'll just call them and tell them to send me that.

EDIT$$$$$ Never mind, the P5B-E won't let you go over 2.1v on the memory voltage. Now I have a headache again.

I just don't want to pay more than i did for the DS3 and I need a board that will let me recover the bios when I do something stupid, since I can't be trusted to OC without supervision. LOL.


Let me know what you all think :>

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: redhawk56
I am glad I made the decision that I made. And that was to sell the board as soon as newegg returns my 2nd rma to me. The only problem with that is now newegg shows the DS3 as backordered and I'm sure that will stop them from replacing my board until that status changes. My experience with them has been that backordered means they wont have them any longer. Maybe they have gotten tired of replacing them. Who knows.

So when I was on the phone with them (before this backorder thing happened), they told me that since it has been more than 30 days, they will either replace the DS3 or give me a credit toward a motherboard of equal or greater value. I'm really not sure what to do. I've done some research, but I guess the post reply that I got on Extreme systems about this problem has made me think, maybe the problem IS me. Although I do find that humorous at times, It is possible that I just expected too much and pushed too hard.

So in trying to determine what board of equal value I'd get, I got a damn headache. This really shouldn't bee this difficult. I just want an ICH8R, one pci-e, ability to upgrade to C2D, some medium overclocking ability (since I cant be trusted not to kill the board ) LOL. ....

I came up with the ASUS P5B-E as a good middle road alternative. I think that is what I'll ask for when I see the DS3 replacement is backordered. Maybe I won't even wait that long. Maybe I'll just call them and tell them to send me that.

EDIT$$$$$ Never mind, the P5B-E won't let you go over 2.1v on the memory voltage. Now I have a headache again.

I just don't want to pay more than i did for the DS3 and I need a board that will let me recover the bios when I do something stupid, since I can't be trusted to OC without supervision. LOL.


Let me know what you all think :>

I'd look at the Epox ICH8R board, which uses a Silicon Image controller, instead of JMicron.
http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?ID=EP-5P965plusGLI
However, expect to pay significantly more $$ for an ICH8R board (as opposed to an ICH8 non-"R" board).

 

[vailr]

Updated: Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet drivers 8.61.3.3
http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm

 

[disk2]

Originally posted by: dolphumous
Are all of the online vendors selling rev2's now a days?

newegg is OOS but ZZF has it for $150 shipped...

Um yeah I ordered from ZZF about three weeks ago and I got a revision 1. They have a policy such that you cannot exchange for any reason and any return has a 15% restocking fee. You could call and ask for a guarantee I guess. Wherever you get it from please let everyone know that and what revision you got. If I had known there were two revisions I would have asked, especially since ZZF's page doesn't say anything about it.

 

[terrik]

Originally posted by: Kamyk

Originally posted by: StopSign
Can I install the JMicron drivers in Windows first, and then change the port?

You absolutelly have to, or else - you will probably expierience blue screen during loading OS
like I did

I swapped the ports before I installed the driver, and now my PC bluescreens at windows startup when I set AHCI in bios. Can I just swap the ports on my hard drives back to the Intel controlled ports, reinstall the JMicron driver and then put the plugs back in the purple ports, or am I SOL?

Thanks.

 

[yellowflash]

I just returned my DS3 rev 1.0 back to newegg for a replacement, but they are out of stock. Instead they gave me a refund w/o restocking fee since I was still within the 30day refund window. I guess this was a good thing, since I can now get a mobo without D9 issues.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: vailr
Updated: Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet drivers 8.61.3.3
http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm

Is there a link anywhere explaining what these new drivers do? Thanks.

 

[spinejam]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: Kamyk

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: mexpak
Is there a single, surefire way to solve the PIO problem with this board?

Tried a few methods posted in this thread, but to no avail. Only using 1 SATA HD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Try this:

1. Go to Devices Manager
2. Uninstall PIO Device
3. Reboot
4. Let Windows detect new device on startup
5. That should do it (I had similar problem with my DVD - it helped)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



If that doesn't work, here's some stuff you can do:

Case 1: if you plug your SATA HD into one of the 4 intel SATA ports, then in your BIOS set IDE mode to IDE (NOT AHCI) and everything should work.

Case 2 (I prefer this if it works):
1. goto www.jmicron.com and go to their driver download FTP site. There you will be able to find the latest JM363 driver. Install that... (Do this BEFORE everything else)
2. Plug your SATA HD into one of the two Gigabyte SATA Ports.
3. Go into your BIOS and set the IDE mode to native, SATA mode to AHCI (lol make sure your gigabyte sata ports are enabled)
4. Reboot... Now your CD drive will be supported by the JMICRON IDE driver and your HD will be supported by the JMICRON SATA driver.

When I did case 2, (you must use newer drivers - gigabyte.com has some pretty new ones as well), my harddrive no longer appears under IDE ports and is now called SATA HD!! I did hdtach benchmark and everything seem to indicate normal SATA operation.



I followed case 2: it worked great! DVD drive recognized now! Thanks again!

 

[Who273]

Originally posted by: StopSign
When it's in that on/off cycle, wait for a bit. Does it keep going or does it stop after a while? If it stops, turn it off and turn it back on. You should now boot with the default clock speed.

...that is assuming you are having the boot problem from the F8/F9 bios.

I left it on for a while and it never stopped cycling, so I guess it's not the F8/F9 bios problem.

Originally posted by: disk2
Ok well I had a Vista RC1 problem with another motherboard where the hard drive would randomly shut on and off. It was only after Vista signaled for standby sleep hibernate etc. The power management was totally messed up. It might seem like your computer is turning on/off but maybe it's going into standby? Those Vista betas have been awfully shaky for me with power management.

I haven't used my DS3 board -- no memory for it yet -- so I don't know if Vista has a similar issue with it. Maybe someone else here knows. My advice for now would be to turn off any advanced power management in Vista. Make sure that your power button is actually mapped to power the computer and not put it in standby. Disable standby , hibernate, etc. See if you still have the problem. When I did that , problem solved.

Better idea: Get the latest Vista

Best of luck to you!

It's not Vista standby because I completely unplugged the computer and shut everything down.

I did some more playing around and I took everything out except the RAM and CPU. I got it to actually stay on but still no output to the monitor. However, I then took the RAM out and there wasn't any beep to indicate no memory was present so I think the problem has to be either with the motherboard or processor. Do you guys agree with this conclusion?

 

[Kamyk]

Originally posted by: terrik

Originally posted by: Kamyk

Originally posted by: StopSign
Can I install the JMicron drivers in Windows first, and then change the port?

You absolutelly have to, or else - you will probably expierience blue screen during loading OS
like I did

I swapped the ports before I installed the driver, and now my PC bluescreens at windows startup when I set AHCI in bios. Can I just swap the ports on my hard drives back to the Intel controlled ports, reinstall the JMicron driver and then put the plugs back in the purple ports, or am I SOL?

Thanks.

Well, you might try ...
The best thing though is to reinstall system with HDD connected to JMicron ports and set to AHCI mode

 

[mcurphy]

I'm going to be purchasing this board this weekend, and I was wondering if someone could recommend some RAM for me? I am looking to spend <$250 for 2GB's. I was considering the Geil 2 x 1GB set, but I have heard some bad things about them. Any suggestions for a good quality / budget RAM that is good for all the usual tasks and compatible with this board? I do some gaming, mostly CoH, but I like to leave my options open for games like UT '07.

Here's the specs of the new rig:
Gigabyte DS3
E6300
XFX 7900 GT
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Seasonic S12 PSU
RAM---????

Thanks!

Mcurphy

 

[Undersea]

I'm going to be purchasing this board this weekend, and I was wondering if someone could recommend some RAM for me? I am looking to spend <$250 for 2GB's. I was considering the Geil 2 x 1GB set, but I have heard some bad things about them. Any suggestions for a good quality / budget RAM that is good for all the usual tasks and compatible with this board? I do some gaming, mostly CoH, but I like to leave my options open for games like UT '07.

It should be fine. My Gskill works fine.

 

[Undersea]

I am glad I made the decision that I made. And that was to sell the board as soon as newegg returns my 2nd rma to me. The only problem with that is now newegg shows the DS3 as backordered and I'm sure that will stop them from replacing my board until that status changes. My experience with them has been that backordered means they wont have them any longer. Maybe they have gotten tired of replacing them. Who knows.

So when I was on the phone with them (before this backorder thing happened), they told me that since it has been more than 30 days, they will either replace the DS3 or give me a credit toward a motherboard of equal or greater value. I'm really not sure what to do. I've done some research, but I guess the post reply that I got on Extreme systems about this problem has made me think, maybe the problem IS me. Although I do find that humorous at times, It is possible that I just expected too much and pushed too hard.

So in trying to determine what board of equal value I'd get, I got a damn headache. This really shouldn't bee this difficult. I just want an ICH8R, one pci-e, ability to upgrade to C2D, some medium overclocking ability (since I cant be trusted not to kill the board ) LOL. ....

I came up with the ASUS P5B-E as a good middle road alternative. I think that is what I'll ask for when I see the DS3 replacement is backordered. Maybe I won't even wait that long. Maybe I'll just call them and tell them to send me that.

EDIT$$$$$ Never mind, the P5B-E won't let you go over 2.1v on the memory voltage. Now I have a headache again.

I just don't want to pay more than i did for the DS3 and I need a board that will let me recover the bios when I do something stupid, since I can't be trusted to OC without supervision. LOL.


Let me know what you all think :>

Might try the biostar boards for a budget. I would. I really love epox products though they seem to do it right these days. if I had some spare change I'd get that and play with it.

 

[Daver69]

Originally posted by: mcurphy
I'm going to be purchasing this board this weekend, and I was wondering if someone could recommend some RAM for me? I am looking to spend <$250 for 2GB's. I was considering the Geil 2 x 1GB set, but I have heard some bad things about them. Any suggestions for a good quality / budget RAM that is good for all the usual tasks and compatible with this board? I do some gaming, mostly CoH, but I like to leave my options open for games like UT '07.

Here's the specs of the new rig:
Gigabyte DS3
E6300
XFX 7900 GT
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Seasonic S12 PSU
RAM---????

Thanks!

Mcurphy

Lo M8,

I have the Geil Ultra PC6400 and I worked for Micron for years Does that tell you something. They all use mostly the Micron IC's anyways and mostly Brainpower PCB's.

Had Geil for years, no problems and when i did get the odd problem sorted out pretty quickly form thier Taiwan office and I am in the UK.

Rgds...Dave

 

[Daver69]

Originally posted by: vailr

Originally posted by: Daver69
Well,

after spending nearly 5 hours on the f9 bios after the recent update on the Anandtech site, what a waste of time. Firstly just to point out I aint no nOOb, I have been a test engineer for Compaq/Hp for over 10 years and worked as a debug tech for 9 years in Compaq. I have been overclocking since the days fo 486's . Oh and recently I worked for Micron in the Engineering Department before they closed it down in East Kilbride

Spent a long time with this new Bios, was able to run my machine stable 24/7 with my new water cooling rig at 7x475 (E6300)@ 1.375volts, with my Geil PC6400 2Gig Kit running at 2.3Volts. MCH Normal and FSB, PCie normal also. Ran great actually until I read the Article saying how good the new F9 bios was, once again I made the mistake of listening to the article, just like when I rushed out and bought the ASUS A8R-MVP motherboard only to find out it was a cabbage.

Well with the F9 Bios I managed to get up to 7x500 and it ran stable for over an hour withe same 1.375volts on my CPU, 2.4volts on my Geil and all the rest normal oh, memory timings were 5-5-5-15, thought I would go for that magical 505Mhz that Anandtech had achieved, well sysytem bombed, would not re-boot and when i eventually managed to get it to re-boot, cleared cmos, using my cmos clearing tool, 2 pieces of wire attached to the jumper as I was so hacked off having to remove my 7900GTX everytime I wanted to access the jumper and manouver it around all the water pipes .

After the re-bbot would not go stable above 440mhz and thats with the watercooling keeping the CPU pretty cool at 28-29 on idel and no more than 40 on full load. Flashed back to F7 and cant get it stable above 450Mhz now, cmon gigabyte get a bios out that we really need Stable and Fast. I just hope that I have not limited my Dram or my CPU now. Tried it with more Volts on the CPU up the 1.5v used by Anandtech but it was worse off using the higher voltage the sweet spot for my CPU seems to be 1.375-1.3825

Anyone else had similar results?

RGds..................Daver

Suggestion: clear the CMOS first, then flash or re-flash the chosen bios version. Never flash the bios while overclocked, or voltages other than default.
For what it's worth: my DS3 rev.1 [F9 bios, E6400 CPU & 2 GB of PC2 6400] is mildly overclocked, from 2.13 to 2.66 GHz, and does retain those settings on cold boot.
Yes, I agree that Gigabyte's engineers need to do more thorough testing of various memory types and speeds, to ensure a more stable F10 bios. The DS3 rev.1 may have it's design limitations, however. For those with unlimited resources, the best option may be to go with the DS3 rev.2, or other board designed for optimized compatability with the quad-core Intel CPU's.

Lo M8,

I have the rev 2 board and as I said I am no Noob, I always clear the cmos after a flash. Remove power inc 24Pin Atx and 4 pin molex, remove battery and install the jumper for at least 10 mins . I was working with Bios chips and programmes 20 years ago, in fact I can probably tell you which data and on which pins the data would be on an Intel based system Ah I remember the days back in Compaq, flashing eprom, programming them and debugging the motherboards that used them.........................opps sorry was reminising when the Electronics PC industry was enjoyable and quality control was what mattered most as PC cost about £2500 for a 400Mb Hard Drive, Intel DX2-66 or a DX4-100 overdrive Those were the days. Had them all modded them all including what I regard as one of the best ever CPU's intel build the Pentium Pro or P6 as we called it in the Debug world.

Rgds..Daver

 

[mcurphy]

Originally posted by: Daver69

Originally posted by: mcurphy
I'm going to be purchasing this board this weekend, and I was wondering if someone could recommend some RAM for me? I am looking to spend <$250 for 2GB's. I was considering the Geil 2 x 1GB set, but I have heard some bad things about them. Any suggestions for a good quality / budget RAM that is good for all the usual tasks and compatible with this board? I do some gaming, mostly CoH, but I like to leave my options open for games like UT '07.

Here's the specs of the new rig:
Gigabyte DS3
E6300
XFX 7900 GT
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Seasonic S12 PSU
RAM---????

Thanks!

Mcurphy

Lo M8,

I have the Geil Ultra PC6400 and I worked for Micron for years Does that tell you something. They all use mostly the Micron IC's anyways and mostly Brainpower PCB's.

Had Geil for years, no problems and when i did get the odd problem sorted out pretty quickly form thier Taiwan office and I am in the UK.

Rgds...Dave

Thank you for the reply Dave! That is some promising news. The Geil Ultra PC6400 is the RAM I had in mind. I think I will definitely go for it!

 

[terrik]

Originally posted by: Kamyk

Originally posted by: terrik

Originally posted by: Kamyk

Originally posted by: StopSign
Can I install the JMicron drivers in Windows first, and then change the port?

You absolutelly have to, or else - you will probably expierience blue screen during loading OS
like I did

I swapped the ports before I installed the driver, and now my PC bluescreens at windows startup when I set AHCI in bios. Can I just swap the ports on my hard drives back to the Intel controlled ports, reinstall the JMicron driver and then put the plugs back in the purple ports, or am I SOL?

Thanks.

Well, you might try ...
The best thing though is to reinstall system with HDD connected to JMicron ports and set to AHCI mode

I uninstalled all my drives and the JMicron controller from my Device Manager, put the drives back in the Intel controller, and started from scratch and it worked. Thanks.

 

[Kamyk]

Does anybody know whether or not my mem sticks are based on D9 chips ?

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Beachboy

Originally posted by: vailr
Updated: Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet drivers 8.61.3.3
http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm

Is there a link anywhere explaining what these new drivers do? Thanks.

These latest drivers install and work fine on the DS3 board.
No other detailed info available.

 

[Roguestar]

Ramlist knows.

http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/

 

[NINaudio]

Got this mobo in gf's machine. Gonna replace p4 preshott with an e6400 tomorrow night and do some oc'ing. The ram in the build is corsair value and is running at ddr2-750 right now, so 3.0ghz shouldn't be a problem. Just had a few questions for all you ds3 users out there. I didn't get a chance to read through all the 59 pages in the thread, so I thought I'd post them up:

I was wondering if there are any "strap" issues like with some of the asus boards? (IE, does it strap at 400, so I should go higher then that to make up the difference?)

Is there an fsb range that is problematic and I should avoid if at all possible?

thanks!