Where Are The Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Motherboards?

[Salamandar]

Good luck with RMAing your mobo, I really like mine so much.

 

[Biovexo]

The Beagle, what a shame to send the board back.

I finally got mine setup after a week of just sitting in such a pretty box, and now I?ve come across a problem. I had purchased 2 WD 1TB hard drives the new Eco friendly ones (got them fairly cheap) I?m trying to configured the raid via Intel?s setup, it reads both drive at 0 GB. I have also tried Gigabyte setup that read both drives at 33 MB ? . So I take it the system board goes bonkers when large capacity drives are installed. So im going to research this further, perhaps im just going to have to return the drives for smaller capacity ones, such a shame here too.

 

[Biovexo]

New Bios out F5g, lets see if this does the trick.

 

[BLHealthy4life]

Originally posted by: Biovexo
New Bios out F5g, lets see if this does the trick.

Please keep us informed.

How much memory are you using with the mobo?

i'm interested in results with 4GB of RAM.

BL

 

[Biovexo]

Still nothing I plan to go to Best Buy today to exchange one of the TB hard drives for 3/320gb ones, BLHealthy I have been using 2/ 1gb OCZ SLI sticks(2GB Dual Channel Kit PN ? OCZ2N1066SR2GK), once I get the new hard drives for instillation I can remove the other 2 1gb sticks (same) and see how everything installs. On my other board the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 I did experience issues when all 4gb were installed(Vista 64 Bit had a fit), perhaps it was never a mobo issues and more of an OS. I know there is a patch out, but none the less I can try it out.

 

[Salamandar]

Originally posted by: Biovexo
New Bios out F5g, lets see if this does the trick.

I'm still using the F3 BIOS.

Strange I just had another BSOD...the only new stuff in my cimputer are the mobo and windows Vista 64 ulti.

I got the first BSOD running a game and a RAID 0 and I couldn't load windows after the that.

and the 2nd time I got it was during formating one of the hard drives inside windows vista after removing the RAID !!!

I also noticed a strange thing with vista and this mobo is that vista acts odd during installation when you enable SATA native mode in BIOS....maybe due to the F3 BIOS...who knows.....I can't waity to get a newer BIOS ASAP but I'm not sure about the F5g !

Any one tried it yet ?

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

Here's an update on my replacement motherboard. ClubIT.com was VERY accommodating with regard to a replacement board via cross-shipped exchange. For just a few bucks for additional shipping costs, they got the replacement board out the door, via FedEx 2nd Day, on the way to me. As of a few minutes ago, the package had already gone from CA to Indianapolis, and on East to me. I expect the replacement board to arrive tomorrow morning here in the east coast of the USA. That's damn fine customer service, and I would recommend ClubIT.com to anyone, based on my experience.

Our trusted colleague, Mr. Gary, has tried several of the Beta BIOSes in his retail board. It is my understanding that he was NOT impressed with version F5f. However, conversely, he found version F5g to be much improved, and has recommended it to me for install in the replacement board. I'm sure that Mr. Gary will comment on those matters in a posting here when he gets a chance to do so. However, right now, I believe that it's fair to say the the X38 board is a "work in progress." So, we will all have a good opportunity to share our individual and collective experiences and findings concerning this newest Gigabyte board.

Presuming that the board arrives tomorrow, I hope to get it installed in the next day or so and then give it a run. Further presuming no new problems with the replacement board, I'm anticipating that I can post some initial results with OCing a Q6600 in the board by the weekend. We shall see how all that plays out.

Best regards to everyone. Have a nice evening. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Quiksilver]

Grrr... I'm blind today wrong spot.

 

[Salamandar]

I have disabled the creative X-Fi sound card to track down the BSOD problem I'm having.
it has been disabled for 12 hours now and every thing seems OK!

Could it be the sound card drivers ?!?!?!?!

I need more time to track down the problem......................
Now any one tried the F5g yet?

 

[Blazer7]

It is known that Creative had and probably still experience problems with the development of their Vista drivers. It wouldn't come as a surprise if this is what's causing the BSOD for you.

 

[Salamandar]

Make sure you clear CMOS after updating to F5G.

 

[Salamandar]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
It is known that Creative had and probably still experience problems with the development of their Vista drivers. It wouldn't come as a surprise if this is what's causing the BSOD for you.

Hmmm Creative needs to act fast, using the onboard audio gave me a trouble free day with this mobo!

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

The friendly FedEx driver delivered the replacement X38 board from ClubIT.com today, on schedule - great service! Hooray for FedEx and ClubIT.com!!! I'll be installing the new board tomorrow (hopefully). It would have been today, but some other unexpected matters arose, and as we all know - Stuff Happens! (I cleaned that quote up a bit - LOL).

Anyway, for those wondering about the F5g BIOS, although I haven't yet actually installed it on my new board (which I will - first thing when I fire it up!), I have the utmost confidence in the advice of Mr. Gary. If Gary says it's OK to use, then it's OK to use - End of discussion!

I've heard about the issues that Mr. Sal has with the Creative audio card. For some reason, Creative has been woefully slow to effectively support Vista. I also expected to see them release a PCIe 1x card by now, but that hasn't happened either. It took ATI over a year to decide to announce the release of a PCIe 1x version of their 650 TV Tuner, but I haven't yet seen that product actually appear anywhere either. As I understand it, the throughput and sync issues for those types of add-in cards are much more robust, but it takes a bit more effort to refine the drivers for them. I hope to get to try one of the new PCIe ATI TV Tuners in the near future. (If anyone knows where they are offered for sale in the USA, please let me know - Thanks)

From the very little bit that has been published about the audio chips on the X38 board, I'm not too surprised that Mr. Sal has been quite pleased with his onboard resources. To paraphrase the well-worn quote, this is "not your grandmother's onboard audio any more!" These new boards and their driver sets are really quite mature. Sure, they don't match the pure power and fidelity of very good quality add-in boards, but they sure aren't the junk that we all experienced a year to two ago either. Considering the fact that the manufacturers know that these boards are likely to get a workout with very advanced gaming and multimedia, etc. they have improved the baseline quite a bit.

As soon as I get the new board up and running, I'll post a note on the results (God willing, a positive report!). Have a nice evening. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Salamandar]

The on Board Audio chips have been an "Ok" solution for most people for 2 years now or maybe a little more....................

But still they are no match for supposedly high quality audio cards like the X-fi and the Audigy series.

I know creative has always had bad drivers support for a long time....I remember it took me one year to get good drivers on windows XP 64bit and the Audigy 2 ZS.

The Audio chip on the Gigabyte X38-DQ6 is mature enough to be used with windows Vista until creative finds a fix ASAP.

For me the biggest advantage for Creative over onboard chips is that they free the CPU more and allow ?supposedly " better environmental effects.

 

[T2k]

Those "high quality" Creative audio cards are DEAD, period. Vista simply killed them.
Either stick with your onboard sound or if you really want a high quality solution (for music or movies) then buy a pretty decent quality external unit from M-Audio, Motu, Presonus (or buy some true high-quality stuff from RME or Apogee if you have enough donuts).

 

[Salamandar]

Originally posted by: T2k
Those "high quality" Creative audio cards are DEAD, period. Vista simply killed them.
Either stick with your onboard sound or if you really want a high quality solution (for music or movies) then buy a pretty decent quality external unit from M-Audio, Motu, Presonus (or buy some true high-quality stuff from RME or Apogee if you have enough donuts).

I wouldn't say Vista killed them...it's creatives problem, every other company is improving with their drivers set, look at ATI and Nvidia (yes they do Graphics card and not Audio for now) they improved so much and now vista is very close to XP with their latest drivers and these drivers are getting mature so fast and problems seems to fade away though slowly but they do fade away.

But creative is not doing any good job and they've allways been such a bad driver company with good hardware!

 

[Salamandar]

by the way the Ga-x38-DQ is back on gigabytes webpage!

 

[sam194760]

Does anybody know if you can put an after market Raid Controller on this mobo (such as 3ware 9650se) ?

 

[Blazer7]

There is no reason why you cannot use such a card. The 3ware 9650se comes in lots of flavours. Among them you have PCI-E x1, x4 & x8 cards. The x1 card sports only 2 SATA ports though while the x4 cards come with 4 or 8 and the x8 cards with 12, 16 or 24.

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Salamandar
The on Board Audio chips have been an "Ok" solution for most people for 2 years now or maybe a little more....................

But still they are no match for supposedly high quality audio cards like the X-fi and the Audigy series.

I know creative has always had bad drivers support for a long time....I remember it took me one year to get good drivers on windows XP 64bit and the Audigy 2 ZS.

The Audio chip on the Gigabyte X38-DQ6 is mature enough to be used with windows Vista until creative finds a fix ASAP.

For me the biggest advantage for Creative over onboard chips is that they free the CPU more and allow ?supposedly " better environmental effects.

You may be interested to know that the advantage these cards hold over the onboard chips in terms of cpu load is minimal. I doubt that it is more than 3 to 5% and some of these cards cost more than a good mobo does. It doesn?t make sense for me to pay that much for so small a difference. If you add the driver problems that come with the package then the whole thing is less than appealing and this is not just my opinion. The sound of these cards maybe better than that of the on board chips but the difference is not as big as it used to be and the on board chips are improving day by day.

As it is clearly pointed out in this excellent article, Creative specifically, is loosing its grip on the sound market and the cause of it is that it doesn?t make sense for people to buy their products anymore. I?ve used Creative?s sound cards a lot in the past as I use my pc for listening to music quite often but now I just don?t know if it makes any sense to even bother looking at their products. I?ve just mentioned Creative but this goes for all other manufacturers too.

The bottom line is that if you really want this 3-5% or if you are in for the best sound there is regardless of cost then the logical options you are left with are pretty much like T2k mentioned.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Sam.

Yes, you CAN utilize an add-in SATA controller with the X38 board. In fact, I placed a Siig SATA II PCIe, 2 Port card (Part #SC-SAE012-S2) in the first PCIe slot, and connected it to the eSATA bracket that comes with the board. Since I run 6 SATA hard drives internally in my case, plus 2 SATA optical drives, I didn't have any extra onboard SATA connectors to attach the eSATA bracket. However, I have found that eSATA bracket VERY useful on a number of occasions, and didn't want to give it up. Of course, you can also use a different type of PCIe SATA card to gain additional ports as Mr. Blazer mentioned, but I can tell you from personal experience that an add-in PCIe SATA card works. HOWEVER, DO NOT buy one of the cheap, second-tier add-in cards for this purpose. Use a quality card and you will likely NOT encounter driver/IRQ conflicts. Otherwise, you're going to have a nightmare.

On the BIOS revision front, I have it from VERY good sources, that there's a version F5h BIOS now floating around for this X38 board that appears to be even better than the F5g version. Hopefully our colleague Mr. Gary, will be able to post a source for that little gem in the near future.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Gary Key]

F5H....

 

[TheBeagle]

To Gary: A BIG Thanks on behalf of everyone! You always come through for us!

TheBeagle :beer:

 

[Salamandar]

I really have bad memory on this mobo right now....with Sisoft sandra I can't touch the 5000 MB/S mark and the memory I use is DDR2 800, I should order some new RAm for sure.

I'm thinking Kingstone DDR2 1066 4x1 GB with nice and sexy D9 chips :evil:

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Sal.

I use Crucial Ballistix memory and have had good luck with it. Currently, you can buy 2GB (1GBx2) of Crucial 1066 DDR2 Ballistix (Part #BL2KIT12864AA1065) for an amazing price of $119.75 (plus a $15 MIR to boot- MIR expires tomorrow) here: MWave.com; or 2GB (1GBx2) of Crucial 1066 DDR2 Ballistix Tracer (Part #BL2KIT12864AL1065) for $126.25 (MIR expired) also here: MWave.com.

The good part about Crucial stuff is the no-hassle lifetime warranty. Although you can certainly buy faster DDR2 memory, the point of diminishing returns quickly approaches once you push it much above 1125FSB. The cost-benefit ratio gets really out of sight once you try to go much higher than that, especially considering the instability issues.

Best of luck with your memory purchase. TheBeagle :beer: