Where Are The Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Motherboards?

[Blazer7]

Mr JASTECH,

The yellow SATA ports are from Intel?s ICH9R southbridge/RAID controller chip. ?Traditionally? Intel?s ICHxR southbridge/RAID chips do perform much better than other third party on board controllers and this is not an exception. Intel?s controller is faster than Gigabyte?s and because this is a 6-port controller you have more options like RAID 10 & 5. Gigabyte?s controller on the other hand is limited to RAID 0, 1 & JBOD because of its 2-ports. Most users use Gigabyte?s controllers for optical drives (like myself) or for e-SATA. That?s much better than ?wasting? the good ports of your other controller.

As for your LAN issue, I don?t really have a clue on what?s wrong. This mobo comes with 2xGigabit LAN ports based on Realtek?s 8111B chip which I may say is quite reliable. My best guess at the moment is that either you have connected one of the ports to a slow port on your router or there is something wrong with your driver/driver settings.

 

[JASTECH]

Blazer, thank you so much for your advise! I will move my 2 sammys to the Gigabyte SATA ports later today. Also, I read some place they said you can connect the 2 LAN ports together for more bandwidth? I only get around 32-40 kbps dl. I use a NetGear MR314, what do you think?

 

[JASTECH]

If I may, any ideas on the rear speakers not working? Thanks, JAS

 

[Blazer7]

Mr JASTECH,

From what I know this mobo does not support teaming so you won?t be able to use both LAN ports to double the speed of your connection. I?ve also taken a look at your router and it seems that it has 4x10/100 ports. Since your router cannot operate at Gigabit speed you are limited to 100. If you want to use the full potential of your mobo/cable connection you have no choice but to get a new router.

If you choose to keep this one a bit longer then the best you can do is update your firmware but this won?t speed things up for you. This is a good router but it has reached its EOL so do not expect too much from it.

I don?t think I can help you with your speaker issue. Probably some of the other gents in the thread can. The only thing I can tell you about it is that I doubt that this is a hardware issue. It?s more likely that something is not set correctly. You should have a look at page 5-2 of your manual (configuring audio input and output). This is always a good place to start trouble-shooting.

Best of luck

Blazer

 

[JASTECH]

BLazer7, This was done and rechecked before I placed it on this board. When a plug is placed in any of the inputs a menu will come up asking how you want that jack configured ie front, rear or sub ect. So I have tried a few different jacks to no avail. As I had stated in the above post I plugged the rear speakers into the front jack and it works fine, so it led me to beleive that the hardware is bad or the drivers. But it all checkes out in properties. When I click on teh front speakers in the test mode they dim and I hear the sound from the speaker tested, but the rear also dim and no sound. So I guess I will keep looking for something else that is wrong. Thanks, JAS

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. JasTech & Mr. Blazer.

Mr. Blazer's advice about utilizing the two Gigabyte2 SATA ports for optical drives is very solid counsel. The capabilities of the six main Intel SATA ports is far superior to the GB2 ports. As far as "Teaming" for the two onboard NIC ports is concerned, there is a software utility on the Gigabyte CD-ROM that comes with the X38 board that is purported to enable Teaming. Although I have not yet enabled that feature, I certainly intend to do so in the very near future. One would be strongly advised to utilize a router with Gigabit speed port capability to take full advantage of that feature. I personally use a Linksys WRT350N router which has Gigabit ports right on the router. Gigabyte advertises that the X38 board has the Teaming capability (just like they said the N680i board has it - except it is dependent upon the nVidia driver set and that has been screwed up since August of 2007). Hopefully Intel has a better solution to that feature.

After reading and re-reading Mr. Gary's latest article concerning the X38 boards on AnandTech.com, I have a bit more faith that the X38 board will mature and be a good performer. In that respect, I adjusted the CMOS settings for my CPU (using the F5i BIOS) to an 8x multiplier and the FSB to 420 @ 1.450V. The memory is temporarily set at 2.40"B", @ 5-5-5-15, at 2.200V. The rig booted up just fine at those settings for my Q6600 (G0), with a Zalman 9700 for cooling. CPU-Z reports the CPU is humming along at 3.36GHz and uses between 1.390 and 1.410V. The memory seems to run just fine at 2.2V @ 504MHz. Since this represents a significant OC for this CPU, I'm going to run it like this for awhile and see how it does. However, lowering the multiplier definitely seems like the way to go for this CPU/Memory combo. I'll keep you posted.

BTW, I have it on good authority that we are NOT likely to be left along the roadside with our X38 boards, since the BIOS revisions for the X38 products are progressing at a much better pace that anything even on the drawing boards for the X48 chipset. Of course, in due time, it is likely that a mature BIOS on an X48 board, coupled with a 1600 FSB CPU (which is coming real soon) will cause some higher performance with the X48 boards. However, the performance delta between the two chipsets, all things being equal, is seen to be in the neighborhood of 2 -3 %, max.

Hope everyone has a nice evening. Best regards. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[JASTECH]

TheBeagle, What is the utility called on the CD? I would like to try and see if I get more speed with them teamed.

 

[pjskeet]

After reading and re-reading Mr. Gary's latest article concerning the X38 boards on AnandTech.com, I have a bit more faith that the X38 board will mature and be a good performer. In that respect, I adjusted the CMOS settings for my CPU (using the F5i BIOS) to an 8x multiplier and the FSB to 420 @ 1.450V. The memory is temporarily set at 2.40"B", @ 5-5-5-15, at 2.200V. The rig booted up just fine at those settings for my Q6600 (G0), with a Zalman 9700 for cooling. CPU-Z reports the CPU is humming along at 3.36GHz and uses between 1.390 and 1.410V. The memory seems to run just fine at 2.2V @ 504MHz. Since this represents a significant OC for this CPU, I'm going to run it like this for awhile and see how it does. However, lowering the multiplier definitely seems like the way to go for this CPU/Memory combo. I'll keep you posted.

 

[pjskeet]

Mr. Beagle

After reading and re-reading Mr. Gary's latest article concerning the X38 boards on AnandTech.com, I have a bit more faith that the X38 board will mature and be a good performer. In that respect, I adjusted the CMOS settings for my CPU (using the F5i BIOS) to an 8x multiplier and the FSB to 420 @ 1.450V. The memory is temporarily set at 2.40"B", @ 5-5-5-15, at 2.200V. The rig booted up just fine at those settings for my Q6600 (G0), with a Zalman 9700 for cooling. CPU-Z reports the CPU is humming along at 3.36GHz and uses between 1.390 and 1.410V. The memory seems to run just fine at 2.2V @ 504MHz. Since this represents a significant OC for this CPU, I'm going to run it like this for awhile and see how it does. However, lowering the multiplier definitely seems like the way to go for this CPU/Memory combo. I'll keep you posted.

Where did you get the F5i bios?

 

[JASTECH]

pjskeet, Welcome to our thread!

http://drivers.softpedia.com/p...ta-Download-43997.html

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. JasTech.

When you insert the CD that came with the X38 board, it will launch an autorun file on the CD and search your PC for the proper drivers. After it completes that task, it should tell you that all the necessary drivers are installed. Then, on the top left hand side, there are some optional tabs, one of which mentions software applications, and takes you to that sub menu. You will see the Teaming utility listed there and then click on the "install" button on the right side to install that utility. You can also scan that CD and I believe its listed under "utility" items down on the last subdirectory. Enjoy, and let us know how it works. TheBeagle :beer:

P.S. to Mr. JasTech: I see that you are using G.Skill DDR2 1000 2GB memory sticks. I just ordered two of those kits for a total of 8GB to use on the X38 board. From the limited reviews I was able to find on that memory, it seems to OC reasonably well, and runs at 2.1V just fine. Can you share your experiences with that memory with me as well? Thanks. TheBeagle

 

[Blazer7]

Mr Beagle,

8GB of high speed DDR2 is quite an investment. Please post on how this works with this mobo. It will be interesting to know if this works without any compatibility issues.

PS
As one that had to deal with G.Skill's RMA policy in the past I can say that these guys are great. Their support is absolutely brilliant unlike that of some others out there.

PSS
Thanks for the tip on the teaming function.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Early Evening Mr. Blazer.

My initial impression of the $ factor concerning 2GB high-speed memory sticks was the same as yours. HOWEVER, the current price for a 4GB kit (2x2GB) is $189.99 USD here: Newegg.com. I was amazed that presumably good quality, high-speed DDR2 2GB sticks could be had at that price. Considering how well Vista 64 uses RAM memory in lineal mode, this was too great a temptation to pass up.

I certainly will wring out this memory in the coming 10 days or so, and considering Newegg's 30 day refund policy, if it doesn't work out, it goes back. On the other hand, if it does perform, the paging file may get cow webs on it, since most all applications will be running in actual RAM memory. That, quite frankly, is my objective. I've never had a PC with that much RAM memory, and since the Vista 64 OS is getting much more mature, it seemed the time to take the leap. But as with all things, the devil is in the details, so we shall see.

I'm glad to hear that G.Skill is apparently a reputable firm and stands behind (not too far behind) its products. Hopefully I won't need that support, but it's nice to know that they don't seem to be snake oil salesmen either. Maybe the folks at Gigabyte should take a few lessons from the G-Skill folks with regard to solidly standing behind their products (GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board - case in point!) and also for examples of providing equally solid customer service - LOL! Gigabyte's customer service performance on that N680i board is an absolute disgrace!

With regard to the Teaming utility, of course you are most welcome, and I will be interested to hear how that utility installs and performs for our colleagues. The new memory sticks might arrived on Monday or Tuesday, so as soon as I get them and pop them into the slots, we're ready to rock-n-roll with that item. It sure would be great to have the stability that I have been seeking and also be able to tweak the FSB on the CPU a bit more to get it up to about 3.50GHz, stable. But again, we shall see.

Best regards to everyone, and enjoy your weekend. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[JASTECH]

Mr Beagle, I do appreciate the guidance here. I Bridged the connections of my LAN's and here is the result.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/196347259.png
I think it did well for me. As far as the G.Skill 4gb kit, It is very nice. So far no complaints, as you did I checked reviews from other boards and consumers and they all gave it the A+ except for price! But as you stated Newegg has them cheeeep, and that my pooch is where I purchased them from.

P.S. I hope I didn't tug your leash too hard with the "pooch", lol

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. JasTech, et al.

You are most welcome with regard to the Teaming advice. I hope that continues to work for you. The Egg folks already shipped my 4 memory sticks from their N.J. warehouse, so I expect to see that stuff on Monday. From what I have read, that particular memory does not tolerate much more juice than 2.1V, so I'll have to back down the voltage a bit before I stick those lovelies in the slots. It will be interesting to see how the whole rig and Vista 64 reacts (if at all), to having 8GB of onboard RAM.

Also, no offense whatsoever was taken to the synonym for Beagle. Believe me, I've been called quite less endearing monikers than that in the course of my lifetime - LOL! I did tweak the Q6600 (G0) a bit more this evening, and now have it running at what I was aiming for, namely, 3.50GHz (438x8) @ 1.4650V, and the Crucial Ballistix memory is still set at 2.40 "B" @ 2.2V. It seems to run just fine at that setting, and obviously is damn quick in getting things done, especially in multithreaded apps like PhotoShop CS3 Extended.

Mr. Gary seems to believe that the Intel/Gigabyte folks are on the right track with regard to getting the BIOS refinements accomplished on the X38 board, and so we will have to wait a bit longer for those finalizing developments. However, considering the now very significant OC that I have been able to get from this Q6600 proc on air cooling, if a future BIOS revision just improves the stability portion of the equation a bit more, then I will definitely consider the combination of this X38 board, and these components to be an overwhelming success. And that, hopefully, will be the point where I am going to do my very best to resist the significant temptation to mess around with these settings any further. I keep telling myself that faster is not always better - but I sometimes don't listen to my own advice.

My next project is likely to build a G35 mATX board PC for a friend. That will be a very interesting chipset, since it will directly support DX10 with a new type of onboard graphics core. But that's a ways off, since I am told that those boards are not even released from final design for retail manufacture as of right now. The few prototype boards for the G35 are presently a bit flaky, but seem to have a lot of potential.

Best regards to everyone, and have a nice evening. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[JASTECH]

I have also flashed my BIOS to FH1. So I will see how this goes.

 

[Salamandar]

Hello all,

BIOS FH1 ?!?!!?

You mean F5i ?

 

[Rayvin52]

So is the F5i considered to be the most stable of the bios out for the X38 so far? I'm running well with the F5g. One of the things I'm most impressed with is how cool my Q6600 is running...consistently under 40c, lower 40's under heavy load (rendering). I thinkg it might have been a good idea to leave the crazy cool heat sink on when I installed my Zalman 9700--not sure if that's what's keeping the temps so much lower than my last board (Asus P5K Deluxe). It appears it was worth cutting the 4 corners off the bottom mounting plate--
The only thing that freaked me out at first with this board was the Zalman not coming on when I first fired it up...didn't know about the default smart fan setting in the bios...switched it to PWM and all was well.

 

[JASTECH]

Salamander, yes F5i. I am sorry I was up late and on medication so I may do that now and then so just correct me in a nice manner. Thanks, JAS

 

[Supershanks]

Just got my board yesterday, my first gigabyte board,, am pretty impressed so far, currently priming on 9x400 with 2.66C = 1064. vcore bios = 1.3875. Running with F5H_BTA.

Has anyone found that a particular pair of memory slots run better, yellow or red

cheers

 

[JASTECH]

Supershanks, First off, WELCOME to out X38 thread!..You would want to use the first 2 and that would be one yellow and one red slot if you have a memory kit? I have used allot of Gigabyte boards and have always been impressed except for my GA-8KNXP Ultra as it stopped booting up so it is sitting on a chair. If I am incorrect then someone here will correct me and you and whoever needs it, lol ...Thanks, JAS

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. ShanksMan.

Welcome to the Thread. Sounds like you've got your rig humming right along. Since you have water cooling, you are probably going to do a fair bit better than the rest of us mere mortal air coolers. The memory slots don't seem to matter much (at least not for me). You could likely go a bit higher on the OC if you change to an 8x multiplier.

Mr. Gary, in his recent article on the X38 Gigabyte board in AnandTech.com, indicated that the Q6600 that they were working with (on air) was capable of significantly higher speeds utilizing the 8x multiplier. I have personally found that to also be true, and run my current Q6600 at 438x8=3.50GHz on a Zalman 9700.

Good luck with your new board and keep us posted on your progress. Best regards to all the folks in the UK. TheBeagle :beer:

P.S. on Mr. JasTech's Comment: In order to achieve dual channel functioning, the memory sticks need to be inserted in pairs in the same banking. That means the same color (unless you have some different kind of color scheme). Using alternate colors will POST, but you will likely lose your dual channel capability.

 

[JASTECH]

TheBeagle, you are correct! My misporkchop or misteak, lol ....I moved the 2 sammy's to the gigabyte SATA2 connections, like was said (why waste the faster Intel ones on optics). So now I need to sale the Zalman ZM-MFC2, I bought it and forgot I need a card reader and don't have the space so I will have to buy the AeroCool FP-01 55-in-1 reader. Thanks, JAS

 

[Salamandar]

Originally posted by: JASTECH
Salamander, yes F5i. I am sorry I was up late and on medication so I may do that now and then so just correct me in a nice manner. Thanks, JAS

I didn't mean any thing at all.......I got very confused and I thought I missed something that's all.

 

[JASTECH]

Salamandar, No worries! I just wanted to let you know why I "will" make those errors but will try not too. It is very difficult being ontop of your game and then do to an accident be/feel like a noob. With this boards help and a few others I registered with I am trying to regain/relearn what I have lost in just a moment. I just ask for the members to please bare with me on this adventure. Thanks, JAS