Where Are The Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 Motherboards?

[jaggerwild]

Well Well,
the plot thinkens as this board has issues with the new yorkies, it will not show true multiplier and the bios update did not fix the issue either.
Simple tell here is if you have this combonation then simply over clock the chip just a tad to say 3.2 on an E8400. Then if you can get into windows (Here in lies the issue) then open CPU-Z and try to figure out what the chip is really running at as CPU-Z has a hard time reading the value on it, and in most instances the multi is suddenly changed to a multi I did not set?
Guess they will blame Intel this time around........... STAY TUNED :disgust:

 

[jp4miller]

When I booted this am, one of the disks in my raid 1 array was listed as 'not a raid disk'.
I can't figure out how to get it back into the array.
Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
jp

 

[Blazer7]

ok, I haven't had a look at this thread for quite some time now but I think that some things must be straighten out here.

Originally posted by: jaggerwild

If the board has issues regardless of if I'm over clocking or not they should stand behind it PERIOD witch they do not........ I'm not blaming them nor am I here to prove myself to anybody. As this is the net, but the simple fact that once he knew the board was over clocked then he blamed it is the issue I have!

If you are ocing it is impossible to prove that the board is faulty and your ocing didn't harm it PERIOD. Admitting that you have oced your board and regardless of whether the board was faulty in the first place just gave GB the excuse they needed. No one knows how much ocing a board can take and no one knows how far anyone oced his board. It is also common knowledge that all makers like to brag about their boards ocing capabilities but none provide warranty for failed boards that have been oced. You are right not to blame them and you are also right that you do not need to prove anything to anyone but as I've said, and you have also, once you confided in them that you've oced the board that gave them all they needed to cancel your warranty.

Cause if they have such great customer service (and they don't as seen in the 680 thread) then, I have to wonder why do they sponsor over clocking contests then? Or even make all these applications for the board witch are on the MB disk too, that are made to over clock it with?

2 reasons. Bragging rights and marketing. Nothing we don't know already.

--------------------------

Mr. Blazer, it is plain that I could show you proven problems that I know of. And you will still be here blaming my over clock till they give you a 780 board(I read people like others read books, only I see between the lines). Good luck with that board .

I resent that comment and I've really had enough of this.

Your comments and barbs on me waiting for a 780 replacement and that this may have in any way degraded my objectivity over your case in favour of GB or anyone else is hilarious and outrageous at the same time.

We all long now know that there won't be a 780 and if you've bothered to read the press lately you would already know that it is likely that the 790 will be cancelled too. Even if the 790 makes it to the market and we get a replacement we'll still have to buy expensive no-good-for-nothing DDR3 mems and lose money over this and as far as I know it is I and a few others like me that are still on the losing end of this deal and if we ever get a replacement we'll still be on the the losing end having spent more money on this so if you want to get bitter over this be my guest.

I also have nothing to prove to you or anybody else and I humbly suggest that you stick to books.

PS
My apologies to everyone for this getting a bit personal. This won't happen again from my part.

PSS
If anyone feels the need to continue this on a personal level just PM me.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Early Morning Everyone,

I too have not been very attendant to this Thread that I started in mid-December of "07. However, a heck of a lot of "water" (a/k/a: pissing and moaning) has passed under the proverbial "bridge" since that time. As far as I can tell, most folks are now quite happy with their X48 boards.

In fact, I'm in the process of finalizing a new build for a friend of mine utilizing the X48 board (PCB Ver. 1.3), with 8GB of G.Skill DDR2 (PC2-8800) memory, a Q9550 CPU, a new VelociRaptor hard drive, and TWIN Gigabyte GV-R487X2-2GH-B Radeon HD 4870 X2 video cards (in Quad-CrossFireX). The new video cards are in transit as I write this posting (they were first offered early yesterday (Friday) at the Egg, we ordered them right away, and they are now already sold out - WOW!). This new rig ought to be a rather speedy little ah heck, to be sure! I'll keep you posted on how this new item turns out.

In any event, it seems that the previously presumed road map for forthcoming new boards and the equally new chipsets to go with them has become a rather murky situation. A number of "revelations" pertaining to those forthcoming boards, etc., have been popping up concerning these matters in a past few weeks. So, my advice to my friends is to go with mature components (i.e., X48 and DDR2) at the present time, and let the marketplace settle down a bit before venturing out into the bleeding edge area real soon.

I certainly hope that everyone is enjoying their X48 board systems, I know that I am.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Everyone.

It looks like the ToughPower 850 Watt PSU is NOT going to cut it with dual GA-R487X2-2GH-B Radeon X2 video cards in CrossFireX. According to the recent article on AnandTech, those cards in CF draw 752 watts under load, and that's WITHOUT considering any other load (i.e., CPU, memory, hard drives, optical drives, etc). So it looks like a ToughPower 1200 watt PSU is going to be required. I'll let you know how all this foolishness turns out - LOL!

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[jp4miller]

I was able to set the second disk to a non raid disk then rebuild the array of of it.
all is well

 

[Blazer7]

That's a weird problem that you've encountered. I suggest that you check for driver/BIOS updates. I also suggest that you use SATA cables with latches. Some times ordinary SATA cables can get loose and this can cause any kind of problems, especially with raid arrays. Just my 2 cents.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Everyone,

The new X48 build went rather well. The dual x2 cards in CrossFireX are really something to behold rendering graphics on 30" screens. We'll be testing it some more this week, but the initial report is very good. The 1200 watt PSU was a MUST, since this beast really sucks up some juice when you crank it up - LOL!

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[jaggerwild]

WOW!
It is a known fact the ICH9 chip drops off line while in a raid config if you go over a certain level on the front side bus. I think it is OHMS not certain, just read it anyways they are doing an RMA for it.

 

[jaggerwild]

Originally posted by: jp4miller
When I booted this am, one of the disks in my raid 1 array was listed as 'not a raid disk'.
I can't figure out how to get it back into the array.
Any help would be appreciated.

thanks,
jp

Again the ICH9 is known to fall off line, glade your were able to rebuild it!

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Everyone.

This is a bit of an update on the recent build of a "Super PC" for a friend of mine which utilized the Gigabyte X48 board, and also (among other things) two (2) Gigabyte Radeon HD4870 X2 video cards in a CrossFireX configuration, for a total of 4 GPUs.

I'm very pleased to report that virtually everything went quite well, and my friend has one helluva beast PC for his enjoyment. I'm certainly glad that we settled on the X48 board rather than one of the recent P45 versions. Of course the true twin PCIe x16 slots, coupled with the mature F7 BIOS, and the energy features were prime considerations, and those factors turned out to be very important items indeed.

Anyway, if someone is wondering if that sort of wild setup actually works, I'm here to tell you that it does, and works rather flawlessly. So, if you're similarly inclined, jump in, the water is fine!

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Afternoon Everyone.

There's a new F8a Beta BIOS posted on the Gigabyte (Taiwan) web site for the X48 board. I'm told that it is intended to allow for 1333MHz DDR2 memory. Now the only problem with that is where does someone even begin to acquire that type of memory, and if you could get it, what would be the probable outrageous cost?

Maybe someone at G/Skill will read this posting and decide to offer us some DDR2 1333 stuff at a very reasonable cost, in both 2GB and 4GB modules - LOL!

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

UPDATE: I have also learned that the new BIOS is modified for the E0 Stepping Code of the latest version of Intel CPUs.

 

[Blazer7]

Gigabyte released new Audio, LAN and SATA drivers for the GA-X48-DQ6. (15-16/09/2008)

Enjoy. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Sup...el.aspx?ProductID=2763

Realtek also released new audio drivers (ver 2.04 - 12/09/2008)

http://152.104.125.41/download...TypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

[Liet]

Hi all,

I recently bought an X48 DQ6 after my fairly new MSI P6N Platinum-based sysem died during what should've been a routine motherbard BIOS update (Note: Beware the websie-based MSI BIOS-flashing utility). The MSI board refused to POST, and after buying a so I began researching new boards and found the X48 DQ6.

Unfortunately, I seem to be having the same problem several others are having; The mobo cycles on, and in a few seconds cycles right back off. Just to try and isolate what component is causing trouble I purchased a PCI-slot graphics card, a 1.6GHz Celeron, and a new heatsink (don't get me started on how infuriating those goddamned plastic pins on the stock Intel heatsinks are).

No go. Still cycles on and back off. I believe this is a RAM incompatibility, however I've followed the directions posted earlier in the thread about removing the CMOS battery & trying to start with one DDR stick, and it still refuses to post. If I remove all RAM, the CPU speaker gives me error beeps, so that's what makes me think it's RAM.

So... Can anyone verify that the X48 DQ6 can run with DDR 800 RAM rated at 2.2v? I'm stumped, and could really use a hand.

The basic components:
X48 DQ6
Q6600 (won't post with a 1.6GHz Celeron)
2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 2.2v sticks
eVGA 8800 GT (won't post with a PCI graphics card either)
Thermaltake 700w power supply

EDIT: I checked the RAM sheet for the X48 DQ6 on Gigabyte's site and my exact RAM is listed as compatible... I'm stumped! Any ideas, boys?

 

[Blazer7]

I've never heard of DDR2 800 modules being rated @ 2.2V. Are you sure about this? Have you tried running your mem @1.8V?

 

[jaggerwild]

Originally posted by: Blazer7
I've never heard of DDR2 800 modules being rated @ 2.2V. Are you sure about this? Have you tried running your mem @1.8V?

Crucial that states 2.2 volts.


I'm sure the default mem voltages will work with them, @ Liet I assume this is just a bios setting, what listing do you have the hard drives set to in bios? As mine is in the box right now so can't find them at the moment.
Be careful as I down loaded the Bios from Gigabyte site and the only thing that saved it was the back up Bios, just so you know. I think they have sense fixed it too. The mother board cycling is normal as it is a six/eight phase mother board so it is finding and adjusting the power management too.
Are you setting up a Raid? If so are the settings correct? I'd start there with the Hard drive settings in the bios, also list other settings you are using. Trying using the "optimized defaults" see if that gets you through?
Cheers!:beer:

 

[Blazer7]

Wow! I didn?t knew about this one. That?s some really cool stuff (4-4-4-12@2.2V). After looking around I found a few modules that can hit these timings with 2.1-2.2V and I bet that there?re more of them out there. It seems that I haven?t paid any attention to the latest DDR2 mems.

Anyways my 1066 are rated at 4-4-4-12@2.4V for 1 pair but I?ve seen them hit these timings with much lower voltages. You can try running 1 stick @ JEDEC specs. That?s @800MHz @5-5-5-18@1.8V. If that doesn?t change things then it?s more likely that it?s not the mem.

Flashing your BIOS to the latest, may, or may not help but it?s the next logical step to take. As jaggerwild mentioned be careful. Flashing your BIOS can be tricky.

 

[Liet]

Hi jaggerwild, Blazer... Thanks for responding!

Jagger: Unfortunately I can't get into the BIOS in order to change RAM settings. I've been trying to boot with only a CPU, heatsink, graphics card, and RAM, just to see if I can eventually get to the BIOS. Unfortunately nothing seems to work.

So far I've tried two different CPUs and three different graphics cards...
CPU: Q6600; new 1.6GHZ Celeron from Newegg
Graphics: eVGA 8800GT (PCIe); brand new PNY 8800GT (PCIe); brand new 8400 (regular PCI)

Unfortunately I don't have spare RAM to test. The system just won't make it to the BIOS. Power on the motherboard cycles on for a few seconds, the CPU fan spins weakly, and it powers right back off. Cycles on again for a few seconds, then back off, over and over.

Blazer: There's no way to flash the BIOS if the system won't post, right? This is getting expensive... As I mentioned, I followed the directions posted earlier about removing the CMOS battery and starting up with only one DDR stick in slot 1. At this point I'm guessing maybe the board is DOA? If it turns out I need to buy 1.8v rated RAM just to get into the BIOS I'll be very disappointed. I'm very happy with that Crucial 4-4-4-12 2.2v RAM... it was a great deal!

Also, this whole thing started because I used the MSI auto BIOS update utility to flash my P6N Platinum. The kicker is, I didn't even really need to - I'd just reinstalled my OS and figured I'd update the BIOS while I was at it... it was just a CPUid update. Sigh...

I don't plan on updating a motherboard BIOS again unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Blazer7]

Hi Liet,

Your mem is factory oced PC6400. Like all other mems of its kind it most definitely has some JEDEC std timings in its SPD settings. All manufacturers include such timings in the SPD just to be on the safe side with mobos that won?t work with their mems straight away. In addition to this if you take a look at the mobo?s memory support list there?re 2 crucial kits included. The BL6464AL804 and the BL12864AA804. These are 512MB and 1GB modules and are both validated to work on this mobo in both single and dual channel configs. This makes it somewhat difficult to believe that your mem is the culprit and I will be very surprised if you need some other mem in order for your rig to post. However you never know. If you can get your hands on a stick of plain DDR2 and test it you?ll know beyond any doubt if it?s the mem.

On a side note, are you sure about the procedure you followed to clear your CMOS? In addition to removing the battery for a couple of minutes you also have to short the clear CMOS jumper for a few secs. Normally this is what it takes and in the rare occasions that this doesn?t work dual BIOS kicks in. I?ve been in situations that I had to clear the CMOS, remove the PSU?s power cord and wait for a couple of hours but I?ve never been in a situation that I would actually lose a board because of a corrupted BIOS. It is extremely rare for such boards to experience unrecoverable BIOS damage.

 

[Liet]

Thanks for the helpful response, Blazer! I have to admit I'm kicking myself for not thinking about shorting the jumper. I tried it twice this morning (with PCI-slot graphics card & 1 stick of DDR2 in Slot1) but unfortunately had the same issue... The board powers up for 5 seconds, then powers down for 5, then back up, back down, etc etc. Just for the record, I've got the mobo outside the case and the only things (besides CPU, graphics, 1 stick RAM, and PSU) plugged in are the two PSU power cables (the main 24-pin and the 8-pin), the power switch, and the CPU speaker jack.

The reason I thought it could be the RAM was because of the previous posts in this thread about trying to boot with RAM requiring more than 1.8v. Further, if I try it without any RAM in the slot, I get a response from the motherboard at least - the speaker gives me the "No RAM is installed, doofus!" warning beeps. I agree that it would be odd for the RAM to be the culprit, considering I am using the 2 x 1GB BL12864AA804 listed as compatible by Gigabyte. Edit: Also, I tried each RAM stick in Slot1, just in case one stick had gone bad.

If it ain't the CPU (tried 2), and it ain't the graphics card (tried 3), that just leaves the RAM, the PSU, or the motherboard itself, right? Or user error... and this whole process certainly has certainly made me feel like I must be doing something wrong.

My RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146565

My PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153039

A 700W Thermaltake should be able to handle this board, right?

 

[Blazer7]

There're some mixed reviews about the mems on newegg but the PSU is a good one for sure.

Try again with a single DIMM in slots 2 & 3. If this doesn't work you may have a bad board. It may also be a good idea to contact GB's tech dpt. I would be very interested on what they have to say about all this.

 

[Liet]

Good idea Blazer, I'll give it a shot. So far I've only tried Slot1. I can call GB support tonight, and if it gets me nowhere I'll bring the board to the store for a replacement... if that one fails, that cuts down the possibility that it's a defective motherboard.

Know what's depressing? Even if I get my system operational, I'll still be getting 600ms pings from Time Warner Cable in NYC. I'll have a fantastic system that's useless for online gaming.

 

[Liet]

Good news! I'm operational again. It turned out to be the RAM.

Today I brought home a ridiculously cheap ($37!) 2GB stick of Kingston 1.8v DDR2 800 RAM. I tried it and the system finally posted! I also tried each slot to verify all slots were functional, which they were.

From there, I was able to enter the BIOS and manually adjust the RAM voltage to the recommended 2.2v for my Crucial Ballistix RAM, and tested both sticks at various voltages, in each slot. They simply would not allow the system to post at anything under 2.2v. Perhaps after a year of 2.2v they simply could not handle a default of 1.8v anymore?

I recall adjusting the voltage up to 2.2v with this RAM on my MSI P6N Platinum, which means at some point the RAM was able to function below 2.2v. Does this indicate the SPD on my RAM has become screwy, or that the X48 DQ6 was not querying for the SPD properly? I am curious because of the posts by GigabyteColin regarding problems with this motherboard using RAM not defaulting to 1.8v.

On a happy side note: my old system stopped booting after I flashed the BIOS on my MSI motherboard. I'm guessing this changed my RAM voltage settings, and because my RAM won't work anymore below 2.2v this rendered the system unbootable. So.... if I'm correct, all my hardware is still functional! RAH! I'm still very excited and am looking forward to tinkering with the X48 DQ6.

Thanks again for all the help, I'm very appreciative!

 

[Blazer7]

These are good news although I have to say that I?m surprised that your mem was to blame for all this. The guys at GB should take note of this and check again their policy regarding their QVL mem list. Buying qualified mems only to get yourself in trouble is absolutely unacceptable.

Anyways, now it may be a good idea to update your BIOS. The last known BIOS for this board is the F8a beta and according to what TheBeagle has posted earlier on, the F8a is intended to add support for the E0 CPUs and DDR2 1333MHz memory. This means that the new BIOS will allow the board to work with a wider range of mem modules. With a little luck it may also solve your problem with the crucials.

 

[Kaptdeath]

Hi all,

I installed the F8a BIOS and have had pretty good luck (so far) with OCZ DDR2 1200. I need a little more memtest86 testing, but I seem to be stable @ 5-5-5-15, 2.1V & 1200MHz.

The Kapt'n