Gigabyte DS3/DS4/DQ6 Guide

I'm really hating overclocking on this compared to my old 680i. It just seems very fussy and the annoying rebooting thing it does winds me up something chronic!

Just put it to 333x9 (took me about 20 mins to get it to boot at this including several CMOS clears) now as I cba with the hassle.
 
Just a quick question, rig as in sig, I've upped the mem voltage to +1.02, but the +0.03 is in red, is it safe to do so? And should i bother doing so if the system seems to be ok?

Not overclocking:o
 
Monstermunch said:
Thought i'd start this thread for all the people who own or are thinking of owning the Gigabyte DS3, DS4 or DQ6 boards......

The biggest issue with these boards is ram and booting problems. It is very common to have one of these boards that will simply cycle boot without posting and unable to reach bios or anything else for that matter. This is either a ram issue or a faulty board!

Ram issues
The first batch of boards were released with the F1 bios, which has issues with numerous ram types. The most common bios on boards being shipped currently is F2. The F2 bios cures a lot of the ram incompatibility but some ram like the Gskill for example still remains troublesome. See below for a list of compatible ram, but IMO the Geil ram is by far the least troublesome and the best option:

Corsair
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)

Geil
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

Adata
Adata 512mb Vitesta ddr2-800 (pc6400) Elpida modules cas5 5-5-15 1.8v

Elixir
Elixir PC2-5300U-5-5-5-12-D1

GSkill
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ) - with F3 bios

I would strongly reccommend that you download the latest bios here: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Default.aspx


Booting Issues
A percentage of these boards are still on the shelves that have a problem with fast ram and Core2Duo chips. The first board I recieved did't work and when I rma'd it the board was returned to me a few days later with a report claiming that it worked without problem. It was tested with a celeron and some PC5300 ram.

After rma'ing the board again and demanding that it was tested with a Core2Duo and 800mhz ram, they reported that there was some problem with the board running Core2 and that they would replace it.

With the first board after building the rig it would simply just cycle without posting and would just continue. The fans would spin up but no beeps or anything else! With the replacement board it worked first time proving my first instincts right, that the first board was knackered!


Other issues
There are some driver issues with the installation CD that comes with the board. After about a week you may find that your LAN connection dissappears and you are unable to connect to the internet. This is caused by a bad Marvell Yukon driver that degrades the registry to the point where the LAN port is disabled.

The solution to this problem is to download the updated Marvell Yukon drivers from Gigabytes website.... I would also reccommend that you keep the chipset drivers updated as often as possible. All updates available here: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Default.aspx


Clocking
1. Make sure that you have the latest chipset drivers and flash the board to the most recent bios version
2. On the main bios screen press Ctrl+F1 to open the advanced options within the menus
3. In the Advanced Bios Features Menu, Disable all of the following: CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2), CPU EIST Function
4. In the PC Health Status menu, set the FAN Speed Control Method to "Legacy" & FAN Speed Control Mode to "PWM" to maintain highest speed
5. Go into the MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) menu at the bottom of the page, set the System voltage control to "Manual"
6. These boards have a default VDIMM of 1.8v, set the VDIMM to co-ordinate with your ram. The Geil I have is specced as 2.1v so I have mine set to +0.3v
7. Set the MCH Voltage to +0.1v
8. Set the FSB Voltage to +0.1v
9. Set the VCORE to 1.45v - Please be aware that this will increase temps!
10. Set the CPU Host Clock Control to "Enable"
11. Set the System Memory Multiplier to "2x"
12. You're set to go, just increase the System bus Frequency to Overclock
13. I would reccommend that you use Intels TAT to monitor temps


Crossfire/Quad Core
You may have noticed that the DS4 & DQ6 boards have 2 x PCI-E x16 slots... Well Gigabyte have now released the updated bios to enable Crossfire and Quad Core compliance for these 2 boards. However the 2nd PCI-E slot maybe 16x physical but is apparently only 4x electronically enabled so it won't be fantastic, but a great free upgrade none the less.... Here:http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/Motherboard/News_List.aspx?NewsID=1295
Click to expand...

Any help with this monster..
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17803235
 
So im running a P35C DS3R after my 939 system let go.

I got a E2180 as funds were limited, hoping to get at least equal performance to my old X2 4200, however im having a lot of trouble trying to OC it.......

Any increase in the FSB past 210 just makes the system reboot before post about 3 times then resets the FSB to 200 and goes into windows just fine. :confused:

I have followed the settings on the front page, apart from raising the CPU votage as im only on stock cooler, but im only trying for 2.4 ish....for now

Also after setting the memory multiplyer to 2x my memory comes up as 210mhz in cpuz? It shows as 1:1 but is at 2x in bios (2.0) should it not read 420mhz? It's 800mhz OCZ platnium.

It's my first Intel build so I'm totaly unfamiliar with Intel Oc'ing, I'll go off and read more but any tips welcome.

Also at stock these chips have nothing on my X2 4200 which was @ 2.6, hopefully a small OC on the E2180 will bring them at least to par.

Edit, seems when I up the FSB when it restarts it disables the manual FSB control so is always booting up @ 200FSB, what glaringly obvious thing needs to be switched off to stop it doing that?
 
Last edited:
YoungBlood said:
So im running a P35C DS3R after my 939 system let go.

I got a E2180 as funds were limited, hoping to get at least equal performance to my old X2 4200, however im having a lot of trouble trying to OC it.......

Any increase in the FSB past 210 just makes the system reboot before post about 3 times then resets the FSB to 200 and goes into windows just fine. :confused:

I have followed the settings on the front page, apart from raising the CPU votage as im only on stock cooler, but im only trying for 2.4 ish....for now

Also after setting the memory multiplyer to 2x my memory comes up as 210mhz in cpuz? It shows as 1:1 but is at 2x in bios (2.0) should it not read 420mhz? It's 800mhz OCZ platnium.

It's my first Intel build so I'm totaly unfamiliar with Intel Oc'ing, I'll go off and read more but any tips welcome.

Also at stock these chips have nothing on my X2 4200 which was @ 2.6, hopefully a small OC on the E2180 will bring them at least to par.

Edit, seems when I up the FSB when it restarts it disables the manual FSB control so is always booting up @ 200FSB, what glaringly obvious thing needs to be switched off to stop it doing that?
Click to expand...

Try updating the Bios to F4 or F6.
 
Problem solved Willhub, was running the memory on Auto assuming it would work at 880mhz. Soon as I put it @ 1:1 it booted fine.

It's currently stressing @ 2.5ghz, Want to see how high she goes on stock volts. Comming from AMD it's quite unbelievable how overclockable these chips are.

I'll find my FSB limit then get the ram back up to 800mhz.
Comming from S939 it took a little while to get my head around how the Intel boards and the DDR2 memory works, im getting there slowly.

Only annoying thing with these boards is where they mount the clear CMOS and battery, would have to remove the GTX to clear it, minor annoyance. The board seems to reset the FSB should anything be pushed too far so hopefully will never need to do it.

Shipped with F2 Bios, so I was worried it would not post at all as GB says need F3 or higher but it worked fine, I have put F6 on anyway as im sure it will help with stability + any future upgrades.
 
I had exactly the same problem when over clocking my E2180 YoungBlood. It was on the same board as well, very frustrating to set things just for the computer to restart and set them back to normal.

I don't see why the memory multiplier function has the auto settings, when I was clocking mine up to 3GHz, it had the memory multiplier at 4 (when set on auto) so it was trying to run my 800Mhz RAM at 1200 Mhz! Spent ages messing around with voltages as well before i found that :)
 
Hi. I've got a P965 DS3 rev3.0 and I've just completed my first overclock. Everything seems to be ok but sometimes, when I switch the PC after its been off for a bit I get what sounds like digital noise for a second or two, sometimes it masks the post beep out. The PC still continues to boot ok.

Does anyone know what this could be?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom