Gigabyte DS3/DS4/DQ6 Guide

Smeghead11 said:
Got myself a GA-P31-DS3L yesterday and already have a Q6600 running at 3.2ghz with 1.35 vcore which I am well chuffed with, however I have been having some memory trouble with the board. After many determined attempts to run two sets of OCZ platinum rev. 2 PC6400 memory the machine just will not boot with all of it installed, my only option was to remove half of it and then it would run perfectly.

Apparantly this problem is due to a "chipset limitation" in the P31, it will only run 4x "single sided" modules and not the double sided type which most memory is today. I ended up replacing both sets of memory with one set of OCZ 4gb Vista Gold Series memory but once I got around to installing it I found out one of the new sticks were faulty! One stick would not get past POST without freezing while the other is prime stable.

Anyhoo I will be replacing those tomorrow with another identical set and hope it all works perfectly afterwards. I just want to know if anyone on here has experience with running a P31 chipset with 4gb of memory?
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I have the same board and run 4 gig 2x2 of ocz,the first lot i bought one stick was faulty and had to have the ram replaced
when the new ram arrived i had the same problem as you would only boot up with one stick,when i tried both it refused to budge,i took 1 stick out and increased the ram voltage to 0.3 which i think runs the ram at 2.1(i may be wrong though)
Anyhow i put the other 2 gig in and it worked and i`ve been it using it for a few weeks now with no problems at all
Hope this helps
 
Then rev will be printed beside the model name on the actual motherboard (probably between the PCI slots).

It should work if you have a 2.0 or 3.3 rev.
 
I have a Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R mobo, which I have had for about 6 weeks now. After about a week of having it sometimes started to boot without posting and I am unable to reach bios or windows. Also the hard drive light flashes as if it’s loading windows, the monitor fails to detect graphics card and when it dose boot up and I can get in to the bios, quite often the PC will reboot in the middle of looking at the bios setup or just after I have changed a setting.

I have reset the bios to factory setting and also tried manually setting up my ram setting and upping the voltage of my ram. I have also tried to set as many options as I can to standard and turn off performance settings. I have also taken the memory out and put it back in again and also done the same with the graphics card, but the problem is still happening. I have thought about updating the bios to F3, currently running F2 bios but I am afraid to do this as I feel the system is to unstable to do this.

This afternoon it crashed after playing BF2 for about 2 hours and since that crash it will not boot up past the bios/system check. One thing I have noticed is the mobo has some LED's which show how busy the CPU is and these are maxed out all the time while the PC is trying to boot.

I’m starting to think I have a faulty mobo :(
 
cjph said:
Hi all - I have a question which you may be able to help with - I have a 965-DS3 rev 3.3 running a 2160 C2D and 2Gb 800MHz RAM (two sticks of Corsair XMS2 memory). I have clocked the setup and run it for many hours at 2.97GHz using the 9x multiplier and 330 FSB, but sometimes have to double boot at startup since it powers itself down and restarts with the "CPU Host Clock Control" disabled, which then I then re-enable, save, and it will boot fine.

The BIOS settings I use are :
9x CPU Ratio
CPU HCC - Enabled
CPU Host Freq - 330
SPD - 2.5 (so memory at 825MHz DDR)

I put the System Voltage Control to Auto since I have'nt found a setting which will go further than POST and the BIOS if I use the Manual. I do have the DDR, TSB and MCH voltages set to +.1 though, and the VCC to 1.45v - are these still used if the System Voltage Control is on Auto ? I have also tried higher DDR voltage as well up to +.3v without success.

My question is what is limiting a further overclock, given the SPD and HCC is disabled, or have I reached the limit of the CPU ? Not complaining, given the low cost of the CPU, I just feel there is more to be had with a bit of tweaking.

I want to upgrade in the near future, but with limited funds I am looking at either a low cost PC8500 memory kit for around £40 or move to a Q6600 (ie the Overclockers guarranteed 3GHz one at 1333 FSB) for £125 and use my AC7 Pro.

Any help much appreciated.

cjph
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Hi
An update - have'nt checked the BIOS and was at (D'oh) F10. Flashed to F13 and whilst it helped a bit I'm still at 3.06GHz stable.

Has anyone put a 5200 in the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 ? Being a cheapskate I just wondered if £58 would be better spent elsewhere or trying for 4GHz on my current setup. I've tried it with CPU/GPU unclocked and then clocked for my primary game Armed Assault, and looks like the CPU is a bottleneck (a lot of people not seeing big gains with latest GPUs on Arma). So I need more CPU power (latest recommended specs for Arma2 are quad core and 8800 class GPU but as that is still 6 months out at current timescales I'm concentrating on now).

So my original question is probably; is a newer, faster dual core the way to go in the short term, or save for a Q6600 or 8200 for the longer term ? My only outstanding query is the limit of 5/7/8xxx chips in the board, and whether the additional cache/FSB are worth it.

cjph
A thousand words paints the picture.:D
 
cjph said:
Hi all - I have a question which you may be able to help with - I have a 965-DS3 rev 3.3 running a 2160 C2D and 2Gb 800MHz RAM (two sticks of Corsair XMS2 memory). I have clocked the setup and run it for many hours at 2.97GHz using the 9x multiplier and 330 FSB, but sometimes have to double boot at startup since it powers itself down and restarts with the "CPU Host Clock Control" disabled, which then I then re-enable, save, and it will boot fine.

The BIOS settings I use are :
9x CPU Ratio
CPU HCC - Enabled
CPU Host Freq - 330
SPD - 2.5 (so memory at 825MHz DDR)

I put the System Voltage Control to Auto since I have'nt found a setting which will go further than POST and the BIOS if I use the Manual. I do have the DDR, TSB and MCH voltages set to +.1 though, and the VCC to 1.45v - are these still used if the System Voltage Control is on Auto ? I have also tried higher DDR voltage as well up to +.3v without success.

My question is what is limiting a further overclock, given the SPD and HCC is disabled, or have I reached the limit of the CPU ? Not complaining, given the low cost of the CPU, I just feel there is more to be had with a bit of tweaking.

I want to upgrade in the near future, but with limited funds I am looking at either a low cost PC8500 memory kit for around £40 or move to a Q6600 (ie the Overclockers guarranteed 3GHz one at 1333 FSB) for £125 and use my AC7 Pro.

Any help much appreciated.

cjph
Click to expand...

Hi
An quick update - had'nt checked the BIOS and was at (D'oh) F10. Flashed to F13 and whilst it helped a bit I'm still at 3.06GHz stable.

Has anyone put a 5200 in the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 ? Being a cheapskate I just wondered if £58 would be better spent elsewhere or trying for 4GHz on my current setup. I've tried it with CPU/GPU unclocked and then clocked for my primary game Armed Assault, and looks like the CPU is a bottleneck (a lot of people not seeing big gains with latest GPUs on Arma). So I need more CPU power (latest recommended specs for Arma2 are quad core and 8800 class GPU but as that is still 6 months out at current timescales I'm concentrating on now).

So my original question is probably; is a newer, faster dual core the way to go in the short term, or save for a Q6600 or 8200 for the longer term ? My only outstanding query is the limit of 5/7/8xxx chips in the board, and whether the additional cache/FSB are worth it.

cjph
A thousand words paints the picture.:D
 
Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

I´ve bought this board and this Cooler, but the cooler doesn't fit the CPU properly because of the crazy heatsink on the mobo,the boards heatsink gets just barely next to the PSU heatsink.When i start following the instructions on the Arctic Cooler, the metal part (heatsink from the Arctic cooler), wich is the one "screwed" with plastic pins type of thing, seems to BARELY fit the mobo, all 4 plastic pins "clicked", once i followed the instructions, but like i said, BARELY, now once i proceed to next step, wich is reattach the plastic fan, and then connect the power cable, dang, the plastic wont attach due to the boards crazy heatsink, being just pressed (even tho i didn't really have to force it). Don´t really know what to do, now i figured that if i cut off the corner of the plastic thing, i should be able to do it, but im thinking, what if that much proximity and even contact (because the two different heatsinks do touch each other) between the boards crazy heatsink and the artic freezer heatsink are harmful for the PC. So what should i do? All items are brand new, bought in oc. So i assume i can return it, and get a new one, or do you have any advice?

IF i do have to have to change the cpu cooler, then can i have some advices? And BTW, if i do have to change, then will i have to buy cleaning products to take off the compound that was supplied with the arctic freezer cooler?
 
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I twisted the upper heatpipe 180 degrees on my p35-DQ6 to fit my xp-120. I wasn't going to let that get in the way especially after I bought a new bracket to reuse my xp-120.
 
Right.
Just ordered a GA-EP31-DS3L to replace the old Asrock 4core.
Anything to be aware of?
It'll be running with an E4300, 2 sticks of 1GB 533 DDRII, and a Radeon HD3870.
Cheers!
 
Thanks Cob - has anyone got a dual or quad above 3GHz on a 965P-DS3 or similar board? I seem to peg out at 3.06GHz with a 2160 (9x multiplier, 340MHz FSB) and have tried endless combos to push it but anything higher causes instability. Most posts I read seem to indicate anything above 340/350 and the board throws a hissy fit.

The latest BIOS (F13) has unoffical support for up to E8500 duals at 3.16GHz if C0 are used (not E0), so only the older Conroe or Kentsfield 6850s are offically supported to 3GHz.

Or is it time to swap the board for something more clockable ? I only game on the machine (Armed Assault, bit of a CPU hog with quad core recommended for Arma 2) so a Q6600 seems the best choice, but would be limited to 3GHz.

Thanks for your help.
cjph
 
It's more likely to be the E2160 than the motherboard. The E21*0 range are well known to crap out at anywhere from 340-430mhz.

The DS3 on the other hand is more than capable of doing close to 500mhz with a decent dual-core (I had one of the first P965 DS3's and it had no issues running an E6600 at 500mhz FSB).

As for quad-cores, it's a bit hit-and-miss with the board. Mine only did 2.9ghz with a Q6600, but I've seen them going higher.
 
cjph said:
has anyone got a dual or quad above 3GHz on a 965P-DS3 or similar board? I seem to peg out at 3.06GHz with a 2160 (9x multiplier, 340MHz FSB) and have tried endless combos to push it but anything higher causes instability. Most posts I read seem to indicate anything above 340/350 and the board throws a hissy fit.
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http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=422297

422297.png


That's my 2160 on my DS3 (3.3). I've had it slightly higher but for day to day running (24/7) I keep it where it is now.

As has been said above chances are you've got one of the mediocre 2160's rather than the board being at fault.
 
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