Initial Thoughts On Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6

londonbairn · 12 Nov 2007 at 22:27

rafster said:
I cannot get 4x1gb to work on this board Just won't boot with 4 sticks in!! Anyone got a similiar setup? Just when I thought I had left it behind with the P5K...

Just as I was about to give up (planned to go and get a Maximus after vowing not to) I got it to work!

I should have selected SPD Multiplier with the A for 266mhz FSB! Now it works fine...but if it does not work, I will go get a Maximus...kind of like last week's Top Gear with the Beatle!

londonbairn · 13 Nov 2007 at 15:08

So far so good. Like the board mainly due to all the SATA ports. Definately an improvement on the P5K Premium. No random slowdowns due to SATA problems or disconnecting of drives.

Only complaint is the CPU socket is a bit too close to DIMMs so using 2 fans on the Noctua is a bit of a no no, but the system is dead cool so who cares

marscay · 13 Nov 2007 at 17:04

apart from the hdd problems with the p5k, does the DQ6 clock your quad any better or need less vcore etc?

londonbairn · 13 Nov 2007 at 17:18

Not much of an overclocker myself as I spend most my time doing work :cool:

It allows me to run a smaller vcore, at 1.2V 3.2Ghz. Couldn't do that with the P5K Premium. Temps are 30C and below on the cores :eek:

Woodje · 13 Nov 2007 at 23:14

In the process of building one of these now. Thanks rafster - the Ninja fit fine.. didn't even need to remove the backplate.

I was very confused about what power should be plugged in (the manual isn't all that clear). I have a Zalman ZM600-HP, and this presents a 20-pin ATX power socket (which i've plugged in to the top right ATX power socket), and a 4 pin power in the same loom (which I had though should be plugged into the remaining 4 ports next to the 20). This 4 pin power cable has a warning on it saying not to plug it in (to the ATX power?!?).

There are also 2 4-pin cables which I guess are for the top left. I have only plugged one of these in as the other is covered (and I think you only need it if you have an Intel "Extreme" CPU).

So do you know if I should plug in this extra 4 port power socket above the 20 port ATX socket at the top right? (hope i've explained myself well).

xsnv · 14 Nov 2007 at 00:03

I am really surprised the motherboard makes that much of a difference to the v.core needed for overclocking.

I haven't seen many quads doing 3.6ghz stable with just 1.4v in the bios (which is probably going to be about 1.37v actual).

I had a quick look at the q6600 overclock thread and most of the 3.6's on air need about 1.45v.

Is this board doing something special?

londonbairn · 14 Nov 2007 at 09:59

Woodje said:
In the process of building one of these now. Thanks rafster - the Ninja fit fine.. didn't even need to remove the backplate.

I was very confused about what power should be plugged in (the manual isn't all that clear). I have a Zalman ZM600-HP, and this presents a 20-pin ATX power socket (which i've plugged in to the top right ATX power socket), and a 4 pin power in the same loom (which I had though should be plugged into the remaining 4 ports next to the 20). This 4 pin power cable has a warning on it saying not to plug it in (to the ATX power?!?).

There are also 2 4-pin cables which I guess are for the top left. I have only plugged one of these in as the other is covered (and I think you only need it if you have an Intel "Extreme" CPU).

So do you know if I should plug in this extra 4 port power socket above the 20 port ATX socket at the top right? (hope i've explained myself well).

If it's on the same loom, it will most likely be a 20+4 connector (like mines for example). Should work fine, it probably means do not plug it into the EPS connector (the 8 pin one on the top left).

The 2 4pins sound like for the top left.

londonbairn · 14 Nov 2007 at 10:00

xsnv said:
I am really surprised the motherboard makes that much of a difference to the v.core needed for overclocking.

I haven't seen many quads doing 3.6ghz stable with just 1.4v in the bios (which is probably going to be about 1.37v actual).

I had a quick look at the q6600 overclock thread and most of the 3.6's on air need about 1.45v.

Is this board doing something special?

I spoke too soon

Upped volts to 1.3125V for 1.3V effective as I was getting errors. Still nice and cool! (32C average on all cores on idle, never seen it above 40C)

quadfreq · 20 Nov 2007 at 03:09

just a quick note:
i was having the same problems with my p5k premium the wd sata hd's were randomly shutting down. total nightmare ...so i'm waiting for a refund and shall buy a GA-x38-6q6 - q6600 - dominator pc-8500.

looking forward to 3.2ghz on air me hopes.

woohoo.