DS3 hopefuls need to get informed....CL4 DDR2 800 could be a crapshoot to boot....

[Duvie]

Here is the required reading...so far...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109719

read it all....it talks about bios issues, IDE and SATA raid issues, NB, SB chipset and Mosfett heat...ram compatability, etc....

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1611803

Here is another one...pay attention to the GSKILL rep for whom english obviously is a second languauge....

Gskill owners of any CL4 DDR2-800 will not be able to boot these boards up at start..go buy a 20 dollar 256mb CL5 DDR2-533 module so you can boot into bios and change the default vdimm to 2.1+....

 

[myocardia]

Haha, and people always ask me why I've always refused to buy brand new tech, when it comes to computers. You know why they call it "bleeding" edge, don't you?

edit: That's why I've always liked the guys over at xtremesystems, they always find out everything we need to know. All we have to do is look in on their forums. Well, they're nice guys, too, that helps.

 

[Pabster]

Well, to be fair, the DS3 is NOT a "new" board. It's been out for some time now.

 

[zsdersw]

Yeah, I got rid of my Patriot DDR2-800 CL4 ram for just that reason. The DDR2-667 CL5 I have coming will be fine for me.

I'm also sticking with the E6300 I have. Maybe in 2007 sometime I'll upgrade.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Pabster
Well, to be fair, the DS3 is NOT a "new" board. It's been out for some time now.

I never said new "boards", I said new "tech".

 

[zsdersw]

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that most of those people (if not all) are overclocking something on their system.. and I'd expect things to get hotter, especially given the passive cooling on the northbridge.

The only thing of interest to me in there was the DMA thing. Looks like updating to the F4 Bios.. and not installing Gigabyte's SATA RAID drivers.. is the way to go. I won't have a need for the SATA RAID, though, so who cares.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: zsdersw
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that most of those people (if not all) are overclocking something on their system.. and I'd expect things to get hotter, especially given the passive cooling on the northbridge.

The only thing of interest to me in there was the DMA thing. Looks like updating to the F4 Bios.. and not installing Gigabyte's SATA RAID drivers.. is the way to go. I won't have a need for the SATA RAID, though, so who cares.

Well I was thinking of getting an aftremarket NB cooler, but hadn't thought of mods to cool ram and mosfetts....I am hearing from one guy my Gskill's will not run at 2.0v and need actually 2.2v to post at all....Means I start from their and 2.3to 2.4v is likely going to need some aggressive pasive cooling or even some active cooling...,

 

[n7]

DS3 really is only a decent choice for the Allendale (E6300/6400) owners.

From what i've seen, all the Conroes have issues clocking high on that mobo...

As RickUK mentioned in another thread, it appears the Allendales like the 965 chipset, & the Conroes prefer the 975.

Frankly, thus far, i find this whole C2D launch a joke.

No supply of the E6600 & E6700 & no mobo selection aside from a few grossly overpriced underperforming mobos.

I'm gonna wait till i can actually buy an E6600 at a local retailer, & hopefully by then, we'll have a real selection of mobos, instead of the half-assed joke we presently have :\

 

[vhx]

n7 - Actually the DS3 clocks quite high.

As far as RAM issues, this has been discussed already in numerous threads. It hates any CL4 RAM as well as any RAM voltage at or over 2.0V. So any RAM at 1.9V will still work.

I ordered this board, but good thing I don't do RAID, and if I do it will probably be fixed in some BIOS updates in the future.

EDIT: Also keep in mind even if you do get cheap G.Skill RAM and then buy some even lower CL5 RAM to change the BIOS to CL4, you will still end up having to do that every time you reset the BIOS. A HUGE pain if you plan on overclocking. Just find some decent 1.9V ram.

 

[Madellga]

Originally posted by: vhx
n7 - Actually the DS3 clocks quite high.

As far as RAM issues, this has been discussed already in numerous threads. It hates any CL4 RAM as well as any RAM voltage at or over 2.0V. So any RAM at 1.9V will still work.

I ordered this board, but good thing I don't do RAID, and if I do it will probably be fixed in some BIOS updates in the future.

EDIT: Also keep in mind even if you do get cheap G.Skill RAM and then buy some even lower CL5 RAM to change the BIOS to CL4, you will still end up having to do that every time you reset the BIOS. A HUGE pain if you plan on overclocking. Just find some decent 1.9V ram.

The DQ6 also. I have OCZ and was not sucessfull in O/C until I dropped the VDim to equall or less 2V. Now running Prime with an E6400@1.35V 8x400 2GB OCZ CAS 4-4-4 .

This is weirdo....but the board boots with OCZ even at 1.8V. I think the problem is specific to G Skill

 

[aggressor]

Nah, it doesn't work with OCZ DDR2-800 Platinum sticks either