Either my EP35-DS3R is defective, or I'm pretty sure that it has a compatibility problem with the E7200 under certain configurations. Over 365 FSB, the board will not cold boot most of the time at any setting. I've tried basically every trick known to get it to post with overclocked settings higher than 365 FSB after a cold boot, but nothing has worked.
I've been able to overclock the board up to 3.8GHz using all sorts of voltages, memory, and CPU multiplier combinations. It posts at 3.8GHz speed after a reset, but will not post after a cold boot. But when cold booting the board, it will fail (double boot, or sometimes as much as FIVE reboots before it posts) and revert to stock FSB settings. It's not losing the settings, I can still see the voltages and timings I set in the BIOS.
It's been 100% stable in Windows at 3.8GHz with as low as 1.29v, but I can't get it to cold boot at 3.6GHz or 3.57GHz with as much as 1.35v. I've tried various voltage combinations for the MCH, FSB, PCIe, and RAM and that hasn't made any difference. I've had my RAM stable at 450 FSB, so I don't think that can be a problem at ~380 FSB with the same timings and voltage?
I've seen this cold boot problem mentioned in reviews of other Gigabyte boards, including here on Anandtech, and it was blamed on the BIOS. It could be my board is defective, but it seems like a BIOS issue because I have no problems whatsoever once it posts. Is there any way I can contact Gigabyte's BIOS team and ask them about this, or get a beta BIOS? Gigabyte's tech support refuses to answer any questions, they just say that they don't support overclocks.
I've been able to overclock the board up to 3.8GHz using all sorts of voltages, memory, and CPU multiplier combinations. It posts at 3.8GHz speed after a reset, but will not post after a cold boot. But when cold booting the board, it will fail (double boot, or sometimes as much as FIVE reboots before it posts) and revert to stock FSB settings. It's not losing the settings, I can still see the voltages and timings I set in the BIOS.
It's been 100% stable in Windows at 3.8GHz with as low as 1.29v, but I can't get it to cold boot at 3.6GHz or 3.57GHz with as much as 1.35v. I've tried various voltage combinations for the MCH, FSB, PCIe, and RAM and that hasn't made any difference. I've had my RAM stable at 450 FSB, so I don't think that can be a problem at ~380 FSB with the same timings and voltage?
I've seen this cold boot problem mentioned in reviews of other Gigabyte boards, including here on Anandtech, and it was blamed on the BIOS. It could be my board is defective, but it seems like a BIOS issue because I have no problems whatsoever once it posts. Is there any way I can contact Gigabyte's BIOS team and ask them about this, or get a beta BIOS? Gigabyte's tech support refuses to answer any questions, they just say that they don't support overclocks.
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