GA-EP35-DS3R Rev.2.1 - NOT GOING TO OVERCLOCK.

[TheNiceGuy]

Hi all
I'm going to upgrade, and want stable mid-range parts. Is this MB the best for that purpose?
My entire rig specs are here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=27&threadid=2201958
Thank you!

 

[ultra laser]

A lot of people are having problems with Gigabyte P35 boards suddenly not being able to POST. My DS3R worked great for a few months, and now when I boot it gets stuck in this on/off/on/off cycle. After scouring the web I discovered that this is a very common problem. I'm in the process of RMAing my board, which from what I've read generally takes 4-6 weeks, with no option of cross shipment.

With that said, I would not buy or recommend Gigabyte products.

The ASUS P45 boards look promising, though.

 

[toadeater]

Take a look at some of the links I collected in this thread. Gigabyte has had serious BIOS problems with their motherboards since at least 2007. Either the BIOSes become corrupt, or they don't work properly from the beginning. Certainly not every board/config will have a serious problem, but so many do that it is a gamble.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2204253&enterthread=y

That's not mentioning the DPC latency issues with recent Gigabyte boards. QA has definitely slipped at Gigabyte, these issues have been ongoing for months! Just take a look at the DPC latency thread on this forum.

I'm probably not going to buy another Gigabyte product; the hardware is good, but they don't support their products after you buy them. They have yet to officially admit that any of these problems exist and how widespread they are. They still don't even have an official forum, and that's preposterous for a company as big as Gigabyte.

 

[chriskwarren]

Yeah I would stay away from those Gigabyte boards until they fix the dpc issue (they keep firing off beta bioses but don't seem to have the guts to call a bios final and post on the website). Since the issue has been around for a while, I doubt they will fix it

 

[hooflung]

I just recently bought the GA-EP35-DS3R Rev.2.1 from newegg and installed it friday. Besides the DPC spikes which happen infrequently I am overly happy thus far. I've got my e4300 oc'd to 2.7ghz stable. Been playing EVE and Age of Conan all weekend as well as Day of Defeat Source, Diablo II and Titan Quest. I feel a bit more smoothness in this mobo versus the P965 DS3 3.3 it replaced when running fraps.

Don't have too many bad things to say about this board and maybe one day when DDR3 is cheap I'll get 2 4g chips if its feasable. For now, 4 1G DDR2 dimms works really well. I haven't edited any frap material so I am not sure if the DPC will mess with me much. But I have a second computer that could handle that if the latency gets annoying.

 

[isaaclim]

I have this exact board and did a q6600 build a few weeks back. I've overclocked this guy to 3.2ghz and everything is singing except for a cold boot type issue.

When the computer is off it will boot fine and no problems with the bios losing/forgetting my OC. But whenever I put my OC'd computer onto "stand by" mode, it will do a on/off/on/off cycle and never turn back on. No issues though when the computer is not overclocked. Its annoying but I can live with it since I keep my computer off most of the time.

I'm hoping the mobo doesn't die on me like Ultra Laser. So though my experience has been relatively positive, I'd probably go Asus or DFI route if I had to do it all over again.

Isaac

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: isaaclim
I have this exact board and did a q6600 build a few weeks back. I've overclocked this guy to 3.2ghz and everything is singing except for a cold boot type issue.

When the computer is off it will boot fine and no problems with the bios losing/forgetting my OC. But whenever I put my OC'd computer onto "stand by" mode, it will do a on/off/on/off cycle and never turn back on.

Did you try the cold boot fix in the link I posted earlier in this thread? I still haven't tried S3 with it, but it fixed the cold boots losing my OC problem. There's also a bunch of links there that I collected showing how widespread the cold boot / S3 problem is with Gigabyte boards.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I should mention I don't OC. And I probably will do NO upgrades on hardware until I buy a totaly new system in 5 years or something like that.
So if this board is a dud for me, what is better???
Concerned...

 

[Qbah]

I have the EP35-DS3R and couldn't be happier. No choppy thingies from the DPC latency issue (sure it goes into yellow, but no noticeable problems because of that). My Q9450 is ripping through things at 3.2GHz and stock voltage. No problems rebooting (then again I think I restarted the system maybe 10 times at most since I built it).

I read about problems after I bought the board but have yet to encounter any. Happy user here

 

[isaaclim]

I think if you're keeping everything at stock (no OC) you'll be fine. Most issues seem to stem from people who are trying to overclock and that won't apply to you.

yeah, toadeater...I'm going through those threads now and see if it can be helped. Thanks for compiling all that. Mucho helpful.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Last call before I order!

 

[Qbah]

Well, after installing my new HD4870 it seems I have encountered several problems... First of all, after a reset the board sometimes needs several attempts to start up. Fans spin up, then the comp shuts down, starts up again by itself, everything spin ups, shuts down... It repeats itself a few times then everything starts up correctly. Also my OC to 3.2GHz didn''t want to save itself in the BIOS. I managed to start everything up correctly at 3.2GHz in the end (trial and error on the settings in the BIOS's M.I.T.) and everything is running stable right now, no crashes or slowdowns. Though if I will need to reset the comp again (I hardly ever do that) I'm fairly sure the settings iwll reset yet again and the startup-shutdown loop will occur once again. Which is a pain, I'm sure. I just hope I won't need to reset it in the forseeable future.

As it stands now, I think I wouldn't recommend the Gigabyte board. Just get an ASUS on a P45 and you're set. Don't think I'll ever get a GA board again.

 

[sochee]

Just ordered an EP45-DS3R...still having serious second thoughts after reading through these forums, but it had more features than the P5Q-E. Praying it'll come in alright..

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: sochee
Just ordered an EP45-DS3R...still having serious second thoughts after reading through these forums, but it had more features than the P5Q-E. Praying it'll come in alright..

Let us know how it turns out.

If anyone is having cold boot/reset problems, S3 problems, or DPC latency problems make sure you let Gigabyte tech support know about these ongoing flaws in their BIOSes.

http://ggts.gigabyte.com.tw/

 

[evident]

This board sucks if you are going to use any penryn chips. The board reboots randomly and gets into an endless reboot cycle sometimes. Also don't even bother trying to suspend (S3) if you have an E8400. When I put in a E6300 CPU though it worked fine.

Dealing with gigabyte customer support was below average... they couldn't replicate the problem and would just accuse me of not doing something right.

I got an IP35-Pro and couldn't be more happy with it!

 

[dadams312]

I've got this board with an E8400 and haven't had an issue since the initial install, been running for months and no complaints.

 

[toadeater]

Well guess what? It WAS a BIOS problem with the EP35-DS3R. Gigabyte issued F3 final today, and the cold boot failures miraculously stopped. No info from Gigabyte about what the problem was ofcourse. I hope they realize how much money their shoddy BIOSes and complete lack of tech support is costing them. It's a shame because the hardware is very good, yet faulty BIOSes make it look like it's broken. I might know a bit about PCs, but those that do not will throw away money on new PSUs, RAM, or just RMA the board.

I think if Gigabyte wants to take on the likes of Asus, it's going to have to work a little more on support, not just the hardware. Gigabyte tech support = FAIL.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

How about the GA-EP35-DS4 Rev.2.1 ? Decent board?

 

[isaaclim]

I just flashed my ep35-ds3r to the F3 bios and it didn't help me much. My windows "standby" issues still exists when my rig is overclocked. Just keeps doing the infinite loop of on/off/on/off/on/off.....

I will say that dpc latency issues are much improved according to the latency checker. I never had issues to begin with but I would have spikes going up into the 900s every 3 seconds. Now I'm lucky if I break 60, so I guess I came out ahead in the end.

Isaac

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: isaaclim
update: I was just messing around and putting some finishing touches on my bios for my overclock settings. Anyways, I accidentally put my computer in standby mode and it comes out of it just fine. Maybe the F3 bios did fix it. I'll keep putting my computer to sleep and update y'all if there is something new.

I think S3 and cold boots go through the same process, so it should be fixed. Make sure you disable Legacy USB Detect and unplug any USB HDs if it still doesn't work.

How about the GA-EP35-DS4 Rev.2.1 ? Decent board?

It's not really all that better or more stable than the DS3R, except it has Crossfire support and better cooling. At this point the EP45-DS3R is a better choice. PCIe 2.0 8x8 Crossfire, dual gig-LAN and Firewire, and better BIOS OC options.

 

[isaaclim]

bleh....so as far as I can tell my S3 standby mode thing does not work if I keep my computer suspended for a long period of time (like an hour or so) If its within minutes of standby, it turns back on. Weird.

Yo toadeater, looking for the legacy usb detect in bios and I'm not sure what it is. Does it actually say "legacy"? I can't tell what is what and the only usb device I've got plugged in is my mouse.

Isaac

 

[TheNiceGuy]

I could get by without the Firewire.
The advantages of the 45 series boards that I can see for me is that they have the option of PCIE 2.0, in the future. Also, more Energy saving features, Dolby sound, and dual physical BIOS chips (not sure if any of these actualuy mean anything to me in reality). Not worth it for me if this board will require lots of fiddling with BIOSes for the next year to work, and possibly be unfixable, like my current MB was.
I had a nightmare of a time with the board in my sig. I bought it just when it came out. Still can't get some features to work properly.
So I really want a hassle-free board.
Are you sure the EP45-DS3R fits the bill?

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: isaaclim
bleh....so as far as I can tell my S3 standby mode thing does not work if I keep my computer suspended for a long period of time (like an hour or so) If its within minutes of standby, it turns back on. Weird.

Yo toadeater, looking for the legacy usb detect in bios and I'm not sure what it is. Does it actually say "legacy"? I can't tell what is what and the only usb device I've got plugged in is my mouse.

Isaac

Yep. It's called "Legacy USB Storage Detect." But since you say S3 works within an hour it probably won't help. Try increasing the RAM voltage if it's not at it's highest rating yet. Use +.1v on everything else, and maybe increase your CPU voltage 1 notch. Set the PCIe speed to 102. That's just the standard stuff to try.

What's your Static tRead Value right now? 7 or 8 is ok For 400 FSB, but you can try 9+ to potentially increase stability. It's one of the key things that affects the board booting.

dual physical BIOS chips (not sure if any of these actualuy mean anything to me in reality). Not worth it for me if this board will require lots of fiddling with BIOSes for the next year to work, and possibly be unfixable, like my current MB was.
I had a nightmare of a time with the board in my sig. I bought it just when it came out. Still can't get some features to work properly.
So I really want a hassle-free board.
Are you sure the EP45-DS3R fits the bill?

Dual physical BIOS chips is a great feature all boards should have. It helps prevent BIOS corruption and provides a way to recover from bad flashes.

For how hassle-free it will be, I'm sure it won't be completely hassle free (and that depends on if you're going to use RAID, or AHCI, etc., those are problematic features on many boards*), but it will get more BIOS support than older boards. Don't use Crucial Ballistix RAM with it and it should be ok.

* one example: http://forums.tweaktown.com/f6...r-raid-problems-27058/