Gigabyte 965P-S3 Very Nice

[Celeryman]

Well, I had not had good past experience with any Gigabyte motherboards. The last one I bought was their 939 6150 board and it just stopped booting after a couple of power cycles. So then comes Core 2 and I really didn't have a choice on getting one or not.

I read up on what the current offerings were and decided to give Gigabyte one more chance because my experience with Asus was equally dissapointing. So far I am happy that I did. For about $115 this board has to be one of the best budget overclocking boards out there (for Core 2). On the F3 bios I have run 2 hours Orthos (Prime) stable at 7x450 (3.15Ghz) with my L627 retail e6300 and 2GB of some cheap but very impressive Patriot memory. Memory is running 1:1 and 4-5-4-12 timings. Will post screenshots tonight.

BTW, the stock cooler does it's job at stock speeds but temps are getting out of control, any suggestions on a cheap water kit or a good air cooler. Going to order one this morning.

 

[88NovaTwincam]

I was considering one the these for a 6300@800fsb+ both lightweight and under $25

Freezer 7 Pro

or

Gigabyte 3D Cooler
I would use the expandable case door tube vent to assist this one..
I've read u can replace the fan as well..

 

[YoungGun21]

Thats good to hear since I am going to order this board soon.

Still haven't decided on whether to get the e6300 or the e6400...

 

[tran1981]

I want the same board. It has 3yrs warranty too. I don't know if having less quality caps than DS3 doesn't make it durable. I'm sure after 3yrs this board is obsolete. Save the extra $25 from DS3 for a freezer 7 pro cooler.

 

[dakotagts]

Nice board you will like it. Go with the 6400, it allows just a little more room of tweaking from what others are posting. I put the patriot ram in there and a x1900xt card, make sure you load the current bios of at least F4 if you dont use DDR2 533 memory. Seems to be bugs that they fixed with 667 ram.

 

[tran1981]

Dakotagts, what cooler do u use? Do u oc that 6400? How far can u get with 6400?

 

[dakotagts]

no OC yet, still finding the bugs in my video card first, but off of stock cooling I am geting temps around 38 degrees resting in the eazytuner and around 45 degrees under gaming high load. Will OC later

 

[88NovaTwincam]

I'd really like to know if all that patriot ram will go fsb400++
When did you purchase it?

Are you able to lower the cpu multi with the s3 to just test the ram?

 

[Celeryman]

88Nova, the patriot ram will do 900mhz at default timings (4-4-4-12) with 2.1v. I have hit a wall at about 940Mhz with the board. I am going to wait on my aquagate before I try some more voltage. The temps are pretty much out of control with the stock cooler and just above default voltage.

 

[Celeryman]

Got the aquagate mini 120 yesterday and installed it. CPU temps are very good now. Running 25C ~ 26C at idle and with orthos at load I saw it hit a maximum of 40C. I am nearly prime stable at 472Mhz (3.3Ghz) 1:1 with timings set to 4-4-4-12 and 2.1v. This memory is an excellent choice. It passed a loop of memtest last night at this setting.

Now I have to work on the motherboard. It won't play nice at anything above 474Mhz. I may remove the chipset HS's and throw a little AS5 on them.

 

[Icepick]

Celeryman, thanks for the update. This motherboard coupled with the Patriot DDR2 667 RAM is looking like a sweet budget overclocker's combo. I already added these to my wishlist along with an e6300.

 

[88NovaTwincam]

I'm playing the waiting game right now and am concerned that these patriot
kits will not be as O/C'able by the time i order the mobo, 6300 and ram..

I would get them now (but prices are way up and I have to order over $500@the egg)

I would jump now but am really wanting to see how the C2 revision to the 965express
situation pans out..

opinions?

I would be happy to go anywhere above 450Mhz fsb... 3G is great!!