Gigabyte ex38-ds4

[idiotekniQues]

I had to get a new mobo as somethin croaked on my older one and i cant get it to boot with more than 1 stick of ram in.

this ex38 mobo looks pretty tight. i almost bought an ip35 pro from abit but this was only like 30 bucks more at newegg (204.99)

i need a mobo with a lot of sata ports as i have 4 sata hard drives and one pata which i will transfer over to sata. this has a nice amount of USB ports in the back and down the road i can switch back to ATI and get crossfire. also, this chipset is supposed to oc quite well, i hope to get a bit more out of my quad when i swap.

nobody here is lookin into this board at that price?

 

[Xpoc]

I'm buying that board in a couple days. I messaged gigabyte and both X16 slots work at X16 speed as well.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Xpoc
I'm buying that board in a couple days. I messaged gigabyte and both X16 slots work at X16 speed as well.

ok well we have a 2 man anandtech support group goin so far

i should get my board on monday or tuesday so let's bond next week!

 

[Xpoc]

I will have mine Thursday. There is a chance I may switch to the Asus P5E aswell.
Right now I am set on The X38 DS4.

I have a P5E right now that has never posted. lol
The board had a couple bent socket pins. Now the board has more than a couple because I tried to fix them lol.
Asus did message me back to verify my shipping address, but I don't figure they will RMA the board.

 

[bigsnyder]

The "newer" EX38 revision features the same virtual "12-phase" power the the DQ6 does as well as the second
LAN plug. Almost bought the older X38-DS4, glad I waited.

 

[Xpoc]

Did they cut the second x16 slot to X4 speed on the newer revision? Do you have the newer model?
I messaged gigabyte myself and their reply was this:

Dear customer,



Both slots supports 16X. Please use the following specs. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...ProductName=GA-X38-DS4



Thank you

I asked about the GA-X38-DS4 not the GA-EX38-DS4. I never noticed the EX38-DS4. lol

 

[idiotekniQues]

showing out of stock today at newegg.

the ex38-ds4 has two full pci-e x16 slots as per the gigabyte website.

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Pr...roductName=GA-EX38-DS4

 

[Xpoc]

The second X16 slot only runs at X4.
The specs state that the second X16 slot only works a X4.

"Expansion Slots 2 x PCI Express x16 slots (The PCIE_16_1 slot supports x16; the PCIE_16_2 supports x4.)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots (share with the PCIE_16_2 slot) (Note 2)
2 x PCI slots


So the EX38-DS4 doesn't have PCI Express 2.0, and both X16 slots do not run at full X16 speed. The second X16 slot runs at X4.

The X38-DS4 has PCI Express 2.0 and both X16 slots do run at Full X16 speed. Not that that really matters, but i like bells and whistles.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Xpoc
The second X16 slot only runs at X4.
The specs state that the second X16 slot only works a X4.

"Expansion Slots 2 x PCI Express x16 slots (The PCIE_16_1 slot supports x16; the PCIE_16_2 supports x4.)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots (share with the PCIE_16_2 slot) (Note 2)
2 x PCI slots


That's the only X38 board I know that doesn't have both X16 slots working in 16 mode.

im really not sure what page you are looking at.

"2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (The PCIE_16_1 slot supports x16; the PCIE_16_2 supports x16.)"

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...roductName=GA-EX38-DS4

GA-EX38-DS4
Help
Intel® X38 + ICH9R Chipset

1. Supports Intel® Core? 2 multi-core and 45nm processors.
2. 1600 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) support.
3. DDR2 1200 memory with Intel® ECC technology featuring faster speeds and higher data bandwidth
4. Revolution energy saving design with DES technology.
5. High quality CPU power module with Ferrite Core Chokes, Lower RDS (on) MOSFETs and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors.
6. Quad-Triple Phase Power Design for ultimate system stability.



7. Supports ATI CrossFireX? with Dual PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphics for extreme gaming performance.



8. Integrated Dual LAN with Teaming function
9. Features SATA 3Gb/s with eSATA 2 interface.
10. ALC889A with DTS Connect enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

 

[Xpoc]

the link you gave in your other post. lol

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Pr...roductName=GA-EX38-DS4

I think the one with both at X16 speed might be first revision, and the one with the one slot at X16 and the second at X4 is the second revision. Or the other way around.

 

[bigsnyder]

I saw the same thing, but I believe it must just be a typo because that is the only place
that says x4. Everywhere else says full x16 crossfire support including the manual.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: Xpoc
the link you gave in your other post. lol

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Pr...roductName=GA-EX38-DS4

I think the one with both at X16 speed might be first revision, and the one with the one slot at X16 and the second at X4 is the second revision. Or the other way around.

lol oops.

i know i read it the other day and today i googled it to find it, must have been a different page.

funny!

 

[theprodigalrebel]

The 'E' denotes some Energy-saving feature in the board. For instance, the P35-DS3R/P35-DS3P/P35-DS4 are now all known as EP35-DS3R/EP35-DS3P/EP35-DS4. It's a minor revision, nothing drastic like features being upgraded/downgraded IIRC.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
The 'E' denotes some Energy-saving feature in the board. For instance, the P35-DS3R/P35-DS3P/P35-DS4 are now all known as EP35-DS3R/EP35-DS3P/EP35-DS4. It's a minor revision, nothing drastic like features being upgraded/downgraded IIRC.

i think for the x38-ds4 when it got the E, it also got a 2nd gigabit LAN port.

 

[idiotekniQues]

bump for anybody else thinkin of or pickin up this mobo.

T minus 2 days till I install the rig in my sig into it and see if i can get a better 24/7 OC

 

[Xpoc]

Just ordered mine, but they only had the X38 board listed. They have to order the board in so I told them to get EX38 if possible, but no big deal. Either way I'll have it Thursday.

 

[bigsnyder]

Where did you find one? Newegg now shows the original GA-X38-DS4 "out-of-stock" and
the GA-EX38-DS4 is now "deactivated". It had been the other way around.

UPDATE: Both are now being shown "deactivated".

 

[idiotekniQues]

my mobo arrived today from newegg here at work - it clearly states on the box that they are dual pcie 2.0 16x slots and it is also clearly an ex38-ds4

i ordered mine on the 22nd.

 

[Xpoc]

I got the X38-ds4 on the way.
I plan to overclock and was kinda skeptical about the EX38's energy saving thing. It only works at stock speeds for now.
I didn't order from new egg as I live in Canada.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
Where did you find one? Newegg now shows the original GA-X38-DS4 "out-of-stock" and
the GA-EX38-DS4 is now "deactivated". It had been the other way around.

UPDATE: Both are now being shown "deactivated".

A new board, and it's deactivated already? I hope that's temporary.

 

[Xpoc]

New Egg has the Gigabyte EX38-DS4 now.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128089

 

[idiotekniQues]

swapped in the ex38-ds4 for my p965 dq6 rev. 2, put in all 4 1gb sticks of ocz platinum rev. 2 pc 6400 ram and this puppy booted up like a charm.

im tryin to get away with not reinstalling windows just yet so im gonna run it a week just updating my chipset drivers and all my hardware drivers. if it doesnt run smooth ill be starting with a fresh reinstall of windows.

ill be oc'ing later this week to see how this board oc's. it has some new bios settings compared to my p965 dq6 that i am not familiar with that i have to read about.

 

[idiotekniQues]

easily got this to 3.4ghz with less voltage than my previous board due to less vdroop and more voltage options in the bios.

still have to learn about some of the other options.

temps are great. overvolted my fsb and mch and under full load in prime the heatsinks were just warm to the touch not hot.

 

[Xpoc]

Very Nice!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Does this board have the ability to disable DES in the BIOS, and run all power phases enabled all the time?
See my "why I don't like DES" thread on this board for the reason.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2157617&enterthread=y