Gigabyte ex38-ds4

[oeuf]

For owners of this board, have any of you filled all 4 mem slots and OC'd? I've been reading that some boards have may have trouble with OC'ing with all mem slots filled.
I still planning my latest purchase and was looking at this board. I was planning on stuffing it with 4x 2gb ram, getting a Q6600 and OC'ing.

 

[idiotekniQues]

yes i put in 4 sticks of 1gb ocz plat rev. 2 and it booted up just fine. im runnin my quad at 3.4ghz no probs.

today i installed 2 750gb hard drives in a dual sata enclosure for my gf and when i restarted my pc with her enclosure plugged into usb, i lost my oc, it started bootin up, shut down, then spun up at default clocks. this seems to be an issue with a lot of different boards though.

i havent tried restarting with firewire - this enclosure has both usb 2.0 and firewire ports so ill give it a go just to test it out,

 

[VirtualLarry]

How are the SATA ports connected? I seem to see a SATA2 chip on the board, but the board only sports 6 SATA connections, and NewEgg's description indicates it uses the ICH9R.

Are four of the SATA ports from the ICH9R, and two from the Gigabyte SATA2, or are all six ports from the ICH9R?

The reason that I ask is that I have an installation problem with my DS3R board - I have to have the OS HD hooked up to the Gigabyte SATA2 ports, in order to install the OS, and then I have to load the Intel ICH9R RAID drivers for the other ports, inside windows.

I have issues doing the F6 install with the ICH9R drivers.

So I would probably prefer if only four of the ICH9R ports are used, and two of the Gigabyte SATA2 ports.

It stinks that they didn't include all 8 ports, like they did on the P35-DS4.

Also, what about the cooling? The P35-DS4 has more heatpipes, but a smaller northbridge heatsink. Then again, the EX38-DS4 has more power phases, so if you can shut off the DES function, then each one of the power phases should run cooler.

Edit: This really sucks! I just noticed spots on the PCB for another two SATA ports that could have been installed. Why is Gigabyte not shipping these with all of the SATA ports populated by connectors!??!?!?

From Gigabyte's specs:

South Bridge:
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices

It sounds like they left out the two SATA ports off of the Gigabyte SATA2 chip. For what reason, I don't know.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
How are the SATA ports connected? I seem to see a SATA2 chip on the board, but the board only sports 6 SATA connections, and NewEgg's description indicates it uses the ICH9R.

Are four of the SATA ports from the ICH9R, and two from the Gigabyte SATA2, or are all six ports from the ICH9R?

The reason that I ask is that I have an installation problem with my DS3R board - I have to have the OS HD hooked up to the Gigabyte SATA2 ports, in order to install the OS, and then I have to load the Intel ICH9R RAID drivers for the other ports, inside windows.

I have issues doing the F6 install with the ICH9R drivers.

So I would probably prefer if only four of the ICH9R ports are used, and two of the Gigabyte SATA2 ports.

It stinks that they didn't include all 8 ports, like they did on the P35-DS4.

Also, what about the cooling? The P35-DS4 has more heatpipes, but a smaller northbridge heatsink. Then again, the EX38-DS4 has more power phases, so if you can shut off the DES function, then each one of the power phases should run cooler.

Edit: This really sucks! I just noticed spots on the PCB for another two SATA ports that could have been installed. Why is Gigabyte not shipping these with all of the SATA ports populated by connectors!??!?!?

From Gigabyte's specs:

South Bridge:
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices

It sounds like they left out the two SATA ports off of the Gigabyte SATA2 chip. For what reason, I don't know.

I too wanted 2 more SATA ports but most x38 boards have 6. the abit is the only one i saw with 8 but i didnt check them all out, b ut the ABIT had fewer pci express 1x slots and worse slot layout i think. also only 4usb slots on the back vs. 8 on the ex-38 ds4

but i can live with 6 sata and one IDE.

as far as temps, after running prime for a bit i touched by northbridge, southbridge and it was warm thats it. this is with my oc of course. my wiring isnt super clean or anything but this p180 has good air flow i guess.

i have no intake fans in the front, just the rear exhaust, rear blowhole fan, one on the TRultra 120 and then the one down the PSU/Hard drive area.

 

[bigsnyder]

If this board had the extra two SATA ports, then you basically have a full blown DQ6.
For the price difference, I can live with two less SATA ports.

 

[Xpoc]

I just installed my X38-DS4 and the only problem I had was that it didn't recognize the sata dvd drive. Bios F2 solved that.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: bigsnyder
If this board had the extra two SATA ports, then you basically have a full blown DQ6.
For the price difference, I can live with two less SATA ports.

yah thats pretty much what i figured.

 

[idiotekniQues]

Originally posted by: 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.

hey how did your build go?

 

[Xpoc]

My build went great. The only problem was with the original bios not recognizing my SATA burner.
The vdroop is almost non existent, especially with loadline calibration enabled.
My 12v rail is showing 12.42v, which is nice. On my P35 it would be at 12.19v.
I havent had much time to do any oc'ing but I do keep it at 3.6ghz with all volts at normal accept vcore, which is 1.23v.
It's a very stable board, and I have no regrets for choosing it. I almost wish I had 2 crossfire cards to play with now. lol

 

[ScurvyPig]

My build with this board has gone fine except for one huge issue. I could not increase the FSB (not even 1 MHz) without the infamous double boot which reset the OC settings. This looks like the same issue that has occured with the P35 DS3L as described in this thread...

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2131249&enterthread=y

I discovered my external USB hard drive was causing the issue. As soon as I unplug it, problem solved. I can increase the FSB and no more double boots. There is no problem with USB flash drives. The WD "My Book" is the only external HD I've tried. This model powers off and on when the PC does, so I wonder if that could cause the issue? I'm going to try with a different model later today.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Moved to Un-official thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2164686&enterthread=y

 

[bigsnyder]

If you are not overclocking, then DDR2 800 will be sufficient, but depending on price, the DDR2 1066 still might be worth your consideration. A 2x2GB set of G.Skill is going for about $145 currently at Newegg. If that is beyond what you want spend, then take a look at this set of DDR2 1000. for just $100 bucks shipped. Your choice of parts looks good, the only thing I would have done different would be the hard drive choice. Unless access times are super critical, similiar performance can be achieved at a much lower cost per GB with the newer 250GB and 320GB platter drives. Thats just me, but other than that it looks like a fine build.

@any Gigabyte X38/EX38 owner or perspective owner
There is now an owner's thread dedicated to this family of boards, so any feedback and input will greatly be appreciated. Check it out here.