GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 owners thread

[VirtualLarry]

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 R2
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813145049

This is the official thread for owners of the "R2" version of this board, released in Jan. 2018.

I've got one on its way to me, will have it soon enough. It's planned as a drop-in replacement for a buddy's ASRock 785G AM2+ board, with an AM3 CPU. Will add DDR3 RAM (his currently has 16GB DDR2), and probably upgrade his SSD capacity at this point in time, will try to clone the OS installation. (Win7 64-bit.)

Down the road, might drop in a $100 FX 8-core CPU from ebay. Maybe a month or two later.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Looks like you finally made your choice. May it serve you (and your friend) for years ahead.

 

[ElFenix]

we went from rev 6.0 to R2?

why?

this is the free board that microcenter tosses in when it helps AMD clear out excess inventory of garbage processors.

 

[VirtualLarry]

this is the free board that microcenter tosses in when it helps AMD clear out excess inventory of garbage processors.

 

[Charlie22911]

Why did they revise it? I have the previous revision with an 8350 in it that did “server” duty for me almost since it’s release, one of the most reliable systems I’ve built to this day (minus Linux iommu weirdness).

EDIT: Actually Rev. 5.0

 

[cbn]

Is this the board that can use the cheap "AMD specific" DDR3 RAM from ebay?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is this the board that can use the cheap "AMD specific" DDR3 RAM from ebay?

Mmm, possibilities.

I've heard that "Generic Chinese DDR3" doesn't have the full SPD info necessary to work in most boards, but if you boot with a branded stick, and then swap in the Chinese DDR3, you can make it work.

I have some experience with these. My friend has an ASRock AM2+ board, with four DDR2 slots. We picked up (well, I did) some unbranded Chinese DDR2 4GB DIMMs - they didn't work. I tried again, and got some Branded Hynix (could have been faked sticker), but those actually worked, and even booted on my Intel P35 board, although at only 2GB capacity. So I assumed that they were in fact "low density" DDR2 DIMMs, and not the "AMD only" "high density" DIMMs.

I also have some Chinese DDR3, it wouldn't work in my ASRock AM3 990FX Extreme 3/4/something board when I tried it.

Could try it in this board, I suppose.

 

[cbn]

Interesting that new DDR3 is so much cheaper than new DDR4 at Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611 600006072 8000&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36 (2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 starting at $109 shipped (this for Silicon Power) and $115 shipped (this for G.skill value))

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611 600006072 8000 600561670 600561671 600561672 600561673 601302872&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=36 (2 x 8GB DDR4 2400 starting at $160 shipped (this for Team Elite Plus). The DDR4 2133 is actually more expensive).

But the AMD specific 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 (below) is the cheapest overall at $73.90 shipped on ebay.

Here is the item description:

Pictures for reference only.

Compatible

AMD 990FX / 990X / 970
AMD A88X / A85X
AMD A68H / A58 / A55

Item Brand New. Full Tested
Superior quality and best compatibility
Capacity Module 16GB KIT 2x8GB
Rate Timing DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz
Type 240pin DIMM Desktop Memory
Voltage DDR3 CL11 1.5V
NON ECC NON-Registered Unbuffered
Lifetime Warranty

 

[cbn]

Found some more AMD specific DDR3. This from a US Seller on ebay for $77.42 free shipping (2 x 8GB DDR3 1600) :

Here is the item description:

Picture for reference only

High Density Memory is Only For AMD Chipset
Memory RAM is High Density.Only Work on with AMD Socket AM3 and AM3+ CPU Processor Chipset
DO NOT Work on with Any All Intel CPU Process Chipset Motherboard
Not work with All DELL,IBM,Apple,HP,Compaq,Gateway,Lenovo,Emachines,Packbell,etc. Computers

Compatible

AMD 990FX/990X/970/760G(780L) Chipset Motherboard

Superior quality and best Compatibility
Memory Capacity 16GB 2X8GB
Memory Type PC3-12800 DDR3-1600MHz Desktop Memory
Memory Pins 240Pin DIMM
Voltage CL11 1.5V
Non-ECC Unbuffered Non-Regisitered
Lifetime Warranty

 

[cbn]

Mmm, possibilities.

I've heard that "Generic Chinese DDR3" doesn't have the full SPD info necessary to work in most boards, but if you boot with a branded stick, and then swap in the Chinese DDR3, you can make it work.

I have some experience with these. My friend has an ASRock AM2+ board, with four DDR2 slots. We picked up (well, I did) some unbranded Chinese DDR2 4GB DIMMs - they didn't work. I tried again, and got some Branded Hynix (could have been faked sticker), but those actually worked, and even booted on my Intel P35 board, although at only 2GB capacity. So I assumed that they were in fact "low density" DDR2 DIMMs, and not the "AMD only" "high density" DIMMs.

I also have some Chinese DDR3, it wouldn't work in my ASRock AM3 990FX Extreme 3/4/something board when I tried it.

Could try it in this board, I suppose.

I emailed both ebay sellers (a couple hours ago) and both wrote back the RAM was compatible with this GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 R2.

Furthermore I even found the following comment under the listing for the red sticks:

AMD ddr3 1066 Ram High density memory

Great value ram for AMD chipset. Running 16 gigs of this stuff with a gigabyte 78 LMT-usb3 board and AMD 8320e black 8core processor. Works well going to have to buy two more and see what happens.

SIDE NOTE: Not sure why it is being described as DDR3 1066 though.

 

[cbn]

Here is my virtual Build-up:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 R2 $71 shipped
CPU: (Still thinking about it, but considering FX8320 $86 shipped (New, OEM) from ebay).
HSF: New 125W copper core HSF $16 shipped from ebay.
RAM: 4 x 8GB DDR3 1600 (for AMD chipset) $154.84 shipped (this using the listing for the red sticks)
Storage: Single large HDD with at least 4TB. (EDIT: If editing 4K video I would use 3 x modern 500GB 3.5" HDDs in RAID-0 as a SATA 6gbps SSD used with a PCIe 2.0 x 1 card is going to be weak on the Sequential Read)
Optical drive: New HP 5.25" Blu-ray drive for $38 (or best offer) shipped on ebay. (I am using one of these (from the same ebay seller) in my HP Workstation. Works great)
Case: (Wait until Fractal design Core 1000 went on sale for $30 shipped. Keep in mind though with 2 x 3.5" HDDs installed on the vertical mounting plate the video card length will be limited to 210mm or less with this enclosure)
PSU: Corsair CX450 $21 shipped after rebate and promo code : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139201&ignorebbr=1
OS: Factory sealed Windows 10 Pro System builder envelope $34.90 (or best offer) shipped from ebay. (This or Linux Mint)

*The modern 500GB hard drives which use short stroked 1TB platters (Eg, Western Digital WD5000AZLX or Seagate ST500DM009) are usuallly found quite cheaply on ebay as "New pulls" for $25 shipped or less. I would look for ones with a 2016 or later manufacture date. (In fact right now on ebay there is a listing with new pull Seagate ST500DM009s (pictured drive has July 2017 manufacture date) for $15 each plus shipping)

This as an alternative to refurbished LGA 2011 (or 2P LGA 1366) workstations using cheap server pull DDR3 1333 ECC RDIMMs.

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-FX-832...573969&hash=item4d64a24931:g:~GwAAOSwVA5aTlkw

I got one of these. I saw it when they were under $100, it was $110 when I got mine, and now they're up to $120.

Seems like the "CPU to get" for these boards, though. Maybe the price increase of this particular CPU is due a resurgence in interest in this platform, due to these new R2 boards.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Just a reminder of power consumption on original Piledriver core (which is also used on FX CPU) compared to other Bulldozer derivatives.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, my Rosewill Galaxy-02 ATX case arrived today, so I set out to build my rig, with the aforementioned mobo, and an FX-8320E 8-core CPU from ebay (BNIB). Also using a slightly-used Team Group Dark DDR3-1600 16GB kit, and a 480GB Team Group L5 Lite 3D 480GB SSD, and a Gigabyte GT1030 2GB GDDR5 64-bit graphics card.

It went together rather un-eventfully, except... it didn't power-on. Pretty rare for my builds not to power-on first try, so I tried the simple things first, and it appears that the main power button on their Galaxy case is broken. Thanks Rosewill / Newegg. It powered-on fine, once I unplugged the power-on cable, and shorted it with a screwdriver, so the rest of the rig is fine. I plugged the RESET button onto the POWER button pins, so now I have no RESET button, and the tiny button is the POWER button. Whatever, it works. Though my client might be annoyed.

I couldn't find my Win10 1709 install USB, so I used an older 1703 one. After it had finished installing, it prompted me full-screen for an "update", which was, of course, 1709. Went really quickly, the first part, up to 75%, then it really, really dragged, from then till 100%. CPU was only 10-12% (one core maxed), and Disk (SSD) was actually maxing at some points, with 500-600ms service times. I think that the SLC cache got exhausted temporarily from all of the writes to the drive, then everything really slowed down.

A few more reboots, progress meters, and finally, booted into 1709, good to go.

It seems pretty snappy, at least, better with Firefox Nightly 60.

Hmm, MS Media Creation Tool just errored, said that "There was a problem running this tool". Weird. Was trying to make a new 1709 installer USB.

Edit: Seems like Shutup10's settings were somehow interfering with the MCT. I downloaded the newest SU10, selected the Recommended settings, then tweaked my personal settings, rebooted, and then use the MCT successfully to make a Windows 10 1709 64-bit bootable 16GB USB.

 

[Charlie22911]

You could order some momentary switches from amazon to replace it for cheap. Should be the standard square doodads like this (the blue tipped ones):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M...AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=momentary+switch

I actually literally just bought those after looking this up for you haha. Always in need of little things like that.


EDIT: I also get an error when trying to use the media creation tool. Highly annoying.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Now $49.99 FS after promo code

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...-_-AMDMotherboards-_-13145049-S0D&ignorebbr=1

EMCPRRW34

Edit: SOLD OUT!

 

[cbn]

Any luck with the Chinese DDR3?

If so, what brand worked?

 

[oneduality]

I got my board a week or so ago, I replaced my old Rev. 6.0 with this one because I was getting random reboots with WHEA code 0x124, I had already first tried to replace the CPU with another FX-8350 that has a much better cooler but that didn't solve it, I then replaced all of the memory, that didn't solve it either, I would have tried the PSU first but I had a digital volt meter on it for hours keeping an eye on it and the voltage was steady... the temperature of the CPU runs at about 70-80f even under normal use, it drops down to 40-50f when totally idle.

So .. I've ordered a new PSU just to be safe.. I've already also tried replacing the GPU with one I had as a stand by .. NO LUCK

I won't have the PSU anytime soon, but I was just curious if anyone has encountered this running Windows 10? I've heard some say this began with the fall creators update last year but I didn't have that issue until recently. I've also found that this "uncorrectable hardware error" is very unlikely to be driver related.

I'm going to just HOPE it's the PSU because by the time I replace that, the system will be 100% brand new aside from speakers.. the keyboard and mouse are only a couple of months old ..

I'm ultimately trying to avoid reinstalling windows because I rely on a working OS for work purposes, and I know it's got to be hardware because of the random nature. It will crash ( no bsod, just power off and back on ) after an hour, or it will go nearly 20 hours.. I've not seen it go over a day in weeks..

 

[oneduality]

I may have solved my problem, I won't know until I break a full day of uptime, but I suspect I have two issues.

• The error I was getting seemed to be memory related, but others suggested that they replaced their MB to fix it, so I tried that. It didn't work, but now I was getting BSOD and occasional just straight to black screen and a reboot.
• I replaced the memory and the BSOD's stopped but the black screen reboots were still happening, I tested the PSU's voltage and it seemed to be steady.
• I replaced the processor next and the issue persisted, I even got a much better cooler.. my temperatures are very good.
• I ordered a new power supply anyway...

So before I installed the PSU I decided to double check every single thing before taking things apart again, I noticed something my boneheaded self missed.. The power connector going into the video card ( Gigabyte GTX 660 ) had a splitter on it for two power connections, only one was connected. I also don't like the idea of a splitter anyway, so I removed the splitter and just used the appropriate power connector from the power supply which was tucked and ziptied away..

After doing that the system seems to be rock solid so far.. typically I could force it to reboot by doing a bunch of things such as running two virtual machines and 3dmark at once, none of that has phased it now .. but again, I won't claim victory until after the 1 day mark, if it's idle it still seems to crash at about 20 hours.. so we shall see.

By the way, I didn't set up the power that way, it was me who forgot to plug in the second connector on rebuild, but I would never choose to use a splitter. This was a pre-built machine called Avatar FX8365.

So to sum it up.. essentially I fixed one problem while ultimately causing another by missing that connector.

Another fun note.. my R2's bios defaulted to IDE not AHCI / SATA mode.. when I switched that up my drive speeds went up quite nicely.