Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4

[Kromis]

I just read the review for this board at VR-Zone...

But how many people actually own this board?

Discuss.

 

[alaricljs]

I just built my system last night. Haven't touched overclocking yet but everything is running smoothly. I've got some build pictures I can put up when I get home.

The Ultra 120 extreme fits, although I had my doubts when I bought the board. The heat pipes fit right into the V that the NB heastink makes beneath the CPU socket.

Only thing that irritated me was the location of the 8pin EPS12v connector. I had to get an extension to fit my p182 and corsair hx520.

I put AS Ceramique on the NB/SB heatsinks. That plate on the back of the mobo is simply a retainer, apart from heat transfer through the screws it's a joke. The plate has a large area cut out of it so no contact is made with the pins sticking out from the NB. The NB sink is a pretty hefty chunk of copper.

I'll post more with pictures later.

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: alaricljs
I just built my system last night. Haven't touched overclocking yet but everything is running smoothly. I've got some build pictures I can put up when I get home.

The Ultra 120 extreme fits, although I had my doubts when I bought the board. The heat pipes fit right into the V that the NB heastink makes beneath the CPU socket.

Only thing that irritated me was the location of the 8pin EPS12v connector. I had to get an extension to fit my p182 and corsair hx520.

I put AS Ceramique on the NB/SB heatsinks. That plate on the back of the mobo is simply a retainer, apart from heat transfer through the screws it's a joke. The plate has a large area cut out of it so no contact is made with the pins sticking out from the NB. The NB sink is a pretty hefty chunk of copper.

I'll post more with pictures later.

Alright!

 

[alaricljs]

Okey, so here's a batch of pics from my build:

EDIT: ok ouch nevermind, my server sucks... Here's flickr.

No particular order, but basically images of how close the fit is between a U120x and the NB heatsink and also views of how it fits in a P182.

Parts:
Antec P182
Corsair HX520
Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4
Intel E6420
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
2GB Patriot Extreme Performance PC26400 4-4-4-12
XFX 7950GT XXX
Seagate 500GB SATA2 ST3500630AS

 

[davidb72]

Hi,

I just built my system using this board also.

It was my first build, so I don't have much to compare to, but everything is working smoothly. I put an E4400 in it with 2GB of Patriot memory, 250 GB Seagate HD and a liteon DVD-R. Running the stock fan in an Antec P180 with a Corsair HX 620 PSU.

The only problem I ran into was me not running the drivers CD that came with the MOBO, other than that it's been great.

 

[Nnyan]

alaricljs,

Thanks for the info, I've just changed out the Asus for this motherboard and I've decided to hold off on watercooling for this rig since I plan to it with me to lan parties. So I'm also getting the Thermalright U120E, and I'm glad to hear that this HSF fits. Did you notice that the issue reported on AT that you can still move the cooler around? Do you think the 8800GTS will be a problem on this board?

Thank you

 

[alaricljs]

The u120x does turn. The issue is that the X shaped hold-down is screwed together and they placed a plastic ring around the head of the screw that is the direct interface between it and the HS base. (there's a pocket where the screw head goes, only thing pushing on the base is that plastic ring) So very little friction there and thermal grease is just that, some greasy substance that provides little in the way of friction. It shouldn't be an issue tho since there's definitely enough pressure being applied. At stock speeds with the P182 fans on low, and a Scythe fan off a Ninja on automatic the E6420 I have stays below 20c idle EDIT: that can't be right... but that's what it says. I'll have to load up TAT and see what it says.(/EDIT) I need to run some load tests, but my time has been taken away from me lately. I'm lucky to have gotten the system together.

The 8800GTS should be no issue at all, there's nothing in line with the first PCI-E slot.

 

[Corporate Thug]

guys, is this a full size board? the DS3 is a little smaller than full ATX

 

[Nnyan]

Cool thanks for the info, I figure I'll pull the trigger and make the purchases this weekend.

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
guys, is this a full size board? the DS3 is a little smaller than full ATX

I believe this is indeed a full size ATX

 

[Nnyan]

Any reason that I should hold off on this mobo and wait for the Bearlakes?

 

[davidb72]

Anyone else having problems with memory? I am in BIOS and under PC health status I get "FAIL", but the board sees that there are 2 gigs there??? WTF?

I went into BIOS and adjusted timings to 4-4-4-12, but didn't know what to set the other timings to...
tRRD, tRC, tWR, tWTR, and tREF...

Thanks!

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: davidb72
Anyone else having problems with memory? I am in BIOS and under PC health status I get "FAIL", but the board sees that there are 2 gigs there??? WTF?

I went into BIOS and adjusted timings to 4-4-4-12, but didn't know what to set the other timings to...
tRRD, tRC, tWR, tWTR, and tREF...

Thanks!

I thought you said everything was running fine?

 

[davidb72]

I thought it was... I did find this article though and it did put my mind at ease on the "fail" message...

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ga-p965-ds3/3.html

 

[alaricljs]

Ok so a quick update on OCing this board. The dual BIOS thing is more trouble than it's worth. I ended up back on F4 without knowing it a few times. F4 overclocks for crap. F5 works nice.

I'm at 3.4Ghz w/ 900Mhz 444-12 RAM still working on optimizing. F4 locked me at 3Ghz/800Mhz

 

[Nnyan]

I just took the plung and ordered the parts for my new system, parts should start arriving later this week. I'll let you know how I do with this board.

 

[DukeN]

Well I took the plunge and bought it as well. Found a translated review that says its a moderate overclocker Text

comments?

 

[imported_hubs99]

Why is there no love for this board?

 

[DukeN]

Originally posted by: hubs99
Why is there no love for this board?

Very little publicity, and seems like the DS3 or the eVGA are dominating most posts/news.

According to VR Zone the board is awesome, but that translated site I found says its a moderate OC.

 

[imported_hubs99]

If it were between the 965P-DS3 or the N650SLI-DS4 which would be the better bet?

 

[DukeN]

Originally posted by: hubs99
If it were between the 965P-DS3 or the N650SLI-DS4 which would be the better bet?

Well I haven't owned both so I can't say, but I bought the DS4 which seemed nicer to me for it had Firewire and seemed like the heatsink on the NB was decent as well.

However, the DS3 has been covered at every angle and it would be super easy to find support for it compared to the DS4.

Anyone else have their DS4 up and running yet, and care to post some numbers?

Thx

 

[smitjere]

Alright, I have this board. I have an e6600 with a tuniq tower. I can get the thing up to 375 fsb with 1.35 V. on the cpu, but it just can't do 400. I can get it to post at 400 if I up the voltage on the fsb and NB. Supposedly this CPU can do 400 on other boards. So I do not know what the problem is. I have upped the cpu voltage to 1.55 and max on NB and FSB...but no luck with stability. It is like this 400 is a barrier...

Other insites...I can't figure out why at times I hit "del" to get into the bios...I randomly go into the F4 or F5 bios at different times.

The NB heatsink does get hot...I do not have the best air flow in the case though.

 

[alaricljs]

smit: try skipping 400 and hit ~410-425. Also make sure you have F5 bios rev. On my board F4 locked bad at 400, and would crash at anything above 375. F5 gave me 425.

 

[cubeless]

just assembled with this board... 6320; ocz 8500; gemini2 hs with 2 120 fans...

seems pretty sweet...

7x480@1.4v... 4/4/4/4/12 on the mem @ 960 @ 2.15v

pushed up all the voltages, but u need to stick a fan on the nb... i stuck a old coolermaster vid fan on it and it cools right down...

with a 8800 @ 635x1000 it does 175k aquamarks...

i'm pretty pleased so far...

and people were dissing the gemini, but i took a chance on it... it rocks... 45c w\2 prime95's runningb using 2 quiet fans... needed to use the chakra case, and it fits in great...

 

[chunkychunkz]

Bah! It looks like I am having the same problems as Smit. Instead of the FSB barrier of 400, mine is limited at 375. I am currently using F5 -- but then again it keeps switching back and forth and .... well, I don't really know which bios version I am switching the settings at anymore.

I cranked every voltage up: Dram at 2.2v, cpu voltage at 1.5 and I can barely make it to my windows with a FSB of 370 and it'll still crash. Ram is currently underclocked to 742.

I disabled every setting in the BIOS, C1, etc, etc, and lowered the LDT frequency from 5x to 4x as suggested in the review by VR-Zone. (What does LDT do anyway?)

Still cant get anything past 370
I know the CPU could go higher as I have gotten it to post and into windows at 3.6Ghz on the ASUS 650i board.
Is there any hope left for me in this Gigabyte board?

Currently using a E6600 w/ arctic Freezer 7 pro. Crucial Ballistix PC2 8000.
btw -- Im jealous of cubeless......


P.S.
Gigabyte mispells voltage in the bios. Mispells Check in the online bios utility and much more! --Just funny.