Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L - are these bios settings good?

[lektrix]

Screenies of my bios settings:

http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioszu8.jpg
http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bios2uu6.jpg
http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bios3jm2.jpg
http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bios4mr6.jpg

Are there any tweaks or settings I should change to help me achieve a higher OC? Running on a e6420 (266x8) with 2GB Ballistix DDR1066. My most stable speed between performance/temperature is 400x8 on 1.36V which is close to stock. I believe I can run that without +0.1FSB or MCH too but haven't tested that yet. 3.4GHz requires 1.45V and 3.7GHz requires 1.55V and I'm not even sure if they're all 10+ hours stable...

 

[myocardia]

Those settings all look good, except you're overvolting your RAM, most likely. Yeah, I know that +.4v should be 2.2v of vdimm, but these Gigabyte P35's don't start out at 1.8v. Since Gigabyte had so many problems with people buying their 965P boards, and not being able to even post with Crucial D9 IC's, they changed the minimum vdimm to 2.0v, on all of their P35 boards. To check what your vdimm is, download the latest version of SpeedFan. Your vdimm will be Vcore2.

 

[Regalk]

There are some things you could do
HDDSMART - I keep mine disabled (however I do not recommend this to most people unless if you are confident about your H/W and can afford to have a HD go down without warning I have never really seen the need for this after literally dozen of HDs)
CPU Thermal - disabled (never cared for these thermal monitoring things
Initial Display first - PCI-E (you runa PCI Express VC right!)
Also other things I usually do is disable LPT, Com1/2 and stuff I do not use - less MB resources
tRRD 3 or 4 (higher = better overclock/stability)
Rank write to read 9-11 (higher = better overclock/lower performance)
Write to precharge - 10-14 (start with lowest first and check if stable)
Refresh to ACT - 25-42 (higher more stability)
Read to precharge delay 6
tRD 7-8 (lower increase peformance but watch stability)
tRD Phase Adj - AUTO

DDR2 volts - +.03

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Those settings all look good, except you're overvolting your RAM, most likely. Yeah, I know that +.4v should be 2.2v of vdimm, but these Gigabyte P35's don't start out at 1.8v. Since Gigabyte had so many problems with people buying their 965P boards, and not being able to even post with Crucial D9 IC's, they changed the minimum vdimm to 2.0v, on all of their P35 boards. To check what your vdimm is, download the latest version of SpeedFan. Your vdimm will be Vcore2.

Whoa, that's news to me. Is this documented anywhere by Gigabyte? (Might explain how I've heard that DDR2-667 runs at DDR2-800 just fine without adding vdimm, on those boards. I thought that it was just a strange fluke.)

If the default is 2.0v, is there any way to crank down the vdimm back to the proper (and cooler-running) 1.8v? Is there a negative voltage adjust? (Haven't installed my P35-DS3R yet to check.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Regalk
CPU Thermal - disabled (never cared for these thermal monitoring things

Never disable your CPU's thermal-monitoring circuit. It could save the life of your CPU!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Whoa, that's news to me. Is this documented anywhere by Gigabyte? (Might explain how I've heard that DDR2-667 runs at DDR2-800 just fine without adding vdimm, on those boards. I thought that it was just a strange fluke.)

Since when have manufacturers ever admitted to anything like this? I can tell you that my board does exactly that, along with all of these people's boards, it seems: P35C-DS3R overclocking thread.

WARNING!
There is evidence that this board overvolts the ram (DDR2/DDR3 Overvoltage Control). Please use caution when changing this bios option. Testing on multiple boards seems to suggest that the actual memory voltages are :

Delta---------Actual voltage
+.0v----------2.00v
+.1v----------2.00v
+.2v----------2.13v
+.3v----------2.24v
+.4v----------2.37v

If the default is 2.0v, is there any way to crank down the vdimm back to the proper (and cooler-running) 1.8v? Is there a negative voltage adjust? (Haven't installed my P35-DS3R yet to check.)[/quote]

No, 2.0v is the lowest setting, not that that's any big deal. All DDR2 ever made can handle 2.0v, with no fans, and poor case ventilation.

 

[Regalk]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: Regalk
CPU Thermal - disabled (never cared for these thermal monitoring things

Never disable your CPU's thermal-monitoring circuit. It could save the life of your CPU!

Good advice for newbies but not for me pal - I didn't ask for it perhaps the OP can make his own judgement I have been doing this for the last 10 years and am yet to kill a cpu (my old celeron 300A buds is mothballed as an ornament )
Thermal monitoring is against the rules of overclocking - you should know that!

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: myocardia

No, 2.0v is the lowest setting, not that that's any big deal. All DDR2 ever made can handle 2.0v, with no fans, and poor case ventilation.

I have the DS3L. +0.2V on the memory results in 1.98-2.00V per speedfan. As far as i remember reading a while back stock voltage starts at 1.8V.

If you load up EasyTune5 and go to Overclocking section you'll see Memory voltage and resulting frequency. +0.2V also shows 2.00V in this utility.

However, I still agree with you that the ram can be overvolted since you can often achieve DDR2 800 CL 4 timings at 2.0V.

 

[UTFan81]

so is it best to disable all those features of the cpu not in use like in your first ss?

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: myocardia

No, 2.0v is the lowest setting, not that that's any big deal. All DDR2 ever made can handle 2.0v, with no fans, and poor case ventilation.

I have the DS3L. +0.2V on the memory results in 1.98-2.00V per speedfan. As far as i remember reading a while back stock voltage starts at 1.8V.

If you load up EasyTune5 and go to Overclocking section you'll see Memory voltage and resulting frequency. +0.2V also shows 2.00V in this utility.

However, I still agree with you that the ram can be overvolted since you can often achieve DDR2 800 CL 4 timings at 2.0V.

On my DS3L, stock Vdimm reads as 1.89V. I wonder how much variation there is between boards.

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: myocardia
Those settings all look good, except you're overvolting your RAM, most likely. Yeah, I know that +.4v should be 2.2v of vdimm, but these Gigabyte P35's don't start out at 1.8v. Since Gigabyte had so many problems with people buying their 965P boards, and not being able to even post with Crucial D9 IC's, they changed the minimum vdimm to 2.0v, on all of their P35 boards. To check what your vdimm is, download the latest version of SpeedFan. Your vdimm will be Vcore2.

my default is 1.8 vdimm on a revision 2.0

 

[VirtualLarry]

Which BIOS revs? Because different BIOSes changed which setting corresponds to which vdimm.

On my DS3R with F9 BIOS, my stock vdimm is 1.89 as well.

 

[Cheex]

Well I'm using a P965-DS3 but anyway...

Hardware Monitor is also a nice program to check temps and voltages.
Look here. I just took this shot.
It displays my info correctly. Never mind the CPU temps, I'm crunching.

You can get Hardware Monitor here:
From CPUID - same people who make good ol' CPU-Z

 

[newschool]

my rev2 P35-DS3L with F7 bios does 1.92 with +0.2 and 2.0V with +0.3...

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i have my ds3P rev 2.0 (f6 bios) at +0.35vRam and speedfan v4.33 says vCore2: 2.13V

1.8v (stock) + 0.35v = 2.15v (.02 read error)

 

[myocardia]

Seriously? I've never seen one undervolt vdimm. That's not good, either. BTW, I've never seen a thread with this few posts last for so long. It just keeps popping back up. Also, if I had to guess, I'd say that enough people complained to Gigabyte about their 1.8v RAM being overvolted that they made subsequent BIOS revisions not overvolt it, or at least as much. Then again, it may just be poor vdimm regulation, since the range is so widespread.