Impressions of my new P5B vs my S3 boards...

[Markfw]

OK, so I got this board just to try it out, since so many of you have one. I flashed to the latest bios 0806, put in my new OCZ PC 6400 rev2 2x 1 gig, and E6400 with a scthye infinity.

Results: Can't get the vdimm over 2.1, thats the bios max, big problem right off the bat (no oc'ing past 400 FSB probably). Then I install at stock, and all is fine, but after finishing all the updates, the ASUS disk auto-play no longer works. WTF ? All other CD's work. So I re-format try again. auto-play works, but you have to run it before all the win2k updates, something along the way makes it un-runable...

OK, so all done, time to OC. 3.2 ghz, no problem, stable. Try for 3,4, and lockups... change setting, no go. At 3360 right now, so we will see. Duvie and I have been over my settings, and I have tried my PC 8000 memory in there, it just won;t go much over 3.2 stable....

Stay tuned, but I will use another S3 for my next MOBO....(I have 3, all at 3.43 using 6300's)

 

[Markfw]

It seems to be an FSB thing. Just doesn;t like going much over 420. No matter which memory I use. Temps are only 50c (coretemp) full load, so thats no problem. Loaded vcore is 1.384, I had it at 1.408 (same as my 6300's@3.5 were) but no go, and its cooler running than then. I think its the northbrige, and it also has way more vdroop.

 

[Shimmishim]

The board droops like crazy especially at higher vcores.

What vcore did you need on the S3?

 

[Markfw]

I used 1.45 to get 1.42 on the S3 @ 3.4-3.5 (both worked at the same) I use 1.4875 to get 1.408 on the P5b (way worse vdroop). I have to re-boot many times to get it to actually boot into windows, no vdimm adjustment (probably the real problem, S3 @ 2.2-2.3 depending on memory, but only 2.1 allowed on the P5B)

And my Sythe infinity won't mount correctly (facing out the back for fan flow) due to caps too close to the socket.

I could go on..

 

[Shimmishim]

ah, so you have a p5b non-deluxe?

didn't realize you were limited to 2.1 vdimm.

interesting...

 

[Markfw]

Yup... The S3 is WAY better from my experience so far, and cheaper than even the non-deluxe.

 

[Shimmishim]

its a shame you only have vdimm up to 2.1

the deluxe i have really flies. i only use up to 2.25 volts but it's enough to push my board up to 475 mhz for daily usage.

 

[MichaelD]

Sorry to hear that the P5B was a dud for you. I've been toying with the idea of getting a different board (currently have DS3 v1.0) so I can do SLI. Two 7900GTO's in SLI would be just dandy.

But I'm afraid of losing my precious overclock to 3.2GHz. It's stable as a rock, load temps during games never break 53C (IntelTAT/CoreTemp) and it never crashes.

On a side note...why are you still running W2K? You're at SP4, I hope. I'm wondering if some of your instability could be traced to the OS?

 

[Markfw]

I am running W2K on al my boxes that don't use the GPU client. It is solid as a rock on my S3@3.43. The biggest problem that I see is the 2.1 vimm max. Many memories require 2.2 stock, and 2.3-2.4 to OC. That alone could be the problem.

 

[Shimmishim]

yeah... the only other option is to do a simple vdimm mod to that board to get what you need.

 

[n7]

You got the P5B vanilla?

It's known for inconsistent results...not sure why you'd get it.

The P5B-E is the better one.

While it too only has 2.1 vdimm, that's more than enough to get a good OC out of an E6300 unless you're using crap RAM.

It [P5B-E] does have bad vdroop too, that i will admit, which means settings it a lot higher in the bios to get the desired result in Windows, which also means higher idle temps, since it sometimes drops from say 1.42 way down to 1.38 under load.

But high FSB is easy.

I don't own the P5B-E, but at my recommendation, a good buddy of mine has it, & we've has great success with OCing it.

I went over to his place last night with one of my Team Xtreem dimms, since he's waiting for some good RAM to come in, & we got his P5B-E + E6300 running 7x485 just fine

2.1 vdimm won't likely let you run DDR2-1000 4-4-4, but if you're running CAS 5 with Micron D9GMH/GKX, you'll get to 500 MHz on 2.1V in most cases.

 

[Markfw]

I had tried Crucial Ballistix DDR 1000 (needs 2.2 stock) and now have OCZ PC 6400 Rev2 (2.1 stock) and am running it at 420 right now. I won;t do 425, I need more vdimm, but the Ballistix wouldn;t do it either due to vdimm. Neither of those is crap ram, its a vdimm limit of the board.

 

[Shimmishim]

have you tried loosening the timings to 5-5-5-15 and booting up at 2.1vdimm?

 

[Markfw]

its been at 5-5-5-15 since I started, never went down, and allways been at 2.1 vdimm. And Duvie has been helping me....My full load temps are 50-52c (coretemp) and the PSU is a fortron 450, which I have another one powering a C2D 6300@3.43 AND an X1900XT, so its not PSU or memory or cooling. This one has a wimpy video card (300se or something)

ITS VDIMM.

 

[n7]

No, it's the motherboard.

If you're trying to tell me your Micron D9GMH can't do over 420 MHz @ 5-5-5 2.1V...

Sorry, but you know better than that.

The P5B = very inconsistent results; in your case, crap results, i'm sorry.

I can run my Team Xtreem @ 429 4-4-3-4 @ 1.95V!

Micron is in no way limited to 420 MHz on 2.1V

The issue is the mobo, sorry.

 

[Markfw]

So even though Crucial says their memory is supposed to run@2.2 vdimm, and I don;t have that (under spec) you expect it to work correctly ?

I will admit it has crossed my mind that something else on the motherboard is causing this, but bottom line is, the P5B (non-deluxe) is NOT a good choice for OC'ing at the budget level, but the S3 IS a good choice. This is my main reason for this thread.

BTW, My Crucial ballistix won;t even post at 1.8 and 266 mhz! I have to put my skill PC 8000 in, raise the vdimm, and then put the ballistix in, so I know it is very sensitive to vdimm.

 

[Duvie]

My opinion in this case it is simply the vanilla board doesn't offer the better vdimm...deluxe would have been the better model.


In my more analysis opinion I think the S3 and DS3 boards are borderline crappy. Mark knows of the power issues and quirks with those boards. I truly believe the lack quality power control. Still have tons of chipset timing issues. Have a lack of good technical support, and have IMO seem to have abandoned the bios updates for the S3 board.

I am looking forward to installing my QX6700 on a DFI board with a better power control. I also was looking forward to my P5B-deluxe but that looks like it will never arrive from DevilsAdvocate. Thank god I didn't pay and he agreed to ship first. Only about 30 days from when I told him I wanted it.

I am leaning on getting the 650i board to play with.


These are my opinions from my experience with 3 of these boards with multiple configuration of cpus, PSUs, Ram modules, etc....

I am not impressed with Gigabyte. i am not impressed with Mark's adventure, but deep down inside I was expecting it with the non-deluxe model.

The P5B-E is not a good alternative yet unle you can get the plus model....

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: Duvie
I am not impressed with Gigabyte.

Maybe I just got lucky but I've never had issues with my DS3 rev.1. While getting my overclock it behaved very well and considering I've been only using beta BIOSes I am very impressed with my board. I will definitely consider another Gigabyte board since I haven't had any problems. I would have originally got an Abit board but the layout sucked.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: Duvie
I am not impressed with Gigabyte.

Maybe I just got lucky but I've never had issues with my DS3 rev.1. While getting my overclock it behaved very well and considering I've been only using beta BIOSes I am very impressed with my board. I will definitely consider another Gigabyte board since I haven't had any problems. I would have originally got an Abit board but the layout sucked.

I have no issues getting to 3.4ghz....BUt what I can tell you is....

A) you are giving it realitively low vcore so right there you have a good chip and you are not stressing the board in one of the areas I think is a culprit on these boards.
B) you have a nice chipset cooler to deal with how hot the chipset HS gets
C) You are not stressing much at lower fsb. At 425fsb I only need to give the vfsb +.1v...


I have experience with this thing and a quad core and I can tell you...."not soo great"....

I think most issues are related to either power from the board, or timing issues they have not corrected....

I Use the F8i bios now....Have not tried the F9



The DS3 handled all of my C2D's perfectly. They are showing me a weakness in design IMHO with the addition of the quads...

The S3s are quirky from the get go. Have issues of data corruption. Swap all the parts except memory and still have issue. Swap memory out and issue goes away. Use that memory in another board and no issues. New memory in the S3 run memtest and orthos for 24 hours. 3 weeks later it starts having issues. swap back to the first stick and they are running fine for 2 more weeks.

I am so looking forward to replacing every last one of them. At stock I have even had issues with the IO corruption on one of the boards. That is with noting OC'd and everything stock or less. Mysterious issue went away and has never resurfaced.

The S3's haven't added a bios since I have gotten it.

 

[thilanliyan]

Well I actually did run the vcore up to 1.55v and I think(can't remember anymore) I had it at 3.6GHz (450x8) and it was somewhat stable (at least as long as I ran it) but the temps were getting too high so I backed off and left it at the current overclock.

The DS3 has only 3-phase power right? So i guess it wouldn't be able to handle a quad-core very well.

You seem to have had a lot of issues. Were your boards revision 1 or 2? I haven't had any of the issues you mentioned however I haven't really tried to push my ram nor have I tried to max my fsb. I do remember there was some complaints about a lot of devices on very few IRQs over at xtremesystems but I don't know if anything came of the complaints.

 

[Markfw]

Since I don;t use SATA drives, and I don;t have the data corruption. I have had better luck than Duvie with my S3's due to this, but I am still not that impressed with the P5B due to the vdimm problem. And of course the "running the auto-play" off the cd not working anymore, but everything else works fine, so its the program.

 

[n7]

I honestly have kinda given up on trying to recommend the "best" C2D motherboard, because there really isn't one.

The P5B-E seems to be the best value one to me, since thus far, i don't know of any issues, save for low vdimm (not an issue if you get decent RAM or don't expect extreme OCing), & the vdroop, which doesn't really hurt OCing.

My P5B Deluxe doesn't seem to have any major issues, but many people have issues with PCI-e running @ 1x when OCed, & cannot seem to get that fixed, which renders the system useless for gaming, unless overclock is lowered.

That & the issue of instability around the 360-400 mark isn't so fun either, as you pretty much have an FSB hole...

The way i see it, you have to pick that which has the least issues that will affect you, cause you're gonna have some problem or another somehow...

 

[Markfw]

(not an issue if you get decent RAM )

Why do you keep saying this, when most of the good ram requires 2.2 vdimm or better ? You think running ram UNDER spec is OK ? You think it will perform as required ? I don't think so, or they wouldn;t have made that a requirement, and I know for a fact that under spec WON'T even post in some cases.

NO CHOICE ON VDIMM OVER 2.1 IS A BIG PROBLEM

 

[Serp86]

I have a gigabyte DQ6 and its been great so far. Kinda expensive, but it's the best, IMO