Intel E8400 and GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L

[dwelty]

Hi, I'm building a new system (hoping to order tonight), but I have a question. First the setup:

I'd like to get the new Intel E8400 Wolfdale processor, and the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L mobo. Now I know the P35 chipset supports the new 45nm processors, and I see that on GIGABYTE's website they say that this specific mobo will work with the E8400 *since BIOS F8a*...

So my question is actually more than one question. First, does anyone know how likely it is that I'll get the mobo with BIOS F8a or later already on it? And second, if BIOS F8a or later is not already on it, would the whole setup work *well enough* that I could use the mobo and CPU together briefly in order to upgrade the BIOS, or will it not work at all, requiring me to have a 65nm CPU to use until I could update the BIOS?

I'm on a pretty tight budget, so that mobo is really my best (only) option. If it's possible I'd need a second (65nm) CPU in order to get the BIOS updated before the E8400 will work, then I'm just going to buy something like the E6750, and forget about Wolfdale.

Sorry for being a bit clueless, this is the first system I'm building myself. Any help on this would really be appreciated.

 

[Mondoman]

I'm quite sure the e8400 will work well enough to get your BIOS flashed, but I'm not 100% certain. Another good option is to buy an e2160 instead, and just run it at 1333MHz FSB with the stock Intel cooler for 3GHz core speed.

 

[Doclife]

I'm pretty sure that the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R (or GA-P35-DS3R rev 2.1, same board with different nomenclature) mobo will support 45nm CPU right off the bat. Read this thread here for the discussion of the EP35-DS3R.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2145534&enterthread=y

 

[polypterus]

I was looking for the same answer, and came across this thread http://www.techsupportforum.co...or-bios-conundrum.html at the bottom someone says they were able to boot with an old BIOS (F6) and an E8400.

 

[dwelty]

*cringe* I'm on a really tight and hard budget. The extra $37 for that mobo will quite literally break the bank, and there isn't much room for cutting cost anywhere else in my system and still getting components of any quality (other than the processor I guess...). It does look like a good mobo though, I'd just go for that one if I had the extra $.

I did find some threads in other forums in which people claim to have had no problems with Rev. 2.0 of the GA-P35-DS3L, which apparently ships with BIOS version F6. The support is unofficial with that BIOS, but at least a couple people claim to have had no problems. I haven't found any info on whether or not Rev. 1.0 of the GA-P35-DS3L will work or not though.

So, I'm gona order from ZipZoomfly instead of Newegg since they specify the Rev. # of the board, and they have Rev. 2.0.

Thanks for the help guys.

Just in case anyone is interested, here are the couple of threads I found about this where people say they have Rev. 2.0 and it works for them with the E8400 right out of the box:

http://www.techsupportforum.co...or-bios-conundrum.html
http://forums.somethingawful.c...d.php?threadid=2746093

EDIT: Heh... ya beat me to it.
Thanks again guys.

 

[polypterus]

Another option would be to order from mwave.com. For $10 they will assemble and test the mobo/CPU before they ship it so you know it works. I've never done it but they're a reputable place. http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Dee...iteria=ds3l&ALL=y&TP=1

 

[taltamir]

if it doesn't work, you can call gigabyte and they send you a replacement bios chip (I am certain that at no charge), and you just pop out the existing one and insert the new one.

Anyways the chances of gettiing one old enough to have pre 45nm bios is slim.

 

[jparnell]

hey,
I just did a very similar thing last night - but using a GA-P35C-DS3R
It worked fine, in fact i think the BIOS on the motherboard was F3 (pretty low anyway). Windows installed fine and then I upgraded the BIOS to F10.

 

[polypterus]

Bump. I was just wondering if the OP (or anyone else) got the e8400 to work out of the box with the DS3L.

Edit: after perusing the newegg reviews it looks like it does indeed work of the box. It isn't clear though if it will just post so you can flash or if you can actually use the older BIOS. For some reason I don't like the idea of having to use a beta BIOS.

 

[Gary Key]

I was able to boot a E8400 and E8500 with the F6 BIOS that arrived on our retail board. The latest F8A has decent performance and compatibility overall but Gigabyte is expected to have another spin on it shortly.

 

[emenk]

Another data point: My P35-DS3L just arrived with the F7 BIOS. The only difference between F6 and F7 has something to do with >1TB hard drives, AFAIK. I installed an E8400, but haven't updated the BIOS to F8a yet. I ran the Ultimate Boot CD and The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (which is Bart PE and Win XP based) with no problems. CPU-Z recognizes the E8400. See my post at the top of the second page in this thread for some of the CPU-Z output.

 

[Riverhound777]

What is everyone's temps with the E8xxx processors in these boards? Wondering if it is a board or CPU issue with the high temps. Mine was around 37-40C idle and 55C load at stock. 45C idle, 67C load at 4050MHZ.

 

[emenk]

For my GA-P35-DS3L, F7 BIOS, E8400, case open with stock CPU Fan only, 37C under load on one processor, 20-24C at idle. The CPU fan seems to have a minimum speed of 422 RPM, which is still too fast, so the fan is turning on and off, which is making the temperature swing. I don't intend to OC anytime soon. It's in a cold room - ambient temp 14C.

EDIT: I don't have a hard drive connected yet, so I'm just running under the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. That seems to allow me to only use one CPU. CPU-z is telling me I'm only running at 2000 MHz with a multiplier of 6, but the BIOS is set for 9 and 3000 MHz. It still seems fast compared to my Athlon 1000, anyway.

 

[Vehemence]

I just bought an E8400 and GA-P35-DS3R (came as rev 1, not sure of BIOS yet) and was a little worried that it might not POST. I have no floppy or other CPUs so it'd be a real bummer otherwise. Thumbs up on the thread!

To flash, do I just download the latest BIOS from Gigabyte's website, put it on the root of a FAT32 USB drive and boot to it?

 

[Riverhound777]

Originally posted by: dNor
I just bought an E8400 and GA-P35-DS3R (came as rev 1, not sure of BIOS yet) and was a little worried that it might not POST. I have no floppy or other CPUs so it'd be a real bummer otherwise. Thumbs up on the thread!

To flash, do I just download the latest BIOS from Gigabyte's website, put it on the root of a FAT32 USB drive and boot to it?

I had to use regular FAT to get it to work. FAT32 wouldn't work.

 

[emenk]

Originally posted by: Riverhound777

Originally posted by: dNor
I just bought an E8400 and GA-P35-DS3R (came as rev 1, not sure of BIOS yet) and was a little worried that it might not POST. I have no floppy or other CPUs so it'd be a real bummer otherwise. Thumbs up on the thread!

To flash, do I just download the latest BIOS from Gigabyte's website, put it on the root of a FAT32 USB drive and boot to it?

I had to use regular FAT to get it to work. FAT32 wouldn't work.

Yes, I think it normally is FAT16. The issue is the drive size is too small to benefit from FAT32.

@dNor: You might need to start with at least the F7 BIOS. That's the BIOS that supported the 45nm yorkfields, which are similar to the wolfdales (except number of cores). I think the F7 BIOS for your board correspond with the F6 BIOS for the DS3L Rev 2.0 boards, which works fine with the E8400. If you have an older BIOS, I'm not sure how much luck you will have.

BTW, the BIOS doesn't need to be on the root of the USB drive. Just download the BIOS, run the EXE (it is a self-extractable) and put the bios file somewhere on your USB drive. Plug the USB drive into your new computer, turn it on, press the [End] key, follow the instructions. The Qflash software is already in your BIOS, so you don't need to boot the USB drive. It can read the directory structure of your USB drive. (The only difference from the way I did it was that I pressed the [Del] key, which started the BIOS setup, then pressed [F8] from there -- that should work for you, too.)

Did you know you were going to get a Rev 1.0 board? The reason I'm asking is that the Rev 2.0 boards came out at least 9 months ago (although I don't know if both may have been manufactured simultaneously), AFAIK. I think people are typically getting the Rev 2.1 boards now. If you didn't want the Rev 1.0 board, I think you might have a reason to complain to whoever sold it to you.

BTW, you might get more help in a DS3R-specific thread. I don't know if people with DS3Rs would read this one.

 

[emenk]

@Riverhound777: Don't know if you still care, but I just got 19C at idle, 41C both cores 100%, stock speed, with my case closed now.

 

[agarus]

Guys, I know this conversation is 7 years old, but I wanna kiss you! :awe:

I read my GA-P35-DS3L manual and considered it can work with any c2d. I upgraded my e2180 to e8400 and it crashed my windows 8 64bit system. I tried to install win8 64 bit, but installation crushed every time, while 32bit installation and system worked fine (at least few days ) and my 64bit linux usb-stick worked fine either (for a much longer period). I'm trying to get my PC working for 6 evenings now... And when I read the first post (*since BIOS F8a*) I remember myself wondering for a few seconds while looking at my BIOS start screen: "interesting, what does F7 after P35-DSL3 stands for"...

So thank you guys for this discussion, even thought it took place 7 years ago )))