The Unofficial Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R P35 Board Thread

[teddy3501]

About to pull the trigger on this board... just have a question hopefully some kind person can answer.

I'm planning on install 8 gigs (GeIL Black Dragon 8GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16820144074)

Is anyone using 8 gigs on this board? Any problems with overclocking and timing?

Thanks.

 

[pakman916]

I need some help...
Here's my setup:
Antec P180b
Corsair 520W
GA-P35C-DS3R Rev 1
Intel CD2 e4400 10x multiplier (stock at 2.0Ghz)
4GB Crucial Ballistix PC6400 DDR2 4-4-4-12 at 2.2v (this is what it's spec'd at)
2X320 Maxtor SATA
MSI 8600GT OC edition
Dual boot WinXP Pro 32bit / Vista Ult 64bit

Anyway, here's my situation. After putting everything together and loading the OS, I started to play around with OCing the cpu. I've heard good things about the E4300, E4400, etc. but I also heard some of the newer cpus aren't as good. So I started with something I thought would be easy (266Ghz FSB/2.66GHz). The stock vcore was at 1.325 and I just left it there. I set the memory ratio to what I believed to be 1:1 (2x) and the timings to the default for the ballistix (4-4-4-12 at 2.2v (+0.4v). It booted with no problems. But then I updated the WEI in Vista and I got a 4.7 score for my mem score. I thought this couldn't be right. So I started to mess with the mem settings. The only way for me to get above a 5 in WEI was to change the ratio to 1:2. This brought my score up to 5.4 (which is still odd to me)

To make a long story short, I had some random errors (BSOD, Freezing, Reboots). I thought maybe the memory was bad so I ran the mem diagnostic in vista and it found something. So I downloaded memtest86+ and after 4 hours, it found something too. So I figured my memory was bad. So I took out 2 sticks and left the other 2 in dual channel. Ran memtest again. After 6 hours, no errors. So I swapped the sticks with the other pair and ran it again. No Errors. I put all the ram back in and boot up and I get no issues running at 266FSB. So I'm totally confused now.

I ran Orthos to see if there were some other issues. No problems after 5 hours. I decided to play with the OC some more. After trying to get the mem timings right, the systems appears to be stable. I run Orthos again just to be sure. It failed after 1 hour. I ran it again just to see what would happen and it failed again after 12 minutes.

Needless to say, I don't know if I have bad memory, bad MB, bad CPU, or maybe my setup can't handle the OC. I recently reset everything to the spec settings (200FSB, 1:1 ratio, 4-4-4-12 at 2.2v) and so far orthos hasn't found any errors. I'll let it run all night and tell you what happens.

On a side note, I was downloading a 100mb file off the net, and it kept getting hung after a few minutes of downloading. I thought this was an issue with the file server so I decided to try and download the same file off my laptop. It downloaded just fine! I tried to download it again from my setup and it hung again. I ran a ping test and it came back with a small amount of packet loss, but so did my laptop. I'm wondering if that is an indication that my mobo is acting up. (on top of my other OCing issues)

Any suggestions on what I can try to isolate the problem?

 

[imported_PJD]

"Has anyone found a need to remove and lap the northbridge heatsink with thermal paste? There was at least two layman reviewers on Newegg commented on a poorly secured northbridge heatsink. It may have been paranoia or bad luck on their part. Is the northbridge HSF difficult to remove?

--Garfield3d"

That's the big gold number.. right? I just bought this board from Microdirect in Manchester. They have a disclaimer at the counter which reads 'we will not accept motherboard returns where the CPU socket pins are bent UNLESS the board has been inspected before leaving the store', or words to that effect. So I asked the saleman about this and he opened the package, the big heatsink had completely detached and was simply rattling loose inside the electrositatic bag. He got another board out, brand new of course - he tried budging the heatsink this one was firmly attached.

Good guys there BTW. I bought all my kit there Antec Sonata II case, the Giga board, E6750, 1GB Elixir 800mhz (cheap but good apparently), Asus 7600S graphics card and Swagate 320MB SATA II drive. Came to about £395. I knocked the bits together over a couple of hours whilst watching telly and was pleasently surprised when it POSTed first time XP loaded up no problems, all running smooth. The CPU is showing 37-40ish in the BIOS, with the stock intel fan. Is that a bit high? I reckon I could improve on the contact using thermal paste, over what is provided on the stock fan. [Had much practice getting a perfect contact, back in the 300A days :]

Now I have had a couple of minor problems with the board. Firstly- sometimes the CPU fan doesn't initiate properly after a power down using the power button - the alarm sounds and of course I'm concerned about the CPU burnin out. I watched it last time I booted this way, and the fan made some half hearted efforts to turn, but didn't. I'm going to try switching off the SMART option in the BIOS, but I wonder if others share this experience and what may be the problem?? Also having problems installing the drivers for the onboard sound chip. Quite a few folks have, apparently. I'm downloading some new drivers for that as I type.

 

[Trajan76]

The smart fan is twitchy, especialy with a stock HSF. If you turn it off, it just runs the fan at full speed. I had the same problem about the alarm going off, until I just turned off smart fan. The problem seems to be the stock fan interacting with the smartfan program. The fan seems to hesitate when speeding up or slowing down and it just causes the sensor to go off.

As for the Northbridge, mine was fine. I've been thinking about replacing it with something active, or at least finding a small fan to zip tie onto the northbridge, but overall it seems ok.

 

[ElPoune]

I used 4 gig and everything is fine for oc. I know 1 person have 8 gig on the same board , sorry don't remeber his or her name, and it's work great

 

[Slowlearner]

Helped a friend assemble his system this week, and everything went quite well. He loves it but we stil have a couple of problems:

no audio 9used the Realtek drivers onn the CD that came with the board -

Northbridge gets quite hot (to touch)

have switched off smart fan, and increased the speed of the case fan.

Any suggestions to fix the audio would be most welcome.

 

[mrfatboy]

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
Helped a friend assemble his system this week, and everything went quite well. He loves it but we stil have a couple of problems:

no audio 9used the Realtek drivers onn the CD that came with the board -

Northbridge gets quite hot (to touch)

have switched off smart fan, and increased the speed of the case fan.

Any suggestions to fix the audio would be most welcome.

Make sure the Azailia drivers are enabled in the bios.

 

[Wurmer]

Hi all, I am new here I am taking this opportunity to salute you.

I have a quick question and I am sorry if this has been previously answered. I know that my RAM have a default voltage of 2.1, where to, in the bios, do I adjust the RAM voltage. I have found that I can change ram voltage when I am in the MIT settings. There is an option to boost the voltage. Thing is, that I don't know the native voltage of the MB for the RAM and is this the right option to change ?
Also for the next time where do I get the native RAM voltage. I didn't see it in the booklet that came with the board.

 

[mrfatboy]

Originally posted by: Wurmer
Hi all, I am new here I am taking this opportunity to salute you.

I have a quick question and I am sorry if this has been previously answered. I know that my RAM have a default voltage of 2.1, where to, in the bios, do I adjust the RAM voltage. I have found that I can change ram voltage when I am in the MIT settings. There is an option to boost the voltage. Thing is, that I don't know the native voltage of the MB for the RAM and is this the right option to change ?
Also for the next time where do I get the native RAM voltage. I didn't see it in the booklet that came with the board.

I believe the native voltage is 1.8v. You change the voltgate in the MIT settings (after pressing CTRL+F1 in main bios menu). If your memory needs to run at 2.1v just set the voltage adjustment setting to ".3". My memory is rated at 2.2v but I am running at 1.9v. I think it can even do 1.8v. I keep forgetting to set it back.

 

[Wurmer]

Thank for you answer, oh by the way why would I need to use the CTRL + F1 key in the bios ? I did try that earlier after I read it somewhere but it doesn't seem to do anything. I can see that there is slight "twitch" when I do that but that's pretty much all.

 

[mrfatboy]

Originally posted by: Wurmer
Thank for you answer, oh by the way why would I need to use the CTRL + F1 key in the bios ? I did try that earlier after I read it somewhere but it doesn't seem to do anything. I can see that there is slight "twitch" when I do that but that's pretty much all.

yes, the ctrl+f1 is not very intuitive. You will see a twitch in the main bios menu. When this happens it activates hidden bios options in the MIT menu.

 

[sztorok]

Originally posted by: borbs
If i update bios from f1 to f2 or f4b it messes up my wireless usb card, it doesnt get recognised! Anyone else with wireless usb?

Also i couldnt set up a stable raid0 with intel ich9r! I set up raid0 with 2x250gb drives and installed xp. Always got blue screens and constant freezes like someone mencioned here before. With gigaraid i get no problems but the performance is worst. Anyone else with this problem?

Also, anyone able to use eSATA? It doenst work here!! If i connect the esata to intels sata ports i get the same blue screens as i did with raid0! Cant try it with the gigabyte sata now cause theyre occupied with the raid drives.

With overclock i had no problems so far, i managed to put my e6600 (L629B) to 3600mhz in no time at 1.35v. Only orthos stable at 1.4125 in the bios because the vdrop is huge. When running orthos the vcore drops to 1.34v!! I would surely like to know how to make the vdrop mod in this board...anyone kows how to do it? My system temperature is at 55ºc idle, i think this is the mosfet temperatures and not the northbridge temp as i put 2 fans and articsilver 5 in the northbridge and the temperature remained the same! what are ure system temps? That 55º are at 400x9 3600mhz with 1.4125v in the bios.


Needless to say, im not very pleased with the board but dont know if this are problems with gigabyte or with intel drivers for ich9r. I hope this are problems with intels ich9r drivers!

 

[sztorok]

wireless usb is problematic w/ heaps of other boards too (eg my thinkpad w/ xp x32).
but its probably worth to wait for yet another bios ver.

as for the raid prob. you need the sp2 and the two driver floppy disquettes prepared
for the beginning of the install time (msm and gsata) - dont forget to press F6. After that you will be able to use the intelMatrixStorage tech. I was able to build two different raid volumes
(0 & 1) using only two wd5000ys hdds. one for security one for performance and the third one
is the system disk i boot from.

Dont forget to enable the ahci or raid mode in the bios - depending of what you need - this may be also the source of your eSATA problems. check the provided dongle and eSATA
cable - they are not the best quality - i was lucky and my chep ext HDD eSATA w/ the stock
cable - provided by the hdd enclosure manufacturer - runs flawlessly.

All the drivers are perfectly fine, just dont forget to download all the latest drivers for everything.

Other thoughts:
I am running xp x64 edition, which is notoriously hard to find-drivers-for and the only thing which is not working (crappy unmaintained drivers) is a pinnacle pctv pro AnalogTV/FM tuner card (i don't really care about it anyway).

My setup:
cpu: Q6600 (fsb at 400 x6Multip)
ram: 800MHz pc2-6400 5-5-5-15 4GB (2x2GB) (1:1 memory:fsb ratio)
mobo: see the topic
system disk: 1x wd5000ys (partitioned to 4 diff partitions for linux, xp x32, and other stuff)
raid0 & 1 (131GB & 399 GB espectively): 2x wd5000ys.
windows xp x64 (as the primary OS)

all this w/ a CM 732 case with a tiltable wide screen really makes for a powerful photoshop and multimedia workstation.

If only they (Gigabyte) provided firewire on this board it would be perfect. but that's already solved w/ a 3+1 firewire PCI controller.

I am testing this system (i had to replace the defective ram kit - i am not saying any names ;-) now for two days with different bios multiplyers and it runs pretty stable on the correct settings.

ah yes, my temps are idle: 30C-34C & load: 50C-65C depending on bios settings.
the prime95 v25.3 load on all four cores will generate 50C-51C with the current bios settings. with the stock intel HSF. I plan to replace it w/ a zalman cnps8700 and ArcticSilver5.

I am still in the process of finding a good way to measure NB temps... anyone w/ a solution?
Sz

 

[schjelderup]

Just bought GA-P35C-DS3R rev. 1.1. On gigabyte's web site there is no mention of rev. 1.1, but only of rev. 1.0 and 2.0. If I want to update my bios or drivers, which drivers/bios should I download - the ones for rev. 1.0 og rev. 2.0?

Thankyou

 

[Penalty]

Schjelderup That'e the way I read their site the first time I looked. Second time I noticed it really says 1.x not 1.0.

I would download the audio drivers from the site. I had a problem using the ones on the CD.

 

[Penalty]

Really bad- a triple post - Must be the alzhiemers

 

[Penalty]

Error- double post. Now know how that happens

 

[honolululu]

Originally posted by: schjelderup
Just bought GA-P35C-DS3R rev. 1.1. On gigabyte's web site there is no mention of rev. 1.1, but only of rev. 1.0 and 2.0. If I want to update my bios or drivers, which drivers/bios should I download - the ones for rev. 1.0 og rev. 2.0?

Thankyou

I have the 1.1 also. It still says rev 1.0 on the site but the f4g bios is working great for me. I wouldn't recommend the 2.0 if they are even out yet. But keep in mind I'm still learning.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[5t3v0]

According to Gigabyte UK, the BIOS for rev 1.0 is also for rev 1.1. I opened a support request to check. I'm still on F2 - is there any benefit to the F4b BIOS?

Great board. Arrived with the NB heatsink detached at one end so I refitted with AS5. Max NB temp is 51C. How does that compare to everyone else's?

 

[mrfatboy]

Originally posted by: 5t3v0
According to Gigabyte UK, the BIOS for rev 1.0 is also for rev 1.1. I opened a support request to check. I'm still on F2 - is there any benefit to the F4b BIOS?

Great board. Arrived with the NB heatsink detached at one end so I refitted with AS5. Max NB temp is 51C. How does that compare to everyone else's?

How did you find the temp for your Northbridge? I have a temp that is 45C in SpeedFan but I didn't know what it was for. Is it the NB temp? In Everest there is an AUX temp that reads 45C also. I'm assuming they are the same.

 

[5t3v0]

Sounds like it. I was using the C.O.M. program from the mobo disk. Probably get it off the dreadful Easytune app as well.

 

[Mezzo]

Hi- I'm new on this forum. I'm having issues with my new build with this mobo, and need a little advice (or a lot...). I can't find a compatible PSU. Here's the rig:

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R rev. 1.1
eVGA 8800 GTS
2GB Kingston RAM
E6600 CPU with standard heatsink
HD and ODD not connected yet
Antec 900 case

My first PSU was an Enermax 650 Infinity- I LOVED that unit. Rig would not POST, PSU would shut down immediately and beep at me (yes, it had beep codes).
Next was a trial cheapo Antec Basiq 500w which started everything fine. So I returned it and bought a BFG 650W.
Now I'm back to no POST and power immediately shutting down. I see a couple of Corsair units, and a Seasonic? Whadaya think?

 

[mrfatboy]

Originally posted by: Mezzo
Hi- I'm new on this forum. I'm having issues with my new build with this mobo, and need a little advice (or a lot...). I can't find a compatible PSU. Here's the rig:

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R rev. 1.1
eVGA 8800 GTS
2GB Kingston RAM
E6600 CPU with standard heatsink
HD and ODD not connected yet
Antec 900 case

My first PSU was an Enermax 650 Infinity- I LOVED that unit. Rig would not POST, PSU would shut down immediately and beep at me (yes, it had beep codes).
Next was a trial cheapo Antec Basiq 500w which started everything fine. So I returned it and bought a BFG 650W.
Now I'm back to no POST and power immediately shutting down. I see a couple of Corsair units, and a Seasonic? Whadaya think?

Take a look at everybody's Rig in their sig. That's what they are running. I really like my cosair 520w.

 

[Trajan76]

I've also got the Corsair 520w. Its basically a rebranded seasonic. But its still a really nice, quiet ps

 

[SniperDaws]

Hello gents, ive just got a q6600 G0, 2gig of XMS2 800Mhz Ram Cas4, and this P35C-DS3R Rev 1.1, now im new to intel this is my first intel chipset and CPU and its also my first Gigabyte board and im really confused by it all.


Could you please help me out with what options i should have turned on for best performance.

ive got it setup now on stock 266 with mem running 266 1:1
mem timings are set to 4-4-4-12
all voltages set to normal instead of auto.
C1E is on
TM2 is on
Virtualization is off
system operformance is set to Turbo but what does it do?

ive also been playing with C.I.A.2 and i find it pretty good and its stable on full thrust which OC's me auto to a tad under 3.0Ghz at i think its 330Mhz fsb.

EDIT: scrap that its not stable it crashed while running prime95.

what are the High speed DLL settings and what do they do i have 2
option 1
option 2
any tips will be appreciated

Thanks