***Unofficial Gigabyte X38 / EX38 Chipset Thread***

[Xpoc]

http://www.giga-byte.com/Suppo...el.aspx?ProductID=2736

Just thought I would let you know.

 

[Xpoc]

Adds option to add +.5 to cpu clock multiplier.

 

[bigsnyder]

@Xpoc

Would you have any interest in turning this into the unofficial thread dedicated to the Gigabyte X38 and EX38 family of boards? I know I would like some more help in understanding all the bells and whistles my GA-EX38-DS4 has to offer.

 

[Xpoc]

Done!

 

[idiotekniQues]

hey, i like this board!

 

[bigsnyder]

Which board do you have?

 

[idiotekniQues]

the one in my sig!


boy this board sure is popular!

 

[bigsnyder]

duh, don't know how missed that one.

 

[GoaGas]

Hi! Great idea to have 1 thread covering all variants of GB's X38 boards - lets hope its well supported & takes off. Only through contributions can it work & then many can reap the rewards & fully enjoy what looks like becoming a mighty fine chipset.

My tiny contribution is just a notice to any other X38-DS5 readers that Gigabyte has released a new F6 BIOS that claims improved memory performance. I've had it a few days now & it seems to be good & stable.

... & a bit of discussion: does anyone know why a DS5 shows up in Gigabyte's System Info tool & CPU-z as a DQ6?
Also did the DS5 ever reach the States? Has the EX38-DS5 got there? If not; Why? Its a superb board.

 

[bhatch]

I just wanted to say i really like the GA-X38-DS4 i have.

I am currently running a Celeron 420 at 3.2ghz with Mushkin Em ram at 4-4-4-10 trimming with the tRD of 5 and have not even really begun to stress the system

This is a really good board.

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: GoaGas
... & a bit of discussion: does anyone know why a DS5 shows up in Gigabyte's System Info tool & CPU-z as a DQ6?
Also did the DS5 ever reach the States? Has the EX38-DS5 got there? If not; Why? Its a superb board.

@GoaGas
The DS5 probably shows up as a DQ6 because they are essentially the same minus a few details. The DS5 has not been released in the US, nor is not even listed on Gigabyte's US site. Since the EX38-DS4 has been released, I doubt it will since the only difference is basically the extra two SATA ports attached the to JMicron controller.

@anyone
Anyone using CoreTemp? My idle temps seem really high (hovers around 44-47 degrees C) which is around 10-12 degrees higher than Coretemp reported on my 775Dual. I probably need to reapply my HSF, but wanted to double check to see if the temps reported by the board tend to be on the high side. I am only pushing about 2.5Ghz on my e6400. Even at stock it doesn't really run any cooler.

Last question, anyone use the included utilities from the driver CD?

 

[Xpoc]

Bios f3 says "Enhance memory performance(support XMP 1.1)"

Does anyone here use the extra 0.5 multi? I'm using 9.5 x 400 = 3800mhz. No software verifies that it works

EDIT: You can use 8.5 X or lower. You can't go above 9 X as it's locked. lol

 

[GoaGas]

What has the States done to upset Gigabyte? They finally produce the top of the range board without all the bling (No backplate; no Quad-everything) that everyone has been calling for & then don't release it in the Gamers & Builders biggest marketplace. The difference with the DS4 is much more than 2 SATAs; but 2 SATAs are a big difference on their own. I've had mine for 3 months with no hic-ups & I keep trawling the internet to look for any potential problems; but no-one is reporting anything (which might be a 1st for new HQ mobos!). This board isn't a luxury car - it's a sports car. I suggest anyone in the States who is interested in getting a really good Gigabyte X38 board either look overseas or hassle Gb into supplying them.

@bigsnyder: The only utilities i use is Gb's System Info Tool - its great for showing exactly what you have in your box.

 

[bigsnyder]

As far as the differences, it depends on which variants we are talking about (X38 vs EX38).
I agree, the EX38 variant of the DS5 would have really been nice.

Just for reference for those interested:

Pics of:
GA-X38-DS4
GA-EX38-DS4
GA-X38-DS5
GA-EX38-DS5
GA-X38-DQ6
GA-EX38-DQ6

Comparison of all six:
Page 1 (EX38 variants)
Page 2 (X38 variants)

EX38 vs X38
Just some quick observations, (the DES should be a given) all the EX38 boards use the virtual "12-phase" power regulation, but drops the molex connector near the atx power connector. They also all feature dual Gigabit LAN controllers (8111C for DQ6 and DS5, 8111B for DS4). Outside of those two things, everything else seems to be that same as their respective regular X38 versions.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i wanted 8 SATA ports too but the DQ6 was too expensive. the DS5 would be nice but the DS4 is so stable and full featured as is it is hard to complain.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Big Snyder Wrote:

"If you are not overclocking, then DDR2 800 will be sufficient, but depending on price, the DDR2 1066 still might be worth your consideration. A 2x2GB set of G.Skill is going for about $145 currently at Newegg. If that is beyond what you want spend, then take a look at this set of DDR2 1000. for just $100 bucks shipped. Your choice of parts looks good, the only thing I would have done different would be the hard drive choice. Unless access times are super critical, similiar performance can be achieved at a much lower cost per GB with the newer 250GB and 320GB platter drives. Thats just me, but other than that it looks like a fine build.

@any Gigabyte X38/EX38 owner or perspective owner
There is now an owner's thread dedicated to this family of boards, so any feedback and input will greatly be appreciated. Check it out here. "



I just got my GA-EX38-DS4 this weekend (still need to get some memory).

So far I have these parts and was just wondering if it was a decent choice or not?


GA-EX38-DS4
Thermaltake Toughpower 700W modular design (love not having all those messy cables)
Intel Core Quad Q6600 processor
Western Digital 150 gig 10k rpm Raptor (on sale at Microcenter for $159 this week)
Diamond Radeon HD3870 Ruby edition video card
Antec Sonata Case (very quiet case)

I am currently on the fence about which memory to get for it. I want 4 gigs but can't decide if I really need the PC8500 (1066mhz) or if I should go with the cheaper PC6400 (800 Mhz) memory. I won't be overclocking this system.

Anyone have any ideas on the memory? Should I just get ddr2 800, or ddr2 1066?

Also, I keep having this in my mind from years back. Is it true that the memory speed determines the FSB speed? I can't remember, or does the memory speed play any role at all in how fast the FSB is?

I thought I read somewhere that the speed difference is very minimal between the 2 (800 mhz and 1066mhz memory) but I'm not sure. I was hoping to pick up two 2 gig modules (or is it alot cheaper to do 4 one gig modules instead)? I remember I ran into that dilema with my last build.

I normally don't like to fill all the memory slots with a new build though, in case I expand in the future but 4 gigs is alot, especially considering XP pro limitations.

Also, for those that have had this board running for awhile now, what do you think? Still like it?

I'm hoping to post this week once I decide on the memory.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Thanks. My price range for the memory is between $150 and $199.

Not sure about G.Skill though as they aren't listed in the qvl, also, that $99 piece seems like a little bit of an oddball at 1000mghz even (not 1066), speed of 1000mhz is not listed in the qvl for this board. What is the deal with that speed not being listed in the qvl anyway?

Leads to another question, is there any reason to even follow the qvl since it leaves out so many different manufactures of memory?

Another question, the DS4 manual says to use 1.8 volt memory but the G-Skill link is for 2.0 - 2.1v, and not 1.8. Is it okay to use 2.0 - 2.1 even though the user manual says 1.8?

Any downsides to that? Does that affect timing settings I would have to change, etc.?

I like the GSkill mem link but am just wondering why the specs don't match the user manual. It's definately in my price range.

I'm kinda leaning towards Corsair or OCZ, haven't checked the prices yet, was just about to.

I went with the Raptor because I had a previous 74Gig Raptor that I loved and I have just become used to high rotation drives. Have a 15k Scsci x15 drive I use at work and love that thing, maybe it's more hype than anything but they do market the Raptor as being the fastest sata drive in the world for whatever that is worth. I agree, it is extremely overpriced per gigabyte though.

Luckily, space concerns have never been a problem for me, even with space consuming lightwave renderings, I usually move them to slower drives over time, and for this system I may pop in a WD 500 sata for drive D: for side by side speed comparisons and the extra space.

I guess I'm looking for the simplest choice, I also don't want to bother with memory timings and such things, I just want to pop in the memory and go, not sure if that affects the decision here or not.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get memory that could also overclock just in case I changed my mind on overclocking, however, then I'd have to upgrade the stock cooler and I don't even really want to do that.

Trying to keep the build simple but still have it be fast. Sometimes overclocking becomes a perfection tweaking game and I don't want to really mess with it, looking for stability and speed the most with less tweaking, more out of the box performance you could say.

Does Cas latency come into play here? I remember on one of my older builds Cas 5 latency was a big deal, not sure if it still is today or if it only is for overclocking, or needed more for 'out of the box' speed. There has to be a better word for that term, can't think of it at the moment however.

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, just trying to learn quickly. I usually go through this whenever I wait too long between builds.

I think this will become a very useful thread for this motherboard.

I used to only buy Asus boards however, the x38 Asus board I was looking at seemed like it had a few issues so I thought I'd give Gigabyte a shot. Didn't they buy Asus anyway or something? Thought I read that.

 

[idiotekniQues]

if you arent oc'ing all you need is 667mhz ddr2

i would go ahead and get some 800mhz ddr2 ram just in case you oc down the road. i have some ocz ram whose stock volts are 1.8v. if you get some good pc6400 ram, it should have some good timings at stock 667mhz speeds and so you will be in good shape latency/tming wise.

but you need nothing over pc6400 ram.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Really? So there is no performance gain to be had whatsoever on a non-overclocked GA-EX38-DS4 with ddr2 667 versus ddr2 800\1066?

So those two speed options that the motherboard supports are for overclocking and futureproofing only and not even needed on the board except for those 2 reasons?

Just want to confirm that. I'm shocked, but, it doesn't surprise me.

I always thought that the rule of thumb was to get the fastest memory you could afford that the motherboard supports, but I must have been mistaken. I remember a while back when there was some 400mhz memory that allowed certain speed performances if purchased (for instance PAT technology on the old PC800 Deluxe, etc., but if it's just for overclocking and futureproofing only, I guess I would be ok with ddr2 800mhz instead of ddr2 1066mhz.

Maybe I should start pricing out the ddr2 800mhz instead of 1066mhz. I was wondering why yourself and others had stopped at 800 and not gone up to 1066mhz on your new DS4's.

Hmm.

 

[Xpoc]

Lol I probably own the Asus X38 board you mentioned. The P5E, and it's RMA'd . lol
I bought a P35-DS3L to hold me over till the X38 P5E gets back, but wasn't satisfied. So I bought the X38-DS4. Lol now I have 2 extra mobo's.

If you use the g-skill you might have to boot with the clear cmos jumper in the clear position. That way you can enter bios and change voltage. But shutdown afterwards and remove the jumper.

The lower the cas/ram timings, the faster the ram.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Indeed, it was the P5E I was looking at.

Went with the DS4 because of the P5E reviews of problems, etc.

Noticed you scored a Wolfdale, that was the chip I wanted but was jacked to $300+ for the $199 MSRP part. That is the only reason I got the Q6600 instead.

I don't want to use G-skill if it's going to cause any additional problems however. This clearing the c-mos business, why would I want to do that? Can't I just get memory to pop in and have everything just be fine at first post?

Perhaps I should stick to OCZ or Corsair, both are listed on the qvl.

 

[Xpoc]

If you get ram with the 2.1v spec it might not post, becaues of stock bios volts. The way to get it to post would be to boot with the cmos jumper in the clear position. Then you could go in bios and change voltage, shutdown, remove jumper and reboot. That's why I mentioned it.

 

[Xpoc]

I got my wolfedale the first few days it was released here. I knew it would be hard to get if I waited.

 

[LittleScoobyMaster]

Good call on the Wolfdale.

So, what is the benefit of using 2.1v over the motherboards supported 1.8v?

Is the 2.1v strictly for overclocking as well, or does it also provide a non-overclocked system with some extra performance or something?

In my situation (desire for less tweaking\hassle), wouldn't I be better off getting 1.8v and avoiding the cmos resettting, or is there a good reason to go against the motherboard specs of 1.8?

Just curious as I havent followed this stuff for a long time and was never much for overclocking.

 

[Xpoc]

Only good reason for going to the 2.1v ram would be for better timings and overclocking. If I were you i would just get a low voltage pair of 2gb sticks with decent timings.

My Patriot ram at stock is 1.8v with 5-5-5-15 timings. It also has other settings, like 2.2v for 4-4-4-12 timings and . I use the 4-4-4-12 settings.