I own a Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard and i built my system around it back in May of 07. One of the reasons why i picked this board is because it seemed futureproof at the time, based on the info available back then i thought i could use an AM2+ CPU with an AM2 board. I want to upgrade to Phemon 9850 BE but i can't do it since there is no BIOS for this board to support Phenom CPUs. It turns out that this issue was not limited to Gigabyte alone after the Phenom was launched, according to this article in Tom's all board manufacturers with the exeption of Asus had either no BIOS update to support the Phenom or the BIOS didn't work:
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...motherboards,1749.html
I don't know if other manufacturers resolved this by now, but i'm still waiting for a new BIOS for my board. This is further complicated by misinfortation provided to me by Gigabyte tech support. I placed a call to Gigabyte USA support back in the Fall of 07 asking them when will the BIOS that supports Phenom CPUs will be released, the answer was that the BIOS will be available after the Phenom launch. But of course it wasn't. I periodically checked their site since hoping it would appear in the BIOS download section. I was getting tired of waiting so i recently placed another call to Gigabyte USA and asked them about the new BIOS. The tech told me that nforce590 chipset doesn't support Phenom CPUs. After i pointed out that the Asus Crosshair nforce590 chipset board does support the new Phenoms he told me that my particulart motherboard doesn't. Again, i asked him how could that be the case since every Gigabyte board from the nforce500 chipset family supports either X3 or X4 Phenoms or both. He had no answer for me. I don't know if this tech was trying to misinform me or was misinformed by his higher ups or whether he was telling the truth, his answer just didn't seem plausible.
But i do know this: Gigabyte discontinued the GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard for no apparent reason back in May of 07 right after i bought it. After that it released only 1 BIOS update for it. And now no Phenom support. It seems to me, and i'm only making a guess here, that the reason why there is no Phenom support for this board is because it was discontinued. Like i mentioned above, all other Gigabyte nforce500 boards did get a new BIOS. It is still a mystery why was this board discontinued in the first place: there is nothing wrong with it, i didn't have a single problem with it and it is the best i ever owned. Not to mention that it is an enthusiast-class flagship Gigabyte board for AM2.
This is not good news for Gigabyte, especially after the nforce680i fiasco that i read about in this forum. In this case i don't want any refunds or exchanges, i just want a BIOS that supports the Phenom CPUs or if it is not possible a truthful explanation from Gigabyte. I'm asking all the owners of this board if you actually know something about this, if you do know something please post here.
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...motherboards,1749.html
I don't know if other manufacturers resolved this by now, but i'm still waiting for a new BIOS for my board. This is further complicated by misinfortation provided to me by Gigabyte tech support. I placed a call to Gigabyte USA support back in the Fall of 07 asking them when will the BIOS that supports Phenom CPUs will be released, the answer was that the BIOS will be available after the Phenom launch. But of course it wasn't. I periodically checked their site since hoping it would appear in the BIOS download section. I was getting tired of waiting so i recently placed another call to Gigabyte USA and asked them about the new BIOS. The tech told me that nforce590 chipset doesn't support Phenom CPUs. After i pointed out that the Asus Crosshair nforce590 chipset board does support the new Phenoms he told me that my particulart motherboard doesn't. Again, i asked him how could that be the case since every Gigabyte board from the nforce500 chipset family supports either X3 or X4 Phenoms or both. He had no answer for me. I don't know if this tech was trying to misinform me or was misinformed by his higher ups or whether he was telling the truth, his answer just didn't seem plausible.
But i do know this: Gigabyte discontinued the GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard for no apparent reason back in May of 07 right after i bought it. After that it released only 1 BIOS update for it. And now no Phenom support. It seems to me, and i'm only making a guess here, that the reason why there is no Phenom support for this board is because it was discontinued. Like i mentioned above, all other Gigabyte nforce500 boards did get a new BIOS. It is still a mystery why was this board discontinued in the first place: there is nothing wrong with it, i didn't have a single problem with it and it is the best i ever owned. Not to mention that it is an enthusiast-class flagship Gigabyte board for AM2.
This is not good news for Gigabyte, especially after the nforce680i fiasco that i read about in this forum. In this case i don't want any refunds or exchanges, i just want a BIOS that supports the Phenom CPUs or if it is not possible a truthful explanation from Gigabyte. I'm asking all the owners of this board if you actually know something about this, if you do know something please post here.
