Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R Living Review - Page 9

Nickel · #81 15-02-2009, 00:59

Hey Supershanks,
thanks for the awesome reviews, they have been of real use to me for quite some time now

.

I'm currently writing up an overclocking guide specifically for Gigabyte (and later on Asus) boards for the TweakTown Gigabyte support forums (amongst others).
I was wondering whether you would mind if I used your BIOS pictures (no hotlinking of course)? I'm not exactly keen on taking all those pictures myself and formatting them if they already exist

Also, quite a few people have had problems with the UD3R/P when trying to run the RAM in dual channel. The board just won't boot for them. The RAM is perfectly OK though and single channel with two DIMMs in slot 1&2 work.
Have you had any such issues? I told them to play with the DIMM Clock Skew and I'm waiting for them tor eport back now...

Thanks!

ACook · #82 15-02-2009, 04:46

I tried to be quick and dirty and use a spare stick of memory I pulled from my current machine some time ago.

I wasn't really thinking, and at first it seemed fine. Because it was booting.

However, it displays the gigabyte bootscreen, but the keyboard won't respond. tried both usb and a confirmed working ps2 one. at boot there was the normal numlock etc lights flashing.
Don't think there was any beeping either. all the flashy lights at the top were on.

Then I took a closer look at the memory. It's a 533MHz piece - that's prolly not working for the Q8200 @ 333MHz stock, is it?

seating the cpu also seemed hard, but it wasn't misplaced, it just took quite some force to get the lever right down, the old pins on the cpu and plugging it in the socket, then closing it with sliding action seems much more secure.

I'll try again with the 800 stuff that's in my current pc

supershanks · #83 15-02-2009, 09:17

Hi Nickel,
Welcome to the forums

You have a PM re pics. :0
No not seen that. what kind of chips are they using ?
All my ddr2 is Micron based.
Only issue i've had with this board is down to a weak chipset.

supershanks · #84 15-02-2009, 09:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by ACook

It's a 533MHz piece - that's prolly not working

Yes I'd try your 800Mhz Ram & see how that is.
Sometimes the hinge on the socket flap doesn't quiet line up and makes it harder to fasten the cpu down.I usually angle it at 45~60 degrees and pull the flap, it seems to fit slightly better and the lever doesn't need quiet as much pressure.

Nickel · #85 15-02-2009, 13:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by supershanks

No not seen that. what kind of chips are they using ?
All my ddr2 is Micron based.
Only issue i've had with this board is down to a weak chipset.

It's really weird, since you have people with exactly the same system specs where one guy has the problem and the other one doesn't. For example AnandTech use GSkill PI 1066 for their review, several people with this RAM have the problem though while others don't. The affected people also tried all kinds of different RAM and every RAM gives the same problem.
Some people RMA'ed the board and got a new one back with the same problem. I guess a new board might have fixed it for some, but those people don't rend to report back, so who knows.

I think it can it only be the board though since different RAM Kits cause the same problem and single channel is perfectly stable

supershanks · #86 15-02-2009, 15:00

Yes your spot on it is strange how components work, or don't work together. Whilst I don't doubt there is an issue for some as you describe, sometimes the issue gets blown out of proportion, cos some aren't patient, read the forum posts about the issue and attribute their failure to that.

Gigabyte appear to be readying a new board revision, for the UD3 P45range, I'm waiting for feedback of what the changes are, maybe it includes a remedy ?

Nickel · #87 15-02-2009, 15:14

You mean something newer than 1.1 or are you talking about 1.1? One guy had a UD3R 1.0 and one 1.1 and both had the same issue.
Rev. 1.1 seems to be available in the US already, not here in Europe though.

I mean why shouldn't 4 RAM kits not work at stock settings in dual channel but work perfectly in single channel? I'm positive this is a real issue and not people being incapable of adjusting basic BIOS settings.

supershanks · #88 15-02-2009, 16:11

Quote:

I'm positive this is a real issue and not people being incapable of adjusting basic BIOS settings.

As I said

Quote:

I don't doubt there is an issue for some as you describe,

It might be worthwhile playing with MCH Ref. this is linked to VTT (CPU Termination) I did notice that when playing with my ram settings when trying for RAM Stability that I often failed to boot and got the dreaded oc fail loop with the board unable to recover. Dropping MCH Ref to =< 0.74 sorted it which was odd, as My Extreme was Perfect on 0.768.

Yes I mean v1.1 oh well that's maybe another revision then

Nickel · #89 15-02-2009, 16:20

Oh, I think I failed to mention that these problems already occur at stock settings.
I had them play MCH core, but you're right that MCH Ref might help, don#t know why I didn't think of that.

ACook · #90 15-02-2009, 20:53

I used the proper 800DDR2 sticks this afternoon.

It took a few tries, but eventually all slots booted fine with either 1 or 2 sticks at stock.

So while a single slot at one point didn't boot, a re-seat of the same slot actually did boot. So this may be a point to make to those problems discussed above.