Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME Living Review

[Mafio]

xeon e3110 @3.915 (435 * 9)

[supershanks]

Interesting chip, what made you opt for that instead of e8400 ?
you might find your pi times improve slightly if you raise fsb a bit if you raise fsb a bit

[Mafio]

the max value of vid range is lower for the xeon.
server cpu is more selcted than desktop cpu.
i want test the ram, not do a good super-pi time



CPU-Z Validator 2.1

all at 2.56 volt

[supershanks]

yes that's right their supposed to be better binned by all accounts . I have a xeon 3230 the equivalent of the Q6700 it's actually a higher vid than the Intel equivalent so aren't fully convinced. Think I'd still opt for a xweon though if they were available as an alternative, depending on the premium.

[Raybo58]

Originally Posted by supershanks

Nice one mate and thanks for the great post.

Eva and myself bot noticed the MCH voltages in our plays with the board I've mentioned it several times , including post just before your last one Eva talks about it here Eva2k post#98
Though we were thinking 1.32~1.34v not Zodden but whatever works

Sorry, my bad. I didn't read anything between my last and previous post.

Since then I've had another problem followed by a new discovery.

Later in the same day as my last post I was listening to music for a few hours and my rig locked up mid-song.

Experience was leading me to believe that whenever I had lockups involving media or 3D applications that they were more than likely memory related. So I spent a day tweaking timings and frequencies without much luck.

In virtually all of the examles I've seen so far, people generally leave the DRAM Termination and Reference voltages at either 0.9000 (Default), 1.0000, or AUTO. In my case, using any of these three settings seemed to make no difference one way or the other in solving problems.

So just on a random whim I decided to try something. The Default DRAM voltage listed for my Viper sticks is 2.3v. So I brought it down to 1.9v, which is .1v above the BIOS default of 1.8v. Then I set the Termination and Reference voltages to 0.9000 and brought the DRAM voltage back up to 2.3v, allowing the others to scale automatically. Which gave me 1.1000v for each of them. Which is way into the red zone in my BIOS color scale. But apparently that's what they needed.

Performace jumped dramatically. I was still getting some errors, so I brought the clock frequency down a bit and now I can run my memory at the tightest possible settings and it remains rock stable.

At least for me it seems like passing Memtest86 doesn't neccessarily garantee that your sticks are stable. It's still a great tool for helping you narrow in on problems. But in my case, in addition to an error free run of Memtest, I've got to let DroneZmark run overnight and then play a good 3 hours of UT3 with all the visual settings maxed before I feel confident that she'll handle the rendering loads of my work flawlessly.

And with these new numbers, she does exactly that.

GIGABYTE GA-EP45_DS3R
[u]MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster .............: Turbo
CPU Clock Ratio .....................: 8.5
CPU Frequency .......................: 4.26 ghz
Clock Chip Control 
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control...............: Enabled
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 502 Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........: 103 Mhz
C.I.A. 2.............................: Disabled
Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive...............800....: 800mv
PCI Express Clock Drive.......900....: 900mv
CPU Clock Skew (ps)...........0......: 0ps
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...........0......: 0ps
DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance..................: Turbo
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.)......: Disabled
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: 333 mhz
System Memory Multiplier ............: 2.40b
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 1205 Mhz
DRAM Timing Selectable ..............: Manual
Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time..............5......: 5
tRCD .........................7......: 5
tRP'..........................7......: 5
tRAS..........................20.....: 14
Advanced Timing Control [Press Enter]
tRRD..........................4......: 4
tWTR..........................4......: 4
tWR...........................8......: 8
tRFC..........................68.....: 51
tRTP..........................4......: 4
Command Rate (CMD) ...........0......: 2T

Channel A

Channel A Timings Settings [Press Enter] 
Static tRead Value............8......: 8
tRD Phase0 Adjustmen..........0......: Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment.........0......: Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ........0......: Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment.........0......: Auto

Trd2rd(Different Rank)........8......: 8 
Twr2wr(Different Rank)........8......: 8
Twr2rd(Different Rank)........7......: 7 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)........9......: 9 

Dimm1 Clock Skew Control.............: Auto
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control.............: Auto
DDR3 Write Training .................: Enabled
Channel A Driving Settings [Press Enter] 
Driving Strength Profile:............: OC-1200
Data Driving Pull-Up Level...........: Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Up Level............: Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Up Level...........: Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Up Level............: Auto 

Data Driving Pull-Down Level.........: Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Down Level..........: Auto
Ctrl Driving Pull-Down Level.........: Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Down Level..........: Auto 

Channel B

Channel B Timings Settings [Press Enter] 
Static tRead Value............8......: 8
tRD Phase0 Adjustment.........0......: Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment.........0......: Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment ........0......: Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment.........0......: Auto

Trd2rd(Different Rank)........6......: 8 
Twr2wr(Different Rank)........6......: 8
Twr2rd(Different Rank)........5......: 7 
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)........8......: 9 

Dimm1 Clock Skew Control.............: Auto
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control.............: Auto
DDR3 Write Training .................: Enabled

Channel B Driving Settings [Press Enter] 
Driving Strength Profile:............: OC-1200

Data Driving Pull-Up Level...........: Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Up Level............: Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Up Level...........: Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Up Level............: Auto 

Data Driving Pull-Down Level.........: Auto 
Cmd Driving Pull-Down Level..........: Auto 
Ctrl Driving Pull-Down Level.........: Auto 
Clk Driving Pull-Down Level..........: Auto 

{U]Motherboard Voltage Control{/U]
Voltage Type........ Normal 
CPU
CPU Vcore...................1.325v...: 1.50000v
CPU Termination.............1.200V...: 1.280v
CPU PLL.....................1.500V...: 1.500v
CPU Reference...............0.76V....: 0.835v
MCH/ICH
MCH Core....................1.100V...: 1.320v
MCH Reference...............0.76V....: 0.730v
MCH/DRAM Ref................0.900V...: 0.900v
ICH I/O.....................1.500V...: 1.500v
DRAM
DRAM Voltage................1.800V...: 2.3000v
DRAM Termination............0.900V...: 1.1000
Channel A Reference.........0.900V...: 1.1000
Channel B Reference.........0.900V...: 1.1000
[b]{U]Advanced Settings[b]{U]
Limit CPUID Max. to 3................: Disabled
No-Execute Memory Protect............: Disabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)..............: Disabled
CPU Thermal Monitor(TM) .............: Disabled
CPU EIST Function....................: Disabled

Temps hover mainly in the low 60's with occasional peaks.

And I managed to squeak out a little more bandwidth....


Sorry for all the space I've taken up. I just wanted the most accurate numbers I have to be available to those who might need them.

[Mafio]

my new daily use

[supershanks]

I found that if I wanted to push my ram on from 1150Mhz I needed to up my sub voltages. Though I had set them at a lower base than the original in any event. Up to 1150Mhz I ran 0.900v on 2.00v vdimm 45% vdimm

for 1150 at 2.22vdimm with 1.010v = 45.5% a notch up on previous. above this i've upped it further :-
Highest mem clock I had was 4,600 8.5x542@2.40b 1,300Mhz 5-5-5-18
where I used 2.40v and 1.16v (1.18v on Mch/dram ref) 48.33% vdimm. that was with Cellshock CS2221650 DDR2 1150Mhz 5-5-5-18 not crucial ballistix.

at 0.90v with 1.90v vdimm your on 47.36% so pushing ram ie >1150mhz , looks like we're pretty well in same ballpark.

Nice to see your running well now. I'm currently running with 4gb of ram. Though i have 2 sets of ballistix they won't play together as 1 set is single sided. I'm currenly running with the double sided Ballistix 8500 & the above celllshock at 1150mhz. 24/7

Sorry for all the space I've taken up. I just wanted the most accurate numbers I have to be available to those who might need them.

don't be daft it's great info , thank's for taking the time to poast it

[supershanks]

Nice going Mafio

[Mafio]

thx

edit: someone of you can run fsb @500 and ram @ 1250 with 266 strap???
my pc don't boot over 470 also with high mch, vtt and ram voltage...

[geo69]

Ok hi guy's need some help for the sound issues on the MOBO, I need to know if vista 64 just sucks or can something be done. On to my problem. I have the system running smoothly and would like to put a karaoke system on it for my daughter but to be able to do that i have to be able to monitor the mic input. Guess what after hours of internet surfing i get answers from it's not possible in vista to it's a realtek problem. Does any body have this board with the mic input monitored. I can record sound clips no problem but for karaoke i need to be able to here the mic through the speakers. the other sound related issue is the HDMI pass through i have the ATI 4870 video card and all i can get is 2 channel stereo to pass through HDMI, I know this is possibly an ATI issue just wondering if some one has run into the same problem on this board. As usual any help is appreciated.