***X58A-OC*** Club/Discussion/Information

X58A-OC CLUB/DISCUSSION/INFO

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4210/28166987.jpg

Reviews:
Sin0822- Physical Review
Chew -Review

BIOS:
014
F3
F4C (4G button doesn't work)
F5B
Some need to know:
Measure voltages with DMM, especially VTT

signs in :D

Nice looking board. I really dont need another x58 board, Im hooked on SB for now but.... I will probably order one.

I would like to see more boards like this, with enough support hopefully this will be the first of many boards to come out in the future designed by overclockers.

sin please reupload BIOS link,thanks.
Seems .fileserve.com is down.

Edit:
Thanks for new link Sin
X58A-OC - 014

http://i4.aijaa.com/b/00683/7930032.bmp

Nice... another thread to subscribe. Just crossing fingers that this will be available here in Singapore as well.

glad it worked stasio!

Yea i am interested this thread should be very interesting.

We got it :)
Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC pre-review
Just a few moments - but first impression is positive

I wish they'd release the damn board in the US already so I that I'd have something to post about. This is the last part I need. :mad:

no too much longer mate

Care to define how much longer not to much longer is? :)

i wish i knew an exact date :( but i was told soon enough.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

i wish i knew an exact date :( but i was told soon enough.

---

That is about as good as I have dammit! :eek:

I have a *lot* of hardware going mouldy here waiting for these boards to complete builds :yepp:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

i wish i knew an exact date :( but i was told soon enough.

---

Thanks. I have (2) GTX 580 3GB en route and I want to give them a home along with a bunch of other crap. :D Was going to pick up a 990X... any idea when the 995X will be out?

i have no idea, but id wait until the X58A-OC is released to buy a new processor :)

update guys, it just shipped from GIGABYTE Factory in Taiwan, its already going to be available there tonight, but it should be in stores withing 1-3weeks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

update guys, it just shipped from GIGABYTE Factory in Taiwan, its already going to be available there tonight, but it should be in stores withing 1-3weeks.

---

Thanks for the update. Here as Taiwan or Northern VA? ;) Seems that I'll be staring at boxes full of parts for a bit longer.

Taiwan, i didn't know GB had a factory in VA! LOL

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

Taiwan, i didn't know GB had a factory in VA! LOL

---

Thought you said "here" and not "there." Wishful thinking on my part. Hehe.

haha sorry about my pronouns man, but yea the statement said in the TW markets by nighttime, i bet next week we will see them start selling.

F4C is newer then 014 right ?

yes its teh newest Beta, but F3 is pretty good too. The BIOSes are listed in order :)

Any significant changes from 014 to F3? Running 014 at the moment and wondering if it's worth flashing and retesting everything.

On sale at the egg $379 tho
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128497

wtf

WoW $379 plus tax & shipping puts this over $400... ekk
To much for me

I would rather get a UD5 for almost $100 cheaper and has plenty of features that can be used for other things. Plus from Chews report it OC's just as well, if not better is some cases.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128422

the multi change is what sets it apart...or does ud5 have that already? lol i dunno

Take it for what its worth

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=269500

Yes the OC has some nice features that some many like and want. UD5 is no weakling when it comes to OCing either.

Brian used the same chip for both boards so we can get a good idea on how they match up.

To me it all boils down the the CPU that wil make or break either of these boards.

It would be nice to see a 980x/990x used on both boards and compare also. No ES chips please, just retails.

Same chip on each board that is.

The thing that should do it for the OC board was the initial low retail price in the 250 dollar region. Though etailers here are also more talking about 400 dollars which really kills it as many will still go for a more feature equipped board alike UD7/RE 3.

We will see on the 21st when we have a launch party at Tones...

Ouch yeah this board is much more than I anticipated. :( I was thinking $300 at the most

One french e-shop sells it 250€ but not in stock

I bought one from the Egg. More then I wanted to pay but still want to check it out.

I never had a Giga board. I wonder how this board stacks up against the REBE

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

WoW $379 plus tax & shipping puts this over $400... ekk
To much for me

I would rather get a UD5 for almost $100 cheaper and has plenty of features that can be used for other things. Plus from Chews report it OC's just as well, if not better is some cases.

---

Yeah, I don't quite see the savings from removing the unnecessary components... It's a great looking board, but $400 is too much. $300 would be much more reasonable. $250 would be fantastic! :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hondacity

wtf

---

WTF is right. What happened to ~$280. :rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deux

Any significant changes from 014 to F3? Running 014 at the moment and wondering if it's worth flashing and retesting everything.

---

why not just flick the bios switch and test it on the second bios ;), that's what it's there for

F3 gave me better benchmark scores

anyways got a PB this weekend with my i7 930 5.250ghz puts me in #9 on hwbot for cpu clock. Not bad i am surrounded by all R3Es LOL.
http://hwbot.org/community/submission/2166192_
I was able to maximize CB to -90c
the board is too easy and fun to use! I laugh so hard b/c my 930 wont do over ~220blc on air(on any board i test), that is with slow mode.

Anyways more to come and some nice benches soon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zalbard

Yeah, I don't quite see the savings from removing the unnecessary components... It's a great looking board, but $400 is too much. $300 would be much more reasonable. $250 would be fantastic! :up:

---

The board just released....UD9 was $700 when it came out. This one is almost half the price of that on release day. It was planned to be released even cheaper but some delays and changes have increased the cost of production unfortunately.

Have you looked up what the new R3B is selling on its release? I see 200 reasons why it makes sense to remove :banana::banana::banana::banana: we don't need and put things we do want

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ge%203%20black

to be honest not much was removed?

SATA6G? Yes there and MUCH better than SATA6G on any other X58 board except the G1 sERIES, you can actually RAID 0 with SAT6G SSDs with Marvel SE9182
USB 3.0? Yes its still here, but two ports with a different Etron tech controller, so some money saved maybe on 4 ports?
eSATA no, but who uses eSATA?
USb 2.0? Not totally gone, total of 2 on the back panel and 2 through USb 2.0 header
IEEE? No but who uses it anyways?
PCI? yes x1
PS2? yes X2
PCI-E layout? better than any other GB X58 board other than the UD9 and G1

Cost for features like USB cut of course, but not by much, maybe an extra Ti IEEE controller or using more USB 3.0 through a NEC controller would increase costs a bit, and traces and cost for engineering and PCB would have increased a bit as well if they used more of the 14 available USB 2.0 outputs from ICH10R which is already there. In teh end a small cut in conectivity which was put towards power delivery.


Power delivery? POSCaps 100% is a HUGE cost
Loss of DrMOS in half= savings
Addition of special order 50A Core chokes= Large cost
ISl 6336G= same as other boards

other VRMs same components but Low rds on FETs same as other GB boards, but high quality Caps and Chokes.

VRM price increased, considering the entire board has all upgraded components, the Chokes which are special order for this board, and POSCaps are prob the most expensive tantalum caps they could have used. VRM cost over UD7 and UD5=Huge.


Features that cost:
DIP switches for SF and BIOS
Buttons and nuvoton special order controller for buttons and 4g button prob wasn't cheap either.
Extra hardware monitoring IC= Windbond IC + iTE IC which also took more engineering like the G1 actually.
Special heatsinks and LEDs in heatsinks, prob a smaller cost, but one that counts.

This board has much better power delivery than the UD5 and UD7 on top of that it has more OC features, not much for connectivity was cut out. Its not like this board lacks USb 3.0 and SATA6G.

That is my take, but others might disagree, but after playing with this board for a month now, I gotta say its been just a pleasure to work with. other than my oc ability nothing is holding this board back, pushed 250blck on my crappy 930, pushed 6.6ghz on my 990x, its just a joy to work with, and even easier to OC than any board I have ever played with.

This board is a gateway drug to the addiction of extreme overclocking, at least for me it has been, for others who already have been long time benching LN2 its prob a welcomed change.

I really wanted to buy this board, but now I highly doubt. :shakes: Price is to high, especially this late in the game. :down:
I'll probably stick to my R3E until socket 2011 and/or 1356 comes out.

i think its 2011

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

Have you looked up what the new R3B is selling on its release? I see 200 reasons why it makes sense to remove :banana::banana::banana::banana: we don't need and put things we do want

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ge%203%20black

---

I gave up on ASUS a while ago. :up: No way I'd pick up R3B, even if it was $200 cheaper.
And removing the extra stuff is great. It both gets rid of the clutter (and thus the extra effort to turn things off) and allows to save up on the excluded components.
Besides, R3B is more like G1-Killer boards rather than X58A-OC.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

The board just released....UD9 was $700 when it came out.

---

I sure hope you aren't saying that it was reasonably priced. Should've been $500 tops at launch...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

i think its 2011

---

Yeah, 2011 for quad channel RAM and dual QPI, but 1356 for triple channel and single QPI.

IMO, 2011 will be too expensive, at least those dual QPI CPU's, like X5xxx Xeons are now.
I would like to be wrong at this and that there would be single socket 2011 MB's that accept single QPI CPU's, but it's highly unlikely.

1356 was cancelled, wasn't it?

Good points, all we really need is usb3 and sata6g. The cost of the board is high likely because of engineering costs and a smaller production scale. Niche board for niche market loses a lot of the economies of scale that a mainstream board would have. Love the board either way and I applaud GB for producing something like this at all. :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

to be honest not much was removed?

SATA6G? Yes there and MUCH better than SATA6G on any other X58 board except the G1 sERIES, you can actually RAID 0 with SAT6G SSDs with Marvel SE9182
USB 3.0? Yes its still here, but two ports with a different Etron tech controller, so some money saved maybe on 4 ports?
eSATA no, but who uses eSATA?
USb 2.0? Not totally gone, total of 2 on the back panel and 2 through USb 2.0 header
IEEE? No but who uses it anyways?
PCI? yes x1
PS2? yes X2
PCI-E layout? better than any other GB X58 board other than the UD9 and G1

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zalbard

1356 was cancelled, wasn't it?

---

Was it? I wasn't aware. Wasn't following news carefully. Thanks for the heads up. :up:

Hmm... Then I just might be wrong and it would be a good thing. :D
Well, I don't see any reason why wouldn't socket 2011 support both types of CPU (single and dual QPI) and both types of IMC (three and four channels).

EDIT: Sorry for off-topic discussion.

well it hink 2011 willbe us, and maybe 1356 will be server only. I like teh dual QPI but that means that it should be a dual CPu system. I hope we get single CPU varients, but all in all 2011 looks to be our target market. If Intel fixes the cold bug and lifts multiplier limits, then maybe we can switch from X58 to X79, otherwise the boards we already have max out our current CPUs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sin0822

well it hink 2011 willbe us, and maybe 1356 will be server only. I like teh dual QPI but that means that it should be a dual CPu system. I hope we get single CPU varients, but all in all 2011 looks to be our target market. If Intel fixes the cold bug and lifts multiplier limits, then maybe we can switch from X58 to X79, otherwise the boards we already have max out our current CPUs.

---

I think the new 22nm 3D transistors look very promising (for OCing). Just hope they scale with cold really well...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

Have you looked up what the new R3B is selling on its release? I see 200 reasons why it makes sense to remove :banana::banana::banana::banana: we don't need and put things we do want[/url]

---

Never compare apples to oranges. RBE is feature comparitive with the G1 asssssasssssssination on your wallet series. So is their retail price... Hence why I asked a Sniper board for the demo of the 21st, better bang for the buck... at least from a gamers perspective... a mobo solution that I can defend if someone want's to buy a cool looking board.

Looking forward though to give this retail OC board a spin next week... I think it will be better to NOT do a live stream :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Olivon

One french e-shop sells it 250€ but not in stock

---

Price is now 350€ :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hondacity

the multi change is what sets it apart...or does ud5 have that already? lol i dunno

---

Wow, you are the real Intel Lover. :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

WoW $379 plus tax & shipping puts this over $400... ekk
To much for me

I would rather get a UD5 for almost $100 cheaper and has plenty of features that can be used for other things. Plus from Chews report it OC's just as well, if not better is some cases.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128422

---

Cheapest place in Denmark is; 577 USD excluding shipping.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by M.Beier

Cheapest place in Denmark is; 577 USD excluding shipping.

---

WoW :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by M.Beier

Cheapest place in Denmark is; 577 USD excluding shipping.

---

what are they thinking there seriously :down:

they are making it real easy for people to decide to import from USA. That's what a lot of people in Australia are now doing if they see any company trying to charge stupid pricing. Even UK ive seen ppl order from to get it quick and at better prices.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Leeghoofd

Never compare apples to oranges. RBE is feature comparitive with the G1 asssssasssssssination on your wallet series. So is their retail price... Hence why I asked a Sniper board for the demo of the 21st, better bang for the buck... at least from a gamers perspective... a mobo solution that I can defend if someone want's to buy a cool looking board.

Looking forward though to give this retail OC board a spin next week... I think it will be better to NOT do a live stream :p

---

i dont think you get my drift, maybe wait for a few more days it will come to you :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

what are they thinking there seriously :down:

they are making it real easy for people to decide to import from USA. That's what a lot of people in Australia are now doing if they see any company trying to charge stupid pricing. Even UK ive seen ppl order from to get it quick and at better prices.

---

Yeah, that is why I am shipping my Aussie friend one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

WoW :(

---

I think it is massive fail.
It is a great product, and Hicookie did a good job!
The concept is EXCELLENT...

But somewhere along the way it clearly flucked up... Dont know, and frankly; dont care if it was too expensive marketing, too expensive fluckup somewhere along the process of going from initial samples to MP.... Shift happens, but I think it blows that Gigabyte isnt just sucking it up and thinking just a tiny bit ahead...
The concept has a massive potential, we, the overclockers, worships products like this. But making the end users sucking up for the mistake that the company (Gigabyte) made might result in the entire concept will fail, it is really jeapodizing things....

It is DIRECTLY against everything that Gigabyte used to promote the product... The concept was TRIMMED PRODUCT TO BENEFIT COST AND HAVE QUALITY COMPONENTS FOR THE OVERCLOCKERS.
So now they've removed the to benefit cost from the equation....

---
*It might just be a big mistake and misunderstanding, maybe the price that will reach the end users of ~590 USD will be changed ALOT.... One can only hope.
I'd say at 400 USD it is BANG FOR THE BUCK, even at 450 USD, would be cool... 349 USD would make most sense though.

I think the product is AWESOME, I almost wet my pants when I was within 30cm of the board during CeBIT this year. It is certainly NOTHING bad against the product - it is something against the way that it is being handled by management.

I paid $388 shipped USD and it will be here Thursday.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoGuru

Yeah, that is why I am shipping my Aussie friend one.

---

no doubt no doubt :(

Screw it. I also picked one up.

Oh might be worth mentioning that I am checking on;
www.komplett.dk, matches the prices of www.komplett.se & www.komplett.no pretty well.... This is Scandinavias by far biggest IT store, and also represented outside Scandinavia; Ireland (www.komplett.ie), Holland (www.komplett.nl) & more..?

I mean, this is a serious player, not just "any" webshop, but a vast massive beast... So it is a concern if they misunderstod something along the way :-/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

i dont think you get my drift, maybe wait for a few more days it will come to you :D

---

With my stubborness allow at least a few weeks :p... make them shops drop the prices Dino !!!

lol wish i could be Superman and crush the prices and make them all $1 lol mates rates

Holly :banana::banana::banana::banana: almost 600 usd?

From the newegg they are

OC Board $419.99 including tax & shipping to me. This has $8.50 for shipping
UD5 $308.50 including tax & shipping to me. This has free 2 day shipping

Taxes in California are getting pretty high these days :(

This is a nice board for sure and has some very nice features and I suspose with markets these days things are costing more. UD5 is prolly stock they have had for a long time also and OC is bran new so... but over $100 :(

I don't know, with the price of motherboards these days I am picking what I want/need pretty carefully. I used to go for boards like UD7's, but now UD5's or UD4/UD3's are doing what I need just fine.

snowballs in hell ....... :( :down:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

From the newegg they are

OC Board $419.99 including tax & shipping to me. This has $8.50 for shipping
UD5 $308.50 including tax & shipping to me. This has free 2 day shipping

Taxes in California are getting pretty high these days :(

This is a nice board for sure and has some very nice features and I suspose with markets these days things are costing more. UD5 is prolly stock they have had for a long time also and OC is bran new so... but over $100 :(

I don't know, with the price of motherboards these days I am picking what I want/need pretty carefully. I used to go for boards like UD7's, but now UD5's or UD4/UD3's are doing what I need just fine.

---

Dang, $30 more just cause you live in Cali.:eek:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoGuru

Dang, $30 more just cause you live in Cali.:eek:

---

Yes, California really hoses us :(
You walk out side and you get taxed :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Yes, California really hoses us :(
You walk out side and you get taxed :(

---

the absolute truth, no love on this coast and what sucks is since most of the vendors have a presence out here the consumer gets stuck with the higher price due to tax's and other fee's (lcd environmental fee anyone:down:)

I really want this board but for $420 otd I am going to have to pass, what happened to $250 gigabyte:shrug:

that is crazy $30 extra just b/c you are in cali? your taxes are crazy, here in VA our tax was only 4.5% now its 5%, it used to be the lowest in the nation till a few years ago

Got mine today on my birthday.....sweet! Runs great, just starting some testing now. 4G clocked my 920 no probs.
Board is beautiful.

yea man ita a great board and $g works perfect, other than it overvolts the qpi/vtt a bit, but it does get RAm upto spec!

very expensive in Japan also...
its about $520.00

got mine two days ago

no no
three of them :P

click on image
http://ftpbackup.mojostech.net/Crimi.../x58a%20oc.jpg

i will try next Sat

PcCI2iminal, nice one!

I just noticed on newegg that they've listed them as a limited edition. Would anyone know how many boards Gigabyte are making?
Hope Australia doesn't get left out!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...ed-Edition.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PcCI2iminal

got mine two days ago

no no
three of them :P

---

Well yeah PcCI2iminal you need 3, one for you, your wife and the 3rd for the kids to play with :rofl:

Now you have to get 3 CPU's to go along with that also :clap:
But I bet you have that covered also :ROTF:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [200]

PcCI2iminal, nice one!

I just noticed on newegg that they've listed them as a limited edition. Would anyone know how many boards Gigabyte are making?
Hope Australia doesn't get left out!
]

---

As far as I can tell they only made 4, one for me and 3 for PcCI2iminal and the other boards for the reviewers.:ROTF:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [200]

PcCI2iminal, nice one!

I just noticed on newegg that they've listed them as a limited edition. Would anyone know how many boards Gigabyte are making?
Hope Australia doesn't get left out!

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...ed-Edition.jpg

---

was hard to find two days ago,but today my wife did a quick search and now many retailers selling on web

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Well yeah PcCI2iminal you need 3, one for you, your wife and the 3rd for the kids to play with :rofl:

Now you have to get 3 CPU's to go along with that also :clap:
But I bet you have that covered also :ROTF:

---

Hi Buck,
one more X58A is in my way
the family is big :rofl::rofl::rofl:

i think cpu will be not a big problem, a few months ago Movieman sent me two 990x ,great retails ,but now its time to play really hard with them ^^
i can smell 7Jigazzz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NoGuru

As far as I can tell they only made 4, one for me and 3 for PcCI2iminal and the other boards for the reviewers.:ROTF:

---

need to tell Gigabyte to send more than ,because we have 5 kids ...
and he have plan for one more :rofl::rofl::rofl:

http://91.121.148.119/downloads/BIOS/X58AOC.F5b

no info? :shakes:

hey criminal how come u're buying so many of them, most ppl just need ONE lol :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dinos22

hey criminal how come u're buying so many of them, most ppl just need ONE lol :p

---

Hello Dino,
yes you rite and include me in the list :D

but dont forget about my wife :D
Yoko is ready for her solo career and she owns two of this piece of art ^^

Yoko and I made a quick run last week (on ustream for 70ppl)

that 990x scored
CPUz at 6732MHz (before - 6586MHz on ASUS R3E)
3D05 done at 6400MHz (before - 6250MHz on Classified 4way)

click on image
http://downloads.criminalcafe.com/fo...%20oc%20yt.jpg

good boost for a start :D

F3 bios - has a bug on bclk and multiplier adjusts, just one hit on any of them and the blck or multiplier will be increased by x2
F4 bios - the onboard bclk/multiplier adjust control is dead now :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PcCI2iminal

F3 bios - has a bug on bclk and multiplier adjusts, just one hit on any of them and the blck or multiplier will be increased by x2
F4 bios - the onboard bclk/multiplier adjust control is dead now :rofl::rofl::rofl:

---

Which means in version F4 they fixed the F3 bug...

yes Leeg, easytune works great with F4
i will try that F5 bios

That's a nice boost over the ASUS, great work PcCI2iminal.

I will see if my board will boot after washing in the sink. Putting the Ultra Durabile to the test, lol.

Yeah let us know how F5 is. If I get the board running and have time to test I will post results of F5.

i just brought one of these, they are now for sale in the UK £259 free shipping, which is about $418 including VAT of 20%

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by markwrc

i just brought one of these, they are now for sale in the UK £259 free shipping, which is about $418 including VAT of 20%

---

Congrats and welocme to XS.;)

Should get mine in tomorrow too :)

Edit: make that today :) :) :)

Testing F5B bios now.....

F5b BIOS working great here for me, warming up for dice this weekend!

Just started getting into Pi 32MB, so don't laugh to hard, but the OC Board has taken me to my first few times to get sub 7s with X58!

I had this setup in dual channel for competition, in case anyone is wondering.

http://i.imgur.com/3bQf2.jpg

http://hwbot.org/community/submissio...in_54sec_328ms

I'll have a review up on this board in the next week or so hopefully, dice session this weekend then I'll wrap up the review. For anyone still on the fence about this board, but looking, don't think twice the OC board is amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something better than their older gen X58 board. Hicookie and Gigabyte have done a fantastic job with this board, I am impressed every time I press the go button!

F5b bios notes:

Load Line Calibration level 1 gives significant Vdroop at 100% load. 1.265v down to 1.248v (DMM).

Load Line Calibration level 2 overvolts just as much at 100% load. 1.275v up tp 1.296v (DMM).

Vqpi / VTT overvolts slightly. 1.295v set in bios 1.33v DMM.

I have not tried any other bios I just jumped straight in with F5b....

Testing continues :)

measure vdimm accuracy.... its soooo gigabyte lol

Yup Vdimm is not exactly spot on.

My board is overvolting .03v with F5b so 1.5v bios = 1.53v DMM...

Well at 1.5v anyway :D

Well this thread is simply on fire LOL :D

Anyway, just completed and sent off my fifth build with this board so a few observations...

All builds have been air / water and not for extreme overclocks just 4.16-4.5ghz with the absolute priority being stability and hopefully longevity ;)

A comprehensive smorgasbord of data and info regarding how this board performs with extreme overclocking can be found in the reviews section.

This is just a few notes for users shooting for stability and reliability.

I have been using the F5b beta bios in all builds so far...

Observations:

At the above clocks the board's bios and voltages behave pretty much exactly like the X58A-UD3R rev 2.

Load line calibration I have already mentioned in a previous post and other voltages tend to overvolt slightly depending on what clocks are being gunned for.

Make sure you get a DMM to check... no excuses for not having one any more :)

The main thing I have found is this board requires slightly more vcore for stability than my best R3E using same clocks and settings.

I am not sure whether this is immature bios or just me :D

Having said that that this R3E is exceptional and the other R3E I have does not even come close to it, especially on getting away with low vcore at 4-4.4ghz full load scenarios.

The southbridge stays really cool which is nice but the IOH and VRM area can get pretty toasty under load so direct cooling in that area is recommended.

Other than that all builds have gone smoothly and no reported issues so far so in my limited experience a solid board which also appeals to people in that they like the fact that it has all the features they want and none of the useless clutter they do not, well, perhaps save for a few onboard sound ports ;)

:up:

increase the switching frequency and your required vcore could drop because of reduction in ripple.

Have played with mine for about a week now. Coming from an the original eVGA Classified E760, I am a bit disappointed. It seems to not be able to overclock my 980X with the same voltages and it is not as stable. Wish it would also have the latest RAID option ROM for SSDs. The Northbridge runs 10C hotter than the classified. The layout is great but so far it is about the only thing it has going for it. The classified could run the PWM switching frequency to 1210 and 1333MHz. (I had it set at 1210) 1000MHz seems weak. The overclocking recovery can also be very annoying as it resets my overclock even when I reset the computer anywhere before Windows starts loading which I do quite often when I realize I set something wrong in the BIOS.
The VTT is overvolted by 0.02V but the Vdimm is undervolted by 0.007 to 0.02V depending on the setting on my board...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thebad

The VTT is overvolted by 0.02V but the Vdimm is undervolted by 0.007 to 0.02V depending on the setting on my board...

---

That's interesting.... all of the five I tested overvolted Vdimm slightly...

Are you both using DMMs and not some software readings?

it depends on BIS version, a lot of this voltage stuff does. For the kicks of it try BIOS 014, it should predate any retail board, its voltage other than VTT were pretty dead on.

VTT was always overvolted on every BIOS except the F4 BIOS. I haven't tried F5.

Anyways you have no idea about switching frequency I am very sorry to say (the bad) 1mhz is not weak, and 1.333khz is over the top, its actually the highest of any X58 PWM. Switching frequency is only directly related to ripple, over shoot, under shoot, and transient response, and some of those 7ghz OCes are done at 600khz setting! lol many times lower switching frequency= higher current output for the mere fact that efficiency isn't below 80%. Its not a big changer of your required voltage, because to be honest voltage is really not that great of a number, current is, hook up a current meter, there are many retail ones from zalamn, and measure your input current on the 12v rails, you'd be surprised what that looks like when you change voltage.

on my OC using F5B, nothing gets over shot apart from QPI, which it is only by .025v which isnt so bad

Zalbard: I am using a DMM indeed. And with BIOS F5b.
Sin0822: You are correct that I don't really know what the impact of the PWM frequency is beyond the overshoot and the fact that in my experience on the eVGA board, I was able to lower voltage by going from 940kHz to 1210kHz and gained stability. 1333kHz seems to be overkill indeed as I saw no benefit from it but 1MHz does not appear sufficient to match what I had with the Classified board. I was hoping some design differences in the power regulation would make the OC better than the eVGA at the same frequency. I am just disappointed. I think it is the reason why I am needing to increase the Vcore by a couple of notches on this board to reach the same 4.5GHz clock. I am not into extreme cooling. Just an everyday extreme overclock. For that purpose, this board has yet to show anything but I am still tweaking.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zalbard

Are you both using DMMs and not some software readings?

---

Yup confirmed with a DMM on all 5 with F5b bios...(have not tried other bios versions at all).

I also played around with the PWM frequency a bit but still could not get Vcore as low as my R3E for the same clocks with the same chip...

Not a massive difference but still interesting...

For those of you curious about the voltages on the board read with a DMM
CPU Vcore set at 1.4125V (LLC 2) gives me 1.4V idle
QPI VTT set at 1.395V reads 1.409V
QPI PLL set at 1.3V reads 1.276V
CPU PLL set at 1.8V reads 1.791V
VDimm set at 1.72V reads 1.706V
DDR VTT set at ??? reads 0.853. I figured it is half of the Vdimm.
VMCH set at 1.22V reads 1.238V