Gigabyte UD3 Thread

[Bobsama]

Here's a discussion for us WCG guys...

The Gigabyte EX-58 UD3 looks like an interesting board, right? How could one be best put to use? What about the P45-UD3, P45-UD3R and P45-UD3P? And let's keep this going--it's for the competition. We're crunchers and some of us are folders, so what's the best output possible for these all? Discuss features, pricing, and everything about this board. From the color scheme to what you'd enjoy putting into one.

[Knight203]

I would love to throw my e2140 in a ud3 board and see what kind of clocks I could get. Crunch at stock speeds sucks

[D_A]

Be grateful you don't have to UNDERclock something just so it'll run.

[Bobsama]

I'd personally love one--my IP35-E has some issues, but I'm afraid that I'll still be limited to FSB406. My E2140 would work, but would be a horrible fit in any P45 board with potential.

[RAW-Raptor22]

I would love a new gigabyte board. This ECS that I have is unbearable.

[STEvil]

The UD3's are clocking quads like mad.

[Movieman]

I was just looking at that UD3 board in Fuggers' thread. Colors shouldn't matter to us but that blue really works, grabbed my attention and the board layout looks excellent.

[Bobsama]

My opinion of all the UD3 boards is excellent cooling and excellent power. Gigabyte's really pushing these boards hard--and they deserve it. They made, in my opinion, a near-perfect set of P45 boards with UD3. It really sets them apart from all the competition--no LOLLERCOASTER heatsinks. Color scheme is good for those that care (I don't mind but I also don't flaunt it) and layout is excellent for just about anything. Heck--I don't have a problem with the orange/"pink" slots really either, but I agree they could have used a different color. Anyways--if these are clocking quads very well, I am sure most of us would be happy to use them. Those older P35-DS3L's have been pretty common around here, but I have heard that many of them dealt with 24/7 Q6600 loads (3.6GHz was it?) for a few months but then died. With proper cooling and setup, these UD3 boards should do much better for our Q6___, Q8___, and Q9___ quads. And then with the X58--if Gigabyte did a good enough job, we should have an excellent board for the Core i7 920s including OC potential. I know that I'll get an i7 920 if this thread miraculously wins.

Loonym brought the UD3 boards to my attention a few days ago, before these competition announcements. They're great-looking motherboards and are certainly value-packed for the "every-man" builder and should be great for the cruncher as well.

[road-runner]

I have a EP45-DS4P and the UD3P both are great boards, booted into windows at 515 x 9 on the EP45 DS4P with my Q9650 and run superpi. All auto settings in the bios but vcore and RAM set on 2.1v and 1:1 water cooling...

[loonym]

That's a nice quad roadrunner

[Bobsama]

Oh dang--nice. How do the boards compare for top stability/lowest voltage stability?

EDIT: Nice overclock on the HD3870X2's as well. My HD3850 is at 760MHz core 999MHz memory.

[Mr_Slinky]

Here's a discussion for us WCG guys...
We're crunchers and some of us are folders, so what's the best output possible for these all?

RR we want numbers..... we know you got em....

[RAW-Raptor22]

Right when I get to the point where I have enough money to upgrade my 775 rig we have i7/x58/nehalem coming up quick. :p

Gigabyte boards are awesome, and for overclocking I have always gone to them for great products and I cant wait to see how the offerrings perform on i7.

[Bobsama]

I'm considering two different routes for this. One is if a board goes to the OP of this thread, I'll splurge and buy a Core i7 920 and 2-4GB DDR3 ASAP. If not, I'll save my money for a bit and just grab a Sammy, then save much more. The other is just save the money and grab Core i7 when it becomes available. I see these initial i920s like the E6600s of late 2006: they'll be fast and at least decent, and they should last you a good long time. If I can get 2 years out of a chip, I'll be a happy camper. I want to see the prices on these after they stabilize--I won't spend more than $400, period, on a 1P CPU.

[jcool]

Let me help you there

I also like the UD3 series, or any P45 for that matter, because they'll finally allow to OC the hell out of those 45nm non-Extreme quadcores.
With any luck, I'll be getting a sample mobo for benching purposes. Gonna try 45nm quad as well as my Q6600 on that one, so we'll see what it's made of.
Only negative thing I heard so far is that S3 still doesn't work, which blows for mainrig usage, but doesn't matter to a dedicated cruncher of course.

I only wished there was more clearance around the CPU socket.. that is one tough mobo to insulate, unlike my DFI X38.

[Bobsama]

What are you using to insulate, jcool? I heard that the artist erasers--the pliable rubber ones--are the best choice and don't leave residue.

[[XC] Hicks121]

I just got my ud3 & e8400(4.1ghz) up. Very nice board. Still gettn all of the bios settings down pat.

Roadrunner.....How is the vdroop on your board, mine is pretty bad, do you have loadline calibration enabled?

[road-runner]

I just got my ud3 & e8400(4.1ghz) up. Very nice board. Still gettn all of the bios settings down pat.

Roadrunner.....How is the vdroop on your board, mine is pretty bad, do you have loadline calibration enabled?

I have LLC disabled and its set to 1.375 in the bios, 1000w galaxy PSU with the 8 pin plug used. As far as number its hard to tell because I have been using the rigs for forum wars part time so they weren't crunching all day every day. QX9650 Vista 64 with 2-GPU2 folding clients running, Q9650 is Ubuntu 64...

[sierra_bound]

When you say VDroop is bad, what kind of drop are you seeing?

[[XC] Hicks121]

When you say VDroop is bad, what kind of drop are you seeing?

1.43125 set in bios, at desktop its @ 1.392, under load its @ 1.376

Going to probe around a bit with the dmm & find a place to read actual, all this above is done with cpuz.....

[sierra_bound]

My IP35 Pro has pretty bad VDroop. Same with my old P5B Dlx. My P5Q Dlx has almost no VDroop which is nice because I can run VCore at 1.28v. The P5Q is not a great overclocker, but it probably consumes less electricity than my other crunchers.

[Bobsama]

1.43125 set in bios, at desktop its @ 1.392, under load its @ 1.376

Going to probe around a bit with the dmm & find a place to read actual, all this above is done with cpuz.....

That's actually pretty bad. About how much does it fluctuate under typical conditions? I have no problem with a 0.05-0.06V vdroop but if it's fluctuating much more than about .01V.........

Can you post a diagram for places to read? I'm considering a few different routes--and the EP45-UD3P looks like a board for me.

[Duh]

roadrunner : your setups is lovely. Congratz; hope you have fun and bring us some nice numbers

[Bobsama]

Definitely. But, pictures please! I want to see your setup: since there's beauty in computer hardware!

[road-runner]

The first rig is pictures of a X38 DS4 that is where the UD3P is now, the 2nd rig is a EP45 DS4P..