Official GIGABYTE X38-DQ6/X38T-DQ6 Info/BIOS Thread

[ThatGuy16]

Given that the X38-DS4 and DQ6 are very similar in bios, i just want to reassure this. I manually set the PCI freq. to to 100mhz, it is "locked" right? I heard some people say you need it on 101, or is auto locked to 100 anyway?

Probably a dumb question, but figured I'd ask

[mns]

I have noticed this vcore "raise" when I set my vcore > 1.5 in bios.
Im running bios F5G, have tried some other bioses and with those I have had the same result.

ps,I've got a x38-ddq6! ds

(my first post at xtremesystems! ^^,)

[Hornet331]

Given that the X38-DS4 and DQ6 are very similar in bios, i just want to reassure this. I manually set the PCI freq. to to 100mhz, it is "locked" right? I heard some people say you need it on 101, or is auto locked to 100 anyway?

Probably a dumb question, but figured I'd ask

even auto should lock it at 100mhz.

[Richard Dower]

Two new reviews of the X48T-DQ6:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...inux_x48&num=1

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...id=80&Itemid=1

[Buggalugs]

Two new reviews of the X48T-DQ6:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...inux_x48&num=1

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...id=80&Itemid=1

Yer, not much over an X38 by the looks of things,but i still want one.

Anyone know what the story is with the new range from Gigabyte, like EX38-DS4, EP35-DS3...basically the whole existing range but with an "E" in the model number. Specs looks exactly the same......is it a new revision of the same boards?

[p2501]

Ok now, i got myself a stick of cheapo ram, but the board is still looping on/off evey 2 secs. Now it's not doing anything at all when there's no gpu in one of the pcie slots. I cleared cmos several times, i've switched cpu's, switched memory... nothing helps. I'm starting to think of rma'ing the board so if you guys have anything in mind that might still help...

Here the series of events:

1. put everything i've ordered together
2. bios f6, i thought i might as well play around with it for a bit b4 getting serious
3. reached 441x9 with 1.55 vcore and the thing still boots fine
4. memtested the ram with no issues
5. went back to everything standard, except 2.2v on ram for getting windoze ready
6. bam. it started looping on reboot and does so ever since.

[Richard Dower]

I have decided to AVOID X48...it's just not worth it, too little has changed. P45 with ICH10 is most promising. The chipset with also go to 65nm...on a side note, since i increased (G)MCH and FSB voltages my overclock is stable...my PC has been booting fine for a week.

So i guess all along it was voltage issues...sad really.

[Richard Dower]

Yer, not much over an X38 by the looks of things,but i still want one.

Anyone know what the story is with the new range from Gigabyte, like EX38-DS4, EP35-DS3...basically the whole existing range but with an "E" in the model number. Specs looks exactly the same......is it a new revision of the same boards?

The "E" releates to Dynamc Energy Saving...me thinks, check the website.

[Caped Crusader]

I'm happy with my X38-DQ6 too Prime stable with current FSB and vcore for over 1 hour. Only thing left to try with this board is CrossfireX...

But my next one would probably be the P45 also.

[rbsmontemor]

Well, back to GA-X38-DQ6

Happy now









More Pics

Rbs.

[Feichti]

Very Nice where you have got the the X48-DQ6 ?

my x38 is broken so i am waitung until the new x48 will arrive

Feichti

[TheKarmakazi]

2x 150 GB Raptors on RAID on Vista X64, did anyone noticed any problems ?
BTW whats better to use the Gigabyte SATA 2 Chip [ Even so hdd's are SATA1 but it shouldnt make any difference] or the ICH9R [ Intel Matrix Storage]

I heard a couple of ppl complaining that Vista x64 + Raptor doesnt work and after the 1st Startup it says MBR Unreadable or something like that and ar revoir no system...

Thanks for response

Ive been using 2x150gb raptors in vista ultimate 64 bit everything was great.

[TheKarmakazi]

[QUOTE=jimmsch;2775621]

I then went ahead with a fresh install of WinXP Pro with the ICH9R RAID Drivers last night.

[QUOTE]

What driver version did you use. I cannot get RAID drivers to load in XP no matter what. I am using the F6/Floppy method of loading the drivers. XP will always bluescreen no matter what. I have tried XP Home, XP Pro (2 different copies), XP Pro corp x64 nothing works. I have been considering trying to create a slipstreamed xp disc with the driver included buts its a time c0onsuming pain in the
if you know what i mean. What version of the ICH9R were you using?

[Richard Dower]

Realtek codec drivers, version 1.87:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

[jimmsch]

What driver version did you use. I cannot get RAID drivers to load in XP no matter what. I am using the F6/Floppy method of loading the drivers. XP will always bluescreen no matter what. I have tried XP Home, XP Pro (2 different copies), XP Pro corp x64 nothing works. I have been considering trying to create a slipstreamed xp disc with the driver included buts its a time c0onsuming pain in the
if you know what i mean. What version of the ICH9R were you using?

I created a slipstream disc. I followed these instructions and used the drivers he links to on that page.

It wasn't that hard and didn't take that long, but it is not truly an unattended install. The OS asks for a time zone and language. After that it is completely unattended. Worked great for me both with the Abit IP35 Pro and the GA X38 DQ6. I used the same exact disc for install Windows on both mobos. I used the same WD 80GB drives also and in between mobos I used the WD diagnostic disc to write zeroes to both discs.

[BigDK]

What driver version did you use. I cannot get RAID drivers to load in XP no matter what. I am using the F6/Floppy method of loading the drivers. XP will always bluescreen no matter what. I have tried XP Home, XP Pro (2 different copies), XP Pro corp x64 nothing works. I have been considering trying to create a slipstreamed xp disc with the driver included buts its a time c0onsuming pain in the
if you know what i mean. What version of the ICH9R were you using?

If its letting you select the drivers at the prompt, but then after continuing past that point to where it should start loading windows then blue screening, it looks like a dive error, ie the dvd or cd drive you are using.

I've had several boards that don't like loading xp from certain ide drives and even sata drives can be picky about which port they are inserted into on some boards.

Try changing the optical drive setup and have another go if problem is as described!

[6_6_6]

It is not necessary to bother with floppy drivers and all to make AHCI / NCQ /RAID work.

Here are the steps:

1. Just install XP normally. Make sure your SATA drive is not set to AHCI in bios.

2. Boot into XP. Run Intel Matrix Storage Manager. It will tell you that it cannot install. Don't click CANCEL yet. Go to your temp folder, copy the files Intel Storage Manager extracted to somewhere else. Then cancel the installation.

3. Go to device manager. Choose IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Click on the default one that comes with microsoft (Standard IDE controller or something). Choose UPDATE DRIVER, then point it to the place where you copied Intel's files from step #2. Let it update.

4. Reboot.

5. Go to BIOS and change your drive to AHCI.

6. Reboot.

7. Install Intel Matrix Storage Manager.

Now your drives will work AHCI / NCQ.

I came here to post about this actually... My post will follow. And hello to all.

I then went ahead with a fresh install of WinXP Pro with the ICH9R RAID Drivers last night.


What driver version did you use. I cannot get RAID drivers to load in XP no matter what. I am using the F6/Floppy method of loading the drivers. XP will always bluescreen no matter what. I have tried XP Home, XP Pro (2 different copies), XP Pro corp x64 nothing works. I have been considering trying to create a slipstreamed xp disc with the driver included buts its a time c0onsuming pain in the
if you know what i mean. What version of the ICH9R were you using?

[6_6_6]

Hello Folks,

I have Samsung 500GB Sata drive. It is 2-3 months old. I cannot get NCQ working properly on this drive. I do have many NCQ drives but they are old and this is the only one with the newer NCQ support as advertised by Samsung. Hence I cannot test other NCQ drives.

I upgraded my system of 6-7 years 3.0 GHz P4 recently and I do not see any performance difference in anything. I thought NCQ is likely to make a difference in multitasking. I can't believe they could not get this right since 5 years.

Problem is... Whenever I do any simultaneous disk operations, my system comes to a screeching halt. For example, if i do an md5sum operation, or winzip, 3dmark opens in 3 minutes! Everything fine with the disk. I can hit 90 mbps in single operations. But as soon as I need something else to access the disk, performance degrades beyond belief.

For example, HD_Speed, single instance I get 90 mbps... As soon as I open a second copy of the program and run it, both instances drop down to 10 mbps for a total of 20 mbps speed (as can be seen in Windows Disk Monitor from taskbar). I get the same performance without AHCI in the same machine.

Gigabyte X380-DQ6 F7 (Tested with few other bioses as well)
Q6600 @ 3.0 GHz
2 GB DDR-1066
Gigabyte 8600 GT
Silentmaxx 500W PSU
Zalman Reserator XT (pump insulated to eliminate noise)
No fans. CPU, GPU, HD, PSU watercooled.

2008 Server Enterprise x64

Tested with clean installs of 2008 Server x64, 2003 Server x64, Vista 32 with no change in results.

So could someone check their drives and see if NCQ is performing well on this mobo? Please have a look: http://forums.storagereview.net/inde...howtopic=26006

Is it my hard disk that does not function as advertised?

Thank you!

Maria

[zicada]

Hello Folks,

I have Samsung 500GB Sata drive. It is 2-3 months old. I cannot get NCQ working properly on this drive. I do have many NCQ drives but they are old and this is the only one with the newer NCQ support as advertised by Samsung. Hence I cannot test other NCQ drives.

I upgraded my system of 6-7 years 3.0 GHz P4 recently and I do not see any performance difference in anything. I thought NCQ is likely to make a difference in multitasking. I can't believe they could not get this right since 5 years.

Problem is... Whenever I do any simultaneous disk operations, my system comes to a screeching halt. For example, if i do an md5sum operation, or winzip, 3dmark opens in 3 minutes! Everything fine with the disk. I can hit 90 mbps in single operations. But as soon as I need something else to access the disk, performance degrades beyond belief.

For example, HD_Speed, single instance I get 90 mbps... As soon as I open a second copy of the program and run it, both instances drop down to 10 mbps for a total of 20 mbps speed (as can be seen in Windows Disk Monitor from taskbar). I get the same performance without AHCI in the same machine.

Gigabyte X380-DQ6 F7 (Tested with few other bioses as well)
Q6600 @ 3.0 GHz
2 GB DDR-1066
Gigabyte 8600 GT
Silentmaxx 500W PSU
Zalman Reserator XT (pump insulated to eliminate noise)
No fans. CPU, GPU, HD, PSU watercooled.

2008 Server Enterprise x64

Tested with clean installs of 2008 Server x64, 2003 Server x64, Vista 32 with no change in results.

So could someone check their drives and see if NCQ is performing well on this mobo? Please have a look: http://forums.storagereview.net/inde...howtopic=26006

Is it my hard disk that does not function as advertised?

Thank you!

Maria

Well, that problem is also OS-related. A typical desktop-OS has its schedualer tuned to give userspace applications priority,- and in most cases, one application needs the most juice at any time. There are ways to change settings in the way NTkernel does schedualing and prioritizing, but in most cases, the default configuration will prove the most sound for a typical desktop environment.

Apart from that, you will be able to get alot more performance if the disk-intensive processes do their work on different harddrives. Keep in mind that the a harddrive can only do one thing at a time. When you ask it to read/write at the beginning of the plate, AND the end of the plate every other time, things are going to take longer to complete. NCQ or no NCQ, multiple processes running diskoperations on the same drive is and will allways be slow using a harddisk drive.

[Richard Dower]

My new Raptors are en route...god willing i got the latest firmware and both drives are matched.

[6_6_6]

I am sorry, I didn't know I needed 5 seperate hard disks to be able to run 5 programs simultaneously with acceptable performance in year 2008!

zicada, apologies for the sarcasm, could you please spare few minutes and take a look at that link I mentioned? That user exactly did what I was thinking. He ran 9 instances of the program at different positions on the hard disk (beginning, 10%, middle, etc) and the speed he got was awesome when NCQ was working properly. I went to buy the drive he mentioned right away unfortunately they do not carry any of those Seagates here.

Is anyone using AHCI here with X38-DQ6? If so, could you please spare few minutes to test this?

Do you think my issue / question warrants a new topic here?

Many thanks for the input.

Apart from that, you will be able to get alot more performance if the disk-intensive processes do their work on different harddrives. Keep in mind that the a harddrive can only do one thing at a time. When you ask it to read/write at the beginning of the plate, AND the end of the plate every other time, things are going to take longer to complete. NCQ or no NCQ, multiple processes running diskoperations on the same drive is and will allways be slow using a harddisk drive.

[ThatGuy16]

It looks like the X38-DS4 and X38-DQ6 was replaced with the EX38-DS4

only a couple weeks after i buy my new board

[kevinali]

Question about the X38-DQ6 bios

So guys and gals

Here is my question

I have the X38-DQ6 and i am currently running a Q6700 at 3.33 (333 x 10) at vcore = 1.2875v and 8 GB of ddr2-667 ram at 4-4-3-9 at 1.82v

The system is stable as sin. My question is what bios should i be using to get the max performance. I have all the bios files upto F8d..

Currently i use F6 because i can put my computer to sleep. The other BIOS revisions simply cannot wake up from sleep. The computer does an endless cycle of on off on off until i turn off the powersupply and unplug the AC.

The sleep thing is not that important (i do like the instantaneous wake up feature though) and i will gladly turn off the pc if it means getting better performance from another bios rev.

F6 is lacking the load line calibaration feature though

Any thoughts on your personal favorite bios rev

Kevin

[-Acid-]

F3 is the fastest

been playing with the newer ones and my 24/7 cruncher is now unstable WTF
having trouble getting over 475 fsb with newer ones
gonna give the newest one a shout and then return to F3 again for 500+ fsb

[Buggalugs]

I have decided to AVOID X48...it's just not worth it, too little has changed. P45 with ICH10 is most promising. The chipset with also go to 65nm...on a side note, since i increased (G)MCH and FSB voltages my overclock is stable...my PC has been booting fine for a week.

So i guess all along it was voltage issues...sad really.

Ok but im hoping they ironed out a few bugs with X38, but i agree if u have an X38 that works well its not worth upgrading but if youre buying now the X48 looks the better option.

Anandtech just did a review on Asus's new X48 and they are super impressed, they gave it the GOLD editors choice award....i wont post the link seeing this is a Gigabyte forum but its easy to find.

Anyhow i just got a E8400 which im running in my Asus board until i get my X38/X48 back and has anyone seen the stock cooler for this thing???? From the top it looks the same, same fan diameter etc but they have cut the heatsink in half. IE theres only about 20mm of heatsink height compared to the normal 35ish mm. It looks wierd kinda all fan and no heatsink, anyhow i guess it runs cooler than the older CPUs. I'm using my Ultra 120 on it but theres something up with the temp sensor on this thing, reporting way higher than it really is.

Anyhow (2) looking good for the X48 to be released in the next couple of weeks.

Question about the X38-DQ6 bios

So guys and gals

Here is my question

I have the X38-DQ6 and i am currently running a Q6700 at 3.33 (333 x 10) at vcore = 1.2875v and 8 GB of ddr2-667 ram at 4-4-3-9 at 1.82v

The system is stable as sin. My question is what bios should i be using to get the max performance. I have all the bios files upto F8d..

Currently i use F6 because i can put my computer to sleep. The other BIOS revisions simply cannot wake up from sleep. The computer does an endless cycle of on off on off until i turn off the powersupply and unplug the AC.

The sleep thing is not that important (i do like the instantaneous wake up feature though) and i will gladly turn off the pc if it means getting better performance from another bios rev.

F6 is lacking the load line calibaration feature though

Any thoughts on your personal favorite bios rev

Kevin

Kevin, i like to use the latest one unless youre trying to run a really high fsb then you might be better with an earlier version. Its a hard question for anyone to answer because everyone has different needs and different stabilty on different bioses. IE if you have a E8400 you have no choice but to run a later bios, depends on your system and parts. Alot of people say the first F3 is the best for overclocking a high fsb but that bios is lacking features of the latest bios. If youre happy with 333fsb i would stick to the latest bios.