Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 FAQ

[BigSteve]

There are these other useful threads, but no DQ6 specific thread.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=110460
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=106685
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=109719

As Lestat noted "the DQ6 still hasn't matured as far as the DS3 has, and only Gigabyte knows why. Personally with your current line-up it was a waste to go with the DQ6 but thats just my thoughts."

I sure hope Gigabyte fixes up their flagship board. The supposed advantage the DQ6 is the 12 phase power (and the northbridge heat pipe), but what is the point, if people are getting better OC with Gigabyte's very own cheaper boards. One reason to get a DS3 instead of an S3 is the Dxx boards have solid capacitors. Not sure what the DS4 brings to the table; its not sold everywhere yet, maybe just in the UK.

DQ6 owners, please post your results and associated BIOS changes.

Here are some other observations that may apply to the all the new Gigabyte boards.

1. To add access to the advanced features of your gigabyte BIOS, you have to hit ctl-F1. If you use a USB KVM switch, it may screw up some keyboard keys so you'll just have to plug an old non-USB keyboard into the back.

2. If you want a multiplier of 1:1, of course, you set the system memory multiplier to 2. Probably because its DDR2 memory. I guess with DDR3 we'll be setting it to 3. In any event, this will help you OC because for some reason on my board it ended up (not by me) at 2:3 (not 3:2) which will limit your OC.

3. You'll need to download the excellent CPU-Z tool from cpuid.org. If you want memory timings of 5-5-5-15 set the first 4 guys in the MIT section of the BIOS (you hit ctl-f1 first right?) to those numbers. cpu-z will now report 3-5-5-15 with some brands of memory, but it means 5, not 3 honest. Also, for some new CPUs e.g. the e6600 it will report a multiplier of 6.0. But if you run some software it will jump up to 9.0. There is a forum at cpuid.org. You may need to read through the forums for this and other tools. There's a tool that lets you change memory timings on the fly too, I forget the name. Also you should get Easy-Tune from Gigabyte and at least monitor temperatures with that or something better.

4. On the non-OC level, there are 2 issues. Get the Realtek Azalia audio drivers straight from Realtek website, Gigabyte has some old ones up that didn't work for me. The larger issue is to get real clear on if you want your hard drives in 1. IDE emulation 2. AHCI SATA (no raid) or 3. RAID. Either way, you'll need to put the drivers on a floppy and hit F6 during the XP install. (Or roll a slipstream install). I hear its possible to switch after the fact without re-installing XP but I haven't succeeded; the intel driver installer won't unpack the drivers since I'm set up for ATA, a chicken-and-egg problem. I think (1.) may not let you take advantage of SATA-II burst speeds.

For all of that, I'm still stuck at 340 (3.08Ghz), it may post at 360 but XP is unhappy. This is with 5-5-5-15 timings (3-5-5-15 according to cpu-z 1.35) and 1:1 memory ratio. I wonder if its worth relaxing the memory timings but keeping the ratio, to try to get more FSB?

Hope this helps any novices that wander in here; good luck and happy OC'ing!

PS More DQ6 links...

http://www1.oc.com.tw/forums/msgexce...217193&itype=1 400FSB max



I am hopeful that a BIOS will improve my situation (340 FSB) but at the moment it appears that the DQ6 is the runt of the Gigabyte boards for OC, and the E6600 (unless you have an Engineering Sample) retail stepping 6 is the runt of the Allendale/Conroe CPUs. Right now the bang for the buck seems to be the DS3 motherboard and an Allendale (E6300 or 6400) CPU - save $100 on each and get higher GHz to boot. However, any DQ6 owners, stay tuned for a new BIOS (there are E3 betas out now) and please post your results, questions, and answers in this thread!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=110532

[mele]

OEM 6600 with OCZ PC2-5400.
Watercooled.

I'm stuck at 340 also.

I cannot go over +.325v without a "DDR18V Failed" message.

I'm going to try some PC6400 and see if I can get to 400.

I could live with that.

[BigSteve]

It looks like you have the F3g BIOS and it didn't help. I have PC-6400 and it didn't help. What stepping is your CPU (cpu-z should say)?

I don't want to be negative, but we may be snakebit twice. E6600 stepping 6, and DQ6 motherboard. I fear that you may upgrade your memory, then upgrade your board (down to a DS3) and still be S.O.L. I haven't seen results of the E6600 stepping 6 on the DS3 or DS4 (mostly Allendales, with strong results) or on ASUS or Intel boards. I do wonder if this stepping 6 CPU is the weak link.

On a positive note, Anandtech reported "...we were able to clock this board to an impressive 376FSB. Gigabyte has sent us test results with a new B2 stepping 6 X6800 showing a fully stable system running at 6X498 with the current D27 BIOS. The board ran extremely cool during our overclocking tests indicating a well engineered heat pipe system, although the area around the CPU would need to be actively cooled if a liquid cooling system is utilized. During testing for the maximum FSB clock we ran into the BIOS issues and were not able to extend past the reported 376FSB due to our inability to set the MCH and FSB termination voltages. The only other noticeable drawback in overclocking this board is the lock on increasing the CPU multiplier when utilizing the X6800. We look forward to providing a full review of this board in the near future." http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797&p=8

[BigSteve]

I'm running the board (see my config below) at 333 FSB = 3 Ghz. Memory ratio is 1:1 (set it to 2 to get this) and timings are 5-5-5-15 (XP disliked 4-4-4-12) on the g.skill HZ. The fans all spin at 1000RPM and the CPU and mobo are 44 Celsius. You'd sure think it could go faster. But hey, its faster than the socket A computer it replaced...

If you have a DQ6, please share what chip you have and what speeds you get. If you have an E6600 stepping 6 on another board (bad-axe, DS3...) would also like to hear your results. Trying to decide if the stepping, the DQ6, or the BIOS is to blame.

I guess we may not get much traffic in this thread, as they say here in Taiwan, "birds don't sh*t or die there", since most people were smart enough to wait for early results and learn to avoid this combination. I should probably look at that cpu-z database to see if anyone is getting any mileage out of the CPU stepping. http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php#validation Hmmm... it doesn't tell us what steppings are getting what OC...

[BigSteve]

Hellooooooo... anybody out there... hellooooooo... F3 BIOS is out for the DQ6:

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Support/Moth...ProductID=2295

*Please remember to "Load Optimize Defaults" (in the BIOS Setup) after updating new BIOS.

There are lots of ways to install that BIOS. Don't do it live while OC'ed. Maybe its time to figure out how this dual-BIOS works, one of the few advantages afforded DQ6 owners.

[ElBobbo]

I recently got a DQ6 with an E6300, and I was stuck at the 350MHz FSB limit too, with a pair of DDR2-533 1GB sticks from Crucial. However, flashing to the F3G bios (and it took a great deal of effort, for some reason, to get anything to flash at all, had to resort to buying a floppy drive) has completely changed the situation:

I'm now running at 3.5GHz with the memory at 1GHz and the FSB at 500MHz; absolutely fantastic, considering the memory's only rated at 600MHz. Anyway, the vcore is 1.55V and vdimm is 0.325V (anything higher rates a 'fail' in the PC health section*) with the MCH and FSB at 0.2V up.

Now I'm just looking forward to getting a lower memory divider so I can really see the limit. It seems, in my opinion, very nearsighted to only provide a 1:1 divider.

So grateful for the F3G bios!

*What's up with the PC health section? Would it be so hard to provide the figures? What does 'OK' mean?

[BigSteve]

I'm a gonna try the F3 bios. Its on the gigabyte site, some say its basically F3G beta. I hit the del-key, hit the F8-key, backed up the F2 bios, installed F3 as backup bios*, booted into it, and immediately hit del-key so I could load optimized defaults. Well, it seems to work. Will report OC results soon.

*Says the checksum is 3469, which is great, but there's nothing on the gigabyte website to confirm this against. You guys getting 3469 checksum?

[Dystopian God]

any updates on OCing with F3 bios?

[mele]

D@mn Gigabyte S$IT!!!

Can no longer disable EIST in F3 release!!!!

[mele]

Upon further investigation it seems that if VCore is set to 1.45 or higher EIST cannot be disabled now.

[GAM]

DQ6 (F3), E6400 (retail) B2, G.Skill 2GB PC6400 HZ, Big Typhoon

Stats from Everest.

E6400 @ 3280MHz (dual prime tested 2hrs only(not failed), 3200 tested 8hrs+)

FSB: 410MHz (1:1 - 5 5 5 15)

VCore (BIOS): 1.28-1.31 (1.35)
VDimm (BIOS): 1.92 (+.1)

Temps (18-22c ambient)
MB: 18-45c
CPU Core(1/2): 37-55c

Note, temps fluctuate a lot as much as 10c. BIOS often often reports CPU up to 3c < MB. Something not right there.

Flashed from F3e to F3 via @BIOS, not probs. Didn't 'restore defaults' or change oc settings. (FSB 400 at that time with stock voltage, 1:1 4 4 4 12)

Tried with F3:
FSB 425 stock voltage. Boots, fails Prime <5mins
FSB 425 VCore 1.375, VDimm +0.1. Boots, fails Prime <5mins
FSB 420 VCore 1.375, VDimm +0.1. Boots, fails Prime <5mins

Wasn't in the mood so jumped right back to 410. Haven't tried again.

Hope this info helps.

BTW, very happy with this board, cpu, ram combo.

Note, originally started with A-Data Vitesta 533 and stock HSF. Was able to go to 2.8GHz (not trying too hard due to temps, core hitting 60c). Couldn't do that with D805 and GA-i945Pro.

Sensors are a bit of an issue with this board/chipset/cpu (either or all). Everest seems good-majority of sensor readings seem accurate. Tried Speedfan (next best), MBM, CPU-Z, PC Wizard all which exhibited pecularities.

Cheers

[GAM]

...
4. On the non-OC level, there are 2 issues. Get the Realtek Azalia audio drivers straight from Realtek website, Gigabyte has some old ones up that didn't work for me. The larger issue is to get real clear on if you want your hard drives in 1. IDE emulation 2. AHCI SATA (no raid) or 3. RAID. Either way, you'll need to put the drivers on a floppy and hit F6 during the XP install. (Or roll a slipstream install). I hear its possible to switch after the fact without re-installing XP but I haven't succeeded; the intel driver installer won't unpack the drivers since I'm set up for ATA, a chicken-and-egg problem. I think (1.) may not let you take advantage of SATA-II burst speeds.
...

Just wanted to relay my successful experience on this:

I migrated my existing OS drive ex GA-8i945Pro, D805, SATA2 running in IDE mode to the new MB/CPU combo with BIOS set to IDE. Booted up no problem, ignored 'found new hardware' messages, installed drivers from GB CD, rebooted no problem.

[EDIT]Originally, on GA-8i945Pro, F6 was not required during OS install with storage controller in 'IDE' mode, despite SATA drives. Supplying additional drivers should only be required if installing OS to 'RAID' or 'AHCI' mode enabled controller.

As pointed out, you can't install Intel Matrix Storage Drivers (Intel drivers for AHCI) unless you have AHCI enabled. Well, to resolve the 'chicken before the egg' problem, I did the following:

-Switched the OS Drive/SATA connector to the Gigabyte SATA/IDE controller (Purple headers)

In BIOS
-Set 'On-board SATA/IDE Device' to 'Enabled'
-Set 'On-board SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode' to 'IDE'
-Changed 'SATA RAID/AHCI Mode' to 'AHCI'
-Changed 'SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode' to 'Native'
(not sure about the difference/effects between 'native' and 'legacy'. Nothing immediately noticeable in Windows)
-Changed boot order in BIOS, accordingly
(Can't remember whether I needed to reboot first and go back into BIOS to set this correctly.)
-Booted to Windows

Now you should be running from your OS drive in 'IDE' mode but you have AHCI enabled storage controllers (nothing attached)

In Windows
-Installed Intel Matrix Storage drivers from GB CD or Intel site download.
-Rebooted for good measure.
-Shutdown/Power off.

-Switched the OS Drive/SATA connector BACK to the Intel/ICH8 SATA controller (Yellow headers)
-Boot into BIOS

In BIOS
-Changed boot order in BIOS back to SATA/SCSI port where your OS drive is now connected (one of the yellow ones I hope)
-Reboot to Windows

All good, hot swap, native command queing enabled and working.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

[BigSteve]

GAM that rocks, what a great idea, use the extra controller, I will try that.

Bottom line is I am back at 333 with the F3 bios, but lamely enough I have yet to try to push it further. Interestingly, the memory timings now show correctly in cpuz. [edit] F3 has busted me through to 350 FSB!

I went to http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php and downloaded cpu-z, then also got a copy of super-pi and ran that to make the CPU run at non-idle speed, then back in cpu-z I went through all 5 screen and hit the F5-key, which creates .bmp screen shots in the cpu-z directory. To shrink these to the 200KB required by xtremesystems, I installed http://www.cygwin.com/ including imagemagick, so I could use the mogrify command to shrink them. But then I realized it would be easier to just change the display to 8-bit resolution and re-do the cpuz screen shots, so here they are. When you use the advanced reply you can add attachments. People, put up some screen shots! Helps us understand all the details of your config.

[BigSteve]

With the F3 BIOS, I've been booting XP at 350. I pushed to 380 with EasyTune, 390 crashed the computer (at 1:1 and 5-5-5-15 and stock voltages). Will see if XP can be happy at 380.

[mele]

Upon further investigation it seems that if VCore is set to 1.45 or higher EIST cannot be disabled now.

OK I found the cuplrit!

CrystalCPUID50Beta

Ran this today after a complete reinstall and ESIT is enabled even though it's
disables in BIOS.

Mel

[Richard Dower]

BigSteve, i need more info on your bios settings for you to get 333FSB, i haven't been able to get this. What bios settings do you have?, voltages?, VCore etc?

[Richard Dower]

Your HZ memory is rated to run 4-4-4-12 at 800MHz, so why do you have it at 5-5-5-15?

[BigSteve]

BigSteve, i need more info on your bios settings for you to get 333FSB, i haven't been able to get this. What bios settings do you have?, voltages?, VCore etc?

I haven't played with the voltages at all. Only BIOS settings were to Apply Optimized Defaults as a baseline, then I merely changed the 4 memory timings, changed the multiplier to 2 (= 1:1), and changed the FSB to 333. It might help if I fool with the voltages, but I've not found many e6600 (non-ES, i.e. stepping 6 and up) users with better results on any motherboard, but I'd love to find that, and see what motherboard they're using and what speeds they're getting.

I couldn't get over 340, until I put in the F3 BIOS. Now I can boot Windows at at least 350, will try for more. I realize these numbers are all small potatoes to Allendale (6300 and 6400) wimpy-cache owners, but every MHz counts!

I put up all those screens in case someone would see something. Looking at it, I thought the SPD screen was telling me that at 400Mhz the g.skill wants 5-5-5-15. In any event, when I try for 4-4-4-12 (all of this at 1:1 ratio) it won't POST.

I wonder, should I go like 6-6-6-18, or for a worse ratio, to try to get higher FSB, assuming that my goal is simply to have a powerful daily use system rather than to set any drag-strip funny-car nitro-fueled dry-ice records. And what benchmark I should be using for that, and also to have a fair bottom line comparison between Conroes with 2MB vs 4MB cache.



Richard, can you edit your signature on this board to include your system details, it will help everyone to help you.

[N15M0]

Just wanted to relay my successful experience on this:

I migrated my existing OS drive ex GA-8i945Pro, D805, SATA2 running in IDE mode to the new MB/CPU combo with BIOS set to IDE. Booted up no problem, ignored 'found new hardware' messages, installed drivers from GB CD, rebooted no problem.

[EDIT]Originally, on GA-8i945Pro, F6 was not required during OS install with storage controller in 'IDE' mode, despite SATA drives. Supplying additional drivers should only be required if installing OS to 'RAID' or 'AHCI' mode enabled controller.

As pointed out, you can't install Intel Matrix Storage Drivers (Intel drivers for AHCI) unless you have AHCI enabled. Well, to resolve the 'chicken before the egg' problem, I did the following:

-Switched the OS Drive/SATA connector to the Gigabyte SATA/IDE controller (Purple headers)

In BIOS
-Set 'On-board SATA/IDE Device' to 'Enabled'
-Set 'On-board SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode' to 'IDE'
-Changed 'SATA RAID/AHCI Mode' to 'AHCI'
-Changed 'SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode' to 'Native'
(not sure about the difference/effects between 'native' and 'legacy'. Nothing immediately noticeable in Windows)
-Changed boot order in BIOS, accordingly
(Can't remember whether I needed to reboot first and go back into BIOS to set this correctly.)
-Booted to Windows

Now you should be running from your OS drive in 'IDE' mode but you have AHCI enabled storage controllers (nothing attached)

In Windows
-Installed Intel Matrix Storage drivers from GB CD or Intel site download.
-Rebooted for good measure.
-Shutdown/Power off.

-Switched the OS Drive/SATA connector BACK to the Intel/ICH8 SATA controller (Yellow headers)
-Boot into BIOS

In BIOS
-Changed boot order in BIOS back to SATA/SCSI port where your OS drive is now connected (one of the yellow ones I hope)
-Reboot to Windows

All good, hot swap, native command queing enabled and working.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

I only have to do this step if I want to use AHCI? Do I have to do this if I use the hdd without AHCI and raid?

[GAM]

I only have to do this step if I want to use AHCI? Do I have to do this if I use the hdd without AHCI and raid?

Nope.

[orion23]

Why is it that this GSKill ram, the PC2 6400 2GBHZ or 1GBHZ with 4-4-4-12 SPD shows up as 5-5-5-15 under CPU-Z for so many of us?

It did for me with the DQ6 and with a Badaxe.

And I've seen many others using the same ram and their SPDs read the correct 4-4-4-12.

Did we get a bad batch? Is this normal? WTF?

[N15M0]

Ok thanks cos I just install window without pressing the F6. BTW what do they mean by IDE emulation? Also do I need to install any driver to let the hdd to run in sata II?

[GAM]

Orion 23, I set safe timings to 5 5 5 15 during initial testing. Currenty dual-prime testing E6400@425 1.4v - 4 4 4 12.

N15MO, couldn't give you definitive explanations other than 'emulates IDE standards', however, I had SATA2 drives connected using IDE and then subsequently using AHCI (supporting new SATA2 features) and difference in bench speeds was not significant. So I don't believe SATA2 drives are limited in raw speed due to IDE emulation. If you want to enable AHCI later (not having loaded the drivers during install via F6) you will need to do something like I suggested in my post on enabling AHCI.

BTW, if you didn't hit F6 and the Windows installer couldn't see any hard drives, then you would need to start again and load the additional drivers during install using F6, floppies, etc.

[BigSteve]

Orion 23, I set safe timings to 5 5 5 15 during initial testing. Currenty dual-prime testing E6400@425 1.4v - 4 4 4 12.

...I had SATA2 drives connected using IDE and then subsequently using AHCI (supporting new SATA2 features) and difference in bench speeds was not significant.

IMHO GAM is right, though I stil believe IDE emulation mode limits the disks to 150... but that most SATA II drives only exceed this while in "burst mode". The other advantage of AHCI is you can use NCQ if your SATA II drive supports NCQ, though some argue that NCQ is only useful for server workloads and that for desktop workloads it can actually slow you down.

The reason I believe I can't use have to use 5-5-5-15 is due to the SPD numbers here. Though cpu-z and the BIOS have disagreed before and shown odd numbers, in fact the 4-4-4-10 is a bit odd too.

GAM, are you using some program (which?) to change the memory timings AFTER XP comes up?

[GAM]

Nope, all in BIOS. ET5 is not functioning. I read somewhere to reset all bios settings to default, boot up, install ET5, reboot and should work. Well, it didn't.

On another note, having trouble pushing over 425fsb. 435-438 boots, dual-primes for 5-30mins, then blue screen. Last attempt was 435, with 1.45v Vcore and +0.1 for all except Vdimm +0.3v