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

[Feichti]

nice Feichti, where you find those? are they expensive?

the North and Soudbridge are selfmade from the AF Guys in the Hardwareluxx Forum.

The SPAWA Cooler is an Mips cooler for the X38-DQ6 with an selfmade plexi top.

Also the Ram cooler you can see an the new pics.






if you wand to see more pics please visite my homepage

Greeds Feichti

[Juggernaut1987]

Hi Guys,

Its a real shame gigabyte isnt releasing any bioses for over 2 months now :S
Im feeling like I should have bought the Maximus Formula, just look at the thread here on the forum.

And just to check:
Is it impossible to run 4x1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ 1066mhz?
Or is it impossible to run any 4x1GB setup @ 1066mhz?

@Feichti
Looking good with the blocks there (Y)

[zsamz_]

I'm not sure I will go with Gigabyte again either to be honest. I've been a decent customer.. last two video cards + motherboards were gigabyte for example.

Is there any vdroop mods for this ?

we all get fooled once in a while
but gigabyte wont get me again

[eva2000]

Hi Guys,

Its a real shame gigabyte isnt releasing any bioses for over 2 months now :S
Im feeling like I should have bought the Maximus Formula, just look at the thread here on the forum.

And just to check:
Is it impossible to run 4x1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ 1066mhz?
Or is it impossible to run any 4x1GB setup @ 1066mhz?

@Feichti
Looking good with the blocks there (Y)

Alot of us Team.AU members provided alot of feedback on bioses for X38-DQ6/X38T-DQ6 recently - I send in alot of divider/memory related findings. Maybe they're busy implementing them.. well i hope so heh

[~aoe~]

And just to check:
Is it impossible to run 4x1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ 1066mhz?
Or is it impossible to run any 4x1GB setup @ 1066mhz?

I have 4*1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2 8500 running at 1066 at 3:4 with Q6600 running at 400*9 (water cooled). Bios is F5H I think - just stripped the system down so can't check at this time. Timings were pretty standard 5-5-5-15 with 2.24v (+0.4). Haven't really had chance to fully push or tweak the system as it's my ongoing water cooling project (still not finished).

[Caped Crusader]

Hi Guys,

Its a real shame gigabyte isnt releasing any bioses for over 2 months now :S
Im feeling like I should have bought the Maximus Formula, just look at the thread here on the forum.

And just to check:
Is it impossible to run 4x1GB of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ 1066mhz?
Or is it impossible to run any 4x1GB setup @ 1066mhz?

@Feichti
Looking good with the blocks there (Y)

I'm running 4 OCZ SLI 6400 sticks @ 1080Mhz in auto, which is the only way i can run them (probably because they're not optimized for this mobo). so I guess there must be others out there capable too.

[2good4you]

Feichti Really nice blocks

Alot of us Team.AU members provided alot of feedback on bioses for X38-DQ6/X38T-DQ6 recently - I send in alot of divider/memory related findings. Maybe they're busy implementing them.. well i hope so heh

So you think we'll see the X38-DQ6 running great with 4*1GB D9 chips @good OC like the ASUS formula can? Also the ABIT seems to do quite well with this. You are the memguy, you must know

[Alcibiades]

Just curious guys, but does everyone run their oc systems 24/7???
'Cause it makes sense to oc your system for gaming or encoding, but when your P2P client is running overnight, all that extra power is overkill, no good for your HW, your wallet or the planet.
I use the profiles in the bios to load default recovery settings with speed stepping enabled. 1.1v on bios instead of 1.55v lets me sleep with a clearer conscious at night.
Then, when it's time to play, a simple reboot, F12 to load the oc profile, F10 to save settings and reboot into windows, load COD4, Crysis, Witcher whatever!

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[Huigie]

Normally I prefer the rod over the fish but I need a quick point into the right direction. Have read most pages in this thread but did not find what I was looking for(or did not know what to look for... ). Just changed to X38 Giga board from a P5W. On the P5W I got memread-speeds close to 8500 and on the Giga it's 6500. Memory is Team Xtreem PC6400 CL4. Bios is latest official, F6.

[REVHEAD]

Just curious guys, but does everyone run their oc systems 24/7???
'Cause it makes sense to oc your system for gaming or encoding, but when your P2P client is running overnight, all that extra power is overkill, no good for your HW, your wallet or the planet.
I use the profiles in the bios to load default recovery settings with speed stepping enabled. 1.1v on bios instead of 1.55v lets me sleep with a clearer conscious at night.
Then, when it's time to play, a simple reboot, F12 to load the oc profile, F10 to save settings and reboot into windows, load COD4, Crysis, Witcher whatever!

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

just run the c1 setting in the bios and the other speedsteppigns stuff ,no need for rebooty,2 easy. default 2.4 for me underload 3.6 yihaaaa.

[Supershanks]

Just curious guys, but does everyone run their oc systems 24/7???
'Cause it makes sense to oc your system for gaming or encoding, but when your P2P client is running overnight, all that extra power is overkill, no good for your HW, your wallet or the planet.
I use the profiles in the bios to load default recovery settings with speed stepping enabled. 1.1v on bios instead of 1.55v lets me sleep with a clearer conscious at night.
Then, when it's time to play, a simple reboot, F12 to load the oc profile, F10 to save settings and reboot into windows, load COD4, Crysis, Witcher whatever!

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I'm not exactly that green but a decent 24/7 oc of 8x400 was rock steady @2.66 is fine & easily achieved.

[Feichti]

my system runs 24/7 @ oc@ 100% load @ boinc

Feichti

[freqy]

hello i've been watching and waiting so long to join in with your discussions regarding the x38-dq6....i got it today finally

i RMA'd a system in early october (asus premium wifi what a nightmare)
to purchase this x38 -dq6 with dominator memory.

the first batch of dominator pc-8500 was duff from scan in october.

and this batch (dabs)is failing on mem test86 also...i havent even installed windows as i speak the machines monitor to my right is filling up with red fail warnings,

wondering if anyone might have a few moments to advise me on this mother board and ram.

would :

updating the bios help a memtest result? (these modules are supported,)

ive tested each stick individually in slot 1 and they are both duff.( with various fails test 5 and 6 mainly ...oh wait.... 7 and 8 too.) at 1066 mhz

should i just RMA and buy some Ballistix ? i would like to run at 1066+

i have some spare corsair 667mhz i can run on this board to see if i can pass memtest tonight using this mother baord /cpu...but im not sure if that is a sure sign these dominators are duff?

1066 is a high frequency ...but why i should lower it when i paid nearly 100 pounds for them?

any help would be sooo great .

peace

freqy

x38- dq6
q6600
dual (just 2) dom pc8500 @1066 (fails memtest)
western sata 2
stock cooling for now
xp 32 and hopefully 64bit dual boot.

[~aoe~]

to the wonderful world of the Gigabyte x38

Have you set the timings manually or auto? If auto, try setting manually. You could also try relaxing the timings and/or frequency to see if it can pass the tests. The problem may not be the memory - it could be the motherboard (or psu, cpu, etc..).

What voltage are you giving the memory? May be worth checking if the voltage is correct or, if the memory allows, overvolting. Thankfully, the bios hardware monitor does report the memory voltage. Early bios revisions were known to undervolt some memory modules. I remember initially my modules (Ballistix PC8500) were given 1.8v with F3, but later revisions provided 2.2v. Saying that, this was only when auto timings were used. Any attempt to manually set the timings dropped the memory voltage back to 1.8v and I needed to overvolt by 0.3v or 0.4v.

I know a number of people are reporting problems running memory at 1066, but thankfully it's not a problem I have.

[freqy]

hi thanks for your advice

i had the timings set manual 5 5 5 15
and the voltage +.3 because i read somewhere this board gives 1.8v normaly.

the modules say 2.1v on the side.

i'm just testing at 800mhz. with 777 18 timings to slacken them as you suggest.

am i unlikely to get 1066mhz? is that the limit if lucky threshold?
i was hoping to overclock to 1200mhz, i bought a fan to fit ontop too .

its been three months since i bought my Q6600 still no use from it cpu

it may be i just need to tweak the frequency +10 or something?

l they have just passed test 5 and 6 at 800mhz with very very slack timings.

maybe i should see if i can go higher than 1066mhz??

[freqy]

there is one thing very strange about this bios..

each time i open up the bios the 'memory frequency (mhz) ' changes

Some times the bios thinks i have 800mhz other times it says 1066mhz .

strange.

[~aoe~]

Sounds as though the memory is ok. I can't really say whether this board has problems running memory at 1066 as I haven't had chance yet to optimise my overclock (water cooling build still in progress). I managed to achieve my target of 3.6GHz on my Q6600 with the memory at 1066 (3:4) with standard timings 5-5-5-15. Once I manage to complete the build, then I'll try and tighten the timings a bit and see if I can push it a bit more.

I also bought a fan assembly to put over the memory, although the above was achieved without any additional ventilation on the memory.

From other posts in this thread, it seems that a number of people are having problems running their memory at 1066, which is strange. However, when you consider that a number of problems are being reported to Gigabyte about this board and there is still no new 'official' bios since F4 (all F5x and the recent F6x bios releases have been betas), then it's no wonder people are becoming somewhat frustrated.

I'd suggest loading windows with the memory running with stable timings, overclock the cpu as best you can (or what you are comfortable with) and then try and push the memory. It's quite possible that some frequencies/timings that may not provide stability at stock fsb could actually be stable with a higher fsb. You can also test different bios revisions. I'm running F5h (I think) and that seems to be ok for me. I believe the general consensus is that F3 provides the highest achievable fsb, but is limited on memory options and other stuff.

[Wakuwaku]

Here i am again with the cold boot issue and i have some further info after a whole night testing.

First i thought it was related to the high fsb, low voltage or memory timings, but i was wrong and many people still think its fsb or other tweaks related.

What did i do, it was simple, i loaded optimised defaults, system boots fine.

After that i only changed the fsb from auto to manual but i didnt change the fsb or other settings, i kept all on default and guess what, cold boot problem.

I tried and tried but i could not boot cold, so it's pure related to the manual / auto setting used for FSB enhancement.

Did anyone else noticed this too, and my question is, do i need to RMA the board and get a new one or is it just a bios fault.

My flash history is:
F4 default
F5b
F7d i still use

PLeasee help me this board drives me crazy.

[freqy]

AOE : thanks again , i updated my bios F7D about an hour ago and as you said upped my FSB i think to 333?? x9 multi and also slackened a bit ..now im on 1066 and memtest seems o.k so far... ...also like you said, the voltages are not obvious on this board, so i upped a little more. and well yep ..seems allot better.
i shall install windows and run cpuz prime and coretemp ect...see how i get on ...nice one mate!!. id would have been pulling my hairs out till the cows came home...thing is we don't have cows around here so erm, thanks peace

Feichti : thanks i'm hoping to buy a water cool system, i have this forum bookmarked ofcourse...they look like parts out of the original starwars, awesome
pieces

Wakuwaku : hope you sort your prob i'm so new to this board im not sure how to help ..other than clear cmos reinstall bios f7d unplug and re plug cables. take out ram and put it back in again, bios related im not sure.

[zsamz_]

waku take the battery out for a few minutes

[freqy]

theres no LED on this board. unless its hidden amongst the colour scheme. can anyone see it?

[freqy]

hi just setting up this DQ6 board for the first time today.(Q6600 with pc-8500)

in the bios ive set at

333fsb x 9
1000mhz for the memory freq. (using 3a multi)
5 5 5 15 timings ( passes memtest - wont pass at 1066mhz stock )

so bios wise im at 3ghz

im now in xp with cpuz : it says the cpu is at 1998mhz (not 3ghz) fsb 333 x6 (not 333x9) but the multiplier is fluctuating between 6 and 9 so the frequency is 1998 then breifly 2997mhz and back n forth every few seconds. ( so it wants to be 3ghz but only for a breif millisecond ...maybe its unwell? can i buy grapes?

even more weird is that in the gigabyte system utility it reads 2400.03mhz (not 3ghz) and 266.67 x 9 (6-9) ( not 333x9 like in bios)

everything is reading different things.

( when i right click my computer it reads 3.0 ghz- woo hoo windows is right)

im running manual in the bios although ive got a flashing red text saying system voltage not optimized...maybe that should be auto because ive enabled clock control??

im just typing out loud... 3am past my bed time.. but computer more important.

peace

freqy

[Isepick]

Hey all, just wanted to pass this bit of info along, may have been specific to my setup, but if it helps someone else... . I have the X38T and could not get this board stable at any speed and was pulling my hair out until I decided to pull the 2nd radeon 3870 out, and my stability problems went away. After all manner of testing and moving and redoing things, I found the JMB36X (the J-Micron IDE controller) was having an IRQ conflict with the 2nd GPU, I disabled the JMB, and now my only problems are in trying to get a good fsb out of this bios, still tweaking and fooling around a bit tho...Anyhow I hope this helps someone out there.

[freqy]

that was a lucky find well done.isepick

i found more conflicts

core temp reads 47 degree C

at the same time

speedfan reads only 27degree C

thats 20 degrees out from each other.

am i the only one with these massive conflictions?

im on core temp .95 and
speed fan 4.33
cpu-z 1.41

[Isepick]

Core Temp and Everest are reasonably accurate, speedfan needs to be adjusted to read correctly...I dunno about the conflicts with the speed readings, tho I know core temp on my system never reads it right, but everest does (there is a link to everest somewhere in this thread, good luck finding it ).