Dedicated Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 thread

[therat]

I sure hope the new bios finally fixes the S3 standby/hibernate problem that has plagued all the gigabyte boards. Been making life a nightmare for those of us that use gigabyte boards for HTPCs.

cheers

[Richard Dower]

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...rd-review.html

[Richard Dower]

Does anyone know how to get the GSATA Purple ports to work?...tried everything and none of them work?

[MACMAC]

Does anyone know how to get the GSATA Purple ports to work?...tried everything and none of them work?

Are you trying to use them for RAID?

At the moment my recollection is a little fuzzy, but I believe that's all they are meant for.

[pjskeet]

Does anyone know how to get the GSATA Purple ports to work?...tried everything and none of them work?

Integrated Peripherals

SATA Port0-3 Native Mode=Enabled
Smart Backup Initial=All Ports
Smart Backup Function=Disabled

GS0 and GS2 can be used for HDD's

The Sil5723 chips do not support optical drives as I understand it.

If you learn anything to the contrary from Gigabyte I'd like to know.


Hope this helps Richard

[Richard Dower]

Realtek 889A codec drivers, version 2.05: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false
F12 bios is also out now: http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Support/...ProductID=2831

As for the GSATA ports, basically the Jmicron and Sil5723 chips have been CRIPPLED in bios, F5 and F6 bios had alot of bios options to configure the chips, you could setup a RAID 0/1 array using the embedded Jmicron bios ROM...but with the newer bios all those options are gone!

I could not use the GSATA 0/1 ports and ended up using GSATA 2/3 ports...you can't use RAID 0 at all, you can't setup RAID arrays...it's total pants!, i installed the SteelVine software and this is what it sees:

RAID 1 and it's very unstable, i've had three auto rebuilds in the last two days. But i did see an option to flash the embedded Sil5723 firmware...F12c bios had firmware 1.1570 but the Silicon Image site had firmware 1.1576...so i tried to flash, i got an error message saying the flash failed, but my bios and SteelVine software now says the firmware is 1.1576?...so dunno what happened there.

[Richard Dower]

Realtek 889A codec drivers version 2.06: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

[Fuji]

I have this board. Pretty nice.

I have a question though.

How do i measure my rails?

I use CPUID hardware monitor and it says that my 12 V rails jump for 8-10-11-12 V which is bad.

What software is accurate? Speedfan says the same thing; i think my psu is dying

[Supershanks]

Voltage Measuring Guide

[Fuji]

thanks. It burns out that the board just sucks at reporting voltages

my +12 V rail is at like 12.3ish V

and my 3.3 V rail is at 3.28 V.

[Supershanks]

In most cases the voltages get misreported by software. For a while a few years back reporting was pretty good, but now your lucky if you get 2 out of the 3 voltages right in software.
In any event an mm reading is more accurate.

[Prodigys]

I have this board since 5 hours now, and he doesnt want to boot when i change even 1 setting in MIT ... You guys maybe know it ?

EDIT:

I solved it, some option for the ram and others you may better leave stock, and also the 333 strap works best, others give me some instability...

[Richard Dower]

Thought i'd bump this thread since i haven't really updated it in ages, i'll start by listing some driver updates:

http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Support/...ProductID=2831

The latest beta bios F13A can be found here: http://jzelectronic.de/jz2/index.php

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CQV33W4D

Realtek 889A codec drivers version 2.09: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

Realtek 8111C LAN drivers version 6.213: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false

Silicon Image SiL5723 firmware version 1.1576: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...ctid=2&osid=0&

Download the GUI version then download the SteelVine software and use that to flash the to latest firmware: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...tid=2&osid=10&

Intel Matrix Storage Manager: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filt...3&submit=Go%21

[nama]

Hi guys, been googling for a gigabyte forum and turns out they dont have one or i just cant find it. but anyways here my problem. am trying to oc my q6600(1.200vid) and cant get past 3.6 with this board. see my setup below

coolermaster xtreme power 650 psu
ga-ep45-dq6 - f12
q6600 G0(1.200vid)
g,skill PI series 800mhz 4-4-4-12 1.9v
swiftech 220 compact cooling(gpu+cpu loop)
bfg 8800gtx oc2 watercooled

* cpu core temps load at 53 for 3.6ghz, when testing for 3.7 i get 56c

dont know what the voltage tweakin rules r like for this board chipset but i am coming from x38 based maximus formula and having some serious trouble when priming with bluescreens in the first few minutes

primed 3.7 with 1.437vcore bios, 1.5-ppl, 1.2-vtt, 1.38nb... any higher on any voltages results in less stable prime time. anyone with success please advise thanks.

[Slovnaft]

VTT will get you a long way with FSB. I'd say try bumping up vtt (keep it under 1.4v), PLL (under or at 1.61), and VNB (under or around 1.5). Should give you some more.

[nama]

thanks will go back and fiddle with it and see wot turns out. post back in a few hrs. thanks again

[nama]

VTT will get you a long way with FSB. I'd say try bumping up vtt (keep it under 1.4v), PLL (under or at 1.61), and VNB (under or around 1.5). Should give you some more.

thanks man found success, primed 3.7ghz 24hrs. heading upward. heres my voltages
vcore-1.344 load(1.456bios)
nb - 1.36v(any higher i get bluescreens)
ppl - 1.7v
vtt- 1.46v(any lower fails after 5 hrs)

this board hates high nb voltages in my case but loves high pll and vtt voltages to get the fsb stable.

unrelated question!!! has anyone been able to boot or use the sil ports for a bootable raid0 array?

[NapalmV5]

ive tried both ep45t and ep45 extreme.. what an abomination since dq6 is the most extreme


anyone come across/any sighting/s of an ep45 dq6 A3 ?

[nama]

am really hating this board right now lol, i miss ocing on my maximus. anything past 400fsb is a nightmare on my q6600. and its a 1.2vid too so it shud scare reall high with little volts. cant get the fsb stable without really high ppl and vtt which r bad in the long run.

[Sam Lowry]

After reading this thread, I have one important question, since I am about to receive 8 HDDs and this motherboard. Does that mean I can only use a total of 8 SATA drives?

I have 8 of these drives:
Seagate de 1.5 TB ST31500341AS Barracuda (Sata 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 8.5MS)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

2 of these drives:
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152100

And one of these:
LG Black SATA Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive - GGW-H20L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136137

What do you recommend in my case? I bought 8 large HDDs (1.5 TB) just to use them. And I can't drop the Blu-ray SATA drive.

There is another option (a cheap sata controller card) that can save me some trouble, but I am not sure it will have a good performance when it comes to transfer/read/write/etc. benchmarks:

PROMISE SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816102062

Please note this is a PCI Sata controller card and all the PCI-E SATA cards only have 2 ports and are expensive. Besides, I might only have one PCI-E to spare, while more normal PCI slots might be available.

Any suggestions?

I also like to point out I have another computer here, but instead of being a Q9450 like the one which was meant to be used with all these drives, it's only a P4 3 GHz 1 GB RAM, purchased on 2003/2004.

This motherboard was recommended after I did one research to find substitutes for my ABIT IP35 Pro, which only uses 6 SATA ports. I was going to use 10 SATA HDDs, plus the Blu-ray drive.

And more than that, my PSU (also, about to be received) can plug 12 SATA drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817814012

[Sam Lowry]

Sorry to post twice but I have another relevant question that might even cover the last one.

In the last post (above) I discussed the number of SATA ports available on this motherboard. Then I realize there is one cheap SATA controller card using 2 SATA ports (I believe), and based on PCI-Express. I was only searching for SATA controller cards with 4 ports, but since they are expensive/N/A, and the only good choice was using a common PCI slot, I give up.

This is the link from this PCI-E SATA card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816132014

But before that, I have two items here to be added on this new computer. A VGA card and one capture card. The first seems to be using PCI-E x16 while the second, PCI-E x1.

EVGA 512-P3-N845-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) KO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - EVGA "Knock Out" Edition, overclocked at 678MHz

Specs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130337

Blackmagic Intensity Pro (capture card) - specs:
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/pro...sity/techspecs

What I need to know is simple:

1) How many SATA PCI-E controller cards can be plugged into the GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard? A while ago I was checking the ABIT IP35 Pro motherboard and looked like the VGA card was too large and was almost blocking space. It seemed only one PCI-E slot was available on the ABIT. I don't know about the Gigabyte.

Because to me what is important above all else is to have more SATA HDDs plugged. That's why this SATA card was appealing to me AT FIRST:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816102062

2) If the SATA controller card is based on PCI-E, does that mean I will be able to plug her on any kind of PCI-E slot? Anyone using x1, x4 and that one PCI-E 2.0 using x8/x16?

A quick note: Regarding the size of the capture card, it's very small, compared to the VGA card (8800 GTS).

[nama]

we'll i got confused reading your post but with pci-e they are backward compatible as in a 16x slot will work as 1x with a 1x card so you could have cards in all the pci-e slots and shud work fine. as to vga size it depends on the card itslef. noards are all the same standard in slot placement. so if you card is a single slot size it will not take yo the next 4x slot. i have an 8800gtx but had the stock cooler removed coz of size and replaced with a waterblock takin up just one slot. the 8800gts in the link looks like a 2 slot card... hope this helps

also just a little advice, i would say buy a rampage formula or maximus II formula. this board is a pain in the butt specially if u OCing. its fried 2 sets of my memory already and am not even overvolting the ram. and support is terrible, unlike most boards this is the only thread i found for this board and there is no real information on here (no offense to anyone but thats just it). you wont even find a reliable settings guide for it. am planning on selling mine asap. was hoping i would be editing on FCS 2 by now but gettin it to a mare 3.6ghz on a q6600 is a mission when it comes to getting the ram stable.

anyways take what you want of this. goodluck

[NapalmV5]

3rd q9650 @ 4.5ghz



1st q9650: 1.2125vid - 4.9ghz on air
2nd q9650: 1.2500vid - 4.9ghz on air
3rd q9650: 1.2000vid - 4.9ghz??

[ceemic]

Sorry for bumpin' old thread.
I got EP45-DQ6 from my friend for some LN2 testing.
This board does nice FSB (NB@stock air):

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=491209

But it's SuperPi 1M performance is pretty bad with newer BIOS:
http://ceemic.pri.ee/45nm/7.172.JPG

Can someone suggest some older BETA BIOS and where can I download BETA BIOS'es for Gigabyte's boards?

Tnx!

[neo mike]

There is a good gigabyte forum at www.tweaktown.com click on forums and you will see gigabyte forum, its the best i have ever found.