Gigabyte EX58-UD5/Extreme Discussion Thread

[NCspecV81]

got it on my board yesterday,what did u do? is your board dead ?
after 15h i power on my pc and no way to start

Hey, I got this yesterday as well with the updated bios. =o(

I finally recovered it from the dreaded 88 continuous boot, instant off infinite recycle. I just had to vigorously man handle the reset button like for 15 minutes straight until I saw a c1 populate the led. Then I powered off and back on, and it was miraculously covered. I got this 88 error until finally I flashed back to an older bios. I encountered the 88 code a couple of times yesterday. Sometimes it would only take a few, actually several, quick mashes of the reset button to recover to the c1. Good luck, b/c that 88 is the biggest booger ever!

Thanks Gigabyte for the wonderful bios, it definitely incapacitated my Christmas Eve!

[mikesrex]

What is the difference between the UD5 and the Extreme, other than the northbridge heatsink? I know this question has been asked several times in the thread, but no one has really answered yet.

[fornowagain]

Nothing...

Well a few caps from what I can see, thats about it.

[Xello]

What is the difference between the UD5 and the Extreme, other than the northbridge heatsink? I know this question has been asked several times in the thread, but no one has really answered yet.

No one really knows for sure, and the question of why are there different bios for each board goes unanswered. When we speculate, the handful of people 'in the know' i think just laugh at us

One thing is for sure, just as many people are getting great overclocks on the UD5 as the Extreme. So unless you want to watercool the X58, your cpu will be your limiting factor not the board.

[Solid Snake]

well, now i have my new GIGABYTE EX58 EXTREME

coming soon the test with Core i7 920

[ReverendMaynard]

well, now i have my new GIGABYTE EX58 EXTREME

coming soon the test with Core i7 920

loving the Extreme.


Seems like allot of people who insist on flashing every bios is complaining about it though, which is kind of dampening the mood on such a solid board. My advice, is try the F4j and stick too it

[Xello]

Agreed! For now anyway. GAR you should perhaps update the first post with that information, or at least just say that most people are finding F4j to be the best so far.

[rge]

I wonder how many GB boards will be shipped with F4 final bios. Using F4, I would have thought my cpu could not go above 3.7, and even that flaky, and thought the reboot issue was faulty board. Unless reading about it, I would never have known to flash backwards to a beta bios...I would have tried F5a and got same problem. As flaky as F4 was, i probably would have sent the board back in 30 day newegg return period and bought another one, not knowing it was a good board, just bugged bios.

[vega22]

Seems like allot of people who insist on flashing every bios is complaining about it though, which is kind of dampening the mood on such a solid board. My advice, is try the F4j and stick too it

It's simple: the F4j is far from perfect. In my rig, LL on, ET6 and Cpuz show the same idle and load real voltage (1.360/1.344) from 1.37500 to 1.40000 Vcore setting in Bios. This confuses me when I'm trying to adjust my system. I do not like either the performance in memory that i have with F4j. I have the same performance @ 1688 8-8-8-24-cr1 as @ 1600 9-9-9-24 in the Smackover.

[SteveRo]

I have tried about 5 different bios including most recent F4 and F5a, for the ggbt extreme with 965 - F4j works best for me - so far.

[vega22]

I have tried about 5 different bios including most recent F4 and F5a, for the ggbt extreme with 965 - F4j works best for me - so far.

The same here. Only i say that is normal that people want to improve.
Flashing to F4, return to F4j, my board has become another Before, it was impossible start @ 200x20 x36 x16 x8 (the famous 200x20 wall). Now, the wall is gone. Before, i need only 1.1v IOH for my settings, now, 1.2v. My 940 now needs more Vcore...Now I see what other things have changed

[Bjynne]

Does anyone have a link to all the extreme bioses?

[SteveRo]

two links for extreme bios -

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/giga...st-bios-28441/

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/...x58-extrem.htm

[dinos22]

Hey, I got this yesterday as well with the updated bios. =o(

I finally recovered it from the dreaded 88 continuous boot, instant off infinite recycle. I just had to vigorously man handle the reset button like for 15 minutes straight until I saw a c1 populate the led. Then I powered off and back on, and it was miraculously covered. I got this 88 error until finally I flashed back to an older bios. I encountered the 88 code a couple of times yesterday. Sometimes it would only take a few, actually several, quick mashes of the reset button to recover to the c1. Good luck, b/c that 88 is the biggest booger ever!

Thanks Gigabyte for the wonderful bios, it definitely incapacitated my Christmas Eve!

oh man
i hate when i have weird board issues
i recently had one with my P5E3 DLX
gave me a real scare but i got it going in the end

its good to see you get it up and running at least

hiwa i hope yours recovers like this too

[ante_ante]

Can someone tell me if this is a normal score with my setup all at stock except turbo enabled. No tweaks in XP except set performance in CCC and using Cat 8.12

[ReverendMaynard]

It's simple: the F4j is far from perfect. In my rig, LL on, ET6 and Cpuz show the same idle and load real voltage (1.360/1.344) from 1.37500 to 1.40000 Vcore setting in Bios. This confuses me when I'm trying to adjust my system. I do not like either the performance in memory that i have with F4j. I have the same performance @ 1688 8-8-8-24-cr1 as @ 1600 9-9-9-24 in the Smackover.

You have to account for .040v....how is this confusing? I get the exact same drop and droop as you and out of the 20 775 boards that I've owned this is easily top two, number 1 being the DFI TR2SB+ X48. As for your memory performance, use turbo performance mode on the EX58, it'll tighten up a bunch of subtimings and give you better results.

[Bjynne]

Is f4j the best bios at moment?for the extreme

[Xello]

Yeah we're all getting that drop + droop no matter the bios, it's what the board does. I tried the pencil mod but it's not working

Is f4j the best bios at moment?for the extreme

[Lukee]

I've been using the F4j on the extreme and running 4.2 Ghz on 4.1 v(bios).

I flashed to F5a and used the same settings. I was able to run 4.3 Ghz with 4.0 v(bios) and I haven't had any issues with reboots, lockups, etc. /knocks on wood.

It still won't stabilize with 36x 16x 8x but I really hadn't thought that it would. Only a 40x multi would fix that, imo.

I'll play around with it some more and see if I can stilllowr vcore a bit.

[Lukee]

question about the WC on the extreme.

I'm using 7/16" tubing. the extreme comes with 3/8" barbs. Tubing is very loose, so I didn't even bother with it, but is there a way that I can get 1'2" barbs from Gigabyte for it, or is there a 3/8" to 1/2" converter?

[rge]

It's simple: the F4j is far from perfect. In my rig, LL on, ET6 and Cpuz show the same idle and load real voltage (1.360/1.344) from 1.37500 to 1.40000 Vcore setting in Bios. This confuses me when I'm trying to adjust my system. I do not like either the performance in memory that i have with F4j. I have the same performance @ 1688 8-8-8-24-cr1 as @ 1600 9-9-9-24 in the Smackover.

I try all new bioses/utilities b/c Im a bios/utility whre, somebody has to take one for the team.

But that aside, if in addition to drop/droop you are complaining that setting bios to 1.375 you get 1.360 cpuz and then setting bios to 1.4 you still get 1.360 cpuz, that is because the bios increases volts in steps of .00625v, yet sensor on mobo (which cpuz reports) reads in steps of .016v. So until you increase bios enough to get to next sensor point, it wont change the value reported, even though it is still increasing .00625v. That is not going to change. However if you use an excel spread sheet, and document the points where the voltages bounce back and forth between higher and lower values, ie is near halfway point, you can plot the rest from there by using steps .00625 (excel will do for you). Once you plot one halfway point, you can accurately predict the rest, attesting that board is doing decent job of increasing by .00625v. I marked the halfway points on mine as (()). See pic where I listed actual sensor values based on .00625v steps versus cpuz reporting mobo sensor which reports in .016V steps. It is especially useful for going back and forth between LLC on vs off, and for scaling getting next OC point. For example at one point, idle cpuz I have ((1.336)), never reads 1.336 it was bouncing back and forth between 1.328 and 1.344 (.016v steps) and average is 1.336. And balancing the 3 halfway points, but increasing by .00625, leads to values idle actual. Using easytune to change volts, does not take long to make the chart.

Of course if all mobo's had sensors that read in steps of .008 or god forbid .006...wouldnt have that problem.

@Lukee, I think your best bet is to buy different NB waterblock, somewhere, someone had mentioned another NB wb cooler that fit Extreme. I know the screw threads are normal size, I could fit my old cpu retaining screws from 775 in them...when I was trying different nb heatsinks/fan...but found just plain fan worked best.

[ReverendMaynard]

I try all new bioses/utilities b/c Im a bios/utility whre, somebody has to take one for the team.

But that aside, if in addition to drop/droop you are complaining that setting bios to 1.375 you get 1.360 cpuz and then setting bios to 1.4 you still get 1.360 cpuz, that is because the bios increases volts in steps of .00625v, yet sensor on mobo (which cpuz reports) reads in steps of .016v. So until you increase bios enough to get to next sensor point, it wont change the value reported, even though it is still increasing .00625v. That is not going to change. However if you use an excel spread sheet, and document the points where the voltages bounce back and forth between higher and lower values, ie is near halfway point, you can plot the rest from there by using steps .00625 (excel will do for you). Once you plot one halfway point, you can accurately predict the rest, attesting that board is doing decent job of increasing by .00625v. I marked the halfway points on mine as (()). See pic where I listed actual sensor values based on .00625v steps versus cpuz reporting mobo sensor which reports in .016V steps. It is especially useful for going back and forth between LLC on vs off, and for scaling getting next OC point. For example at one point, idle cpuz I have ((1.336)), never reads 1.336 it was bouncing back and forth between 1.328 and 1.344 (.016v steps) and average is 1.336. And balancing the 3 halfway points, but increasing by .00625, leads to values idle actual. Using easytune to change volts, does not take long to make the chart.

Of course if all mobo's had sensors that read in steps of .008 or god forbid .006...wouldnt have that problem.

@Lukee, I think your best bet is to buy different NB waterblock, somewhere, someone had mentioned another NB wb cooler that fit Extreme. I know the screw threads are normal size, I could fit my old cpu retaining screws from 775 in them...when I was trying different nb heatsinks/fan...but found just plain fan worked best.

You are a true grinder rge.

[Xello]

question about the WC on the extreme.

I'm using 7/16" tubing. the extreme comes with 3/8" barbs. Tubing is very loose, so I didn't even bother with it, but is there a way that I can get 1'2" barbs from Gigabyte for it, or is there a 3/8" to 1/2" converter?

I think you can buy an adapter like that. Before buying the board i was told by a reliable person not to, because they had experienced leaking with them before. I bought the board and just got some 3/8 tubing, and lo & behold.. It leaked all on its own. Which i was also warned about by said person actually...

If they just done a standard block where you could fit your own barbs it would be no issue

[Lukee]

I think you can buy an adapter like that. Before buying the board i was told by a reliable person not to, because they had experienced leaking with them before. I bought the board and just got some 3/8 tubing, and lo & behold.. It leaked all on its own. Which i was also warned about by said person actually...

If they just done a standard block where you could fit your own barbs it would be no issue

That sucks. I removed that piece for now since I wasn't going to use it. My MCH temps are like 49-50C when booting up. Doesn't that seem kinda high?

[GAR]

Can someone tell me if this is a normal score with my setup all at stock except turbo enabled. No tweaks in XP except set performance in CCC and using Cat 8.12

You should know that the 4870x2 performs better, MUCH better on windows vista.