Gigabyte MA790FX DQ6

[BertM]

i also emailed them last week about the nb.

yes oc'ing on this board is easy but i think i got a good phenom also. 3700mhz 1.425 is realy stable and is allowed to get hot at this speed.
so aircooling would be possible with this setting.

[Phenomenalspeed]

I think we deserve BIOS F7 from Gigabyte for our board. I've flashed F6D and still NB voltage is only allowing to decrease it down by 0.3V max. That doesn't bode well for NB clocking from BIOS at all. Good thing is that NB multi goes all the way up to 20x and CPU multi all the way up to 35x (or 36x??).

I will write an e-mail to their customer support. Who's with me?? What other things would you like to have enabled/fixed in BIOS?

Good idea.
I thought about doing this too. The more of us that contact them and ask for this the more likely we are to get it.
To Lightman and BertM
Did you contact them using the the gigabyte website?

I flashed F6 a few days ago. I was previously using F6B for several months. So far I haven't noticed any functional difference between that and this offcial one.

Things I'd like to see added/fixed are:
CPU-Northbridge voltage increase.
Fix the HyperTransport link frequency setting. Increasing above 2000Mhz doesn't work but decreasing below 2000Mhz does.
Chipset voltage setting only increases Southbridge voltage and not Northbridge voltage.
Auto RAM timings doesn't work (for my EPP RAM). Have to use manual.


They was such a long gap between the release BIOS F5 and official BIOS F6 (albeit with a couple of betas inbetween). I really hope we won't have to wait long to see tangible improvements in the next offical BIOS.

[Lightman]

Good idea.
I thought about doing this too. The more of us that contact them and ask for this the more likely we are to get it.
To Lightman and BertM
Did you contact them using the the gigabyte website?

Good thinking! I agree.
Yes, website.

I flashed F6 a few days ago. I was previously using F6B for several months. So far I haven't noticed any functional difference between that and this offcial one.

I've spotted lack of Ganged/UnGanged selection in F6 and F6d. Also I'm starting to suspect they broken HDD management. Thing is I can't install Windows XP on my 3 HDD or SSD. After finishing copying files (phase I of install) I've got restart and message NTLDR not found. Wired is that it was fine before to install many OSes. I've even tried to disconnect all drives expect the one I wanted to put XP on. Still same I will give it one more go with total BIOS clear and HDD repartitioning to rule out MBR virus or wired corruption.
Edit: After Clear CMOS and with only one drive install went smooth

Things I'd like to see added/fixed are:
CPU-Northbridge voltage increase.
Fix the HyperTransport link frequency setting. Increasing above 2000Mhz doesn't work but decreasing below 2000Mhz does.
Chipset voltage setting only increases Southbridge voltage and not Northbridge voltage.
Auto RAM timings doesn't work (for my EPP RAM). Have to use manual.

Yes, wise words!

Auto RAM is working for me out of the BOX. My RAM is OCZ Reaper PC8500 2x2GB.

They was such a long gap between the release BIOS F5 and official BIOS F6 (albeit with a couple of betas inbetween). I really hope we won't have to wait long to see tangible improvements in the next offical BIOS.

I hope so too


Edited

[-= rtz =-]

Has anyone tried Windows 7 build 7000 x64 with this board and a raid-array? Just wondering, cause Im getting a 2.9 hdd performance ratio in experience index while all other scores went up compared to Vista. Driver issue or?

[G0ldBr1ck]

Has anyone tried Windows 7 build 7000 x64 with this board and a raid-array? Just wondering, cause Im getting a 2.9 hdd performance ratio in experience index while all other scores went up compared to Vista. Driver issue or?

thats odd, mine gets a 7.9 with 2x Raptors

are you using the Gigabyte Sata or the SB600 Sata ports?

[-= rtz =-]

thats odd, mine gets a 7.9 with 2x Raptors

are you using the Gigabyte Sata or the SB600 Sata ports?

Ah, Goldbr1ck to the rescue
SB600 Sata ports, there were also major problems installing catalyst drivers. The problem is u can really notice the choppy performance in windows, especially when maximizing and minimizing windows, it stutters so I didnt even try any benching or games yet.
As a side note, in Vista x64 Ultimate the seagate drives score 5.9

[G0ldBr1ck]

are you using the 8.12 beta drivers for win7? The Catalyst drivers have been a pain in the ass lately. you may need to run driverclean and to a fresh catalyst install.

[-= rtz =-]

are you using the 8.12 beta drivers for win7? The Catalyst drivers have been a pain in the ass lately. you may need to run driverclean and to a fresh catalyst install.

Yup, exactly. 8.12 were the ones that created all the hassle (for vista x64). Sometimes the installation just hanged and u couldnt install them at all, dont even remmember how I solved that. I will try clean reinstall of 8.12 and if that doesnt help clean reinstall of 9.1

Edit: Attempt to uninstall catalyst drivers resulted with ati installer hang... tried to reboot in safe mode to run driver cleaner
but win was unable to boot and also unable to automatically recover. I will install windows again tommorow.

[G0ldBr1ck]

problem is that unless you use somthing like DriverCleaner to remove all trace of ATI software first the problem will stay even after re-installing or using older driver

[-= rtz =-]

So I should use driver cleaner first? I wanted to try that actually, but then windows crashed beyond reparation Which version of drivers are you using btw? And how many attempts or re-installs were needed before it finally worked for you?

[G0ldBr1ck]

I was using the 8.12 beta and it was just fine until Windows update snuck in a updated driver that was dated 8 days newer then the 8.12 beta and from then on the problems started. I went back to the 8.12 beta and problem was still there. Then I tried the Vista driver and still no fix. After that I ran DriverClean then installed 8.12beta from safe mode, now im good.

If all else fails you could always just go with a fresh Windows install. just make sure you dont install the drivers Win7 tries to give you thats dated 12/10. I believe the 8.12 beta is dated 12/2 I think.

[-= rtz =-]

Conclusion: Goldbr1ck tried to help over PM but we were unable to determine what exactly was causing the low hdd experience index score in Win7 x64 build 7000.
Altho I ran 3dmark 06 there and got 101xx as opposed to vista64's 107xx.

Everest hdd benchmark 1 MB linear read was giving 168 MB/s avg, very close to the raid-0 raptors from Goldbr1ck, so I guess its just a fluke in the performance rating system of Win7.

Anyway, I ran into a bigger issue yesterday, and wanted to ask has anyone experienced this as well. What happened was a complete shutdown of the system out of the blue, while chatting in miranda, there wasnt any storm outside, I didnt accidently pull out the power cable or pressed the extension power cable switch with foot, it just came like a phantom. This board is running for a year now and half of that period the system is overclocked like in the sig, it never happened before untill yesterday.

Anyone ever experienced this? It happened on xp32 sp3 if it means something.

[Lightman]

....

Anyway, I ran into a bigger issue yesterday, and wanted to ask has anyone experienced this as well. What happened was a complete shutdown of the system out of the blue, while chatting in miranda, there wasnt any storm outside, I didnt accidently pull out the power cable or pressed the extension power cable switch with foot, it just came like a phantom. This board is running for a year now and half of that period the system is overclocked like in the sig, it never happened before untill yesterday.

Anyone ever experienced this? It happened on xp32 sp3 if it means something.

Is it working now?
If it is, then most likely PSU in your computer..
Happens a lot. Even today I had a call from customer with exactly same issue. PSU is slowly giving up. It can be motherboard as well, but for me ratio is 95%/5% for PSU.

If you can, try different unit.

[-= rtz =-]

Is it working now?
If it is, then most likely PSU in your computer..
Happens a lot. Even today I had a call from customer with exactly same issue. PSU is slowly giving up. It can be motherboard as well, but for me ratio is 95%/5% for PSU.

If you can, try different unit.

Yup, its working allright. It happened only once, and PSU was my first thought as well. It booted immediatly from first attempt after failing with no problems. The system is running average 12 hours a day, but sometimes its over 48 hours uptime. I'll just monitor the situation for a while and if it starts to get more frequent, hell, Corsair is still few years under warranty so there should be no problems with that

[-= rtz =-]

Allright, it shut down again today while in Idle. What I wanna ask u as this: I had a weird problem with XP SP3 where everest would show weird temperatures, f.e. in XP SP2, XP x64 and Vista x64 SP2 the temperatures were always fine. 29-32 C in Idle and both cores below 10 C, while in XP SP3 it could never go below 36-37 C in Idle, with both cores arround 15 C. It was like it had some small load in Idle constantly. I found this odd and I was messing with this problem for months.

Today after the 2nd shutdown (2nd total) I decided to blow out the dust from the PSU with a compressor (without disassembling it), altho I knew the chance of this helping the situation are miserable. Anyway... I booted up again, and found a pleasant surprise - the temperatures were "fixed", the Idle temps were finally the same as in other OS-es I mentioned, temperatures finally seem correct and realistic again, 30 C with both cores below 10 C.

So now Im starting to think, what if the high temps problem that was previously present was the cause of the pc shutting down? What the hell could cause this temp issue (I seriously have no idea anymore) and how come it fixed itself by a simple blow-out with a compressor?? I repeat, I had done nothing xcept this simple blow-out dust job, no messing with software or hardware in any way.

Any ideas?

Edit: It shut down again and started to happen more often soon after I wrote this post, I am back on vista x64 for almost 3 hours and its working good so far. Will keep this updated.

[BertM]

i have had several sudden restarts in xp sp3. always after playing gta for some time. but never shutdowns.
and it was during different states of cpu. sometimes idle, sometimes still with watercooling on gaming mode so cpu had a low temp, and once with cpu on 3700 mhz.
in sp2 i didnt have unexplainable crashes yet with the phenom.

[-= rtz =-]

i have had several sudden restarts in xp sp3. always after playing gta for some time. but never shutdowns.
and it was during different states of cpu. sometimes idle, sometimes still with watercooling on gaming mode so cpu had a low temp, and once with cpu on 3700 mhz.
in sp2 i didnt have unexplainable crashes yet with the phenom.

Well PC related problems are always explainable, we just sometimes dont know how to explain them I wish this was a simple crash instead of bad shutdowns like in your case, but what can you do..

Im running the system in vista x64 for 12 hours now and it hasnt shutdown yet. Interesting Im starting to think its XP SP3 related, but I guess time will tell.

[G0ldBr1ck]

Anyone know any place that still has this board for sale? I found only a couple but they are priced near $300 . I dont remember what I payed for the one I have but I know it wasnt that much.

Why did they ever discontinue it anyways?

[G0ldBr1ck]

double post.

[BertM]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gigabyte-GA-MA79...em270342931598

we need to tweak the bios if possible, im realy getting annoyed that we cant increase nb voltage in bios.

[Stuen4y]

Is there any info when will the new bios be ready and donwloadable? I'm rather annoyed than irritated but I really need this nb voltage increase in BIOS.

[BertM]

im irritated actualy, thinking of not buying gigabyte again.

[G0ldBr1ck]

Is there any info when will the new bios be ready and donwloadable? I'm rather annoyed than irritated but I really need this nb voltage increase in BIOS.

I would dare to guess that we will not ever see a fix for this. They have launched other boards now of same/better quality and will probly say screw the DQ6

[Stuen4y]

I would dare to guess that we will not ever see a fix for this. They have launched other boards now of same/better quality and will probly say screw the DQ6

The mobo is good enough which is very clearly to be seen in my results. The nb voltage is more for easy of use.

[G0ldBr1ck]

The mobo is good enough which is very clearly to be seen in my results. The nb voltage is more for easy of use.

Oh, its a Great board no doubt. Its my favorite board but what I mean is they didnt offer much bios support before the board was EOL so now that they have new boards out of same quality Im not counting on them fixing this boards bios.