Gigabyte EX58-UD5/Extreme Discussion Thread

[Jonny Manc]

Hi again Sparda, I didn't mean to sound nasty in my last post, but I thought that by you posting the mem config page from the manual that you thought that I hadn't bothered to read it myself, or that I was installing the mem in the incorrect slots!!!

My mistake!

I really dont know what to do anymore with regards to this system, I still haven't heard anything back from the people that are testing it neither, so I am going to take it that they are still currently testing the mobo for me...

I really dont know what else it could be if they test the mobo over the course of a few days and it doesn't crash with them..

About flashing the BIOS, can you use any USB flash drive, or do they have to be a special type of flash drive?

I used the @BIOS software to flash via Vista, but I have just read on here that using this software is a bad idea... I dont have any floppy discs, or a floppy drive for that matter, and I no longer have a USB flash drive, but I can easily go buy one...

I flashed mine using a normal USB drive (formatted to FAT32) and am happy running on f8b and experienced no issues through the flashing process :P

[Dahmer]

Talking about flashing...anyone know when F9 bios will be available for UD5?

[DavyBoy]

just had a poke around and when i remove i stick it shows as 4 gig and 2 gig usable unless i left the first white slot empty and then it shows as 4 gig with two sticks fitted , i tried all three sticks in different slots so to me its looking like i have a slot that not reading, the white slot nearest the cpu

rma time

This is the exact same thing that happened to me!!!

So I RMA'd the mobo for testing, and when they fired it up with 6GB it picked up all 3 modules!!!

[Sparda]

I flashed mine using a normal USB drive (formatted to FAT32) and am happy running on f8b and experienced no issues through the flashing process :P

Same here & I'm using spiflash because earlier bios has some Q-Flash issue.

[javaneze]

Hello!
Working with a user-summer-friendly OC @3,36GHz (21*160) for now what with all the warm weather and temps in Greece.

With xmp enabled i get 1.65v (1,64 actual) and 8-8-8-24 timings just fine with no manual tuning.

Any suggestions, specially in volts would be appreciated, I think that maybe some need a lower value than auto.
(Auto on vcore gave me 1,36v! Hit 95C on the first 20 seconds in prime )

A suggestion on hyper-threading would be appreciated too.
Since i m not running any benchmarks and the pc is for gaming mostly should I turn it off? (as i understand more volts are needed when its on... )


F7 bios, changes made:

Advanced CPU Features:
CPU Clock Ratio ................................ [20x]
Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech .................. [Enabled]
CPU Cores Enabled ............................ [All]
CPU Multi Threading .......................... [Enabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) ................... [Enabled]
C3/C6/C7 State Support .................... [Enabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor ......................... [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function ............................ [Enabled]
Virtualization Technology ................... [Disabled]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT ..................... [Disabled]


Uncore & QPI Features:
QPI Link Speed .............................. x36
Uncore Frequency .......................... 21
Isonchronous Frequency ..................[Enabled]

Standard Clock Control:
Base Clock (BCLK) Control ................ [Enabled]
BCLK Frequency (MHz) .....................160
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) ........... [auto]

C.I.A.2 [Disabled]

Advanced Clock Control:
CPU Clock Drive ..............................[800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive ................... [900mV]
CPU Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]
IOH Clock Skew ............................. [0ps]



Advanced DRAM Features:
Performance Enhance ...................... [turbo]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P) ......... [Enabled]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) ........ [10] (auto gave me 12 with ram@1920)
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) .......... [auto]

Advanced Voltage Control:

CPU
Load Line Calibration ................. [Εnabled]
CPU Vcore ...............................1.125

Everything else missing, on default or auto.
Results in the attached image with prime running in the back.



Thanx in advance mates

[Ikari1]

Hi

What is the newest/best chipset drivers to use with the extreme? Can you just use the Vista ones?

[andyr(uk)]

This is the exact same thing that happened to me!!!

So I RMA'd the mobo for testing, and when they fired it up with 6GB it picked up all 3 modules!!!

I rma'd the board as i did find some bent pins on the zif socket , i have problems with my ram , it wont boot with two of the sticks i have so i am down to one stick in slot 1 , waiting on corsair to get there rma into gear.
I might get some patriot to tie me over, very good price for 6 gig atm

[DavyBoy]

I have also RMA'd my mobo, but when they set the mobo up and installed 6GB of RAM the board picked up all 3 modules...

I also checked the CPU socket for bent pins, and they were all fine.. I checked the socket every single time I had to remove the CPU for any reason and there is definitely no bent pins in there...

If I were to RMA the mobo directly with Gigabyte UK, and they found the board to be faulty, would they actually replace the mobo for me, or just repair the current board??

I sent the board back to the e-tailer for testing, but so far their methods of testing have been extremely poor.. to begin with they told me that the board wasn't faulty because they installed 6GB of RAM and it all showed up, they never installed Windows and tried any stress testing, they just viewed the POST screen...

Then I called up and explained how it used to see all 6GB of RAM for me when I first set the board up, and how it was due to the board being really unstable that I shipped it back to them, so they ran Prime95 Blend for 1 hour and tell me yet again that there is nothing wrong with the board...

I then had to plead with them to leave the system setup overnight running Prime Blend for the problems to showup, so that is what I am awaiting the results of as we speak... I am praying to god that the board acts up for them this time, because I am 99.9% positive that it is a faulty mobo...

With the 3 weeks I spent with this mobo and all my testing, everything points towards the mobo as being the problem... so if they turn around and tell me that it isn't faulty, I have no idea what steps I can take next??

I am also annoyed at the fact I had to pay £21 to ship the mobo off, and now I am also expected to pay them another £23 to get it sent back if it isn't faulty... that is a joke IMO... When I RMA'd my CPU and it was found not faulty, I wasn't charged by that company to get my CPU back, they covered those costs themselves...

The only thing I can think of doing next if they say it isn't faulty is to test it out again at home, and if the problems are still present with me, then I should ship it off to Gigabyte to see what they say...

But these problems have been with the mobo since the first day I set it up, it initially had F4 BIOS installed, and I have a D0 chip, but the board still booted up with F4, even though Gigabyte say you need to have F5 minimum for proper D0 Stepping support, but I did try some stress testing with F4 BIOS, and it was extremely unstable with that BIOS, so I went onto F6, again the problems were still present, but there were times when the system would Prime away overnight without any problems, but then the next day with the exact same settings the system would crash within 10 minutes of Prime...

Then when F7 BIOS came out, I installed that, and it didn't really change anything, the system was still unstable.. then someone made me aware of beta BIOS'es from tweaktown I think it was, so I tried F8b and as soon as I started Prime it would BSOD on me every single time... and all this is at stock frequency remember, I haven't really done any overclocking on this thing so far... because of my inability to get the system stable @ stock!!!

Does anyone here have any idea as to what else could be causing my problems??

Like I said, I have tried as many different hardware configurations as possible with all the hardware I have here at home, and every single one gave me the exact same results... also with the 1st DIMM channel dying on me and then miraculously working again when the retailers set it up is a mystery to me...

I hope that someone here could guide me in the right direction with where I can go from here with this rig, because I am at a complete loss as to what I can do now...

The only hope I have left is that the tech who is testing the mobo actually gives the board a good thorough testing and that he also experiences the same issues as I was having... then I will get a replacement mobo sent out and everything will be fine, but if they only test if over the course of 1 day and it behaves itself like it has done for me a couple times in the past, I dont know what else I could do...

Thanks again for your replies so far people, it is much appreciated...

P.S. here is a rundown on all the hardware I have used for testing in total:

GFX cards: 8500GT 512MB, 8800GTX 768MB, GTX280 1GB (All cards have been tested in another machine and each one works perfectly)

RAM: 3 x 1GB Corsair XMS3 1333MHz, 3 x 2GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz (tested with stock timings and much looser timings on both sets, each module has been tested indivdually and also as a set running memtest bootdisc and they are all fine)

PSU: Hiper Type-M 630w, Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850w. (lots of people had told me the issues I was experiencing was probably caused by my old Hiper, so I went and bought the Be Quiet! only to find the problems were still present!!!)

HDD: I have tested the system using 3 different SATAII drives, to see whether it was a faulty drive that was causing the problems, but again the issues were still present..

I tested the rig using about 5 different SATA cables as well to see if it that made any difference to, but nothing I tried made a blind bit of difference...

The rig was built up outside the case with the absolute bare minimum connected to it, also tried using just one RAM module (this was before the RAM channel died on me) installed in the first white slot, and I thought that everything appeared to be OK with just one stick installed, so I decided to leave it Priming overnight, but when I returned to the PC about 7 hours later, it has BSOD'd on me again...

As you can see I have tried lots of things with my rig, and nothing I have done seemed to make any difference at all..

[Jonny Manc]

Did you buy your kit from the same place?? If so, send it all back to them for some proper testing!!

[seanmcgpa]

Hey guys... I'm interested in this motherboard with an Intel W3520, anyone running the two of these ? Any BIOS issues with the Xeon versus the 920 D0?

Thanks

[Andrea deluxe]

http://www.hwupgrade.it/forum/showpo...postcount=7085



ANYONE TRY?

[Infa]

Flashed and are working fine, AHCI is 1.20E and no delay in HDD detection...

BUT! this bios have som changed default values, so check settings, and worst of all? the uncore multiple are somehow limited to 16x then it goes to AUTO, and in this bios auto means the highest against BCLK, so 200 bckl gives auto 3800mhz. and either that or 16x or lower, why remove such feature?

[DavyBoy]

Did you buy your kit from the same place?? If so, send it all back to them for some proper testing!!

I got the mobo, Be Quiet! PSU, and both sets of RAM from one place, and I got my PSU, GFX, etc etc from another online shop...

They did ask me to send my RAM back also, but they were ordered at different times, so I have been told if I send it back and the RAM is found not faulty, I will then have to pay shipping and testing fees for the RAM also, which I am not willing to do as I know that there isn't anything wrong with my RAM..

I am 99.9% sure that it is a flaky mobo that is the cause..

I regret dealing with these people now, because of the hassle I am having with this system... Since buying this setup, I have seen an excellent bundle deal on the website where I got my CPU from, which consists of a D0 i920, the same mobo as me, 6GB of Patriot 1600MHz RAM, and a Titan Fenrir, all O/Ced to 4GHz for around £539, this made me feel sick when I first saw it, as I paid around about the same for all my gear, and it is unable to run stable @ stock, nevermind 4GHz!!!!

At least if I bought that bundle deal it would have been thoroughly tested first before being shipped out to me, so at least then I would know that the hardware I bought was working properly first before I built it up...

Can anyone tell me whether Gigabyte would replace the whole mobo if I returned it to them for testing, or do they just repair the damaged board???

[Jonny Manc]

I got the mobo, Be Quiet! PSU, and both sets of RAM from one place, and I got my PSU, GFX, etc etc from another online shop...

They did ask me to send my RAM back also, but they were ordered at different times, so I have been told if I send it back and the RAM is found not faulty, I will then have to pay shipping and testing fees for the RAM also, which I am not willing to do as I know that there isn't anything wrong with my RAM..

I am 99.9% sure that it is a flaky mobo that is the cause..

I regret dealing with these people now, because of the hassle I am having with this system... Since buying this setup, I have seen an excellent bundle deal on the website where I got my CPU from, which consists of a D0 i920, the same mobo as me, 6GB of Patriot 1600MHz RAM, and a Titan Fenrir, all O/Ced to 4GHz for around £539, this made me feel sick when I first saw it, as I paid around about the same for all my gear, and it is unable to run stable @ stock, nevermind 4GHz!!!!

At least if I bought that bundle deal it would have been thoroughly tested first before being shipped out to me, so at least then I would know that the hardware I bought was working properly first before I built it up...

Can anyone tell me whether Gigabyte would replace the whole mobo if I returned it to them for testing, or do they just repair the damaged board???

Always a bummer when you try to get best deals that end up causing more hassle. I assume that its OCUK that you are dealing with!?
Never had an issue personally, but there is always a first

If they asked you to send the RAM back, then I would not accept any charges in relation to testing as THEY are requesting it.

Personally, I would speak to GigaByte and see what they suggest, they may 'lean' on the shop to test it fully to try an ascertain if there is a problem.

[DavyBoy]

Always a bummer when you try to get best deals that end up causing more hassle. I assume that its OCUK that you are dealing with!?
Never had an issue personally, but there is always a first

If they asked you to send the RAM back, then I would not accept any charges in relation to testing as THEY are requesting it.

Personally, I would speak to GigaByte and see what they suggest, they may 'lean' on the shop to test it fully to try an ascertain if there is a problem.

Nah man, OcUK are top notch, it's Scan that I am having probs with...

It is OcUK that has got the 4GHz overclocked i920 D0 bundle with the same mobo that I have, though when I got my mobo and RAM from Scan OcUK didn't have the 4GHz bundle available, and Scan had the UD5 and my Corsair Dominator RAM slightly cheaper than OcUK...

Now I wish that I just paid a little more and went with Overclockers instead, as it was them that I bought my CPU from, and I RMA'd that to begin with as I thought the chip was the cause of my problems, but they tested it overnight and it was fine... so when I got it back from them I installed it again and started running more tests but continued getting the problems that I mentioned, and then the 1st DIMM channel stopped working, which is why I decided to send the mobo back....

God knows what to do now... I am just hoping that the board fails so that I can get a replacement sent out...

[andyr(uk)]

the online shop i got my mobo from wasnt ocuk but it didnt respond to my request about the problem with my board so i emailed taiwan and they gave me a link to Gigabyte uk , they dont normally deal direct with customers but if you explain that you arent having any joy from your etailer then they will agree, you have to enclose a cheque for £10 for the return postage and if they cant fix it they will send you a new one , mine came from Holland , took 2 weeks but good service really, where do you live in the uk m8

[Jonny Manc]

Nah man, OcUK are top notch, it's Scan that I am having probs with...

It is OcUK that has got the 4GHz overclocked i920 D0 bundle with the same mobo that I have, though when I got my mobo and RAM from Scan OcUK didn't have the 4GHz bundle available, and Scan had the UD5 and my Corsair Dominator RAM slightly cheaper than OcUK...

Now I wish that I just paid a little more and went with Overclockers instead, as it was them that I bought my CPU from, and I RMA'd that to begin with as I thought the chip was the cause of my problems, but they tested it overnight and it was fine... so when I got it back from them I installed it again and started running more tests but continued getting the problems that I mentioned, and then the 1st DIMM channel stopped working, which is why I decided to send the mobo back....

God knows what to do now... I am just hoping that the board fails so that I can get a replacement sent out...

OCUK are good, no arguments there, but I agree that Scan can be a pain in the arse. Where abouts in the UK are ya....cos you can always go in and kick off with em, I would, but I am only about 1 1/2hrs away from em

andyr(uk) - sounds like a great idea from GByte, Asus do something similar but outsource the 'support' to a 3rd party in the UK (yet operate under Asus UK Support !?) and they suck and are really unhelpful unless you show em the cash!!

[DavyBoy]

Hey guys, I am from North East of Scotland, Elgin to be precise...

I talked to Gigabyte when I first setup this system about their RMA service, and they were quite happy to test the mobo for me, but I didn't ask them whether they would send me a new mobo if this one was faulty or if they just repaired the current mobo... They also said I had to enclose a cheque for £10 as well...

I just wish now that I had sent it to them in the first place instead of messing around with these idiots at Scan... though I figured that the RAM channel was dead, so as soon as they seen that, they would just send me a new mobo, but the darn thing started working again!!!

I sent 3 e-mails since early yesterday morning asking them if there is any word on my mobo yet, and no-one even bothered to reply to me, that is really poor IMO...

I'm not caring if they haven't had a chance to thoroughly test it yet, but they should still reply to my e-mails to tell me what is going on with MY mobo when I ask them!!!!

This rig has been a nightmare from the very beginning... I built this system so that I could have loads of fun overclocking it to 4GHz, and playing all my games, but instead I have ended up with a piece of crap!!!!!

[andyr(uk)]

Oh bit far away to come round and test your bits really ,mine looked to me to be a bad memory channel ,but since i got this new board it looks like i have two dead sticks of ram , one stick works fine in slot A1,the second wont get into windows and the 3rd wont boot at all and corrupts my OS.

[DavyBoy]

I wish that I knew of someone else in my area with an i7 rig so that I could test out my hardware on another system, but I don't know of anyone at all...

Everybody I know with PC's are all running crappy old P4's, or Dual Core Athlons...

I am just hoping that the techs at Scan are thoroughly testing my mobo over the weekend, and that it starts acting up for them... if it doesn't play up, then god knows what else I can do, as I have tried absolutely everything I can think of...

I really dont think it is my RAM that is at fault, because each stick tested individually running memtest boot disc will run flawlessly overnight without a single error, and they also pass with flying colours when running all 3 modules together as well...

All the hard drives that I tested with work perfectly in my Fiancee's rig, as do all 3 graphics cards, and 2 PSU's, I also tested with a bunch of different SATA cables to make sure I never had faulty leads, but they are all fine...

As I have already said, I returned the CPU back to OcUK for testing, and it ran perfectly for them... although they only ran Small FFT's in Prime95, and 32bit Linpack in OCCT for 3 hours each, which isn't really thorough in my book...

I have tried pretty much everything... and I am not getting anywhere at all... Sometimes I wish that I had just stuck with AMD and built a Phenom II rig instead!!!!

[Gunnz Akimbo]

Its not at the benchmark it should be
it should be next to the 975, like the fpu bench.
Im using a EX-58 extreme with f7 original.

[Jonny Manc]

Hey guys, I am from North East of Scotland, Elgin to be precise...

I talked to Gigabyte when I first setup this system about their RMA service, and they were quite happy to test the mobo for me, but I didn't ask them whether they would send me a new mobo if this one was faulty or if they just repaired the current mobo... They also said I had to enclose a cheque for £10 as well...

I just wish now that I had sent it to them in the first place instead of messing around with these idiots at Scan... though I figured that the RAM channel was dead, so as soon as they seen that, they would just send me a new mobo, but the darn thing started working again!!!

I sent 3 e-mails since early yesterday morning asking them if there is any word on my mobo yet, and no-one even bothered to reply to me, that is really poor IMO...

I'm not caring if they haven't had a chance to thoroughly test it yet, but they should still reply to my e-mails to tell me what is going on with MY mobo when I ask them!!!!

This rig has been a nightmare from the very beginning... I built this system so that I could have loads of fun overclocking it to 4GHz, and playing all my games, but instead I have ended up with a piece of crap!!!!!

Elgin eh.....not too far from my mum (Portsoy) but a bit too far from me (Cumbria) lol.

If the muppets (Scan) find no error with your board, I would trial and error all your components in your system. ie start with the least to get the system powered, then add more drives, RAM etc and see if that brings up an error. After that, if your still having problems, I would take up Giga's offer and send the board to them for proper testing.....

[DavyBoy]

Hi Johnny,

Are you originally from up here as well, or did your mum move to go and stay in Portsoy??

My Dad lives even closer to her, he lives in Buckie...

As for the Trial and Error thing, I have already tried this, by building it up outside the case with the bare minimum connected to it, but the problems were still present...

There really isn't anything else that I can think of trying other than sending it to Gigabyte if the clowns at Scan tell me it isn't faulty...

All the components that I have used for testing (except the CPU and RAM) have been tested out on my Fiancee's system to see whether it is those that are faulty, but they are all perfectly fine... and as I said in a previous post the CPU has been tested by OcUK and no faults were found...

Though OcUK's testing was pretty poor IMO, 3 hours of small FFT's and 3 hours of 32bit Linpack isn't what I would call thorough, especially when I told them before they tested the CPU that it passes Small FFT's and 32bit Linpack without any issues, and that it is Large In-Place FFT's and Prime Blend that causes the problems.. but when they recieve the CPU they someone only run the two tests that I told them were OK!!!!

And when I called them up to complain about this, they told me to just go ahead and return the CPU again!!!

I might just look into purchasing a new mobo to see if that makes a difference... although TBH I really dont want to spend another penny on this rig, because it has already cost me over £1800 all in!!!!

[beast200]

hi

is anybody using the 8b x bios with the revised rom and is it worth it


if you need to test your hardware i live Yorshire if its any help

cheers

mark

[Jonny Manc]

Hi Johnny,

Are you originally from up here as well, or did your mum move to go and stay in Portsoy??

My Dad lives even closer to her, he lives in Buckie...

As for the Trial and Error thing, I have already tried this, by building it up outside the case with the bare minimum connected to it, but the problems were still present...

There really isn't anything else that I can think of trying other than sending it to Gigabyte if the clowns at Scan tell me it isn't faulty...

All the components that I have used for testing (except the CPU and RAM) have been tested out on my Fiancee's system to see whether it is those that are faulty, but they are all perfectly fine... and as I said in a previous post the CPU has been tested by OcUK and no faults were found...

Though OcUK's testing was pretty poor IMO, 3 hours of small FFT's and 3 hours of 32bit Linpack isn't what I would call thorough, especially when I told them before they tested the CPU that it passes Small FFT's and 32bit Linpack without any issues, and that it is Large In-Place FFT's and Prime Blend that causes the problems.. but when they recieve the CPU they someone only run the two tests that I told them were OK!!!!

And when I called them up to complain about this, they told me to just go ahead and return the CPU again!!!

I might just look into purchasing a new mobo to see if that makes a difference... although TBH I really dont want to spend another penny on this rig, because it has already cost me over £1800 all in!!!!

My mum and dad moved up there a few years ago, around the same time I moved to Cumbria.....not had the pleasure of a visit yet, but I have seen loadsa pics (including Elgin) and cant wait to get up there

I would defo return the board to GB and mention how crap and unhelpful Scan were in trying to solve the problem.