**Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 OC-Tips-Bios-Discussion Thread**

[luther138]

NP, Yeah, ~5'C cooler sounds cool, for now

The MB is very important component and I believe it will never be overkill. It is a good idea to invest on a good one, specially for you, it costs almost nothing compared to those "cheap" 975 you got.

Why didn't you get i7 920? or even better, wait for upcoming i7 930 which is right around the corner and 4 of them would cost almost as much as one 975, and would OC as good (for 24/7 use on air).
Those "cheap" 975 shows their strength on subzero cooling, but they OC almost the same as i7 920 for 24/7 use on air. The OC headroom of i7 depends on batch#, not the the model#.

Probably you can get a better 24/7 OC on air with a good batch# of i7 930 (you have a better chance to get a good batch# at the first days of release). I don't remember the exact resale date for 930, but should be here soon.

4 systems exactly the same OC? What are you up to, and what are you going to use them for?.

How would one even go about finding a vendor that gives a you a specific batch number let alone a good one?

I was forced to pull the trigger on a order before I had done enough research that's why I have 4, 975's. Also I was worried that it was possible I would get a bad batch# on a 920 and it wouldn't be able to hit even 4.2, and I am in a situation where whatever I can get in speed that only requires throwing money at is worth it (within reason). Water cooling would increase complexity, increase failure probability, and increase the amount of work to do before a deadline, not to mention I have to have 4 SOLID systems. Can't have one of four machines bust a hose in 2 months.

The application is a image processing application written in C(ish) for Linux utilizing the BLAS libraries. And will be used in medical research settings. The more images I can process the faster the better. Possibly this will gain doctors the ability to save more lives. (That could be a bumper sticker "Overclock your computer: It saves lives.")

You're right about this motherboard, hopefully the Gulftown will drop right in when it comes out (assuming BLAS takes advantage of all six cores).

I was hoping I would get lower temps then I have but I suppose I will have to be happy with the 1.8x speed increase I got over the stock 920 in our server (can't turn off the server to overclock).

This weekend I may have a look back at all the voltages from different people posted so far and see if there are any other tweaks I can get out of this. So far I have only been messing with QPI, DRAM and CPU Voltages, I'll see if I can pull any more performance out of this thing.

-Luther

[Sam_oslo]

I see, interesting. I have been programming different kind of image processing applications for industrial use and simulations, using C++ and C# back in good old days. I have also been looking into CUDA (GPGPU, using the Nvidia GPU as a strong CPU) for image processing, just as hobby lately. Very interesting stuff, indeed. You guys still sticking to the CPU?

Some retailers have been telling about batch#, but not many of them. The best way to get a good batch# of Intel CPU, is to hit on the first days of release of a new CPU, is my experience.

[OC Nub]

Sam oslo: I ordered a W3520 from TankGuys, batch#3844A704. This batch isn't as good as yours, but I hope it is better than this 920. Should be getting it tomorrow.

[Sam_oslo]

Good job, #3844A704 is a very early batch, and therefore there is a good chance for having a good OC headroom. A fast goggling didn't reveal much about this batch#, share the results, this can get interesting.

EDIT: If I'm not mistaking, I've seen a few #3844 in this forum, but not exactly A704. A couple of these 3844-batches are very good OCer, but have a tendency to get extra hot clock-4-clock. Yours may not be the same, but you got water anyways, just in case. This can be interesting to follow.

[LarsMarkelson]

Seems odd that the best batches would come from the first release... I'd think they'd get better with time.

Anyway, I have this mobo and a brand new W3520 to install tonight My batch # is the same as OC Nooby except I have the Xeon version and his is i7 920... 3945A906 is the number.

[Sam_oslo]

Your batch# may be good too, you won't know before you try it.

It is up to the luck, and sometimes Intel drops some good batches later too. It is very depending on a complex competition stuff, I guess.

Yes, the logic says they should get better by time, but Intel got a business to run, too. If these "cheap" low-end batches gets too good, then they can damage the sale of those "expensive" high-end CPUs, which are almost the same (just different multiplier).

Intel has released some high-end Xeon W3565 last month, and gauss what? They are all 3846 and 3847-batches. EDIT: (don't wanna' be too sure, at least all those I have seen )
Intel stored them in a storage for almost 1 year to be used in new high-end chips now. It tells me enough about what batches to look for.

[LarsMarkelson]

Wow, very interesting about the W3565! I wonder how high they can overclock.

And lol, 3846/47 batches for the super stuff and you got a 3848 3520, lucky lucky!!

edit: found this thread of a guy oc'ing w3565 if anyone's interested: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=238830

[Sam_oslo]

Wow, very interesting about the W3565! I wonder how high they can overclock.

And lol, 3846/47 batches for the super stuff and you got a 3848 3520, lucky lucky!!

edit: found this thread of a guy oc'ing w3565 if anyone's interested: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=238830

Yep, there you found a w3565 batch# 3846
And you have a 3847 here. These are really good high-end OCer chips, and both released last month, but the batches are from last year

[KorbenD]

Ok, Northbridge temps without the Extreme heatpipe cooler.

This is running at basically stock speeds for the moment. I haven't tried pushing anything at all while I'm making sure the initial build is stable in the first place.

Measured with Everest, along with a Fluke 62 infrared thermometer on the main heatsinks over the SB, NB, and the two heatsinks around the CPU socket. Temps after running LinX for an hour varied from 31-37C in those places. The case was closed up until the measurements were taken. Max temp on any of the CPU cores was 68C during testing.

System specs:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
i7 960 at 3.4Ghz (told you it was pretty much at stock)
12GB of G.Skill F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO (this RAM is great, running 7-8-7-24-2N at 1.4v, even with all six slots filled)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus heat sink
Antec P182 case (all fans replaced with Noctua NF-P12)

There's pretty decent airflow through the case. No fans are directed at the sinks at the top of the heat pipes for the chipset, but the temps are still pretty low. I haven't replaced the stock thermal material, and probably won't with these temps.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium card *barely* fit in the second PCIe 1x slot from the top. It stops just at the bend in the heatpipes.

If you want me to monitor NB temps with another app or check something else, let me know.

[MikeMK]

That's very helpful! Temps seem pretty decent even without the big cooler. I have an essence stx to fit in there so I'm hoping it's not too big otherwise I'll be forced to use one of the 8x slots.

[Mastakilla]

not to get off topic but, GA-X58A-UD5 was just launched GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

I just compared the specs on the gigabyte site and the only differences i can find compared to the ud7 is the lack of 2 eSate ports and the cooling solution.

Can anyone confirm this?

the price difference on newegg is quite big though (290$ vs 350$)
this difference seems similar as the difference between the old ud5 and ud7 (209euro vs 265 euro), meaning it shouldn't be much more expensive then the old ud5

still doubting a bit myself which one to get...

edit:
aha, just found another difference that didn't show up when using the gigabyte compare tool:
Advanced 12+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support on ud5
vs
Advanced 24+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support on ud7

guess i'm leaning more towards the ud7 again now... (although it probably doesnt matter much when cooling with just water)

edit 2:
and found another difference when looking closer:
Revolution energy saving design with DES 2 featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching on ud5
vs
Revolution energy saving design with DES Advanced featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching on ud7

does this mean that the new ud5 actually has better energy saving features then the ud7???

edit 3:
now it is getting more confusing:
on detailed specs of the new ud5 it does mention 2 eSata ports... now what is it? does it have or or doesnt have eSata??

[jwteacher]

Ok, Northbridge temps without the Extreme heatpipe cooler.

Measured with Everest, along with a Fluke 62 infrared thermometer on the main heatsinks over the SB, NB, and the two heatsinks around the CPU socket. Temps after running LinX for an hour varied from 31-37C in those places. The case was closed up until the measurements were taken. Max temp on any of the CPU cores was 68C during testing.

System specs:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
i7 960 at 3.4Ghz (told you it was pretty much at stock)
12GB of G.Skill F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO (this RAM is great, running 7-8-7-24-2N at 1.4v, even with all six slots filled)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus heat sink
Antec P182 case (all fans replaced with Noctua NF-P12)

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium card *barely* fit in the second PCIe 1x slot from the top. It stops just at the bend in the heatpipes.

If you want me to monitor NB temps with another app or check something else, let me know.

Thank you for the data. What really suprises is me is the NB, without water cooling and the massive heatpipe, being about the same temperature as the SB. The NB everyone complains about being too hot. I guess when you seriously overclock is when the NB gets stressed and temperatures rise.

If it's not too much trouble, when you do some serious overclocking, let us know what the NB's temp is without the watercooling and heatpipe.

Thanks again.

[jwteacher]

I just compared the specs on the gigabyte site and the only differences i can find compared to the ud7 is the lack of 2 eSate ports and the cooling solution.

Can anyone confirm this?

the price difference on newegg is quite big though (290$ vs 350$)
this difference seems similar as the difference between the old ud5 and ud7 (209euro vs 265 euro), meaning it shouldn't be much more expensive then the old ud5

still doubting a bit myself which one to get...

edit:
aha, just found another difference that didn't show up when using the gigabyte compare tool:
Advanced 12+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support on ud5
vs
Advanced 24+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support on ud7

guess i'm leaning more towards the ud7 again now... (although it probably doesnt matter much when cooling with just water)

edit 2:
and found another difference when looking closer:
Revolution energy saving design with DES 2 featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching on ud5
vs
Revolution energy saving design with DES Advanced featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching on ud7

does this mean that the new ud5 actually has better energy saving features then the ud7???

edit 3:
now it is getting more confusing:
on detailed specs of the new ud5 it does mention 2 eSata ports... now what is it? does it have or or doesnt have eSata??

The new UD5 and UD7 are basically the same except for a few differences. The UD5 is the air-cooled version, without the massive heatpipe solution and watercooling setup like the UD7. The only significant difference is that the UD7 has 24 phases and the UD5 has 12. It's disappointing, because the new UD5 was expected to have 24 phases. Everything else from the SATA to the energy saving features are the same.

[MikeMK]

Yet another question for all you UD7 owners.... Ive seen photo's of the boards bios, but it doesnt look like it support the saving of BIOS profiles? Is this so, or am I just missing them?

[tipes]

Yet another question for all you UD7 owners.... Ive seen photo's of the boards bios, but it doesnt look like it support the saving of BIOS profiles? Is this so, or am I just missing them?

I take it that you mean saving your overclock or bios settings? If so then yes you can do that by pressing F11 when in bios to save your profile. To load them you use F12. Hope I have understood your question correctly.

Mark

[MikeMK]

Yep, thats exactly what I meant! Thought it would have been strange for such a high end board not to have them. Well, ive now made a decision, and im ordering one of these tonight... thanks for your help everyone!

[tipes]

Yep, thats exactly what I meant! Thought it would have been strange for such a high end board not to have them. Well, ive now made a decision, and im ordering one of these tonight... thanks for your help everyone!

I am sure you wont regret it, tis a great board. Enjoy when you get it and let us know how you get on with it.

Mark

[Chrono Detector]

Does anybody here uses G.Skill Ripjaws RAM at 1600Mhz and has any luck overclocking them on this board? The highest overclock I got was 1830Mhz, though I've tried higher up to 1910Mhz, it can post but cannot boot into Windows. I guess its the RAM limitation, I suppose.

[mat1983]

hello

do you use this model:

GSKILL PC3-12800 6GB Ripjaws CL8 (3x2GB) DDR3

[R3alsp33dy0ne]

Does anybody here uses G.Skill Ripjaws RAM at 1600Mhz and has any luck overclocking them on this board? The highest overclock I got was 1830Mhz, though I've tried higher up to 1910Mhz, it can post but cannot boot into Windows. I guess its the RAM limitation, I suppose.

Either RAM limitation or possibly not enough Vtt. I've got the G.Skill Trident 2000MHz sticks and I can run them at the rated speed but I have to use 1.6v Vtt to get them there because of the uncore speed required.

[LarsMarkelson]

I think Gigabyte didn't include the tiny screws for the NB super cooler thing for me... I can't find them anywhere... anyone else find this to be the case?

[nyeah]

I think Gigabyte didn't include the tiny screws for the NB super cooler thing for me... I can't find them anywhere... anyone else find this to be the case?

i have mine, it packed with the thermal paste.

[tipes]

i have mine, it packed with the thermal paste.

Same here - perhaps they were missed out on some packages though????

Mark

[LarsMarkelson]

Same here - perhaps they were missed out on some packages though????

Mark

FFFFFFFFFF.... you guys got thermal paste? Yeah, that bag is nowhere to be found. No paste or screws. FFFFF!!! Man, that's why I got this board too, argh, time to go through the support process to get 4 screws! Well, let's hope the board isn't dead.

[OC Nub]

Well, I am still waiting for the W3520 to show up, I ordered on the 5th, today is the 11th. I paid for Fed-Ex overnight shipping.