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

[Bodar]

Thanks for the help! I'll revert back and see if that changes anything.. When I first got my w3680 xeon es I started at 5400mhz , then 5577mhz , 5612mhz on up to 5800mhz all on f4. Then I got a brand new i7 980x es q3fe.. perfect condition. Decided to use f6 before I installed the chip and now I cant overclock at all.. weird.. for 5800mhz I used 1.856 - 1.870v It will run at 1.776v at around 5500mhz though. Thanks again for the help.. I even tried increasing the qpi / vtt and all that did was create even more lockups.. Had to reduce it to 1.40v for anything to work..

[Bodar]

Also, I noticed that seating the f1 ln2 pot the correct way everytime would help with stability..
There has been only a few bsod's and I'm also thinking I could have a memory problem with these dominator gt's

[SteveRo]

I also like the F4 bios - got the 980 - 4.75 vantage stable on chilled water at 1.5v.

Still on the F4 bios with the 980, now @ 1.53v (bios),
I wanted to be the first six core over 4.8 linx stable.

[Bodar]

Really nice man! I just confirmed.. Back up to 5800mhz f4 is better although the i7 980x es q4fe is still running the same.. not very good and cant figure out why.. Maybe I have some memory settings wrong or something..

[lawtq]

Still on the F4 bios with the 980, now @ 1.53v (bios),
I wanted to be the first six core over 4.8 linx stable.

Damn these chips are nice!! What batch do you have? I can do that as well, but dont the vcore scare you?? Settling for 4.5ghz HT with a 1.424 vcore, still over intels max vcore of 1.4 but only slightly

[SteveRo]

Damn these chips are nice!! What batch do you have? I can do that as well, but dont the vcore scare you?? Settling for 4.5ghz HT with a 1.424 vcore, still over intels max vcore of 1.4 but only slightly

Good afternoon -

[Amurtigress]

Hiho,

the DRAM reference voltages in the BIOS are defaulting to 0.75V on the X58A-UD7, as we can all see. However, what are they really set to in Auto mode? This can be absolutely crucial, I remember on the P6T Deluxe deviating too much from 50% VDIMM was causing trouble quickly.

I just set them all to 0.83V to make sure they are exactly half of the 1.66V I run my Corsairs at.

Any idea what the BIOS is doing? ET6 apparently doesn't really read out the true values.

[fritzman]

Good afternoon -

Crap... I think my computer just wet itself!

Nice chip.

[Bodar]

Whats the max on the dram reference voltage you think? I've tried a little more... Just testing right now.. My xeon w3680 is back to normal.. testing the i7 980x right now and so far 3dmark 06 stable at 5700mhz.. I'll post some stuff in a bit.. Anything past 1.74v on the memory and windows wont boot.. 1.4v on the vtt seems good though.. Besides using the hard mod is there anything else that will help.. what do you guys think? Hicookie, what do you think..

[Amurtigress]

Bodar: More DRAM reference voltage won't boost overclockability. It is defined to be 50% VDIMM, since it represents the distinguishing line betwen what's a logical "1" or "0", like the GTL reference lines on Socket 775.

By all means this reference should never be crossed by overshoot and undershoot of the DDR3 module's data and adress lines, it'd mean data corruption.

What I am getting at is: Can I rely on the BIOS keeping the references at 50% VDIMM no matter what I am setting VDIMM to? Or do I have to set them manually to make SURE they are what they're supposed to be?

[Bodar]

That's what I was thinking.. Setting them manually.. They actually dont change at all no matter what I set the vdimm to.. for ln2 I use 1.74v and the corsair dominator gt.. They are always at 0.75v
It's just a weird thing I guess.. If I dont raise them I get more instability..

[Lsdmeasap]

Hiho,

the DRAM reference voltages in the BIOS are defaulting to 0.75V on the X58A-UD7, as we can all see. However, what are they really set to in Auto mode? This can be absolutely crucial, I remember on the P6T Deluxe deviating too much from 50% VDIMM was causing trouble quickly.

I just set them all to 0.83V to make sure they are exactly half of the 1.66V I run my Corsairs at.

Any idea what the BIOS is doing? ET6 apparently doesn't really read out the true values.

When left in auto, you will see .75 in easytune always as this is default amount of 1.5V default voltage. They will be .825 at 1.65 if left in auto. If you want to manually set them, please set .75 at 1.50, then raise your ram voltage to 1.65 and you will see them automatically increase as you manually raise the Vdimm value.

Same applies with MCH and CPU Ref, then are automatically adjusted with their respective voltages - Vtt in this instance.

CPU Termination (Vtt) Automatically changes the following if manually set >>>

CPU Reference Voltage (.63% of Default Vtt/1.20) .76 ET
CPU Reference2 Voltage (.67% of Default Vtt/1.20) .80 ET
MCH Reference Voltage (.63% of Default Vtt/1.20) .76 ET

DRAM Voltage Automatically changes the following if manually set >>>

MCH/DRAM Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
DRAM Termination Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
Channel A Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
Channel B Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)

I have a guide for Easytune Vs BIOS in regards to this and MCH Ref linked in my signature. Pics will be back online in a few hours if they are not already

[Amurtigress]

That's what I was thinking.. Setting them manually.. They actually dont change at all no matter what I set the vdimm to.. for ln2 I use 1.74v and the corsair dominator gt.. They are always at 0.75v
It's just a weird thing I guess.. If I dont raise them I get more instability..

Maybe that means you are getting the overclockability you're supposed to get if the too low references weren't limiting you so far. For your 1.74 you'd need 0.87 VDimmRef.

I will see how it goes for me, I am running 3x2 GB Corsair XMS3-1600 CL7 sticks (Ver 2.1 with Elpida RAM ICs) here at 1810. I'll report any kind of changed behavior, in case someone else can refer to what I see and improve something.

I'm runninc a C0 i7-920 at 21x181 currently and BIOS F6...by far not as extremely high as your 6core.

[Bodar]

I was wondering.. What kind of resistor do you need for the ud7 mod... 50k , 100k vr resistor? Where can I buy this? surface mount? trimmer? part number? Any help would be appreciated!

[Bodar]

When left in auto, you will see .75 in easytune always as this is default amount of 1.5V default voltage. They will be .825 at 1.65 if left in auto. If you want to manually set them, please set .75 at 1.50, then raise your ram voltage to 1.65 and you will see them automatically increase as you manually raise the Vdimm value.

Same applies with MCH and CPU Ref, then are automatically adjusted with their respective voltages - Vtt in this instance.

CPU Termination (Vtt) Automatically changes the following if manually set >>>

CPU Reference Voltage (.63% of Default Vtt/1.20) .76 ET
CPU Reference2 Voltage (.67% of Default Vtt/1.20) .80 ET
MCH Reference Voltage (.63% of Default Vtt/1.20) .76 ET

DRAM Voltage Automatically changes the following if manually set >>>

MCH/DRAM Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
DRAM Termination Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
Channel A Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)
Channel B Reference Voltage (.50% of Default Dram Voltage)

I have a guide for Easytune Vs BIOS in regards to this and MCH Ref linked in my signature. Pics will be back online in a few hours if they are not already

So are you talking about the difference between easy tune and the bios.. I dont really use easy tune so what do you think would be good so far as bios settings.. easy tune is cool for increasing the core clock but I get lockups when I mess with any voltage settings.. I'm going to try .87 and see what the difference is.. The default of .75 was giving me a few bsod's and lockups at anything over 5700mhz..

[SteveRo]

When working on cpu oc, I usually put everthing memory v at the first pink setting and forget about it.
As covered by Lsdmeasap above - I can confirm the bios does adjust to keep the minimum delta's between v's.
Worked well for me so far - but I'm on chilled water not ln2 - YMMV.

[StoraX]

I have a question about changing CPU speed on Windows. For exam, i have 2 settings ( 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz ) ... When i playing the game, quickly i set my CPU Speed to 3.6 Ghz setting. When i surfing the "www", quickly i set my CPU Speed to 2.6 GHz on Windows. I'll NOT restart and changing BIOS settings for overclock ... Do you suggest any program thats ?

[SteveRo]

easytune6 supports 'in windows" changing bclock but its probably not quick enough for what you want.

[Sam_oslo]

I have a question about changing CPU speed on Windows. For exam, i have 2 settings ( 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz ) ... When i playing the game, quickly i set my CPU Speed to 3.6 Ghz setting. When i surfing the "www", quickly i set my CPU Speed to 2.6 GHz on Windows. I'll NOT restart and changing BIOS settings for overclock ... Do you suggest any program thats ?

What you need, it to use dynamic Vcore, and then the system will adjust the OC (from 12 to 21 multi) and vCore, dynamically according to the needs. Do this:
- Sett the VCore to "Normal"
-Sett the Dynamic vCore (DVID) to +0.05000% (you may need less or more depending on your CPU and OC)
- Set the C3/C6/C7 to "enable"
- Set the EIST to "enable"

Go to Control panel, and set the Widows power option to "Balanced".

When working on cpu oc, I usually put everthing memory v at the first pink setting and forget about it.
As covered by Lsdmeasap above - I can confirm the bios does adjust to keep the minimum delta's between v's.
Worked well for me so far - but I'm on chilled water not ln2 - YMMV.

This seams to end up as 0.830v and the rest on 0.820v, no matter what RAM timing or multi(x8 or x10) I've tired, on air too. But my X5650 which is really picky on RAM seams to be running more stable with x10 RAM when i set "all on first pink".

[MaximumPig]

some points of information/tips for people with this board:

- i ordered a UD7 X58A from Newegg on March 26 2010. It would not boot with a 980X. Turns out it had BIOS F2 (on a board that is described on Gigabyte's website as "Supports new generation Intel 32nm 6-core processors." Put in a i7 920 and it booted just fine, flashed to F6A and now it is happy with the 980X. Any offers for the i7 920?

- decided to try booting off my current Win 7 x64 boot drive that was on my Gigabyte P-45 UD3R since the two boards have the same disk controller (ICH10R) and it booted just fine--the only drivers that were not installed automatically were the NEC chip with the USB 3.0 and 6GB SATA 3.

Hope this helps someone else out there.

[Lsdmeasap]

So are you talking about the difference between easy tune and the bios.. I dont really use easy tune so what do you think would be good so far as bios settings.. easy tune is cool for increasing the core clock but I get lockups when I mess with any voltage settings.. I'm going to try .87 and see what the difference is.. The default of .75 was giving me a few bsod's and lockups at anything over 5700mhz..

Ya, that's what I meant. Because your post above, and many other users get confused when they see Easytune values for Ref's remaining the same always. So that is just meant to help clarify why they appear to be the same all the time because they are % of stock value based on other voltages. If you vary the % used, easytune will reflect that in windows.

Like if you set Vdimm to 1.5, then change the Dimm Ref value to .80 for example, then raise your Vdimm back to 1.65 and go into windows you will see easytune showing the .80 you set instead of .75 default. Of course the actual voltage value will not be .80 once you raise the Vdimm back to 1.65, but easytune will still show .80 as that is the % used based off default 1.5

[Bodar]

Thanks alot man! Really appreciate it! So I guess I'll set the values before overclocking anything else. Man, My 980x es sample really sucks, unless I'm doing something wrong.. Wont even run 3dmark 06 at 5200mhz at -130c lol!

[Bodar]

Ok.. Just had a huge scare.. did an LN2 session tonight and once I got up to -145c on the xeon w3680 at 5800mhz I ran 3dmark 06.. it completed and then the board just froze and turned off.. I've been getting the 88 post code all night, even after I took the chip out and everything dried out.. it just now booted up fine.. wow.. so freaked out.. thought it was RMA time for me.. I would really like to know what kind of resistor I need to solder so I can up the clock limit.. 5800mhz is my max and it's frustrating.. How am I supposed to waste all this LN2 if I cant go higher.. If someone knows where I can buy this please advise..

[Lsdmeasap]

I think it is 8K, not sure though. I know there is a thread here on it, and Hicookie posted a mod image for it as well.

I'll see if I can find it for you now.

*Edit*

Found it, in this thread! It is also posted somewhere else too but I found it here easier
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=825

[Amurtigress]

Hiho,

as for VDIMM and their references, I don't see a reason anymore in using ET6 anymore unless you're going for the "Big balls" approach on overclocks that you can't use 24/7 anyway.

I'd say just set the DDR3 references to 50% VDIMM...nothing else makes sense. You wouldn't want to boot the system on potentially less stable settings and have ET6 do it in Windows.

With the references at 0.83V I am getting a somewhat more stable GFlops performance in Linx 64 bit on Windows Server 2003, especially the first pass isn't so low anymore to my surprise. I always took it was a warm up run. ^.^

I am currently struggling a bit to get higher memory clock, but it's prolly pointless anyway. 3820 on the QPI takes roughly 1.475V.

We'll see.