Gigabite GA-965P (DS3 vs. S3?)

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kingofdemocracy

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Gigabite GA-965P -DS3/S3

I'm planning on purchasing this board but have a two part question first:



1 Is the All-Solid Capacitor design was worth an additional $14?
2 What is the bonus of having anAll-Solid Capacitor design vs. "hollow capacitor(?)" design?
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For $14, it's probably worth it. For the $30 or so difference that it was earlier...probably not. The solid state caps last longer compared to the electrolytic ones and seem to do a better job at power regulation from what I've seen. At stock settings, it probably doesn't make a big difference, but when you're OCing it might. I've heard of S3 boards running over 500mhz on the FSB, so all of it just might be marketing.
 
Yeah, I'm using the board with an e6300 conroe to OC, It would seem the extra bit of cash may be worth it on the chance that it does handle higher voltages.
 
kingofdemocracy said:
Yeah, I'm using the board with an e6300 conroe to OC, It would seem the extra bit of cash may be worth it on the chance that it does handle higher voltages.
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You're using an S3 now? If you already have it, I wouldn't replace it with a DS3 unless it was just a miserable OCer.
 
blendingnoise said:
you get more fan headers too and a different ethernet jack and onboard audio is supposedly a little better than the s3.
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Make sure you get a newer revision of the DS3. ClubIT was guaranteeing the rev. 3.3. The newer revisions have more fan headers than the older ones too.
 
Hello, i'm getting this board where can i find a guide on overclocking and thanks.
 
Read the first couple of pages on the overclocking/cooling forum. Almost every other post is about the ds3.
 
I currently have a rev 3.3 S3 and I can't even overclock 1mhz FSB for what it's worth.

E6600
Enermax 620W
XFX 8800GTX
150GB Raptor
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TWIN2X1024-6400C4

I have disabled the advanced bios feature things like CPU Enhanced Halt, CPU EIST Function, etc
Running 2.1v on the ram
Tried running ram at 600mhz (2 ratio)
Fixed PCI-E to 100mhz
Relaxed ram timings

No dice, not a single lousy mhz - I try and it posts, then when it leaves the bios post the screen goes black and instead of loading the IRQ listings it goes back to the bios post at default settings after doing a warm reset.

Tried clearing cmos, removing battery, no go.

Sorry to derail but so far this board has been stable but the worst overclocker in history - it won't even let me underclock without the same problem happening!

Bios is the only rev 3.3 available - F8

What gives? I thought these boards were great? :(
 
Ribby said:
I currently have a rev 3.3 S3 and I can't even overclock 1mhz FSB for what it's worth.

E6600
Enermax 620W
XFX 8800GTX
150GB Raptor
2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TWIN2X1024-6400C4

I have disabled the advanced bios feature things like CPU Enhanced Halt, CPU EIST Function, etc
Running 2.1v on the ram
Tried running ram at 600mhz (2 ratio)
Fixed PCI-E to 100mhz
Relaxed ram timings

No dice, not a single lousy mhz - I try and it posts, then when it leaves the bios post the screen goes black and instead of loading the IRQ listings it goes back to the bios post at default settings after doing a warm reset.

Tried clearing cmos, removing battery, no go.

Sorry to derail but so far this board has been stable but the worst overclocker in history - it won't even let me underclock without the same problem happening!

Bios is the only rev 3.3 available - F8

What gives? I thought these boards were great? :(
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I have to agree. It will post then not post at the same setting it passed stability tests at already. Sometimes it defaults back to 200 times whatever multi I’m using on my E4300.
Sometimes it will start to boot and then go on and off repeatedly, accompanied by every imaginable beep code. Sometimes it will require a CMOS reset. The Memory is memtest stable on the board at 820 MHZ which is way above the frequencies I’m trying to use . The system passed OCCT the one time I was able to post at 333x9. 350x6 will post, but any other multi above 6 won’t post. Unless someone knows some magic solution I would stay away from this MB for now (REV. 3.3)
 
I have absolutly no problems running it and overclocking in 133-200 fsb range (other than crappy chip but it was junk on prebious asrock mobo too)
 
I'm having the same problem with the 2 posters above. OC works just fine, next day I try and turn the computer on and it needs the cmos to be reset. What gives.... More voltage just for the initial boot maybe?
 
well they're not "hollow" caps vs "solid" caps.

its liquid vs. solid (as in gas, liquid, solid)

the liquid is more likely to expand & leak

But unless you keep your system for 4-5++ years you probably would never have that problem.
 
Interesting about others having this issue - I also get all sorts of beeps when I attempt overclocking. Everything from single low ones to a fast repetition of high beeps.

Every time I turn it on I always get a single or double slow beep then the healthy bios beep too.

I think I'm going to sell this board and get something else today.

If I changed to the DS3 then the only difference is the caps correct? Would I have to reformat and live with a board that can't overclock as well as say, another S3 that I get that does overclock?
 
for people having problems with this kind of issue

I'm having the same problem with the 2 posters above. OC works just fine, next day I try and turn the computer on and it needs the cmos to be reset. What gives.... More voltage just for the initial boot maybe?
Click to expand...

Do me a favor, I am trying to see if a reported fix actually works.

If your PCI Express Frequency is on Auto try setting it to 102
If you PIC Express Frequency is on 100 try setting it to 102
Go into the voltages settings and raise the PCI-E overvoltage control to +.1

Try it a couple of days and if no help try raising PCI-E overvoltage control to +.2

if you want to try .3 ok but since thats a bit high I cannot ask you to.

If no help put stuff back like you had it. (recommend that you put 100 in PCI Express Frequency instead of auto,)

Post back here or do a new thread with a title like Gigabyte cold boot fixed (or not fixed) so I can find it and let me know if it helped or not and include your board model and version and what bios you are running.

Thanks!
 
Sure thing I'll try it tonight - will be sure to post this evening with how I go, and an update tomorrow if it still doesn't go at .2v
 
Ribby said:
I also get all sorts of beeps when I attempt overclocking. Everything from single low ones to a fast repetition of high beeps.

Every time I turn it on I always get a single or double slow beep then the healthy bios beep too.
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the low beeps may be the fan warnings before they spin up. I turned the warnings off and they stopped.
 
I have a CPU fan fail alarm on so I'll give an update on that - thanks for the tip.

There must be thousands of long beeps going on each day for owners of these motherboards each day :)
 
BillParrish said:
for people having problems with this kind of issue



Do me a favor, I am trying to see if a reported fix actually works.

If your PCI Express Frequency is on Auto try setting it to 102
If you PIC Express Frequency is on 100 try setting it to 102
Go into the voltages settings and raise the PCI-E overvoltage control to +.1

Try it a couple of days and if no help try raising PCI-E overvoltage control to +.2

if you want to try .3 ok but since thats a bit high I cannot ask you to.

If no help put stuff back like you had it. (recommend that you put 100 in PCI Express Frequency instead of auto,)

Post back here or do a new thread with a title like Gigabyte cold boot fixed (or not fixed) so I can find it and let me know if it helped or not and include your board model and version and what bios you are running.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I think I'm having some success with this. I was already trying to up the PCI-e voltage and thought it might be helping a little but then I started having the warm boot issues again. 102 didn't work at 333*9, so I tried 103 and I've re-booted into windows several times in a row with that and PCI-E voltage at +.2. I'm still not really confident though, since nothing ever seems to work the same way twice with this MB. I'll know more in a couple of days. Thanks for the help.

I also noticed that the core speed for 333*9 is reported as 2988, while before it was spot on. Don't know if that's some odd effect from changing the PCI-E.
 
Ok I tried the higher 101 and 102 pci speeds with no luck - going even up to .2v didn't have any positive effect.

Trying this would result in a hard shutdown followed by reboot at default speeds :(

I'm taking the board back tomorrow and hopefully will have a replacement to report on - I want to like this board but it hasn't been good so far :(

Here is the other thread reporting on the cold boot pci-e suggestion:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1168854
 
I'm still on the F8 - someone commented later in the forum of hosing his mobo doing the DS3 to S3 trick :(
 
RBWilton said:
I think I'm having some success with this. I was already trying to up the PCI-e voltage and thought it might be helping a little but then I started having the warm boot issues again. 102 didn't work at 333*9, so I tried 103 and I've re-booted into windows several times in a row with that and PCI-E voltage at +.2. I'm still not really confident though, since nothing ever seems to work the same way twice with this MB. I'll know more in a couple of days. Thanks for the help.

I also noticed that the core speed for 333*9 is reported as 2988, while before it was spot on. Don't know if that's some odd effect from changing the PCI-E.
Click to expand...

No luck. After these settings worked I tried 400*7 and it started to power on and off every 10 seconds with no post. After CMOS reset it did the same thing when I tried 333*9 with the identical settings as before. The biggest frustration with this board is it responds inconsistently with the same settings.
 
Ribby said:
I'm still on the F8 - someone commented later in the forum of hosing his mobo doing the DS3 to S3 trick :(
Click to expand...



I am using F10 bios, and no more cold boot issue. It DID have it with the F9 bios that it came with, and it is a revision 3.3, and does 400fsb with no sweat. Probably more, but I have not tried.
 
Sorry for ressurecting this thread, but I *just* put in an order for a brand new rig with an S3 motherboard. Did the F10 bios fix everyone's issues?
 
Problems still there for some people and also the f10 bios, and the problems, is referring to the DS3, not the S3 as far as I know. I have no issues also.
 
the only problem that I think F10 doesn't fix is the X-Fi, you have to use I think F8i (or some other version)

For the most part, the DS3, with F7 or F10 is one of the best motherboards around. Look at the sheer # of people with them in the OC'ing database. The memory compatibility problems that you hear some people talking about has MUCH MORE to do with the ram manufacturers selling overclocked ram that can't run its SPD timings at default voltage. Its their fault, b/c people have the same problems with that high end ram & other motherboards.

They need to program the SPD to what the ram can do with default voltage, then let people know whats its pretested to do at the higher voltages.
 
chrisf6969 said:
For the most part, the DS3, with F7 or F10 is one of the best motherboards around. Look at the sheer # of people with them in the OC'ing database. The memory compatibility problems that you hear some people talking about has MUCH MORE to do with the ram manufacturers selling overclocked ram that can't run its SPD timings at default voltage. Its their fault, b/c people have the same problems with that high end ram & other motherboards.

They need to program the SPD to what the ram can do with default voltage, then let people know whats its pretested to do at the higher voltages.
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Damn right.
 
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