Gigabyte P965 - DS3 has Wolfdale support now!

Thanks for the heads up! Maybe I'll just keep my DS3 instead of selling it, lol!
 
Awesome. Thanks for the post. I did not want to give up my trusty Gigabyte P965. It looks like now I wont have to. :)

The E8400 is looking better and better. I would love to see some results on how well the 45nm cpus will run on the older ds3's.
 
Update: Not sure what happened. I had updated to the F13o BIOS , that is supposed to support Wolfdale, before I swapped chips. But it didn't work.

I had a lot of problems uninstalling & reinstalling the Scythe Inifinity cooler. So I might have screwed the motherboard up, as it was flexing alot, I slipped with the screwdriver, etc..

I put the new chip in and no boot. It powered on, fans spun up, but no beeps. I tried reseating everything, still no go. Tried taking CPU out, looked at LGA everything looked fine, reinstalled CPU, still nothing. Tried booting with just one stick of ram, tried with ram, no videocard, all kinds of different combinations, but it did the same thing with all the combinations.

Oh well, so I can't be the guinea pig, like I was planning on being.
 
Test your motherboard; put the old cpu back in.

Already sold & shipped. No extra CPU's laying around to test :(

I think its an issue with the Rev. 1 not really supporting wolfdale ? As someone else had a similar issue at Xtremesystems.
 
Update: Not sure what happened. I had updated to the F13o BIOS , that is supposed to support Wolfdale, before I swapped chips. But it didn't work.

I had a lot of problems uninstalling & reinstalling the Scythe Inifinity cooler. So I might have screwed the motherboard up, as it was flexing alot, I slipped with the screwdriver, etc..

I put the new chip in and no boot. It powered on, fans spun up, but no beeps. I tried reseating everything, still no go. Tried taking CPU out, looked at LGA everything looked fine, reinstalled CPU, still nothing. Tried booting with just one stick of ram, tried with ram, no videocard, all kinds of different combinations, but it did the same thing with all the combinations.

Oh well, so I can't be the guinea pig, like I was planning on being.

That is unfortunate. I wonder if the rev 3.3 would have a better luck with wolfdale? Although rev 1.0 should work according to Gigabyte with the F13o beta bios.
 
Already sold & shipped. No extra CPU's laying around to test :(

I think its an issue with the Rev. 1 not really supporting wolfdale ? As someone else had a similar issue at Xtremesystems.

It could be. Can you get your hands on a spare CPU anytime soon? If you need to buy new, a cheap Celeron can be had for under $40.
 
Mine's a revision 1.3, anyone have success with the beta BIOS on said version ...?
 
I've got a e8400 on the way, so I'll by trying it on my GA-965P-DS3 rev 3.3 board as soon as it arrives.
 
I have the DS3, and I've been eyeing the wolfdales, as they're going to be very, very competitive!

I overclocked my 6420. I have read that the wolfdales are best with the DDR3 memory, which the DS3 does not support, but I'd likely want to overclock the wolfdale as much as I can. I won't upgrade immediately, as I really want to have a new video card as well, but here are my questions assuming I had the parts on hand.

If I upgrade to the wolfdale, I'll need to flash the appropriate bios. Currently, everything is working on my computer just fine with F11. I've not flashed a bios before. I will read the directions, take notes, etc. so I don't do anything stupid. However, since I've overclocked my 6420, before I flash a new bios, I should restore my motherboard to default, right? I then flash the bios and make sure everything works.

Next, I'd replace my cpu. Since I want to do a thorough cleaning of my case and my cooling, this is a good excuse to take apart the build and vacuum/blow out the tuniq 120 that's currently sitting on my cpu keeping it happy and chilly. I'd also replace the video card at the same time (I want the 8800GT instead of my current 8600). Check to make sure everything works via the first boot.

Then I go through the process of overclocking again, correct? Heck, even if I merely flashed the bios without doing anything different, I should still start the process of testing the OC as I go instead of blithely assuming that I should start with the overclocked settings?

--ceolstan
 
I flashed to the 13f bios and everything was fine with my e6600. In fact, it held all the old OC settings, etc...

Now when I put the wolfdale in it wouldn't work, and I had already shipped out my e6600 so I couldn't test the board. So I'm not sure if it was the wolfdale not working in the board, or if I broke the board. I had some major issues getting the heatsink off, then back on. (damn I miss the sliding motherboard tray from my Lian-Li PC60).

But back to the point, very little to nothing probably changed from BIOS 11 or 12 to 13. From 12 to 13 all they did was probably add some microcode to recognize the Wolfdales. The early BIOS's (1-9) for that board were where they were making lots of major changes.

You can flash the BIOS with Gigabyte's @bios program from in Windows. Download it from the Gigabyte website if you don't already have it.
 
I can confirm that the e8400 works fine on the GA-965P-DS3 REV 3.3. I'll let you know how it overclocks once i get my fan attached to my Thermalright Xtreme 120
 
I can confirm that the e8400 works fine on the GA-965P-DS3 REV 3.3. I'll let you know how it overclocks once i get my fan attached to my Thermalright Xtreme 120

Thanks for the update. Look forward to your overclock results with it.
 
Yes please let us know of your results, I am on the boarder of upgrading here. I want to know if my DS3 needs to go...
 
I've got it to 4.00 (445*9) @ 1.30 v. I haven't run a stability test yet @ these speeds, but it runs all day at them.
 
I've got it to 4.00 (445*9) @ 1.30 v. I haven't run a stability test yet @ these speeds, but it runs all day at them.

Excellent news for rev 3.3 ds3 owners. So it looks like the f13o bios on the rev3.3 properly sets the lower voltage requirements for 45nm Intel cpu's, and overclocks it well to boot. :)

It looks like down the road i'll pick up either a lower end woldale or possibly a lower end quad (yorfield) in 6 months or so when prices settle a bit.
 
although this is not directly related to the wolfdale compatibility, I wanted to mention that I am very impressed with the F13o BIOS on my DS3 3.3. My board suffered from the well documented cold-boot issues up to F12 BIOS as soon as my Q6600 went up to approx 3.6Ghz independent of the multiplier - so not a FSB hole issue. I had similar issues with my previous E6600.
I know that this had nothing to do with the CPU being limited as I could clock much higher after cold-boot. To my understanding this was due to the board failing to provide the increased vcore immediately when the board was powered up. Anyway, F13o seems to have solved these problems and I can now cold-boot at 3.8Ghz without problems:D
 
Hey all,first time poster here :) Sorry for 'reviving' this thread but it suits my questions pretty well.
I'm a proud owner of a P965 DS3 rev3.3 and got an E6600 @ 3.2 Ghz thanks to Bill Parish's great guide

I'm going to buy a Wolfdale E8400 very soon,so I'd like to ask the exact procedure you guys went through to ensure everything goes smoothly.
From what i gather,before installing the new processor I should update to the beta bios F13o.After I do that,should i reset all my bios settings to default or not?
After I install the processor,does the motherboard correctly set all voltages or should i manually reduce them to the stock of the 8400? In general,is there anything extra I need to be aware of with this new processor due to the partial support?

Also,those of you who have successfully OCed this baby to hell,could you post voltages,fsb etc (i guess the misc options should be the same like any other core2 duo) so I'll have a vague idea about what to expect :)

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm also getting ready to take the leap. Moving from E6400 to E8400.
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6
RAM: 4GB GeIL PC2 6400 GX22GB6400UDCA

I've updated the BIOS to F12j in preparation. I'm planning to reset the BIOS and choose "optimized defaults" before installation. I'll put in the new chip, reboot and see what happens.

I'm not sure whether it will automatically choose the correct FSB. I suspect I'll have to set that manually. And tweak the voltages upward (1.30v for the proc).

Also unsure how well this memory will hold up at 1333 FSB. I may have to pull down the memory multiplier to get it stable.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Are my expectations and plan roughly correct?

Thanks.
 
Also unsure how well this memory will hold up at 1333 FSB. I may have to pull down the memory multiplier to get it stable.

1333 FSB? RAM runs at DDR, which would imply a base FSB of 667Mhz. However, 1333Mhz FSB CPUs are QDR, which would imply a base FSB of 333Mhz. Your RAM is DDR2-800, which means a base FSB of 400Mhz. So, your RAM is more than capable of running that chip at stock speeds. Just keep the memory multiplier at 2x -- no real benefit to anything higher. As far as OC'ing goes, you should be able to reach at least 3.6Ghz... assuming that DQ6 plays nice wit the E8400 (and it should). Good luck!

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
c x [Base FSB speed] = CPU speed (c = CPU Multiplier)
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate; Effective FSB speed)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless, so don't bother trying to do so. If the BIOS does it for you, just let it. All you need is a 1:1 config, though. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, your results will vary):

E8400: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << STOCK
E8400: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Nice OC
E8400: 9 × 445 = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-890 << Good OC
E8400: 9 × 500 = 4.5Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Great OC, possible? lol
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/
 
OK. Sweet. Thanks.

That helps clear things up greatly. Still getting my head around the various ways frequency multipliers are quoted and entered for the various subsystems. The Gigabyte site was quoting the 1333 FSB in their CPU compatibility chart for this MB. Seems that would be the effective FSB for the CPU after factoring QDR. So, the more commonly cited value and the one entered into the BIOS settings is 333 FSB.

So, memory looks good. Thanks for easing my mind no that. It would seem that all comes down to whether this new BIOS will really let the MB and CPU play ball. The MB is a DQ6 BTW, not a DS3. I'm hoping the Northbridge cooling and power supply overhead play in favor of stability on this swap and any subsequent OC'ing.

This rig does desktop and audio server duties primarily, with a lot of media encoding thrown in. I'm hoping for improvements in encoding speeds and lower power consumption, heat and fan noise. I'll be happy with stock most of the time, but will surely try out 9x400 for heavy encoding sessions.

I'll post back with results after I'm done. E8400 arrives today, but it may be a few days before I have time to slot it in.
 
That worked great. Posting from the workstation running E8400 @ 3.0 GHz. System feels much snappier.

A few wrinkles: The BIOS settings were a little odd to begin with (266 FSB, 8.5 multiplier) but was able to key in 333x9. Booted up w/o issue at stock voltages.

CPU-Z shows multiplier bouncing between 6x and 9x. Assume this is SpeedStep doing it's thing.

Memory is happy at 333MHz, 1:1 ratio, CAS5.

Used cheesy Gigabyte EZTune5 to run the speeds up bit. Ran up to 9x380 with only small voltage tweaks to core and memory. No problem. No time to do any more with settings tonight, but will experiment and report. If other reports I'm reading hold true, I should be able to use 9x400 without any problems.

Thanks again for the tips.
 
As this is an always-on box that usually sees only light to moderate loads, I won't be running an OC all the time.

But, given how easily it took the bumps I tried last night, I'm sure I'll kick it up to 3.6 or better for audio workstation tasks.

The audio server I'm running (SqueezeCenter) has support for Dynamic Room Correction, applying EQ to audio streams in the digital domain in real time. Naturally, this is a bit CPU intensive. Once I start fooling around with that I'm sure I'll appreciate the extra overhead.
 
I think I have Version 2.0 of the P965-DS3 board. I have also been looking at the E8400 (I currently have a E4200 that I haven't had much luck OC'ing over 2.1 (40 idle, 50 stress) (I only really tried that and 3.0 which I had to clear my BIOS after, and 2.6 which was pretty damn hot, 50 idle, 60 stress), I have been thinking of trying to remount my HS (Ninja) and reapply my AS before I take the plunge). Anyway I have heard some spotty results (mostly right here) of the Version 3.3 working with the E8400. I have also heard some that didn't work and killed their board (though I am not convinced they know what the hell they are doing).

Anyway Version 2.0 also supposedly has compatibility with E8400 with a beta bios. I would love to hear of at least somebody doing it before me, as much as I want to be a trend setter... :) I would like to even hear from a few more perhaps with success with 3.3 to give me some confidence.

ALso any advice and tips are welcome...
 
Well time to post my results here :)

Hardware:
Mobo:Gigabyte 965P-DS3 revision 3.3
Processor:E8400 Stepping 6 Rev C0
Ram: 2x1Gb Corsair XMS2 PC6400 (DDR2-800) rated 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v
PSU: OCZ 600w GameXstream
GPU: Geforce 8800 GTS 512mb (G92 core)
Cooling: Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX and extra fan on MCH
BIOS: F13Q beta

Results: (all voltages monitored with cpu-z 1.44.2 and temps with coretemp 0.98.1)

3.41Ghz,FSB 379,Mult 9x
4-4-4-12 @ 379 +0.3 ddr2 volts
BIOS volts 1.24375
Idle volts 1.200-1.216
Load volts 1.184
Idle temps: 37-39
Load temps: 56-56
Prime95 3h 30m stable

3.6Ghz,FSB 400,Mult 9x
5-5-5-18 @ 400 +0.4 ddr2 volts
MCH +0.1v
FSB +0.1v
BIOS volts 1.30625
Idle volts 1.264
Load volts 1.248
Idle temps: 35-39
Load temps: 59-59 max 61
Prime95 3h 30m stable

3.8Ghz,FSB 422,Mult 9x
5-4-4-12 @ 422 +0.3 ddr2 volts
MCH +0.2v
FSB +0.1v
PCI-E +0.1v
BIOS volts 1.38500
Idle volts 1.344
Load volts 1.312-1.328
Idle temps: 40-40
Load temps: 65-65 max 66
Prime95 9h stable
Orthos blend test 6h stable

Note 1: Temps are surely off by about +10C since the air coming out from my big typhoon isn't nearly hot for 60c and this kind of OC would never produce such heat with so good cooling ;) Realtemp reports exactly 10c down,so I guess that's the real value

Note 2: I'm sometimes getting a long beep from the mobo when booting,which when looked up means mb or memory problem,not sure if that has any meaning at all but it has been bothering me....but as you can see all these OCes are pretty stable!

Hope this helps :)
 
3.8Ghz,FSB 422,Mult 9x
5-5-5-18 @ 422 +0.4 ddr2 volts
MCH +0.1v
FSB +0.1v
PCI-E +0.1v
BIOS volts 1.38500
Idle volts 1.344
Load volts 1.312-1.328
Idle temps: 40-40
Load temps: 65-65 max 66
Prime95 5h 8m stable
Orthos blend test 6h stable

...Realtemp reports exactly 10c down,so I guess that's the real value

So did you try 4Ghz? :D
 
Well as you saw this isn't the best chip I got there :( I'm afraid it would take too much of a volt bump to get at 4 Ghz and I'm using this for 24/7 usage...I might try it but even if i got it stable I don't think I'd use it
 
bositman, Thanks for the detailed report on your e8400 on the 965 ds3.
Did the long beep happen at default settings also? Or was it just during overclocking?
At any rate nice work and I do not blame you for not wanting to going any higher. 1.4v is about max you want to go with 45nm chips, any higher and there have been reports of the 45nm chips degrading rapidly.
If I had your chip I would probably run it around 3.6GHz 24/7.
Congrads, I'll probably be doing the same as you and getting a wolfdale or yorkfield latter this summer or fall for my ds3 rev 3.3.
 
Thanks CpuMan :)
The beep was surfacing after overclocking,but now that I've found a stable OC it has gone away :)
I'm actually still fine-tuning the 3.8Ghz overclock,I just got around in reducing the ddr2 volts from +0.4 to +0.3 (cause with +0.4 it was setting it to actual 2.3v for some reason instead of the normal 1.8+0.4=2.2v) and reduced pci-e overvolt from +0.1 to normal!
Forgot to mention I'm using the F13Q beta bios
Oh and some proof:

 
Hello first time poster,long time sand bagger.

I just put in a QX9650 in a DQ6 rev 1 motherboard.I have to say I'm impressed.I used to have a X9800 and it served well.Didn't have time to check temps or bench/stress the chip.But I was worried it wouldn't work.But took a chance anyway.The QX9650 is a C0 stepping.Here is what I use for hardware below.I'll come back with an update.

:)

Core 2 Extreme QX6650 3.00 Ghz
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (rev. 1) F12j
Koolance PC2-TDX DangerDen Cooled
4GB Dominator Twin2X4096-8500C5DF
Corsair 4GB Voyager GT (Ready Boost)
XFX 7900 GTX512 Video Card
Dell 2405 LCD Flat Panel Monitor
2 x 74 GB Raptors Matrix Raid 0/0
PC Power&Cooling 510 Express
WinXP x64 sp2 / WinV x64 sp1
 
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