Gigabyte P965-P35 X38 overclocking and BIOS tweaking Guide

Here's my attempt at cooling the MCH - criticism/laughter welcome!


View into case from left side.



View into case from front through unoccupied drive bay.

The Ultra HS is just too close to the MCH to mount a fan I reckon. I 'constructed' an air guide from the top of a PET bottle so that the air drawn in (thru left side of case) would reach the MCH. This guide does touch the 9600GT's PCB but I don't think this matters(?). The fan came with my old Athlon64 CPU - it's about 60mm. Will this suffice (assuming I actually manage to generate sufficient heat to warrant this slightly comical arrangement)?
 
hey all,

I wanna overclock my Gigabyte EP43-DS3L but dont really have a clue how to...

Ive read the guide on overclocking but need some specific advice for my board before im comfortable doing so.

Has anyone had experience with this board ?
 
m4tthew said:
hey all,

I wanna overclock my Gigabyte EP43-DS3L but dont really have a clue how to...

Ive read the guide on overclocking but need some specific advice for my board before im comfortable doing so.

Has anyone had experience with this board ?
Click to expand...

Built one last week for a customer, Q6600 @ 9 x 365 = 3.28GHz memory mulitplier at 2.4 333 strap running at 876 MHz .

Best advice I can give is to leave all the fancy settings alone, not really needed until you get a very high OCing up and stable. Then play with them if you want. Othewise keep it simple.
 
marlinman said:
Cheers for your advice (and 'hi' back at ya)!



Well, I made it to 363MHz with Vcore=1.35V (the system reset to 8x200MHz when I tried 8x364MHz). So I tried slowly upping Vcore until 8x370 ran but nothing worked (I kept under 1.4V!). I gave the MCH another notch, reset Vcore to 1.35, and tried 8x370 again. Failure! So again I upped Vcore slowly to just under 1.4V but again no joy. Odd. All the settings in the M.I.T. BIOS screen are as you specify except for PCI-E frequency (which was on 100MHz or default until I recently upgraded to current video card, when system wouldn't boot at 9x320, so I tried upping to 101MHz - success!), and Refresh to ACT Delay ('auto' strangely isn't one of the options on offer. 42 is the suggestion but for some reason mine's on zero). Not too sure what my next step should be - oh, I set the memory multiplier to 2x BTW (even for 8x330!).
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply,
Yes the Refresh to Act Delay 0 = auto my bad.

next I would try whatever the memory mulitplier is closest to 2.4. with your current settings of 9 x 320 that should run your memory closer to spec and get you some more performance.

lol anyway you can blow air on the mch works for me. I award more "points" for "get it done" than I do "looks".

I would start (now you have some air on the MCH) giving it two "notches" of voltage. Your board should do much better but its such an individual thing in that every board acts differently its hard for me to say. But you have tried Vcore increases with little luck in higher FSB, and if it where me I would start looking at carefully giving the mch more juice and testing on the next rainly day.
 
Hey Bill,

Its reassuring that someone has overclocked on this board. Is there any chance you could tell me which options to change and which ones to keep unchanged?

Here is my thread in the overclocking forum

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1333052

Ive posted the issues im uncertain about. If you could look it over i'd very much appreciate it

Thanks
 
> Sorry for the late reply

It was worth the wait! Sadly, even when the MCH is maximally overvolted, and VCore is nudging 1.4V, I can't run 8x370MHz. Is (further) overvolting the FSB worth trying? Every dang time I try 8x370MHz, the board resets to 8x200MHz.

> next I would try whatever the memory mulitplier is closest to 2.4. with your current settings of 9 x 320 that should run your memory closer to spec and get you some more performance.

I've been running with a multiplier of 2.5 so the RAM's running bang on spec. Next up is 2.66 which will sadly push the RAM over its 843MHz limit. Hope I've understood you correctly...
 
I've been running with a multiplier of 2.5 so the RAM's running bang on spec. Next up is 2.66 which will sadly push the RAM over its 843MHz limit. Hope I've understood you correctly...
Click to expand...

You are good. But to OC you take one system at a time and determine the capability/limit.

Set the cpu mulitplier to 7, memory mulitplier to 2.0 and raise the FSB until a memtest boot cd fails. This will determine the boards FSB limit. Put a fan on the MCH/northbridge. Start with stock mch voltage and gently increase it when the first failures occur to determine the effectivness of increasing MCH voltage.

If this exceeds (and it should do 400 FSB easily) you current settings then the issue is elsewhere. If you cannot get above your current highest FSB settings I would redo the thermal paste on the MCH heatsink/heatpipe and put a fan on it.
 
Set the cpu mulitplier to 7, memory mulitplier to 2.0 and raise the FSB until a memtest boot cd fails. This will determine the boards FSB limit. Put a fan on the MCH/northbridge. Start with stock mch voltage and gently increase it when the first failures occur to determine the effectivness of increasing MCH voltage.

If this exceeds (and it should do 400 FSB easily) you current settings then the issue is elsewhere. If you cannot get above your current highest FSB settings I would redo the thermal paste on the MCH heatsink/heatpipe and put a fan on it.
Click to expand...

I set the cpu multiplier to 6 (my lowest) and with MCH on stock (not +0.1) I got to 366MHz. Had to up the MCH to +0.2 (!) to get to 367MHz and couldn't reach 368 at all (even with MCH on +0.3). What I didn't do was cool the MCH during this - but surely the MCH temp won't climb too high before OS boot?! Getting to the MCH will involve removing the Ultra and I'm lazy :)

Would updating the BIOS possibly help? I'm using F10...

edit: I see F13 was released less than a month ago!
 
Big Lebowski said:
Just wondering what is the fastest and latest CPU's that will work on the 965P-DQ6 rev 3.3?

un-officially of course :)

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=2&id=2521

will the Q9550 work? The QX9650 is priced for fools only.
Click to expand...
I am happy to report that my motherboard is still working superbly with Q9450. (Although it seems that the +0.5 multiplier is not working). Wondering if I should upgrade the graphics card to Radeon 4870x2 ? Is it worthwhile considering that the MB only support PCI-E 1.0. Will my current PSU take it?
 
Hi guys... would you please check my BIOS settings, temps & volts?
- Q6600 + GA-P35-DS3L - my OC = 3.2ghz

BIOS SETTINGS:
- http://troysweb.com/files/_q6600v1/_q6600v1.htm

TEMPS & VOLTAGE:
- http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1336379

I hope you will find something that allows me to run @ 3.6!
- I am actually thinking of backing down to 3.0ghz.
- I am kinda' scared of the temps @ this voltage.

I have 4 primary questions...

#1 - Should I be worried about my temps & voltage?
- idle temps have gone down a little (39, 40, 33, 38) @ 1.45v

#2 - Should my Northbridge fan be sucking air OFF the HS?
- I currently have a 40mm fan blowing DOWN onto the NB HS & mobo.
- will I gain OC stability if add voltage to the NB/MCH or FSB settings?
- any insight here is welcome...

#3 - Should I enable SATA AHCI mode (my HD is SATA 3)?
- does this cause any problems when OC'ing (data corruption)?

#4 - Why don't I see 4gb RAM in Win XP SP3?
- right click - My Computer > Properties - shows 3.5 GB?
- Task Manager > Physical Memory = 3,668,396

Thanks to all of you that reply!
 
Gidday talk2troy -

#2 - Should my Northbridge fan be sucking air OFF the HS?
Click to expand...

I don't think so - current arrangement sounds good.

#4 - Why don't I see 4gb RAM in Win XP SP3?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you're using a 32 bit OS - using the 64 bit version of XP (or Vista, or some other OS) should reveal your missing memory.
 
I saw on post $12, BillParrish states that if the MCH/Northbridge is not cooled, then it is going to be difficult to get a good OC going. Do I need to get a Northbridge fan with my Gigabyte x48-DS4? I also have 4 sticks of RAM and I hear that causes even more heat on the Northbridge.
 
The newer boards like the x48 versions have much larger heatsinks now and they tend to work better. Most likely you should be able to do a 400MHz FSB without issues. That said keeping things cool helps with stability and long life. As a "ruile of finger" it is simple enough to just place a finger on the northbridge when OCing to check the temp occasionaly. You should be able to do a slow count to 5 and not feel any discomfort. It will be apparent if its hot and then you can think about taking steps to help it run cooler. A cpu with a high mulitplier will help you acheive OC's without having to use high FSB so more than likely you will be just fine and good case airflow will help too.
 
I recently upgraded my 8800GT to a 280GTX. When I did i started to have random BSOD's. Figured it was a ram problem, but memtest ran fine. I reinstalled Vista, and installed the latest NVIDIA power pack drivers, only to still have random BSOD's. I solved the problem by upping the PCI-E voltage from default to +1. Havent had a memory dump since then. Just thought id let you guys know in case anyone else was having similar problems.
 
Why would you think it was a memory problem when it was obvious the video card switch caused it? /boggle
 
Because my hardware worked fine for a few weeks after the switch. Also ive had lots of memory problems with this motherboard, including sticks that have randomly gone bad. Ive RMA'd 3 sticks already. Im running Crucial Ballistix at stock speeds and voltages 800mhz @ 2v2v with relaxed timings, 5-5-5-15, still dont know if it was a crappy batch of ram, or mobo problems as many users in this forum have reported.
 
, still dont know if it was a crappy batch of ram, or mobo problems as many users in this forum have reported.

It is established that the version 1.0 of Gigabyte P965 boards have real issues with 4 sticks of memory. I had to give up and go to 2 x 2GB which will still allow an OC. With 4 x 1GB of corsair XMS I could not even get stable at stock speeds. One of the changes in the 2.0 versions was the rerouting of the memory traces on the mb to help with using 4 sticks. If you intend to keep the board you might conside doing what I did and sell or use your existing memory in another machine and go with a 2 x 2GB set.

The +.1 to PCI-e is interesting, nice find.
 
Its been too long since I have done this :)

Ok, GA-EP43-DS3L (F7 bios) and E8400 (C0) here ...

having a tough time getting post @ normal clock ...

CPU Clock Ratio is 9x for E8400, yes?
CPU Host Frequency is ?? 333 ??

I just get the loop if I do this.


L2Read More! CMOS reset seems to have me further.
 
@ 3.74GHz and climbing ... these newfangled 45nm dye CPUs have some headroom.

Is it atypical to have to drop down on the multi to get good OC results?

9x almost anything above 333MHz refuses to post ... but 8.5x440MHz is running fine (53C after 32M pi)

If it is atypical to drop down the multi, thinking about swapping out this mobo ... 9x440 on air would be good 'nuff.
 
Drop your multiplier even lower to find out your boards FSB limit. Make sure you have additional cooling on that NB heatsink. It should not be too hot to keep your finger on it. If it is, add a fan to it.
 
i have a question. my mobo is the ga P35ds3l. running winxp sp3. i've had this board for about 8 months now and i'm very happy with it. overclocks well etc.
i'm running 3 sata hard drives with this board. called 0 1 and 2 in the bios. my C drive (boot drive) is on drive #2 and i have the config to boot from this hd first. so up to here no problem.

3 times over the past year, on boot up, I get that message that the file NTLDR is missing, can't be found and therefore cannot boot the comp. the first time i got this message i searched the internet on my other comp looking for solutions wondering what in blazes could be wrong. not sure why but i finally went into the bios and found that the boot order had been switched and had reverted to 0,1 ,2. naturally there is no root drive or windows installed on 0 drive so ergo no boot. a simple reconfig solves the problem.

my question is why has this ocurred? it happened yesterday for the third time. btw it's the only config that is changed in the bios when this happens.
 
bardos said:
i have a question. my mobo is the ga P35ds3l. running winxp sp3. i've had this board for about 8 months now and i'm very happy with it. overclocks well etc.
i'm running 3 sata hard drives with this board. called 0 1 and 2 in the bios. my C drive (boot drive) is on drive #2 and i have the config to boot from this hd first. so up to here no problem.

3 times over the past year, on boot up, I get that message that the file NTLDR is missing, can't be found and therefore cannot boot the comp. the first time i got this message i searched the internet on my other comp looking for solutions wondering what in blazes could be wrong. not sure why but i finally went into the bios and found that the boot order had been switched and had reverted to 0,1 ,2. naturally there is no root drive or windows installed on 0 drive so ergo no boot. a simple reconfig solves the problem.

my question is why has this ocurred? it happened yesterday for the third time. btw it's the only config that is changed in the bios when this happens.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I have not seen that reported as a widespread problem. No clue really and I can only speculate that for some reason a drive is not initializing properly or for some unknown reason is not "ready" during the boot scan for drives and when the bios does not see what it was expecting it resets drive information and defaults back to trying to boot off drive 0. Wild ass guess really and it is odd it is so intermittent. No one provides any details of what the bios does these days. It might be fun to ask Gigabyte tech support to "Please contact the bios engineer and please provide under what fault conditions would the bios reset only the SATA boot drive order during POST". I am using a very very loose useage of the word "fun".

One obvious idea (you probably have considered it already ) that really does not solve the root cause would be to swap the 0 and 2 SATA cables at the MB so the boot drive becomes the SATA0 drive. You might have to go into local computer services - storage manager and reassign the drive letter for the drive that was on 0 that was moved to 2 but thats pretty easy. If it happens again with the boot drive on SATA0 I would think that then then it would point fairly conclusively to the drive having some issue and help eliminate some bios "quirk" as the root of the problem.
 
could this be an overclocking problem? have you tried reversing to default settings?
 
Just a head's up.. GA-P965-DS3 with F13o BIOS and e6300 .. Patriot PC26400 2GB @ 2.2V

STILL HAS COLD BOOT HANGUP ISSUES. What a pos motherboard... I don't think I'll ever buy a Gigabyte ever again.
 
ekoshyun said:
Just a head's up.. GA-P965-DS3 with F13o BIOS and e6300 .. Patriot PC26400 2GB @ 2.2V

STILL HAS COLD BOOT HANGUP ISSUES. What a pos motherboard... I don't think I'll ever buy a Gigabyte ever again.
Click to expand...

The problem my be your ram,

Relax the timings to 5-5-5-15 and drop the voltage back to 1.9v or 2.0v, and run the ram at stock DDR2 800 speeds. See if the cold boot issue goes away.
 
I got a bit of a problem with this guide, maybe somebody here can help. I have followed the instructions to a T, but after putting in the baseline values the system restarts and sounds a REALLY annoying constant beep. I have redone the values 3 times now with the same results. What am I doing wrong?

Specs:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 65W
Mother Board: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3) LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX
Power Supply: FSP Group SAGA+ 450R 450W ATX12V
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
OS: Windows Vista Business Edition 64-Bit
 
it can be accidentaly unplugged some cable, or ram module not fully in the slot - it beep in this case too.

my pc:
CPU: E6300 @ 1.86 GHz -> 2,8 GHz , 1.26 V rev. B2
board: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 rev. 1.0 , FSB 400 MHz, default voltage
RAM: 2x 2GB A-data EXTREME DDR2 800+ PC2-6400 1,9V dual channel, 800 MHz (1:1)
power: corsair vx450w , 450W ATX12V v2.2
OS: XP SP3
 
hi, got a question, any of the wolfdale 7xxx works with the 965p-ds3 rev 2.0 ?

actually got the e6400 @ 2.8ghz

Thanks
 
DaSwede1127 said:
I got a bit of a problem with this guide, maybe somebody here can help. I have followed the instructions to a T, but after putting in the baseline values the system restarts and sounds a REALLY annoying constant beep. I have redone the values 3 times now with the same results. What am I doing wrong?

Specs:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 65W
Mother Board: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3) LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX
Power Supply: FSP Group SAGA+ 450R 450W ATX12V
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
OS: Windows Vista Business Edition 64-Bit
Click to expand...

Can anybody help with this?
 
Leave all the memory stuff on auto, I gave examples and instructuions for my memory not yours. Other than that I have no idea what could be wrong as those settings have been used by hundreds of people. As I mention more than once, your manual is something you should bother to read. In the back you will find the beep codes listed and an explaination of what they mean. Respond back with what you find out (which beep code and what the manual says it means) and I will try to help.
 
Manual says DRAM error, but I went back in a left all the memory settings to auto and it still did it.

I followed the directions, except I changed System Memory Multiplier to the default instead of 2.00 and I left the DRAM timing selectable at auto and I did not change the DDR2 OverVoltage Control. Still got the DRAM error beeps.
 
DaSwede1127 said:
Manual says DRAM error, but I went back in a left all the memory settings to auto and it still did it.

I followed the directions, except I changed System Memory Multiplier to the default instead of 2.00 and I left the DRAM timing selectable at auto and I did not change the DDR2 OverVoltage Control. Still got the DRAM error beeps.
Click to expand...

Did you try it with a single stick of RAM?
Did you try each stick individually?
Did you try each slot individually?
Does each stick complete several memtest passes?
 
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