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Your Tests and Reviews => Your Tests and Reviews => Topic started by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:13:07 pm

Title: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:13:07 pm
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) Living Review

7th March 2011

by DARK MANTIS

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 rev 1.0 motherboard  website : http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3647&dl=1#ov

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5  Motherboard

(http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/4678/dsc01477.jpg) (http://img860.imageshack.us/i/dsc01477.jpg)

Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 B2 Motherboard unboxed

(http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4513/dsc01484og.jpg) (http://img694.imageshack.us/i/dsc01484og.jpg)

Motherboard rear surface

(http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/6784/dsc01489f.jpg) (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/dsc01489f.jpg)

Motherboard basic specs

To fit LGA1155 socket CPU i3, i5 , i7 second generation
Maximum 32 GB DDR3 Dual Channel  1.5v non ECC memory
Realtek ALC889 onboard sound HD compatible
Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit LAN
1 x PCIEx16 slot @ 16x
1 x PCIEx16 slot @ x8
1 x PCIEx16 slot @ 4x
2 x PCIEx1 slots @ 1x
2 x PCI slots
2 x SATA3 ports 6Gb/s
4 x SATA2 ports 3Gb/s
2 x ESATA3 ports 6Gb/s
Maximum 8 USB3.0/2.0 ports
Maximum 3 1394a Firewire ports
1 x PS2 mouse/keyboard port
1 x optical port
1 x coax port
1 x  RJ45 LAN port
6 audio jack ports
Award Dual BIOS  2 x 32 Mb chips
ATX form factor

Plexiglas test-bench designed and manufactured by Dark Mantis

(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1372/dsc01456i.jpg) (http://img40.imageshack.us/i/dsc01456i.jpg/)

Firstly I want to make it clear that this is a living review and as such will continue to be updated as time goes by or as I hit any problems!

I am not going into great detail when it comes to the build as I am sure that most of you will be familiar with the basic steps involved. Also I have designed and built a testbench out of Plexiglas to make it easier to see all the devices and for me to take photos. It will also enable me to swap out components  as needed much more easily and quickly.

I intend to build and run the basic system as it was delivered at first with no updates of BIOS or drivers, so we will be able to see how stable it is from that standpoint. I will just use one hard drive and one optical drive at this stage although later on I want to try running a RAID0 configuration of two Western Digital Black SATA3 6GB/s HDD on the Intel SATA3 ports.

Later I will update everything and see how it then compares and then after that I want to try and overclock it to see just how easy it is  and how far I can go.

Let me start by listing the parts that are actually going into the build:

•   Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 B2 motherboard
•   Intel i5 2500K 3.3Ghz processor
•   Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro cooler
•   Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz DDR3 memory  - 8 GB (2 x 4 GB modules)
•   Gigabyte Radeon 4850 GV-R485-512H-B graphics card
•   Gigabyte Odin Pro 1200W Power Supply Unit
•   Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB SATA3 6 GB/s hard drives x 2
•   Lite-on 24x DVD multi recorder
•   Custom made plexiglas test-bench
•   Logitech MK700 wireless keyboard/mouse
•   Iiyama ProLite B2712HDS 27" monitor
•   maybe other parts as required which will be listed as fitted

I want  to point out here that as I am using 8 GB of memory I have disabled the swapfile

Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro Cooler

(http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/4743/coolerboxedresized.jpg) (http://img560.imageshack.us/i/coolerboxedresized.jpg/)

Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro Cooler unboxed

(http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/1913/coolerunboxedresized.jpg) (http://img855.imageshack.us/i/coolerunboxedresized.jpg)

Gigabyte ODIN Pro 1200W PSU

(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1692/dsc01435b.jpg) (http://img825.imageshack.us/i/dsc01435b.jpg)

Gigabyte ODIN Pro 1200W PSU unboxed

(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2448/dsc01445tt.jpg) (http://img14.imageshack.us/i/dsc01445tt.jpg/)

Corsair Vengeance 1600 MHz 2 x 4 GB Memory modules

(http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4706/dsc01508m.jpg) (http://img812.imageshack.us/i/dsc01508m.jpg)

Memory fitted and showing how the Gigabyte cooler helps blow air over the nearby components

(http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8117/dsc01515y.jpg) (http://img545.imageshack.us/i/dsc01515y.jpg)

First boot....and everything works!

(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9943/dsc01522n.jpg) (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/dsc01522n.jpg)

When I first applied the power I had the expected on/off/on as the system read the hardware connected and logged it in the CMOS after that the supplied BIOS worked fine without me even touching it. Good start.

I let it continue to run like this for a while just to make sure that everything was stable.
 
As it was only on stock speeds I was able to turn off the two extra fans as they weren't required. At full  speed the CPU fan was quiet but noticeable but if dropped down to the 5v (half- speed) level  it was silent and for standard usage more than adequate performance.

Original F2 BIOS as supplied on the motherboard

(http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4680/dsc01525.jpg) (http://img856.imageshack.us/i/dsc01525.jpg)

Next I loaded on the drivers from the supplied disk and a couple of testing programs. Prime95 and Real Temp just to stress it out and see if everything was solid....no problems at all which is good considering I hadn't updated anything.

(http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/4676/dsc01527l.jpg) (http://img545.imageshack.us/i/dsc01527l.jpg)

After proving the build I decided to update the BIOS to F6 and all the drivers to the latest versions. This went without a problem and then made a few basic changes to the BIOS setup. Nothing special just the sort of thing that we always recommend like disabling the Full Screen Logo,  enable Quick boot, make HDD the Primary Boot Device and I enabled the XMP profile in the memory section so that the RAM would run at its full rated speed of 1600 Mhz.

CPU-Z data at stock settings

(http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/4893/cpuzstock.jpg)

Temperatures on idle

(http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4797/idletemps.png) (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/idletemps.png/)

Temperatures when stressed with Prime95 100%

(http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/162/stresstemps.png) (http://img815.imageshack.us/i/stresstemps.png/)

Disk Read/Write data with CrystalDiskMark SATA3 6GB/s port and drive

(http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8521/sata3wdbahci.png) (http://img828.imageshack.us/i/sata3wdbahci.png/)

As you can see from the reported throughput figures there is very little difference between the SATA2  and SATA3 drives even with the latter having the benefit of a massive 64MB of cache.  
This is set up as AHCI mode to make the most of the performance and is connected by SATA3 cable to SATA3 port



I would like to say thank you to Gigabyte and runn3R in particular for their help in making this review possible.

Here endeth the first lesson...
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:13:40 pm
RAID 0 Configuration
I replaced the original single Western Digital Black SATA3 6GB/s hard disk drive with a pair of the same drives connected to the Intel SATA3 ports and left everything else at the same stock settings. I then configured them as a RAID0 array using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology and installed Windows 7 64 bit again.

(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/26/raid0stock.jpg)

As you can see the read/write rates have more than doubled as should be expected. I will now run them like this for a substantial time to check for stability.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:13:53 pm
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 and Intel i5 2500K CPU Over-clocking

I decided to see how easy it is to overclock these boards/CPUs without raising the voltages above stock values and staying on air cooling with the same Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro cooler that was installed since the beginning.

I thought that I would just try a reserved 4.0 Ghz OC for a start.

This was on idle at 4.0 Ghz

(http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1088/40ghzidle.jpg) (http://img809.imageshack.us/i/40ghzidle.jpg)

So I then ran Prime95 custom using 4 GB memory

and this was the temperatures then.


(http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3900/40ghzstress.jpg) (http://img689.imageshack.us/i/40ghzstress.jpg)

Next up was 4.6 Ghz with these figures on idle again

(http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6941/46ghzidle.jpg) (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/46ghzidle.jpg)

Once again time to run Prime95 and I found it was hardly straining the air cooler still.

(http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4400/46ghzstress.jpg) (http://img156.imageshack.us/i/46ghzstress.jpg)

OK 4.7 Ghz next and remember I haven't changed anything but the multiplier so far. Once again at idle

(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6428/47ghzidle.jpg) (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/47ghzidle.jpg)

Now at load with Prime95

(http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/5123/47ghzstress.jpg) (http://img849.imageshack.us/i/47ghzstress.jpg)

I started to notice a litle bit of instability creeping in now and so without upping the voltage this seemed to be the limit. However I think that with the same Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro air cooler that I started with still coping very well I am amazed at the ease and amount of overclock available with these components. This Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 motherboard paired with the Intel i5 2500K CPU is formidable to say the least. I would have liked the oportunity to have tried the Intel i7 2600K in place of the i5 and see how they compared.

I reckon that given water cooling and a touch more voltage and 5.0 Ghz + would be on the cards.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:14:14 pm
RAID0 Configuration... continued

I have now done some prolonged and heavy duty testing of the RAID0 configured drives and they have performed perfectly so far. The tests consisted of copying large files from the optical drive to the array, copying very large files over the disks and installing several games and programs like MS Office. Apart from a bit of heat build up that had more to do with the enclosure than the drives or their performance and has now been sorted out by adding a fan onto the front of the drive bays, the disks worked without a glitch and for sustained periods at full rate.

I am happy to say that these Western Digital Black SATA3 drives connected to the SATA3 ports of the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 are solid. I have not experienced one dropout or failure to pickup the drive on boot.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:14:27 pm
Watercooling the GA-P67A-UD5

Well after building the system and then running the various tests on it to see how it would respond I decided my next endevour would be to watercool it.
 
(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/7500/sysa1.jpg) (http://img841.imageshack.us/i/sysa1.jpg/)

This was a bit of a trial as it was only a small testbench case and watercooling calls for a lot more components to be fitted in. Out came the Gigabyte G-Power 2 pro cooler and in went a Alphacool 655 Pump with EK head, Phobya 5.25 single reservoir, Phobya G-Changer 280 radiator with dual 140 mm XIGMATEK XLF fans, Aquacomputer Water Filter, Swiftech XT CPU block and Primochill Primoflex 10 mm  black hose.

(http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4875/sysb2.jpg) (http://img543.imageshack.us/i/sysb2.jpg/)

The Alphacool pump is extremely powerfull and when coupled with the EK head unit I was able to use my preferencial size of Primoflex pipe which is not normally possible on these pumps as they have standard fixed ports of 1/2". I had to turn the pump down to about half it's rated output to run smoothly and silently.

(http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6955/syse3.jpg) (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/syse3.jpg/)

I decided on a Phobya 140 mm width radiator as it made better use of the size and although these are far from cheap they are real beasts and have no real impact on the flow. I fitted two XIGMATEK XLF 140 mm fans with a maximum 63.5 CFM at 1000 RPM. They are attractive fans with white LED highlights that have the desired effect. They seem to be very efficient and this was the first but will not be the last time I have used them. I have them connected to the directly to the PSU as is favourite.

(http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/5756/sysc4.jpg) (http://img8.imageshack.us/i/sysc4.jpg/)

The Phobya 5.25" reservoir fitted nicely above the PSU and was at the top for ease of filling. With a couple of UV LEDs installed it looks the business as well as being supremely functional. There is a choice of three inlet ports and one outlet so it is also versatile.

(http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1694/sysf5.jpg) (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/sysf5.jpg/)

I connected everything up with the aid of EK Black compression fittings. They just look so much more tasteful than the shiny silver variety and I was impressed by how much extra grip they had on the pipe even before screwing the cap down. They also have a neat little EK logo stamped on them.

(http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/4707/sys6.jpg) (http://img857.imageshack.us/i/sys6.jpg/)

The filter made by Aquacomputer is a lovely bit of kit and this is the first time I have incorporated a filter into one of my loops. It was something I always thought was a good idea to stop "gunge" blocking the fine matrixes of the cooling blocks and performance deteriorating because of it. However prior to this filter coming onto the market I had never liked the inline type that were available as they had a much smaller filter diameter and would restrict the flow especially when they became partly clogged as they are supposed. Well that's the theory I will let you know if it works the same in practice!

(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6650/sysd7.jpg) (http://img716.imageshack.us/i/sysd7.jpg/)

Of course all this led to the Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 motherboard with an Intel i5 2500K chip and the XT CPU waterblock by Swiftech which I have modified a little to increase the flow as I found it rather restrictive. I ground down the fine matrix a little to give more free flow at the cost of a small amount heat transfer performance.

(http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/1138/stocktempsidle8p.jpg) (http://img864.imageshack.us/i/stocktempsidle8p.jpg/)

Talking about performance I expect you are wondering how the watercooling compared to the aircooling that was fitted previously. So I did some more tests. Firstly I ran the system at stock speeds and took screenshots of both idle and stressed levels. I used Prime95 to load the processor to 100% for these tests. Secondly I overclocked the system to 4.6 GHz and then re ran the same tests and took more pictures. My room had an ambient temperature of 21 degrees for the stock speed testing and then 25 degrees by the time I did the overclocked readings.

(http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7492/stocktempsstressed9.jpg) (http://img202.imageshack.us/i/stocktempsstressed9.jpg/)

Basically the stock temps were ambient 21, Idle 21, stressed 36 -38 degrees. So these have dropped about 4 degrees when idle and 4 - 6 degrees when stressed.

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7106/octempsidle10.jpg) (http://img25.imageshack.us/i/octempsidle10.jpg/)

The overclocked temperatures were ambient 25, Idle 30 and stressed at 51 degrees. These have also fallen and now are idle at 5 degrees lower and stressed at about 4 degrees lower. I would like point out here that when I did the original test with the Gigabyte G-Power 2 Pro aircooler the ambient was lower and I did notice that the Prime95 setting wasn't at 100% so if anything the differences would have been greater.

(http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9302/octempsstressed11.jpg) (http://img819.imageshack.us/i/octempsstressed11.jpg/)
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 02:14:51 pm
Future posting
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: soarwitheagles on March 08, 2011, 01:36:32 am
Excellent start DM!  I really like that plexiglass test set up you are using!  Very creative and very effective!

I also like most of your hardware choices.  Very effective and very nice!

Why are you using that Gigabyte CPU cooler?  Although it looks pretty, it is pre-2008 design and the reviews are not so good on it.  Do you intend to use it only for testing purposes or will that be your CPU cooler long term as in forever?

Your new build almost looks like a nice Jaguar automobile with all the nice trimmings but then you put a Model-T radiator in your nice Jaguar automobile!

Soar
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: faizoff on March 08, 2011, 03:47:03 am
Wow is all I have to say. Just Wow.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: PlatinumShadow on March 08, 2011, 05:39:14 am
Excellent start DM!  I really like that plexiglass test set up you are using!  Very creative and very effective!


Agree Totally  :D

Killer Design i love it  8)
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 08, 2011, 09:46:29 am
Thanks for the comments. I understand your feelings regarding the cooler but it is really just for testing purposes and so far is doing a fine job as you can see from the temperatures. Maybe when I overclock and the output ramps up it will stuggle but we will see. I will report exactly as I find it...good or bad. Maybe later I will test it with a watercooling loop just to be able to have the whole spectrum of temperatures to compare but that will be a while yet.

By the way Soar, there is nothing wrong with some "classic iron". ;D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: faizoff on March 09, 2011, 12:10:21 pm
Yknow with regards to the temp, I now find the temp to be always in the lower 40s with this stock cooler, not sure if it has anything to do with the weather. But I feel it just may be time to invest in a better cooler and a newer case. I've recycled my previous case and while it's ok, it doesnt have any fans on it.

Might just have to get that NZXT Phantom I was thinking of getting.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 09, 2011, 01:26:29 pm
This motherboard/cpu combination does run at a lower temperature level than the previous generations did anyway which is obviously a bonus.

As you said though you still need a decent flow of air for all the other components to stay cool and even though I normally watercool my setups I stll maintain a good fan system although I run it at slow speeds which mean almost silent working.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 10, 2011, 08:38:45 am
original post updated ;)

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,4776.0.html
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: absic on March 10, 2011, 10:09:16 am
Looking good DM.

I see you running the Western Digital Caviar Black drives in your RAID0 array and I hope, like I did on the AMD SB850 Chip, that you find no problems with stability. Unlike the Marvell chip and the advice we were given that these drives are not recommended for RAID set-ups!  ::)

Disk read/write speeds are very close to those on the GA-890FXA-UD5 board, which is an interesting comparison for throughput of data.

Look forward to seeing how the CPU handles other tasks such as video and audio rendering.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 10, 2011, 10:20:28 am
Yes absic, that was one of the main reasons I was looking forward to being able to try this setup on a different platform.

After Western Digitals explanation of the fact that TLER is no longer supported on these drives I was interested in how much actual difference that would make on a decent controller. It is  abit early to tell yet but so far no big worries.

I have other tests in mind for the future but for the moment I will satisfy myself that they are running reliably.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 10, 2011, 02:39:07 pm
Just added the overcloclocking trial.

By the way Soar, that model-T radiator works  well  ;D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: soarwitheagles on March 11, 2011, 07:09:16 am
Thanks for the comments. I understand your feelings regarding the cooler but it is really just for testing purposes and so far is doing a fine job as you can see from the temperatures. Maybe when I overclock and the output ramps up it will stuggle but we will see. I will report exactly as I find it...good or bad. Maybe later I will test it with a watercooling loop just to be able to have the whole spectrum of temperatures to compare but that will be a while yet.

By the way Soar, there is nothing wrong with some "classic iron". ;D

DM,

You have built a real dream machine!   We look forward to seeing more benchmarks.  Nice work and keep up the good job!

Soar
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on March 12, 2011, 10:04:49 am
Great work on the review DM!!   I really like the idea of a living review, and as you've already shown that makes it really easy to add new thoughts for findings anytime.

Keep up the great work!

Man, I wish I could build my own custom bench table like that!   Think I could hire you to build me a short version, like dimas bench easy hard, but in UV Blue acrylic?

I mean like this in case you aren't sure which bench I was talking about
http://www.dimastech.com/EN/c/dimastech-bench-test-table/bench-test-table-hard/1/
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 12, 2011, 12:29:44 pm
Hi Lsdmeasap,

Glad you like the review so far and thanks for the kind words. Everybody does the technical reviews like yourself and probably better than I could ever do so it is a different slant on the whole idea and to be honest was something that runn3R proposed initially. I just took the idea and ran with it.

I would be more than happy to build you a test bench in uv Blue acrylic but I think the shipping would make it unfeasible. Even here the carriage costs often outweigh the cost of the materials when it comes to plexiglas. By the way while we are talking about acrylic builds I tried the flaming of the edges but gave up in the end. It was just too hit and miss. Slightly too much heat and it bubbled, not enough and the heat spreads and you just end up with a soggy bit of plastic! I think it is proper laser cutting or plenty of sanding down of the edges which as we discussed takes forever.

I would be quite happy to send you the design and see if you can get someone local to fabricate it. I notice that you still have the red base plate on yours  ;D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on March 13, 2011, 05:26:58 am
You deserve it man, it's good work you've put in already, and it will only be added to since it is living review!  I'm actually not too happy with my first two board reviews, but they are my first, so I'll just have to really improve on my next ones so I'm not upset with myself.

Well man, I don't need a Bench like you or I already have, it's more a short tray kinda.   Did you check out the ones I linked, that's what I'd like, something short like that.

I would be willing to pay the shipping, I'd have to pay it from Italy if I end up buying from Dimas anyway, so either way I will have to pay a lot of shipping $$.

Sorry to hear you couldn't get flame working, I've not tried it yet but I do think you might need a MAP torch or something like that as it has a cleaner and hotter flame.   And ya you would need to somehow keep the flame and part even, so the amount of heat is always correct once you found the sweet spot in distance of flame to acrylic.

Can you design and make something like I linked above or not?   I don't know anyone here that could do it, and I suck with gluing acrylic, so I can't do it even if I did make the pieces.

Haha, ya, I hate that red tray!    I plan to buy a UV Blue back and mobo tray, just haven't got around to ordering them yet.   Couldn't pass up the nice deal on this bench the way it was, so I had to buy it before someone else did.   I paid only half of what a retail plain one would cost, shipped, so that's why I didn't mind the red tray for a little bit (It saved me $90)



Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 13, 2011, 09:22:58 am
Hi Lsdmeasap

I actually thought that your motherboard reviews were very good as I checked them both out after you emailed the links to me along with that killer Muskin memory! I don't think that we are ever really happy with any work we do as we always feel it could be better. There is nobody so critical as yourself.

I did check out the links for the short trays. No problem man, I can run you one up may take a few weeks though as I am fairly busy at the moment. If you have any specific requirements or customisations just let me know first.

Yes I remember you saying the acrylic bench was too good a price to pass on. Don't blame you. We don't often get good deals like that over here.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: bofh1971 on March 13, 2011, 11:35:56 am
Gorgeous test bench rig :) and awesome article.
looking forward to see how your rig performs over time.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 13, 2011, 03:58:17 pm
RAID configuration now updated
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on March 14, 2011, 07:48:21 am
Hi Lsdmeasap

I actually thought that your motherboard reviews were very good as I checked them both out after you emailed the links to me along with that killer Muskin memory! I don't think that we are ever really happy with any work we do as we always feel it could be better. There is nobody so critical as yourself.

I did check out the links for the short trays. No problem man, I can run you one up may take a few weeks though as I am fairly busy at the moment. If you have any specific requirements or customisations just let me know first.

Yes I remember you saying the acrylic bench was too good a price to pass on. Don't blame you. We don't often get good deals like that over here.

Ya, you are right in a way, but I'm comparing them to my previous review right before that, on Mushkin Ridgeback.  That one turned out GREAT, and these looked pale in comparison to that.   You're right though, we are always hardest on ourselves!    I know I can do better though, so that is why I deserve to be harder on myself this time, those are up to my usual expected quality.

Maybe some customizations, like my name or gigabyte logo somewhere or something like that?    What would be your guesstimated price for the product, then shipping to US?   Guess is fine, we can narrow down the shipping later I was just trying to see if you knew maybe close to how much it might run me.

Haha, ya it's going to cost me as much as I paid for the whole thing shipped, just to get the two UV blue panels I want  >:(
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 14, 2011, 08:11:26 am
Sure thing I will do a rough pricing for you. I will email you the details and we can have a chat about the finer points. Gigabyte Logo is no problem!
Only real problem I forsee is getting the UV Blue plexiglas. My normal supplier doesn't stock it as standard but I can ask him about getting some in.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on March 14, 2011, 08:24:02 am
Sounds good to me, no rush either - whenever you get around to it.

Really?   You can do logo's?   I didn't even think about how hard letters cut out, or logo engraving really is when I replied.   I just saw you mention customization and replied  ;D   So you can do things like that?   If so how, do you have access to a lazer or what?

Bah!   Haha, yes, please ask and see what he says.   All the places here stock it, so he can probably get it on his next order or something, just probably doesn't keep stock normally because of lack of buyers.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Johnz- on March 21, 2011, 07:48:37 am
nice review dark mantis.  keep the good work.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 21, 2011, 08:04:25 am
Glad you like it. I plan to add to it as time goes by especially if there are any issues that become apparent. ;)
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 31, 2011, 09:51:22 pm
Just ripped it all apart today and doing a bit of "adjusting"!   ;)

I decided to try watercooling the setup and see how much difference that would make. Just got the bits I still needed now curtesy of Mick at C&C as usual and will start rebuilding tomorrow. Got to make a few alterations to the testbench to accomodate it all. Pictures to follow.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 03, 2011, 07:51:58 pm
I have just uploaded my watercooling review of this motherboard. See here:

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,4776.msg37634.html#msg37634
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on April 03, 2011, 09:20:24 pm
Water setup is looking nice man!
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 03, 2011, 09:51:44 pm
Hi Lsdmeasap,

Thanks. Had to do a bit of shoehorning to get it all in there but once fitted it was fine. Trying to get the air bled from the filter was the most time consuming part. :D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on April 04, 2011, 06:41:44 am
Ya, it looks like a tight fit, but looks good once you got it all in there!

Haha, ya getting rid of air takes forever sometimes!   I am always thumping on my rads for a day or two after a new setup to get air out  ;D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 04, 2011, 07:46:08 am
Yes I actually had to change direction of the flow of the filter to get it to clear the air and that was with the 655 on full blast!
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on April 04, 2011, 08:05:46 am
I always have everything not mounted down, so I can shake rattle and roll with the rads, reservoir, and pump  ;D

I do a lot of on/off and shake of stuff, then once I get it about all gone I squeeze the tube closed a few times every so often while it's running to push stuck bubbles out.    I also don't add any dye or anything until the air is completely gone, that stops foam from forming
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 04, 2011, 08:32:56 am
Shake, rattle and roll. Sounds like you must have been watching me there Lsdmeasap! ;D I tried squeezing the tubes as well! I was just using distilled water. Pure.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on April 06, 2011, 09:00:26 am
Haha, great minds always think alike man!  ;D
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: oggmonster on April 08, 2011, 10:25:33 am
Interesting stuff, nice read :)

Something thats confused me (I might be reading it wrong) but at your highest overclock your watercooling setup was only a few degrees better than the air cooler?? My i7 @ 4ghz with 1.3v on a Noctua NH-D14 the highest core was 68degrees, i know you obviously were using an i5 setup, are i5's significantly cooler than i7s or something?
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: oggmonster on April 08, 2011, 10:32:02 am
Just remembered those i5's are on a 32nm which would probably explain it.

I've been out of this game for too long lol :(
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 08, 2011, 10:46:39 am
Yes the new generation of 32nm processors run a lot cooler than the previous ones. My i7 920 gets quite warm even with a reasonable overclock and needs the water but this new i5 runs a lot cooler. In fact were it not for the fact that I like watercooling anyway I don't really think there is any need for it on these CPUs.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: oggmonster on April 08, 2011, 11:12:37 am
Whats the furthest you reckon you could push it to? Say 10min prime stable?
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 08, 2011, 11:34:25 am
Well I haven't tried too much yet so I am not sure but it went to 4.7 just on the multiplier so I reckon with a bit of voltage tweaking and some fine tuning of the Mhz it should get somewhere near 5 Ghz which isn't bad for a 3.3 chip.  Heat doesn't seem to be a problem really so it is just keeping everything stable.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Lsdmeasap on April 10, 2011, 05:53:13 am
I'm 100% sure the chip will do 5Ghz, and 95% sure it will do at least 5.1Ghz or above!  You'll have to enable PLL Overvoltage in the Advanced CPU settings page, but after that once you tweak the voltages right you can easily do 5Ghz or above

You just have to play with it DM, and you will see!
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 10, 2011, 08:04:11 am
Thanks for the tip Lsdmeasap, I'm hoping to get time to play with it later. I'll let you know how I get on. ;)
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: driver321 on July 05, 2011, 12:09:43 pm
Thank for this forum. i like it. wish you best of luck.
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: malito-77 on December 06, 2011, 03:05:08 pm
nice.....   ;D

 I see you said you made your test bench yourself out of plexiglass, can you give up the specs details on it?
if not do you know of a retail seller where you can get one made or delivered to my house? please...     ???
Title: Re: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5 (Sandy Bridge) living review
Post by: Dark Mantis on December 06, 2011, 06:04:10 pm
Hi and welcome.

Thanks for the  kind words there and glad you liked it. I just drew up the plans myself and I don't know of anywhere that makes them quite the same although there are other companies who do similar things. I would suggest googling for a manufacturer local to you and see what is available. If you are any good at DIY the material is quite easy to work with once you have made the first few obvious mistakes! I did a review on an Italian company Tecnoftront's offering. It wasn't quite so robustly made as my own but nonetheless was a reasonably well built one.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,7502.0.html

I had as lot of interest since the initial build and even looked into purchasing a laser cutter to make them but didn't really have the time.