Bought some while ago this mobo.(feb 2013) It works and was waiting until I was satisfied with my different try outs.
Main components are AMD 5400K and a 4GB crusial 1333 memorystick.
HDs at that time : OCZ vertex 1 30GB , OCZ vertex 2 50GB , Maxtor 200GB sata1, Seagate 160GB sata 2.
All for different operating system try outs.
Lite on DVDRW.
Idea was to replace my HTPC , because this set is 1.5 times faster and has even less idle power consumption.
Old pc : asrock 785 chipset AMD 4050E and 2 OCZ 2 GB. Special built for NO NOISE. So no fans and HDs in
800 gr allu housings. A pain in the *** to change any component. Except for the mobo as it is "skeletor" based.
Oke , I changed to this new set.
Small problems arose , not all new hds showed up. (read not one ,only one and two out of three data HD)
Suspected port failure of some of the 8 sata ports.
As I often changed components during testing , I left sata cables to mobo connected , only 3 sata ports where regulary used.
Found enough devices and power connections to get all 8 sata ports working.
I have no need for 4 DVD drives , but at least , these showed up.
Strangely sometimes my different HDs showed or not , maybe that was depending on the sata port.
Worked some days on this , and got most items working.
And now it looks like all sata ports accept the working HDs.
(feels to me as of the mobo had to learn to see HD firmware , pfff next time I look at the moon , maybe it's full moon :-)
This was my first clue , to suspect a flaw of the gigabyte bios , see the rest of my testing.
Result so far :
1 Seagate 160GB shows , and is for now the win XP operating system HD.
Alternatively I can put in a 50GB OCZ vertex2 50 GB for win 7 operating system SSD.
(all old try outs with operating system HDs worked also)
1 WD 1.5 TB HD shows.
1 Samsung HD203WI shows. (this is a refurbished one, replaced 2013 , maybe it is a diff firmware)
But as I remember correctly , this one also gave some issues at the beginning.
PROBLEM :
1 Samsung HD203WI has never been detected (either in bios or win management , with firmware of 2010)
This is my problem , a good hd is not recognised by this mobo.
Installing it again into old pcs gives no problem.
More info ;
Normally work with win XP , also gave win 7 a try on the 50 GB vertex 2.
This is not an install problem , neither an ACHI / IDE , its just that this mobo doesn't sees all
my data hard drives.
[[Or the bios must be put to IDE for every HD.. (not checked yet)]]
Bios was F1 , put latest stable one F3 on. Resetted at default and no start up...
(first had to manually set all to IDE mode :-)
Searches on google revealed lots of people , who have problems with ACHI / IDE on installing new.
Oke , those are of no real concern. ( just get into the flow of a new type of bios.)
Some hits gave insight on a gigabytes bios flaw to see specific HD ( one specificated named this HD203WI )
My second experience to a bios issue.
An IT associate of mine , lately asked my opinion about upgrading 2 pcs.
Both the same new gigabyte mobos and haswell cpus , used with all their old different components.
1 pc worked flawlessly , second one had issues with his OCZ vertex 2 60GB.
Was detected in pc 1 , but pc 2 gave problems.
Has returned the OCZ SSD and got under warranty a Kingston sata 3 , as the supplier thought
that would solve the problem. (does this supplier have inside knowledge about this bios issue
of gigabyte motherboards ?)
My third experience to a bios issue.
My conclusion :
I think this is a compatility issue between gigabyte bios and a firmware HD.
Am I right ? What did I miss ? Is this , because its my first gigabyte mobo since 8 years and don't see the obvious ?
Is this issue reparable ? Did I oversee a bios install component ? Or maybe it's just because I didn't use a hammer
to correctly install the sata cable ? :-)
Hopefully I'm at the best forum to get some answers about this problem.