P67A-UD3P New Build Questions

[Dark Mantis]

Unless you are planning to use the USB3 ports then you can leave it disabled.

That is the right order to load the drivers ok.

I wouldn't advise loading/installing any software off the driver disk though get it direct from the website as it will be more up to date. Also the free programs that come with the motherboard often cause problems so I should steer clear if I were you.

One tip is to just install the boot drive and optical drive until Windows has finished installing and then you can add the other drives.

[jim53]

Unless you are planning to use the USB3 ports then you can leave it disabled.

That is the right order to load the drivers ok.

I wouldn't advise loading/installing any software off the driver disk though get it direct from the website as it will be more up to date. Also the free programs that come with the motherboard often cause problems so I should steer clear if I were you.

One tip is to just install the boot drive and optical drive until Windows has finished installing and then you can add the other drives.

Thanks
Yes i am going to install just the ssd and dvd first and do the other hdd later.
I will go to the website instead of using the cd

And you recommend using @bios to flash instead of flashspi?
I will be flashing from version F2 bios dated 11/16/2010 to latest F6b.
Is it safe to go directly to F6b?
or should i go in increments?

Sorry for the dumb questions
Jim

[Dark Mantis]

The official line is to use @BIOS for the first update and then you can use QFlash after that. You will need to download the latest version of @BIOS from the website though as the one that came with the board was buggy. There is no reason not to use  flashspi if you would rather.

I would advise doing incremental updates as a safety measure.

The questions aren't dumb if you don't know the answers. 

[Bradleyo]

Ok DM, you knew I was gonna jump on this. 

"Officially" Gigabyte themselves say you can use either @BIOS (the new version, not the one that came on the CD) or FLASHSPI.  I can confirm using FLASHSPI successfully and went from F2 directly to F6b without any problems whatsoever.  I created a USB boot on a flash drive, moved the autoexec.bat and bios file to the flash drive, then did the F12 at bootup and chose to boot from the USB flash drive (select HDD option- which is what the bios see the flash drive as).  It booted to the flash drive and automatically installed the bios update.  (yes it's more complicated than @BIOS, but I'm old school when it comes to bios updating)  Once you verify that the bios is updated and working fine- you can copy the main bios to the backup bios by doing an Alt-F12 when the main boot window displays. 

If you don't an OS already installed, then I think it is safe to do a large bios jump vs incremental; I think the incremental is more for Windows sanity than anything else.   

[Dark Mantis]

I would have to agree with you there being old school myself. I am not in favour of using @BIOS and never have been as some of you just might have guessed Trouble is a lot of people are so scared of doing anything command driven nowadays and want to be able to point and click.

The incremental part I wouldn't argue with personally as I have never had any problems doing large jumps but there have been cases on the forum where members have fallen foul of this so I feel it only fair to advise caution.

[jim53]

Think i might try flashspi before i put win7 in. I will follow the instructions above.
Do i download flashspi from the Gigabyte website or just google it?
I just have to figure out how to make my usb stick bootable

[Dark Mantis]

No it should come as part of the BIOS update download.

[jim53]

I finished building the computer a few days ago, it's been up and running about 4 days now.

Antec 300
Gigabyte P67A-UD3P (Bios F6a AHCI enabled)
2500K
Hyper 212 Plus
OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 60GB
Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB
GSkill Ripjaws 4GB 4GBRL
Corsair 650TX
EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi)
Asus DVD
Win7 64bit

I haven't noticed any problems with the system other than the Samsung hdd.
Currently the SSD has the os on it and the Samsung HD is used for data/storage.
Both drives were connected to the Sata2, ports 2 & 3. After hearing about the
Intel issue I switched both drives to the Sata3, port 0 (ssd) & port 1 (hd).
I found out about HD Tune Pro and downloaded the trial version,
curiosity got the best of me and tested my Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ.
I don't really know how to interpret the software so I don't know if the hd is good or bad?

I ran the test on the samsung on Sata2 port 3 first then connected
it to the Sata3 port 1 and the results were the same.

[Dark Mantis]

What you have to remember is that the drive will perform nearly the same whichever port you put it on. This is because the drives can't actually make full use of the SATA2  speed so putting them on a SATA3 doesn't make the data throughput any better.

You will only see an increase in performance once a drive comes out that is actually faster than the full SATA2 rate.

[jim53]

What you have to remember is that the drive will perform nearly the same whichever port you put it on. This is because the drives can't actually make full use of the SATA2  speed so putting them on a SATA3 doesn't make the data throughput any better.

You will only see an increase in performance once a drive comes out that is actually faster than the full SATA2 rate.

Thanks DM,
Yes i understand that running on sate3 will not improve performance over sata2.
Because of the intel issue i switched both drives to sata3
The test above was run on sata2 & sata3 and just wondering if my samsung hd is indeed bad,
or do i disregard the results from HD Tune Pro trial version and assume the drive is ok?
If it's bad i am still within my 30 day period to return it.[/b
I did run these on the samsung hd also and if i am running the tests correctly they show the drive is OK?

So right now i'm confused as to what test is correct.
Is there something else i can do to make sure the hd is ok?

[Dark Mantis]

To be honest I have never used HD Tune Pro so I can't really comment on it's reliability. However I have used the other two many times and never had any problems with them so I would tend to lean towards them as being correct.

Does Samsung not do a drive diagnostics of it's own?

[jim53]

To be honest I have never used HD Tune Pro so I can't really comment on it's reliability. However I have used the other two many times and never had any problems with them so I would tend to lean towards them as being correct.

Does Samsung not do a drive diagnostics of it's own?

Yeah, i'm leaning towards the other 2 also.
I also did a scandisk from windows and it found nothing.
I'm starting to think  HD Tune Pro is giving me false info.
I don't know if Samsung has a diagnostics of their own
i will search around to see if i can find something.

Thanks

[Dark Mantis]

You are very welcome. Try Samsungs website for the diagnostic software.