Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (Rev 2) + Xeon W3680

[CosmicDust]

Hello everyone !

I just purchased an X58A-UD3R . I was after this motherboard for a while and finally i have it . My CPU would have been a Core I7 950 but i managed to find a brand new Intel Xeon W3680 for pretty much the same $$ as the I7. Currently i have only the motherboard (have no idea which bios version has...yet),but in case i get that CPU , will i need to do a BIOS upgrade , or what problems will i encounter if i install it .

Also the RAM must be ECC or that does not matter that much ? I wanted to get a 12GB RAM DDR3 2000Mhz CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT DHX. Or any other suggestions on the DDR are very welcomed .

Browsed the forums and noticed that SATA3 has problems so i won't bother with that . So i pointed my attention to the OCZ RevoDrive X2 PCIe SSD 100 GB,i hope there won't be any compatibility issues with that.

Any other things that i should take in consideration ?

Cheers

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

Your motherboard probably ships with the FF BIOS version and if so that should be fine for runnning the Xeon CPU that you have. You can check here:

http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3449

Your Revo X2 should work fine on your motherboard. Mine is ok on my X58A-UD7 board.

[CosmicDust]

Thanks for the info Dark Mantis. I hope there won't be any problems in making it work properly !

And what about the ECC/NON-ECC memory modules..does it matter what i use , I know the CPU supports ECC but if it's not necessary ....
Is the RevoDrive as good as they say on paper ? Because if it is.. those speeds are just wow.

[Dark Mantis]

You should be looking at roughly what they advertise for speeds on the Revo. I get something around 720 read and 640 write from memory so yes they are fast.

I am not sure about the ECC memory as the motherboard stipulates support for non ECC modules but doesn't mention whether ECC are supported or not. I take it they are though as they are required for the running of the Xeon chips.

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449&dl=1#sp

[CosmicDust]

Thanks for the info DM.
On the Gigabyte Website it shows that NON ECC is supported , so i don't know if ECC memory would work on the board ; and if i get NON ECC , would that work with the XEON CPU ? I will search more about this , maybe others have this question in the future.

[Dark Mantis]

I am not sure as I have not had a great deal to do with Xeons but I thought that they required ECC memory. You will have to do some digging.

[CosmicDust]

Found a spec that a dude has http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=17100 ! So ECC does work with the UD3R and above i think . I would like to know also if NON ECC will work with the XEON CPU.

Cheers !
________________________________________
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev.2 FE
Xeon W3680 3.33Mhz | 6-core
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5
12GB ECC DDR3 1333Mhz
Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 500W PS
2x WD Velociraptor 160GB
LaCie IDE 16x DVD-RW w/ LightScribe
Antec 300 case

[Dark Mantis]

Sounds like you are half way there now. I would agree it does seem that the motherboard will accept the ECC  memory.

[CosmicDust]

I also think that NON-ECC willl work with the CPU as i found here !

http://www.vecmar.com/Dell_Precision_Workstation_T3500_Xeon_W3680_3.33_GHz/549161013/p/S8395107

I also got contacted by someone who has XEON and NON ECC RAM . Everything is OK
Thank you

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks for the feedback as at least I too am now aware that they will work with ordinary memory. I had thought it was only ECC before. Please let me know how your build goes and I would be interested in the performance as opposed to the newer CPUs. 

[CosmicDust]

My pleasure mate ! Thank you for all your help and support . I will post more info as i build the PC.

Cheers !

[Tinker]

If I could ask a question on the OCZ Vertex 2 Dark Mantis. See the aformentioned UD3R is in OCZ compatability list. As far as I
understand this is a bootable SSD drive. Am a bit lost as Allan is also running multi drives on Rocket Raid card. As you
are aware I need a multi OS drive setup. Do you use this for primary OS or can it be used to improve existing setup without
it being main input drive. Looks very impressive.
Have found Icy Dock have produced a new SATA 3 - 6gb/s 2.5" to 3.5" case. MB982Ip-1S


Regards tinker.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Tinker,

Firstly just let me make it clear are we talking about the OCZ Vertex 2 drive or the OCZ Revo X2 drive ? It's just I know we were talking about the Revo X2 earlier.

If it is the Revo that you meant then yopu can use it as either. It acts fine as a boot drive straight out of the box but it would also be ok to accept a seperate drive letter if you wanted to boot from another drive, although I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that.

Talking about impressive the X3 is due out anytime and the speeds on that are astronomical. Something around 1200-1300 MBs rread and write! 

[Tinker]

My apologies Dark Mantis have been researching too many things + too many notes !!! Yes meant the
OCZ Revo x 2. As I don't use raid was surprised that Allan used both. So the OS can feed through from drive
to Rocketraid card ?
Pity I can't use it on my setup. Find that there are 3x 2.5" to 3.5" by Icy Dock the easiest to get is SATA-SAS
included but no idea what SAS socket is for which I don't need.

Have been looking at different SSD drives hence the mix up but have to learn more to find a suitable one,
SATA 3 with sanforce interface.


Regards tinker.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Tinker

Check out this thread by Allan before making any decisions.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6455.new.html#new