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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: n00b on March 07, 2011, 06:16:23 pm

Title: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 07, 2011, 06:16:23 pm: hi guys

what S1155 Gigabyte mainboard is equipped with the Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O feature ?
It seems intel is now shipping the bugfixed B3 chipsets. Iam going to order a S1155 server system in the next days.

cpu will be a i5 2400 or 2500

for example..... will be the P67A-UD3 B3 support the VT-d feature ?

In the past i was totally satisfied with all my gigabyte hardware. I hope someone can help me with my request.

best regards
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 06:20:51 pm: Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte forum.

I think that the board does indeed support VTD. The link here is to the website page for this board:

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3763#sp
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 07, 2011, 06:36:56 pm: I dowloaded the manual of the P67A-UD3 now. There is only a "Virtualization Technology" option - see manual page 42
This seems to be the the Vanderpool VT-x technology for virtualization.

I want to be sure before buying if its supporting vt-d virtualization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 07, 2011, 06:56:08 pm: I will ask our Tech support and get back to you with the answer.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dalamar on March 07, 2011, 11:25:33 pm: The boards support VT-d but afaik the K series cpus do not.

In which case if you plan to use VT-d, then get a H67 board and non-K cpu.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2133898

Pretty idiotic move on Intel's part. With the direction Intel is going, I hope AMD gets their act together and crushes them.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 08, 2011, 03:56:37 am: as mentioned my choice will be a non"k" cpu. AMD is NO option for me. Intel has better efficiency / performance per watt.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-efficienct-32-nm,2831.html

There are many confusing facts if mainboards support VT-d or not. TheVT-d feature must be supported by the cpu + chipset + bios.
For the p55-usb3 gigabyte provides a unofficial bios with vt-d support. Maybe they doing the same for S1155 customers.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/42234-ga-p55-usb3-missing-features-vt-d.html
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dalamar on March 09, 2011, 02:18:49 am: Quote from: n00b on March 08, 2011, 03:56:37 am
There are many confusing facts if mainboards support VT-d or not. TheVT-d feature must be supported by the cpu + chipset + bios.
For the p55-usb3 gigabyte provides a unofficial bios with vt-d support. Maybe they doing the same for S1155 customers.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/42234-ga-p55-usb3-missing-features-vt-d.html

P55 != P67/H67. P55 = 1? 2 years old? You can't compare it to the brand new series.

Sandy Bridge was designed to support VT-d from the start; we're still left clueless why they dropped it on the k models at all.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 09, 2011, 09:23:35 am: My prob isnt the K model strategy. I can choose a non K model .. prob solved. A Virtualization Server based on a i5-2500 (non K) is still a good value for money deal compared to a Intel Xeon Server.
The prob is still which s1155 board from gigabyte will support vt-d out of the box.Sure, i cant compare the p55 and the p67. But for the old p55 platform Gigabyte solved the prob and there is solution for the vt-d support prob. I will be happy if gigabyte will release bioses with vt-d support for customers with virtualization projects.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 09, 2011, 10:50:04 am: Quote from: n00b on March 07, 2011, 06:36:56 pm
I dowloaded the manual of the P67A-UD3 now. There is only a "Virtualization Technology" option - see manual page 42
This seems to be the the Vanderpool VT-x technology for virtualization.

I want to be sure before buying if its supporting vt-d virtualization.

I have just received an answer from Gigabyte regarding this particular issue. It is as follows.

"Currently our P67/H67 series motherboards do not support VT-D. They support Virtualization Technology (VT-x) now (bios option "Virtualization Technology") which is different from VT-D (Virtualization for Directed I/O). But we can prepare special bios on customer's request. It usually takes a few weeks. The request can be applied by GGTS for instance for the particular MB model.

The same situation applies to support of VT-D on our socket 1156 and 1366 motherboards.
Please note that the CPU also needs to support VT-D to have all platform supporting this technology."
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 10, 2011, 09:24:30 am: Hello Dark Mantis

This are really good news. Thanks for your help with this issue. Will request for the special bios now. I ordered 2x GA-P67A UD3 B3 now. When all is going fine i will post my success story here.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on March 10, 2011, 09:54:55 am: Glad to be of help and that you have managed to get sorted. Yes, please do let us know how you get on. ;)
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: runn3R on April 11, 2011, 01:06:36 pm: Hi All

I have received special bios with support of this function for P67A-UD3-B3. If anyone is interested please let me know by replying here, then I will post it.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: absic on April 11, 2011, 01:20:32 pm: Quote from: runn3R on April 11, 2011, 01:06:36 pm
Hi All

I have received special bios with support of this function for P67A-UD3-B3. If anyone is interested please let me know by replying here, then I will post it.

Just one of the reasons why I like Gigabyte. ;)
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 11, 2011, 01:56:41 pm: That's good news runn3R. I know it doesn't affect a huge number of people but for those that do use it that will make things easier. ;)
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: GMontag on April 15, 2011, 07:04:42 pm: I'm running into this same problem with the H67MA-UD2H-B3. How would I go about making a similar request for a BIOS for that board that has vt-d enabled?
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 15, 2011, 08:36:51 pm: Try asking runn3R but I think you will have to apply to GGTS.

Just enter your email address and click on the language of choice.
GGTS http://ggts.gigabyte.com/

It will probably take a few days to get an answer though so you will need to be patient. ;)
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: orinoco on June 07, 2011, 12:19:15 pm: Hi please can you post the new Bios supporting VT-d I have just built my virtualisation server using this motherboard

Many thanks

Quote from: runn3R on April 11, 2011, 01:06:36 pm
Hi All

I have received special bios with support of this function for P67A-UD3-B3. If anyone is interested please let me know by replying here, then I will post it.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: runn3R on June 07, 2011, 01:24:45 pm: Here (http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/upload/files/BIOS_P67A-UD3-B3_VTD.zip) is special bios with VT-d support for P67A-UD3-B3
After loading this bios you just need to enable this function in Advanced Chipset Features
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Splatt325 on July 17, 2011, 04:14:46 am: Is a special bios all the would be required for the Z68 chipset as well?
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Dark Mantis on July 17, 2011, 10:53:11 am: I would expect that to be the case as the chipsets are almost the same.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: n00b on March 01, 2012, 03:04:13 pm: Hi

after a lot of testing i have no hope anymore. Flashed my P67 board with the special vt-d bios.
vt-d enabled in bios, but still unable to get passthrough working in ESXI 5.0.

A week ago i got a Z68X-UD4-B3 board and gave it a try. Contacted gigabyte support again and 2 days later they reply with
a vt-d bios. Enabled vt-d in bios but same problem. The passtrough function is still not working. :-(

Iam really disappointed and dont understand why gigabyte can not test it before they send the bios to customers.
ESXI is free to download and installation is done in 10mins.

I had no problems with Intel and Asus boards.
Title: Re: sandybridge buying advise - Mainboard with Intel VT-d Technology Directed I/O
Post by: Lsdmeasap on March 01, 2012, 07:22:49 pm: Ask them if they did test pass-through or not on the BIOSes they gave you, maybe they've been busy and just did the modification without testing this time around.