Anyone try an Intel i5-2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 build yet?

[chrisgtl]

Hey all,

This is my first post so go easy on me 


I've always been a fan of Gigabyte, I was confident buying another Gigabyte motherboard for my latest sandybridge i2500k build. So I got the P67-UD3 knowing I was getting a good board.

Now, I went for the 2500k/P67 combo due to the overclocking ability, knowing I want this setup to last me another 2 years of good performance gaming/decoding.

Unfortunately the ability to overclock has somewhat dissapointed me, the vcore drop is terrible under Prime95 loads. I can easily boot into Windows 7 using 44/46x multiplier but when I torture test my overclock the vcore drops considerably and I get either BSOD or Prime95 errors.

My freind also upgraded to sandycore i2500k but opted for the entry level P67 MSI board, he is rock stable for days at x48 and the only thing I can see different is the vcore drop on my machine vs his.

Questions:-

I understand the BIOS releases are early days, MSI seems to be leading the way with BIOS and Asus/Gigabyte seem to be having difficulties making a good BIOS for us. Do you think my system will become better for OC'ing once a good final BIOS is released? I'm currently using the F6c (not available from Gigabyte website yet) and the vcore drop is still bad.....Load Line Calibration doesnt seem to work on the UD3 compaired to the UD4 board. The UD4 board has level 1 and level 2 LLC but the UD3 has either enable or disable options for LLC. Will the different levels of LLC be introduced to the UD3?

I would of thought the UD3 and UD4 would be very similar in performance/BIOS, apart from the obvious extra USB/SATA and added sli slot.


I've done so much research about the vcore drop and because not many people seem to have the UD3 i'm struggling to get answers (hence why i'm here now). I love the fact Gigabyte has opted to keep the old style BIOS look, I want my BIOS to look plain, do a good job, really not bothered about 'all singing all dancing' BIOS's.


My current rig:-

Gigabyte UD3
Intel i2500k
Corsair XMS3 (2x2GB - 1600Mhz)
Titan Fenrir Cooler
580w Hiper PSU
460GTX GFX
Audigy SE
RAID0 OS
SATA Backup
Windows 7

Currently overclocked to 4Ghz, with loaded temps of 46C.
Vcore 1.28v
vDimm 1.40 (I can go as low as 1.35V on the XMS3's )

Any views? Cheers,
Chris

[faizoff]

Slider, That is an excellent write up on the differences of the UD3 and UD4. As I said those extra features aren't really for me and for anyone looking for those particular features will greatly appreciate the UD4 more.

[Dark Mantis]

Slider, the only thing that worries me about your setup is your PSU.  It is hardly top of the range and has 4 x 12v channels which on something of fairly low power like this is not really a good thing.

Apart from that I would suggest that you take out a ticket with GGTS and see what they have to say.

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

[soarwitheagles]

CrisGTL, Slider, DM, Faizoff and friends,


Thank you so much for posting your discoveries, suggestions, challenges and victories.  With all this input many people will be helped in choosing the MB that best suites their needs.

Chris, you have some very interesting comments and I am looking forward to seeing how your overclocking turns out.

Slider, thanks for helping me discover and consider the pros and cons of each board.

DM, thanks for chipping in your trustworthy advice and good suggestions.

Fiazoff, thanks for showing us the UD3 combo does work and is a worthy set up.

Have a great day everyone!

Soar

[Slider]

Slider, That is an excellent write up on the differences of the UD3 and UD4. As I said those extra features aren't really for me and for anyone looking for those particular features will greatly appreciate the UD4 more.

I expect the UD3 has everything 90% of typical home PC users are looking for.  IMO, it is only if you have a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio/speaker setup (with a digital DD5.1 input to the speaker or amplifier) that you want to use or if you want to be able to use dual video cards that the UD4 (or UD3P for just the DD5.1) makes sense.  For everyone else, the UD3 makes more sense (although based on some of the recent comments by chrisgtl, there may be some additional overclocking features in the way of controlling vdroop on the UD4 vs the UD3; I have not looked into this at all so I can't comment).

chrisgtl, I'm not familiar with the BIOS voltage controls on the P67A-UD3, but I have two P55-UD3R's and one P55-UD4P and both of these motherboards have the ability to not only control and automatically eliminate vdroop (by enabling load-line calibration), but you can actually fine tune the loaded voltage by using a positive or negative value for "Dynamic VCOR (DVID)".  For example if I want to use a base voltage of 1.1V when the CPU is not being pushed, but crank it up to 1.5V when running at 100% CPU, I can set the DVID to 0.4V.  Is this feature not available in motherboards with the P67 chipset?  If it is you should be able to fine tune the CPU voltage as a function of CPU load and fully compensate for any potential voltage droop.

[Bradleyo]

I chose the UD3P over the UD3 because of better power handling, better heatsinks, dolby digital (since I do output to my HT receiver via digital cable), and USB 3.0 onboard headers.  When I look at buying new boards, I compare what my actual needs are and then also look for future use (that would be the USB 3.0). 
I did not need SLI nor do I even use Crossfire; eSata (how many people actually use that?)... so no need for a more expensive UD4 board; therefore UD3P was the nice compliment in the middle.

An interesting experience I had with USB 3.0 on this UD3P board, is that it actually made my external USB 2.0 hard drive transfers faster.  Usually transfers would start out at 23 MB/s and then steadily drop from there (this was the same on my previous Gigabyte boards too).  Yet, when I plugged the same external drive into the USB 3.0 port- it started at 34 MB/s and only dropped down to 29 MB/s.  So for someone who does a lot of file backups or transfers- which I do- this was an added bonus.  :-)

[chrisgtl]

Well I have played with the DVID settings and to make my system stable at 4.4Ghz my vcore is reported as 1.39v   

I've gone back to 4.0Ghz and reset the DVID settings, 1.39v is too much for my liking.


I really don't like how this board overclocks, I see plenty BIOS releases for the UD4 and up but not for the UD3. I'm in talks with the supplier of my motherboard to try get an upgrade to the UD4 but im outside of their 7 day return window so not sure how I will get on with that one.

Wish I hadn't of gone for the cheapest Gigabyte board, bad overclocking ability and still get the POST freeze sometimes........

Any news on a UD3 BIOS upgrade? Currently running the F6c.

[soarwitheagles]

Well I have played with the DVID settings and to make my system stable at 4.4Ghz my vcore is reported as 1.39v   

I've gone back to 4.0Ghz and reset the DVID settings, 1.39v is too much for my liking.


I really don't like how this board overclocks, I see plenty BIOS releases for the UD4 and up but not for the UD3. I'm in talks with the supplier of my motherboard to try get an upgrade to the UD4 but im outside of their 7 day return window so not sure how I will get on with that one.

Wish I hadn't of gone for the cheapest Gigabyte board, bad overclocking ability and still get the POST freeze sometimes........

Any news on a UD3 BIOS upgrade? Currently running the F6c.

CrhisGTL,

Last I heard they were already up into the 7's for the newest BIOS upgrade.  Sorry it hasn't worked out so well for you.  Any improvements yet?

Soar

[chrisgtl]

Well I have played with the DVID settings and to make my system stable at 4.4Ghz my vcore is reported as 1.39v   

I've gone back to 4.0Ghz and reset the DVID settings, 1.39v is too much for my liking.


I really don't like how this board overclocks, I see plenty BIOS releases for the UD4 and up but not for the UD3. I'm in talks with the supplier of my motherboard to try get an upgrade to the UD4 but im outside of their 7 day return window so not sure how I will get on with that one.

Wish I hadn't of gone for the cheapest Gigabyte board, bad overclocking ability and still get the POST freeze sometimes........

Any news on a UD3 BIOS upgrade? Currently running the F6c.

CrhisGTL,

Last I heard they were already up into the 7's for the newest BIOS upgrade.  Sorry it hasn't worked out so well for you.  Any improvements yet?

Soar

Still no BIOS releases for the UD3. No improvements at all, never had such a poor motherboard. I'm trying to return the motherboard for a credit note but the supplier is either ignoring me or refusing the RMA request.

Just want a proper motherboard. I paid £110 for this and its utter pathetic!!!!!

[Dark Mantis]

Without bulls***ting you I am sure that there will be BIOS updates in the pipeline but bear in mind that this is a new platform and everything to do with it is rather hectic at the moment.

[soarwitheagles]

Still no BIOS releases for the UD3. No improvements at all, never had such a poor motherboard. I'm trying to return the motherboard for a credit note but the supplier is either ignoring me or refusing the RMA request.

Just want a proper motherboard. I paid £110 for this and its utter pathetic!!!!!

I am so sorry it hasn't worked out for you.  I am hearing mixed reports from a lot of different people.  Some are saying it is a fantastic MB while others are struggling with issues related to the BIOS.  Hopefully patience will pay off as Gigabyte updates the BIOS and fixes the bugs.

Don't give up hope!

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

It's still early days yet and when you are an frontrunner with these new technologies obviously there are going to be some trials and tribulations along the way. It will all be sorted out shortly and then you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

[soarwitheagles]

It's still early days yet and when you are an frontrunner with these new technologies obviously there are going to be some trials and tribulations along the way. It will all be sorted out shortly and then you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

DM, I totally agree with you!  It will be sorted out and hopefully sooner not later.  My problem in the past has been that I wanted everything to go together flawlessly on the first pass and to work perfect for the rest of its life!  My expectations were extremely high after building approximately 10 builds with literally no major issues at all!  Each build went together and ran flawlessly and I suppose that is enough to spoil a person.

On the other hand, I'd rather not constantly be fighting a system that does not do its basic job and crashes with BSOD's.

I understand the frustration of some of these builders.

I am tempted to not even open up my Intel i5-2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 at the moment and simply wait one month for all the dust to settle.

Perhaps giving Gigabyte an extra month will diminish my own frustrations because by then they will have released a BIOS that is well suited for this MB.

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

The real trouble is with being on the forums and seeing all these posts form people with problems. What we mustn't lose sight of is that htere must be countless thousands out there who are quite happily using their systems with no worries whatever. It is easy to forget that when all you see is problem computers.

[soarwitheagles]

The real trouble is with being on the forums and seeing all these posts form people with problems. What we mustn't lose sight of is that htere must be countless thousands out there who are quite happily using their systems with no worries whatever. It is easy to forget that when all you see is problem computers.

Good point DM!

Ok, anyone else out here where your Intel i5-2500K + GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3 is working and working well?

Soar