Got this board several weeks ago before going to attend Gigabyte P35 OC Competition in Beijing, and makes some short review couple a days ago

Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Photo






Physically, this board is very similar with GA-P35-DQ6 Rev.1.1, due to reviewers suggestion and some overclocker's advice, Gigabyte decide to use smaller heatsink to cover the northbridge chip.





The layout and the placement of choke and mosfet also a little bit different. Gigabyte put it in one row to make more space around the CPU socket.





Two PCI Express slot working at x16 native, just like Intel claim about PCI-E 2.0 specs. Also you can see two slot PCI for your expansion card like TV-Tuner card, or Sound card.




Beside silentpipe2 cooling, Gigabyte implemented Crazy Cool 2 cooling to make sure silent and efficient cooling progress. But frankly speaking, i think this is only a marketting gimmick from Gigabyte . Sadly, Gigabyte still make the crazycool covering the back of the CPU socket and northbridge chipset in one plate. So, when you try removing the Crazycool (sometimes it need when you using HSF with backplate or DI/LN2 container), you must using the screw (provide by Gigabyte) to make sure heatsink on the northbridge tight securely. I found X38 very sensitive with heat, and cause unstability system even in default condition.









This post has been edited by Lodewijk: Sep 28 2007, 09:11 PM

Many changes Gigabyte made in BIOS setting, especially PChealth setting. Now, we can see the real condition for vcore, vdimm, +12 volt etc. But still, Gigabyte using their "unique and annoying" CTRL + F1 trick to hidden some option, and this time the most option you need for overclocking and tweaking already appear without CTRL+F1 trick.




Full BIOS Screenshot

Interesting ! Gigabyte offering manual strapping in many memory divider, make sure you pay attention for the marking alphabet after strapping frequency. Also you will see some information at the right side of BIOS menu regarding this setting.

Many and many option for tweaking and fine tuning voltage offering. I must admit, Gigabyte concern about suggestions and advice from reviewers and overclocker's. They already did a good job with GA-X38-DQ6.

My testing specification :



Processor Intel Core2 Quad Extreme QX6850 (thanks to Bhinneka Computer)
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (F4A BIOS)
Graphic Card NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB
Memory Kingston HyperX PC8500 2 GB Kit
HDD Western Digital Caviar WD2500KS
PSU Gigabyte 550 Watt ODIN GT Series
HSF Thermalright Ultra Extreme with thermaltake smart fan (2700 rpm)

Chipset Information





Default Condition Result

All result no tweaks, FSB 333 Mhz x 9 with memory running at 1066 (533 MHz) CL 5-5-5-15.

Super PI 32M





3DMARK 2006





3DMARK 2005




3DMARK 2003





3DMARK 2001




Everest Cache & Memory Benchmark




PCMARK 2005




X264 Benchmark

Overclocking Experience

Overclocked Setting :

FSB 423 MHz x 9
Memory 564 MHz CL5-5-5-15

Too bad, CPU-Z can't recognize the memory freq.

GA-X38-DQ6 have a strange vcore setting. Example, if you set vcore 1.525 in the BIOS, the real vcore will be 1.472 (reads from Everest Sensor, PCHealth and CPU-Z), it means the vcore drop around 0.052 volt from the setting you set in BIOS.

For vdroop, i make a testing with x264 benchmark and Everest sensor log in the background, so i can get the real condition of vcore.



From the result above, you can the the fluctuation is around 0.05 volt, quite big gap but i didn't use the vFSB option in BIOS so far. vFSB option acting like voltage damper in ASUS board, decrease the vdroop. So, for this testing with vFSB, i'll post later.

For you, who like to overclock using the software, beside EasyTune Pro 5 from Gigabyte, you can use SetFSB.




Benchmark Result for 3.8 GHz (423x0)

Super PI 32M




3DMARK 2006



3DMARK 2005



3DMARK 2003



Cache & Memory Benchmark Everest



PCMark 2005



X264 Benchmark




Indeed, X38 more faster than P35, but not signicant. I can hit 6K CPU Score on 3DMARK 2006 with 3.8 Ghz total clock and not tight timing setting. One thing i discover, X38 chipset not like too many volt, in my experience 1.55 is the best for X38, above that you only get unstability in the system and sometimes it can freeze in BIOS.

Default vs Overclocking Performance Table



Will keep you update with the new BIOS (if available)


PS : sorry for my bad english

Yes, all mobo have vdroop. But like i mentioned before, i didn't use vFSB option in BIOS. I got 0.03 vdroop after set the vFSB to 0.35. I'll attach the screenshot soon.

Vdroop condition after vFSB max (+0.35)



You can see vdroop decrease from 0.05 w/o vFSB to 0.03 after maximize the vFSB option in BIOS. Interesting to know how to mod vFSB to decrease more vroop or even make it flat ??

PERFORMANCE ENHANCED MEMORY OPTION ANALYSIS

In BIOS, you can see Performance Enhanced Memory option in the sub menu MIT. There's 3 options : Standard, Turbo and Extreme.
Take a look the performance differentiation with this 3 options below. Same setting for CPU, Memory speed and timing.


Everest Memory and Cache Benchmark

Performance Enhanced Memory = Standard



Performance Enhanced Memory = Turbo



Performance Enhanced Memory = Extreme



Extreme is the fastest performance, now playing with PI 8 M

Performance Enhanced Memory = Standard



Performance Enhanced Memory = Turbo



Performance Enhanced Memory = Extreme



Again, extreme option gives the maximum performance... I thought this option related to FSB strapping, so if you want to keep 266 strapping, you can set the Performance Enhanced Memory Option to Extreme, it will gives you the maximum performance but limited in FSB speed.

This post has been edited by Lodewijk: Sep 30 2007, 08:58 PM

yeah i tested it too on Gigabyte P35 and no diff... maybe Gigabyte just implemented it on X38.