Help me set up BIOS values for Gigabyte UD5 - Overclock.net

Zero4549 · 05-30-09

I've just booted up my newest system (Arcane, check sig) and hardware-wise everything appears to be in working order. However, after jumping into the bios I soon realized that I was in over my head. The bios is far more complex than any I've used before and the fact that it is an i7 based system, and that it will contain my first RAID setup, only serves to complicate matters.

System info: its a Core i7 920 on a Gigabyte UD5 board running 12 gigs of tri-channel 2000mhz kingston hyperx ddr3, a 30gb SSD, 300gb Velociraptor, and twin 1TB Caviar Blacks.

Problem one: I can tell that the automatic settings are heavily throttling the performance on the system (such as running the ram at ~1000mhz) but the X.M.P. profiles lead to system instability and inability to boot. I've not yet tried manually changing values at this point as the i7 is admittedly beyond me at this time and I do not recall the specific values the ram is specified to operate at.

I would greatly appreciate help in either the form of specific values or insight as to how to understand the values better so that I may more effectively play with them myself.

Problem two: I would like to RAID 1 (mirror) the 1 TB drives. I've absolutely no idea how to set up a RAID but I do know that my board has two different RAID controllers, both of which are capable of running RAID 1. Note that I do not want to boot off the RAIDed drives.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Zero4549 · 05-30-09

In addition to the original issues, I just tried to flash the BIOS to the latest version (f7), but the Q-Flash utility is unresponsive. Unless anyone has any ideas I'm stuck with the f5 bios, at least until I install windows and can use the @bios app.

iDShaDoW · 06-01-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero4549

Problem one: I can tell that the automatic settings are heavily throttling the performance on the system (such as running the ram at ~1000mhz) but the X.M.P. profiles lead to system instability and inability to boot. I've not yet tried manually changing values at this point as the i7 is admittedly beyond me at this time and I do not recall the specific values the ram is specified to operate at.

I tried checking Kingston's site but they don't seem to list a HyperX DDR3 2000 6GB kit... I'm asumming you have 2 6GB kits? Can you get the exact part number (ie. KHX--------)? I'm guessing it'll probably be rated to run at 1.65v but if your BIOS is anything like mine then you'll want to set the DRAM Voltage at 1.64v since there won't be a 1.65v to choose. Also make sure you QPI/vtt voltage is AT LEAST 1.14v although you'll probably need more (not to exceed 1.35v; Gigabyte BIOS should let you go up to 1.335v with 1.355v being next highest value in pink letting you know that going to 1.355v or higher can be bad according to Intel specifications).

You may have to run it at less than 2000 as well but we'll figure that out later once we know for sure what kits you have.

Quote:

Problem two: I would like to RAID 1 (mirror) the 1 TB drives. I've absolutely no idea how to set up a RAID but I do know that my board has two different RAID controllers, both of which are capable of running RAID 1. Note that I do not want to boot off the RAIDed drives.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all your drives should be SATA, right? I'm going off of my BIOS which is a different motherboard from Gigabyte so yours may or may not be exactly the same.

In the BIOS, you'll want to look for an option called "SATA RAID/AHCI Mode". Set it to "RAID".

You'll also want to change "Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode" to "AHCI".

I'm guessing the Intel RAID would be better than the Gigabyte RAID so check your manual to find out which SATA ports to plug your Caviars into. They were the light blue ones on my board.

When you boot up, during POST, it'll show that the Intel RAID is searching for drives, you'll wanna pay close attention and press whatever it is to get into the RAID setup (CTRL+I for me).

Once inside, there'll be a few things to do but it's pretty simple. You'll want to tell it to create a RAID array (make sure it lists the 2 1TB drives). Tell it to create a RAID 1 using all the available disk space on the drives using the default stripe size (should be 128k). And then from there just exit the RAID setup program.

Quote:

In addition to the original issues, I just tried to flash the BIOS to the latest version (f7), but the Q-Flash utility is unresponsive. Unless anyone has any ideas I'm stuck with the f5 bios, at least until I install windows and can use the @bios app.

Unresponsive how? You definitely DO NOT want to use the @bios app. That thing can hose your BIOS and cause you even more headaches. It did for me at least. Were you using a USB stick to flash from?

Zero4549 · 06-04-09

I was able to flash the bios and set up the raid on the raid controller. I've also managed to get the ram working at ~1900Mhz with better than speced timings which is good enough. My question now is about the raid driver diskette thing the gigabyte manual is bugging me about but not offering any information on.

iDShaDoW · 06-05-09

You can try looking on Gigabyte's website for drivers for your motherboard, it might be there.

Otherwise you should grab the CD that came with your board if you still have it.

Zero4549 · 06-05-09

Eh the website and the CD are both pretty worthless. Anyway I've now got the drives set to RAID-1 and windows installed just fine (on my SSD, not the RAID). the intel RAID interface software is showing the RAID but windows itself is not seeing it or its component drives. I am most confused.

iDShaDoW · 06-08-09

Sorry, been away for a few days.

Um, right-click My Computer, go to Manage. Then Disk Management.

See if it shows one there that's the RAID partition that you set up. It might say that it's Unallocated.

Right-click it, and set up a simple drive or partition. Can't remember the exact wording.

Let me know if that doesn't work.

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Help me set up BIOS values for Gigabyte UD5

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