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Intel G31 Express Mobos = Craptacular Bios Overclocking

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Sep 3, 2005
I got my second Intel G31 Express mobo yesterday MSI G31M-F and overclocking a Q6600 by BIOS was WORSE than my ECS G31M-T. The MSI actually had a voltages options for Ram and Southbridge where as the ECS does not but the MSI hit a wall at 275Fsb where at least the ECS could go to 285Fsb.

Basically both suck real bad at overclocking by available bios options and generally I would not recommend anyone buy them unless you're willing to PAD MOD your CPU. With a PAD modded Q6600 the G31 Express mobo's seem like a great inexpensive, low cost , low power solution for a mildly overclocked folding box.

let's see how they hold up to 24/7 of Q6600 @ 3ghz folding abuse :clap:
 
if you want ocing with the G31 boards, the only one to get is the Gigabyte board.
 
if you want ocing with the G31 boards, the only one to get is the Gigabyte board.

Hey Evilsizer the GIGABYTE GA-G31MX-S2 G31 775 you recommended rocks my world. I bought a couple from the egg and testing one out now.

At first I really hated the bios and couldn't get anywhere with it. The have crippled it somewhat compared to a real overclockers full featured bios.

you can choose FSB but you can't only chose a memory strap speed no manual memory speed choice unlinked at all. Worse is that you can't adjust memory timings except by canned mystery choices. At least with my other 2 cheapt G31 I was at least capable of setting memory timings. 'The gigabyte does let you chose voltage for FSB, Mem and CPU. The ECS has none and the MSI just has Mem, SB volts.

So at first I wasn't very successful overclocking by the BIOS with the Gigabyte. But it gets better from there. The EasyTune software works perfectly in Vista x64! Q6600 running 3200mhz at stock VID 1.25.

Things are looking good. I got two Xeon X3210 on order now and I won't have to pin mod them with the Gigabyte G31 for overclocking

evilsizer thanks for the good recommendations :beer:
 
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glad they are working out for ya, yea the bios the first time is a tad tricky.:soda::soda:
 
Hey Evilsizer the GIGABYTE GA-G31MX-S2 G31 775 you recommended rocks my world. I bought a couple from the egg and testing one out now.

At first I really hated the bios and couldn't get anywhere with it. The have crippled it somewhat compared to a real overclockers full featured bios.

you can choose FSB but you can't only chose a memory strap speed no manual memory speed choice unlinked at all. Worse is that you can't adjust memory timings except by canned mystery choices. At least with my other 2 cheapt G31 I was at least capable of setting memory timings. 'The gigabyte does let you chose voltage for FSB, Mem and CPU. The ECS has none and the MSI just has Mem, SB volts.

So at first I wasn't very successful overclocking by the BIOS with the Gigabyte. But it gets better from there. The EasyTune software works perfectly in Vista x64! Q6600 running 3200mhz at stock VID 1.25.

Things are looking good. I got two Xeon X3210 on order now and I won't have to pin mod them with the Gigabyte G31 for overclocking

evilsizer thanks for the good recommendations :beer:

Can you rephrase the text in bold please?

Wow, you managed to overclock a Q6600 to 3.2GHz on the GIGABYTE GA-G31MX-S2. Did it run Prime95, torture test, stable at that speed? Have you been able to get the EasyTune software to work on Windows 2000?

edit: also, what memory multipliers are available for each FSB speed belt on this motherboard?
 
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Can you rephrase the text in bold please?

Wow, you managed to overclock a Q6600 to 3.2GHz on the GIGABYTE GA-G31MX-S2. Did it run Prime95, torture test, stable at that speed? Have you been able to get the EasyTune software to work on Windows 2000?

edit: also, what memory multipliers are available for each FSB speed belt on this motherboard?

what he means is there is no multi or divider for the ram to run at different speeds. i find that odd though, since i dont have the board to go digging in the bios. i need to go pull up the manual when i get home as they always list bios options in the manual.
 
Yes it runs my Q6600 at 356 x 9 = 3204 with 1.3v and 2 x 1gb Crucial balistix at 424mhz 4-4-4-15 Folding 24hours a day rock stable. Using GMA 3100 onboard enabled. Still doing tests but eventually will be putting X3210 Xeons (still shipping) in these and returning the pin modded Q6600 to the ECS G31.

I have not Prime95 it. I don't know if Easytune runs well in Win2000 I just know it runs great on Vista x64.

It's hard to explain the Bios without going into great lengths and ranting, other than it seems really crippled not to steal $$$ from G33 and P35 sales. I could not overclock properly with the settings offered. BUT EasyTune in Vista made it happen painlessly.

My advice is to not waste your time with BIOS and go staright to EasyTune.

This is now my FAH Quad Farm G31 mobo of Choice. Like Evilsizer I also now highly recommend it.
 
some of the ocing options in gigabyte's bios are hidden, if you didnt know. hit clrl+F1 at the same time to unlock some other features. all new boards from gigabyte i have seen use multis for the ram speeds.
 
here is where you can set the ram dividers/ram speed
g31avo.jpg
 
here is where you can set the ram dividers/ram speed
g31avo.jpg

Thank you for the previous replies.

Can you show the System Memory Multipliers (SPD) available for selection under this motherboard in the screenshot you posted?

BTW, how is the overclocked system now? Is it still stable? Does the integrated GMA 3100 graphics give artefacts or other problems in 3D games/applications or on the Windows desktop? :confused:

And how hot is the Q6600 CPU at 3.2GHz? :) Is it the G0 stepping and are you using the stock cooler or some other heatsink-fan?
 
Thank you for the previous replies.

Can you show the System Memory Multipliers (SPD) available for selection under this motherboard in the screenshot you posted?

BTW, how is the overclocked system now? Is it still stable? Does the integrated GMA 3100 graphics give artefacts or other problems in 3D games/applications or on the Windows desktop? :confused:

And how hot is the Q6600 CPU at 3.2GHz? :) Is it the G0 stepping and are you using the stock cooler or some other heatsink-fan?

i dont own the board i pulled that ss from the online manual and they dont show the options for ram in it. hopefully the op could get into that screen and post one for you. for $78 bucks on newegg its a good deal for a dual core system, i have my theroy going quad will do better with all 4 ddr2 slots populated. whil i dont have a quad to test my theroy on its the fact that with all 4 banks populated the cpu does gain extra memory bandwidth.
 
How overclockable is the GA-G31M-S2L?

From the replies so far, the Gigabyte GA-G31MX-S2 seems to be a good overclocking motherboard.

What about the Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L motherboard? It is far more common in Sim Lim Square (a computer shopping mall in my country) than the GA-G31MX-S2. Would the GA-G31M-S2L be able to overclock a Q6600 just as well, if not better, than the GA-G31MX-S2?
 
some of the ocing options in gigabyte's bios are hidden, if you didnt know. hit clrl+F1 at the same time to unlock some other features. all new boards from gigabyte i have seen use multis for the ram speeds.

on gigabyte boards, u can see advance options by pressing <ctrl + f1> on the bios main menu!
 
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