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Gigabyte Z77-DS3H, biggest waste of money EVER

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attack

Member
Joined
May 23, 2002
No, this isn't a DOA rant. Bought the board and an i3750k, only to discover you cannot adjust the Vcore AT ALL. No offset, no manual increase, nothing. Never in my 15 years of overclocking have I bought a board so castrated than this. I've seen dell and HP oem boards with more options.

Pure garbage, I've bought cheaper boards with more options. Stay away from this like the plague.
 
I purchased it with the 3570k from a microcenter in denver...If I return it, I owe an additional 50 dollars for the CPU (it was a bundle discount). The only reason I did it was because I got the CPU for 175, now if I return it my CPU is 225.

I may just return everything....I bought a asrock Z77 pro3 for a friends build and that worked great, had all the settings a mobo should and was cheaper than the gigabyte...microcenter just didn't have it in stock.
 
Rev 1.0 has voltages options ...

CPU VTT
CPU PLL
DRAM Voltage
Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage

so, wich options did you miss ? also i don't know if prev BIOS versions has it, im on F11a ... this board came with F2 or so don't remember, im using mi 3570k at 4.0 only with Turbo Boost options set to 40x ... i set CPU Overvoltage to 1.1750v coz the default is 1.1840v wich in my opion is somewhat high ....
 
No, this isn't a DOA rant. Bought the board and an i3750k, only to discover you cannot adjust the Vcore AT ALL. No offset, no manual increase, nothing. Never in my 15 years of overclocking have I bought a board so castrated than this. I've seen dell and HP oem boards with more options.

Pure garbage, I've bought cheaper boards with more options. Stay away from this like the plague.

old tread but for your info :
ds3h -> no change vcore
d3h -> yes
I almost do the same stupidity , but I bought a d3h after reading different test indicating non posibility of vcore change the DS3H
 
Its best to create your own thread Agiel... this is an old thread and not about whatever board you have. Start up a new thread and list your hardware specifically. :)
 
If you want to talk to him only, sure. If you want the brain trust to help, start your own thread. :)
 
Sorry to necrobump this thread, but it turns out the DS3H and D3H are the virtually same board.
I crossflashed the D3H firmware onto the board using a utility called "fpt" from a bootable USB drive with FreeDOS using Rufus.
Now I have all the functions of the D3H, including Vcore settings!
Easytune6 works too.
I attached the DOS and Windows x64 versions of the FPT utility to this post since finding FPT is a pain in the butt.

I wish I had known about this a few years ago when I bought the MB!
 

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nice find farkey! if i remember correctly there were a couple of versions of the old gigabyte core2duo mbs that could achieve the same bios swap but i cant remember which ones lol.
 
Sorry to necrobump this thread, but it turns out the DS3H and D3H are the virtually same board.
I crossflashed the D3H firmware onto the board using a utility called "fpt" from a bootable USB drive with FreeDOS using Rufus.
Now I have all the functions of the D3H, including Vcore settings!
Easytune6 works too.
I attached the DOS and Windows x64 versions of the FPT utility to this post since finding FPT is a pain in the butt.

I wish I had known about this a few years ago when I bought the MB!

Hello, problem is actual for me. Can you please provide procedure how you did it? I can't make stable frequency more then 4.2 GHz on 2600k without increase VCore. Thank you.
 
Hello, problem is actual for me. Can you please provide procedure how you did it? I can't make stable frequency more then 4.2 GHz on 2600k without increase VCore. Thank you.

You'll need a USB flash drive, the Rufus tool, the DOS FPT files and any D3H BIOS file.

Rufus: https://rufus.akeo.ie/
BIOS: http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/GA-Z77-D3H-rev-10#support-dl

Use Rufus to create a FreeDOS bootable USB drive.
Extract the FPT executable (fpt.exe) and the unzipped BIOS file to the USB drive's root.
Boot to the USB stick (F12 on boot)
From the DOS prompt, run:
a:> fpt.exe -f <bios-filename>

Hit Y when prompted.

FPT will flash the BIOS from the DS3H to the D3H.

Turn off the PC when the flash is done. Clear the BIOS with the CMOS clear jumper.

Power on the MB and press DEL to get into the BIOS.

Notice the 3D-BIOS screen shows a D3H motherboard instead of the DS3H.

If you want to switch back to the DS3H BIOS, press CTRL-F10 during boot... the backup BIOS will revert back to the DS3H.
 
Hi, I did it from Win. Now I am using D3H BIOS. But setting VCORE doesn't make effect. I set load line calibration to Turbo and disable all power safe settings.
 
It looks like you're correct... the vcore setting is exposed, but doesn't appear to do anything.

Interestingly enough, I've gotten a better overclock using the D3H BIOS, possibly due to the myriad of extra features.

It also allows Virtu MVP to install the full unlimited version because the D3H BIOS has an embedded license for Virtu.

Sorry to get your hopes up...

One good thing is the "Dynamic Vcore" works, and goes up to 1.33V when overclocking to 4.4 (turbo disabled) on the D3H, but isn't available on the DS3H.

So it's still better than the DS3H BIOS...
 
I have *another* follow-up.

The VRM on the GA-Z77-DS3G is an Intersil ISL95836, which is why the Vcore is non-adjustable. It's an analog chip.

http://blog.stuffedcow.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/isl95836.jpg

Although the voltages cannot be changed via the BIOS, the PWM chip can be voltmodded by adding a variable resistor going across the SMD resistor attached to the "FB" pin.

OR, if you're brave, you can "pencil mod" the connection by using a pencil to draw a path across the resistor to lower the resistance and increase the voltage.

Basically, it's virtually the same as voltmodding a GPU... except for finding the Vcore test points. Not sure where they would be on the GA-Z77-DS3H.

Ultimately, I ended up getting a different MB because I needed to put the 2600K in my watercooled micro-ATX case, and needed a micro-ATX board.

So now I'm running 4.7Ghz (so far) on an Asus P8Z77-M Pro with full voltage functionality.

I'll be putting my old i3-3220 back in the Gigabyte and running it stock as before.
 
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