# Gigabyte Recalling X79 UD3, UD5, G1.Assassin 2 Motherboards



## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

Last week, a Taiwanese overclocker putting his OC workbench through an relatively laxed OC stress test saw its Gigabyte X79 UD3 motherboard go bust. Its CPU VRM couldn't cope with the stress, and blew a MOSFET. At the time, people responding to his video condoled him for his bad luck. It appears now that his wasn't a one-off case of "bad-egg". Gigabyte, in its latest press release on its Chinese website, noted the issue. Apparently it received several such complaints from overclockers where even moderate voltage-assisted CPU OC fried its VRM. The issue was found to be widespread, among three of its main socket LGA2011 products, the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2. 

Apparently, the issue is caused by a cocktail of bad firmware to complement the board's PWM circuitry, and bad quality PWM components. As an immediate remedy, Gigabyte issued a BIOS update for the affected products. This BIOS, however, will cripple the board's overclocking abilities. The new BIOS will throttle CPU when subjected to extreme stress, to save the VRM. The BIOS remedy is only for those who opt to keep their boards, or don't subject the board to extreme tuning. The other remedy, is to return the board to Gigabyte, for a free replacement when the "right" boards are available. Gigabyte also announced a general recall of the GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79-UD5, and G1.Assassin 2, from the market. A video of the "unlucky" (not anymore) overclocker's day going bad, can be watched here.





*Update (29/12):* Gigabyte's German office wrote to us and explained that on their end they find the problem to be because of bad firmware, and not bad component quality; and that unlike Gigabyte Taiwan, they are not recalling products or soliciting replacements, but asking users to update their BIOS to the latest available. Gigabyte Germany set up a hotline for German customers, that's 040-253304-55.

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## LiveOrDie (Dec 27, 2011)

HAHA he cook his board


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## Zubasa (Dec 27, 2011)

Gigabyte :shadedshu


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## qubit (Dec 27, 2011)

Looks like those muppets at Gigglebyte rushed this product to market. Problems like this should be easy to spot in the design and testing phase.

I hope they don't mess their customers about, or the whole thing will blow up in their face spectacularly.


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## entropy13 (Dec 27, 2011)

Oops.


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## de.das.dude (Dec 27, 2011)

ASUS is just as bad.

manufacturers should stop making boards in china.


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## DaMobsta (Dec 27, 2011)

Gigabyte, why :|

@entropy13 y u no longer go TPC XD


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## dj-electric (Dec 27, 2011)

GG gigabyte, well played...

At least u tried.
de.das i cannot disagree more, my expirience with asus on P55 and P67 tought me that they are the very freaking best at everything they do on those motherboards
Asrock is right behind them with lower prices. I actualy have (or had) the X79 UD5 and i can tell only bad things about that black pile of vomit.

btw feel free to ask shop owners what brand of mobos visits the most in their labs, the ones i asked told me that its GB. im not suprised at all


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## LDNL (Dec 27, 2011)

I feel bad for the ppl that spent 300-350+ €/$ for a motherboard thats incapable of being anything exept less than a 100 €/$ motherboard


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## qubit (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> manufacturers should stop making boards in china.



This ^^


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## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

LDNL said:


> I feel bad for the ppl that spent 300-350+ €/$ for a motherboard thats incapable of being anything exept less than a 100 €/$ motherboard



And let's not forget those who didn't turn their rigs off in time, and ended up with fried CPUs. Pro overclockers pay 5-10X market price for good chips.


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## de.das.dude (Dec 27, 2011)

btarunr said:


> Pro overclockers pay 5-10X market price for good chips



is that true?


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 27, 2011)

The horror!!!!!!!!!
Thats the stuff nightmares are mad of...... At least ........did his cpu  survive? 
His  sacrifce was not in vain.  Just started liking giga again too.  About to order an asrock....research time....


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## dj-electric (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> is that true?




Some have sponsors to let them find good hardware and pay it for them, some pay a lot for very good chips that others found good, of course.
btw one of the reasons they have this recall is MSI who didn't wait a single day and told about it to everyone


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> manufacturers should stop making boards in china.



This problem doesnt have anything to do with where it was made, This is a design fault.

 Obviously Gigabyte did not do sufficient testing or quality control during the design phase 

 When your high-end, expensive overclocking board cant overclock without blowing up you have a problem, and it reflects badly on Gigabyte.

 I cant think of any high-end overclocking board from Asus that needed to be recalled, other than the Intel 1155 chipset problem.

 This is a major fail for Gigabyte


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## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> is that true?



Yes, it is true. I wouldn't post it otherwise, duh.


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## qwerty_lesh (Dec 27, 2011)

just FYI the UD7 may not be listed in this article but suffers the same poor VRM mosfet problems, I myself have destroyed a board simply turning it off and on 30 or so times, and was aware of the problems for a few weeks now, so all of this comes as no surprise to me.

in short, out of the numerous x79 boards ive worked with so far ASrock and Asus are the most reliable thus far. (to be fair i should mention I havent touched any MSi's/evga's yet)


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## R_1 (Dec 27, 2011)

Need more Power, man...


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## erasure (Dec 27, 2011)

Gigabyte: i tried to Overclock like ASUS, then i took an arrow in the knee


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm really not surprised, and I really can't blame Gigabyte for this.

Intel's decision to take half of the area normally dedicated to the VRM and put memory slots there instead, forcing the VRM into an area smaller than most low end boards have, then putting CPUs that can suck down 200w really threw a wrench in things.

Add to that one bad shipment of Mosfets that the OEM(not gigabyte the OEM of the Mosfets) over specced, and you have smoke in pretty tame operating conditions.

I don't believe at all that it is bad firmware to complement the VRM, they just released a firmware to fix the issue on affected boards with the bad parts.


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## neliz (Dec 27, 2011)

erasure said:


> Gigabyte: i tried to Overclock like ASUS, then i took an arrow in the knee



A meme is nothing without pictures!


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> I'm really not surprised, and I really can't blame Gigabyte for this.
> 
> Intel's decision to take half of the area normally dedicated to the VRM and put memory slots there instead, forcing the VRM into an area smaller than most low end boards have, then putting CPUs that can suck down 200w really threw a wrench in things.
> 
> .



 Then how come all the other manufacturers dont have a problem?? Cant see how you can use that excuse.

EDIT:

Haha, Anandtech just posted and recommended the UD3 as a low end overclocking board

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5271/gigabyte-gax79ud3-review/8


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## danc (Dec 27, 2011)

i will go for  asus x79 line of boards, they seem the best built with the best features at the best prices.


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## faramir (Dec 27, 2011)

qubit said:


> Looks like those muppets at Gigglebyte rushed this product to market. Problems like this should be easy to spot in the design and testing phase.
> 
> I hope they don't mess their customers about, or the whole thing will blow up in their face spectacularly.



Um, did you actually READ the article ? They recalled their boards and will replace them. How incredibly daft must you be to turn that into "I hope they don't mess their customers about" ? They handled the situation in the best possible way, just like Intel did last year when that SATA bug was discovered in SB chipsets.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 27, 2011)

It deserves to die for the stupid 3D bios.


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

Wait. WTF?


This is true? Really? Translated statement from gigabyte says:



> This statement is limited to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area, if its content updated, will be announced.
> Sincerely, Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.



Of course, I have GA-X79-UD5 sitting here...is it gonna kill my CPU?


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## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Wait. WTF?
> 
> 
> This is true? Really? Translated statement from gigabyte says:
> ...



All X79 board models from Gigabyte are made the same, it's not like they have a special revision for "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area". 

It's just that at the moment they're soliciting free replacements from "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area". Soon they'll extend it to every other territory they sell in. They'll have to.

Yes, your GA-X79-UD5 is plotting to kill your CPU the same way its siblings from "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu area" are.


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

Well I  was wondering if perhaps they identified the problem to a specific batch of boards that were distributed in that area, or something.

I mean, if that's the case, I need to contact Gigabyte and get a replacement myself.  I pushed 265W through my board's VRM for 5 hours, and my board is fine. So I must assume it's near death now then. I saw that video of the UD3 burning up last early week.


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## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Well I  was wondering if perhaps they identified the problem to a specific batch of boards that were distributed in that area, or something.
> 
> I mean, if that's the case, I need to contact Gigabyte and get a replacement myself.  I pushed 265W through my board's VRM for 5 hours, and my board is fine. So I must assume it's near death now then. I saw that video of the UD3 burning up last early week.



Again, they did attribute the issue to a firmware problem. They won't have a special firmware just for those area. This issue is chronic.


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## dj-electric (Dec 27, 2011)

For the same price as the UD5 you can find the ASRock X79 Extreme7, a true masterpiece.
And yes dave, let the UD5 die muhahaha, i already got rid of mine.







Never freaking settle (If an asrock employee read this, i want some market share k10xbi)


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## EarthDog (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> is that true?


LOL... not in most cases, no. Well, not THAT much. There is a 2600k for sale somewhere with the user asking $4k but its a 59x multi so one of the highest PERIOD. I hope no moron pays that much for it. Point is thats unheard of.

Commonly 56x+ CPU's will bring far more than retail but 10x is not remotely common or paid for. 3-5x sure.


As far as who is responsible.. is giga supposed to test to 6Ghz? 5Ghz? 4.5Ghz? 150W/250W/350W? I hold giga responsible for this b/c of the shoddy performance and parts, but the testing part... I mean where (power level) does it happen? Is this part of their testing procedures to test that high?

EDIT: I did have a UD7 die mid review. It was benched hard (4.8Ghz, with peak 4.949Ghz), but then was set to stock speeds, left on for 2 days, then in the was dead.


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## fullinfusion (Dec 27, 2011)

Wow that's a burn for sure.


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 27, 2011)

I quit buying Gigashit boards after my Phenom X4 9750 popped my GA-MA78GM-S2H within 3 months. Board was released rated for 125w CPUs, then they went back on their word and rated it for 95w CPUs. Whole VRM area on the back of the board was black by the time the board died.

Don't forget them faking PCIe lane counts on G31 boards, overheating 780G northbridges due to crappy heatsinks, or using tricks to make their 1155 boards PCIe 3.0 capable with PCIe 2.0 switches on the boards. I'd rather use MSi over them if I had to (seems like they've improved their standards).

I'll stick with ASRock/ASUS for now. My ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 is solid, my ASRock A770DE+ is a $53, practically unkillable board (runs 1.5v/3.9GHz 955BE + 5770 + 6670 non-stop folding/crunching), and my old Crosshair III Formula is retired currently after 2.5yrs, but is still as solid as it was from day one. I'm a bit surprised my dad's Gigabyte 790GX board and friend's Gigabyte P55A boards still work (although plugging a cellphone into the front USB headers on my friend's P55 board causes the computer to immediately shut off).


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2011)

buggalugs said:


> Then how come all the other manufacturers dont have a problem?? Cant see how you can use that excuse.



You have to read the rest of my post, I explain that pretty clearly.

The issue is a compound one, I'm not blaming Intel or using that as an excuse, I'm saying it didn't help the situation.

The real blame lands solely on the manufacturer of the mosfets that didn't meet spec.


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## iLLz (Dec 27, 2011)

neliz said:


> A meme is nothing without pictures!
> 
> http://i42.tinypic.com/21o0kmx.png



Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.


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## btarunr (Dec 27, 2011)

iLLz said:


> Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.



Please don't post bongs or joints. In case any of you decides to get creative.


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## neliz (Dec 27, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> The real blame lands solely on the manufacturer of the mosfets that didn't meet spec.



If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.

The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.



iLLz said:


> Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.


In the video I saw fire.. that would be more accurate


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## iLLz (Dec 27, 2011)

neliz said:


> If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.
> 
> The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.
> 
> ...



One thing I give the guy in the video is he pulled the plug pretty quick, just not sure if it was in time to save the CPU.  I don't speak Japanese but I bet he was saying something terrible when he seen the smoke and fire.  He says something in a soft voice that almost sound like Sh!t.


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## tomkaten (Dec 27, 2011)

Pity, I trusted Gigabyte's mobos, never had one that let me down.

But like other guys said, this is clearly a case of rushing products to market and lack of sufficient testing. I know they do that with their video cards, cause coil noise runs rampant on their higher end products... Plus an entire series of early 6850's that were all duds... Black screen, wrong fan setup in the default BIOS. Too bad it's catching on to motherboards now.


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## neliz (Dec 27, 2011)

iLLz said:


> One thing I give the guy in the video is he pulled the plug pretty quick, just not sure if it was in time to save the CPU.  I don't speak Japanese but I bet he was saying something terrible when he seen the smoke and fire.  He says something in a soft voice that almost sound like Sh!t.



What I heard is he fried both CPU and MEM there, although the mem seems unlikely as the VR for that is near the DIMM sockets, not near the CPU.

And yes, pulling everything when the system crashes was very ninja, certainly not my first thought.


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## Steven B (Dec 27, 2011)

let's put it this way, this recall is about a bit more than that dudes VRM burning. THere have not been many reports of this happening, at least not in the USA. I have some people say it happened to them, but you can find many more cases of the PWM throttle back the CPU frequency when someone runs prime for 50 mins without a fan over their VRM. 


My theory is, ASUS paid Chil to sabotage IR taking CHil's firmware.

FYI is GIGABYTE didn't believe in their products they would have never offered 5 year warranties on the UD3, UD5, G1 Assassin 2, and UD7 in the USA.


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 27, 2011)

neliz said:


> What I heard is he fried both CPU and MEM there, although the mem seems unlikely as the VR for that is near the DIMM sockets, not near the CPU.
> 
> And yes, pulling everything when the system crashes was very ninja, certainly not my first thought.



Total loss......every o.c.er's worst nightmare.  Fried p4s left and right learning myself.  Goodwill computer shop had em for a few dollars though. And always a bunch on side of the road on trash day.


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## cdawall (Dec 27, 2011)

btarunr said:


> And let's not forget those who didn't turn their rigs off in time, and ended up with fried CPUs. Pro overclockers pay 5-10X market price for good chips.



or they just order 5-10x as many chips and bin them. Most of the current records are held by retail chips that have been heavily binned.


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## mtosev (Dec 27, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> ASUS is just as bad.
> 
> manufacturers should stop making boards in china.


my asus mobo says MADE IN TAIWAN, not china


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2011)

neliz said:


> If it was an issue of MOSFETs not meeting specs, it would be the first thing they notice when these boards go in the oven for temperature/OC testing.
> 
> The rumors about PWM issues where there for a long time, especially with with the boards missing the X79 launch, having no stock available for a launch like this isn't a small hick up.
> 
> ...



Depends, they don't test every board through the process just like the manufacturer of the mosfets don't test every one that goes out their doors.

If they have a part that is just marginally out of spec a good amount of samples will pass, likely enough to pass quality control, and a fair amount will go up in smoke when pushed hard.


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

I read the translation to say earlier BIOSes were recalled, not boards. The option is there for boards with earlier BIOSes to be RMA'd, so the newer BIOS can be flashed on.

If you check Gigabyte site, earlier BIOSes are no longer listed, and the affected products all have Bios ver. "F7" listed.

Just my thoughts.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.

 I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.


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## DannibusX (Dec 27, 2011)

buggalugs said:


> Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.
> 
> I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.



Of course they're off the shelves, they need to have a BIOS flash and have been recalled for it.  You can't have a store open the box, flash the BIOS, repackage and then sell as brand new.


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

buggalugs said:


> Well its 9:15 AM on the 28th (first day shops are open after Christmas break)and the Gigabyte boards have been pulled from sale at one of our local stores.
> 
> I doubt it just needs a bios flash, its a major recall.



Gigabyte, in BTA's link in the OP, says this(translated from Chinese):



> 1.GIGABYTE full recall on all sales channels for a* particular version of the X79 motherboard firmware *(BIOS) update, *or by consumers to conduct its own firmware update*, to ensure the best interests of consumers.
> 
> 2.GIGABYTE X79 for the protection of consumers to use extreme overclocking performance, where the updated version of the BIOS F7 (including the later version), still caused by overclocking the phenomenon of burning models are given a lifetime warranty (GA-X79-UD3, GA-X79 -UD5, G1.Assassin 2).
> 
> 3. Products of the company's X79 still worries consumers may be unconditional return policy (please contact the Customer Service Center Gigabyte).



Seems to me:

1: Boards with specific model BIOS are recalled from retail shops.

2: Users that already bought the board can flash to the "F7" BIOS, *and boards now have lifetime warranty*(instead of 5 years in NA)

3: Users that are still not comfortable with the BIOS flash have unconditional return policy.


I've touched base with Gigabyte to get clarification on the issue. I'll update as info comes in, but in the meantime, it seems that Gigabyte has found fault in the BIOS itself, and not the hardware. I doubt they'd extend warranty to lifetime on products that have faulty hardware. Remains to be seen if the BIOS update affect clocknig or anything, but as I am also working on a review of the GA-X79-UD5, you can bet that I'll check it out.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 27, 2011)

iLLz said:


> Needs some smoke in there and it would be just about complete.



Something like this?







cadaveca said:


> I've touched base with Gigabyte to get clarification on the issue. I'll update as info comes in, but in the meantime, it seems that Gigabyte has found fault in the BIOS itself, and not the hardware. I doubt they'd extend warranty to lifetime on products that have faulty hardware. Remains to be seen if the BIOS update affect clocknig or anything, but as I am also working on a review of the GA-X79-UD5, you can bet that I'll check it out.



The reason I think it is more than just a firmware issue is the reasoning behind what they fixed in the BIOS.  They changed the BIOS to throttle the CPU to save the faulty PWM.  That is still a hardware issue, and the BIOS just makes the situation of overloading the weak PWM components never happen.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

Edit: Already posted

So basically you can flash the crippled f7 bios and live with it, which makes overclocking worse or return it if you're not happy?


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

Um, yeah, that's what I just posted in my last post. I'll check the OC-ability with the new BIOS, as it seems Gigabyte is OK with just the BIOS being updated. BTA mentions that the BIOS update potentially affects OCs, so, I'll verify if i can. My CPU may not go far enough to be affected.

That said, my board didn't burn up at all, and I pushed pretty hard. Mind you, I use a cooler that gives a tonne of airflow to the VRM area directly(Noctua NH-C14). I had already completed all fo my testing, but I'll remount the board and see what happens with the F7 BIOS. Makes me happy I hadn't finished the review yet!


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## qwerty_lesh (Dec 27, 2011)

iLLz said:


> One thing I give the guy in the video is he pulled the plug pretty quick, just not sure if it was in time to save the CPU.  I don't speak Japanese but I bet he was saying something terrible when he seen the smoke and fire.  He says something in a soft voice that almost sound like Sh!t.



LOL, man I have BEEN there and DONE that too.. on the x79-UD7.

the split second you hear what sounds like someone scrunching aluminum foil into a ball you better yank that power lead quick smart


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Um, yeah, that's what I just posted in my last post. !



Yer, I was just editing it before you posted

 I guess more details will come out soon but I think I would want to get a refund instead of living with a crippled bios.


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## qwerty_lesh (Dec 27, 2011)

Well all i can say is its the Mosfets on the underside of the motherboard that go POP on the UD7's and they have no heatsink on them at all...

edit: FWIW - I checked all the X79 bios download pages they all offer F7 bios now and all the description is exactly the same "Improve protection mechanism"

Including the UD7 board page


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## cadaveca (Dec 27, 2011)

buggalugs said:


> Yer, I was just editing it before you posted
> 
> I guess more details will come out soon but I think I would want to get a refund instead of living with a crippled bios.



Yeah, very interesting situation. It's only because I am working on a review of one of the affected products that I have so many questions myself.

I'm sure Gigabyte will re-release the products at some point, as they need to have X79 products on the market. The listed products only have a single 8-pin EPS connector, while the GA-X79-UD7, which isn't mentioned, has dual 8-pin connectors. I do not know if that is what makes the difference, or what, but I'd definitely like to know.

Plus the information may help address issues while clocking on other boards, too.

In my opinion, Gigabyte's doing the right thing here, and seemingly are willing to cover whatever concern users may have. The bit about using the updated BIOS and having a lifetime warranty against the failure is a huge step, and seemingly, with that, they have properly identified the issue, and a have a fix.

I had already come to the conclusion that VRM cooling on X79-series products is very critical when overclocked, but I also noticed that the UD3 board seems to have a larger cooler than the UD5. It's all very interesting, indeed.


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## buggalugs (Dec 27, 2011)

lol, I dont think they are going to sell many X79 boards after this. They will probably rush out a new revision board soon.


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## Steven B (Dec 28, 2011)

the F7 BIOS on the UD7 doesn't limit anything in terms of CPu OC. If it did, which for me it doesn't, in the end you could hit 5ghz, but now only 4.9, would it affect 24/7 OC probably not. 

OCP is still 128% and OTP is still 140C as compared to BIOS F4. 

Max switching frequency has been decreased by 80KHz so you can't increase that to kill the board, and under Vcore voltage response, they removed one setting, the turbo setting. now you have Fast and Standard. BIOS F4 didn't even have this option, it had been removed. Neither should impact OC, at least not on the UD7. 

These two settings changed seem to be more of a user limiter, meaning the USer can't set something to hurt the board. GB had already done a lot of testing to make sure the board didn't burn, they had limited over temp protection down from 158C to 140C in the first few BIOS releases.

Just wait until GIGABYTE USA releases their statement, this whole title of recall thing is a bit over presumptuous. They never said anything about recalling boards, rather just their BIOS, and only in TW.


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## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Dec 28, 2011)

Any pc products that have 'assassin', 'gamer', 'killer' and other fancy prefixes is botched on my list. Those things are overpriced for the fancy adjective they added


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## Maban (Dec 28, 2011)

Bjorn_Of_Iceland said:


> Any pc products that have 'assassin', 'gamer', 'killer' and other fancy prefixes is botched on my list. Those things are overpriced for the fancy adjective they added



But that of course doesn't apply to Turbo, Dominator, Titanium, and Ultimate.


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## Aldouz (Dec 28, 2011)

Jstn7477 said:


> I quit buying Gigashit boards after my Phenom X4 9750 popped my GA-MA78GM-S2H within 3 months. Board was released rated for 125w CPUs, then they went back on their word and rated it for 95w CPUs. Whole VRM area on the back of the board was black by the time the board died.
> 
> Don't forget them faking PCIe lane counts on G31 boards, overheating 780G northbridges due to crappy heatsinks, or using tricks to make their 1155 boards PCIe 3.0 capable with PCIe 2.0 switches on the boards. I'd rather use MSi over them if I had to (seems like they've improved their standards).
> 
> I'll stick with ASRock/ASUS for now. My ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 is solid, my ASRock A770DE+ is a $53, practically unkillable board (runs 1.5v/3.9GHz 955BE + 5770 + 6670 non-stop folding/crunching), and my old Crosshair III Formula is retired currently after 2.5yrs, but is still as solid as it was from day one. I'm a bit surprised my dad's Gigabyte 790GX board and friend's Gigabyte P55A boards still work (although plugging a cellphone into the front USB headers on my friend's P55 board causes the computer to immediately shut off).


Agree, ASRock Mobo quality getting better and better these days (specialy the price ) while Gigabyte quality declining...


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## Steven B (Dec 28, 2011)

GBs quality isn't declining, their quality has actually increase with X79, thus the 5 year warranty. Its hard to refute claims, especially those from the manufacturer, but when the press release was written in Chinese, and then translated and interpreted, that isn't the manufacturer's words. Thus the title of this thread is a bit much, and oh, sadly incorrect .


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## xenocide (Dec 28, 2011)

Gigabyte is a really bad company.  I've only used 1 board from them, and it came DoA.  Granted the odds of that exist for anything, it's one of the only DoA products I've ever gotten.  I also don't agree with GB's decision to delay using UEFI until only recently and selling tons of high cost P67/Z68 mobos that wouldn't support Ivy Bridge.


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## pantherx12 (Dec 28, 2011)

Gigabyte upset me with their troll customer service agents, and now this.

Tsk tsk tsk.


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## Nirutbs (Dec 28, 2011)

tigger said:


> It deserves to die for the stupid 3D bios.


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## btarunr (Dec 29, 2011)

Posted an update. For some strange reason Gigabyte thinks TPU is a German website (we're not), and deployed its German subsidiary to talk to us (giving us a Germany-specific hotline). Posted it anyway, if it helps our German readers.


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## qwerty_lesh (Dec 30, 2011)

btarunr said:


> Posted an update. For some strange reason Gigabyte thinks TPU is a German website (we're not), and deployed its German subsidiary to talk to us (giving us a Germany-specific hotline). Posted it anyway, if it helps our German readers.



LOL, you speak de german ya? vant to share some bratwurst in the schutenglarken ya ya? gudantar?


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## Wile E (Jan 1, 2012)

I have never had any issues with GB boards. Even the best manufacturers screw up at some point and release bad product lines.

The difference between a good and bad manufacturer is that a good one will try to rectify the problem and makes sure their quality comes back up, whereas a bad one will just tell you, "Tough shit. Don't OC." And their quality will be consistently sub par.


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## cadaveca (Jan 1, 2012)

I tested the GA-X79-UD5 with the new F7 BIOS the past few days, as well as previous BIOSes in the weeks before. The F7 BIOS will be used for the review, which I am just writing the conclusion of now. Very interesting results...be sure to check out the review to get the full scoop, as it may surprise some. TPU might have the only review using the new BIOS, too.  This could not have happened at a better time for me.

Hopefully the review will go live later this week.


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## Lefty666 (Jan 11, 2012)

WOW I was just waiting for my assasin2..............should i cancell the order????? and get a diff board?
The reason I was getting the Assassin 2 was for the integrated Creative Sound Blaster chip!

I Cant use Realtek basically because the 7.1 Creative Gigaworks  S750 Speaker System with 70 watt rms per channel ans a 210 amp Subwoofer.....An Ass Kicking Speaker System has to connect with a creative soundcard!

So my delema is ...........is there another Motherboard with the Craetive Integrated Sound Chip!!!!!!!!!!! WTF I cant catch a break

Anyone know if there is a newer board with the LGA 2011 and the Intel X67 and the Creative
CA20K2 chip? Should I wait or what??

 Please Help                                        Lefty666                 Thanx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I answered my own question.  The integrated Sound would be digital and my Speaker System is Analog.

I think I'm heading towards Arock or Asus!  Good thing i checked around again while i was waiting on Microcenter!

So what is the consensus? Forget about GB and go with one of the other 2???


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 11, 2012)

Please do not triple or double post. Thank you!


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