[geeks] Gigabyte MB question

[velociraptor]

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 5:59 AM, Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
wrote:
> Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> The questions - Has anyone ever used this MB before? Anyone have any
>> feedback on Gigabyte MBs? and finally, any suggestions on a reasonable
>> cooling solutions for this CPU/MB combo? (I would likely run
>> everything stock clock, so no OC needs for exceptional cooling.)
>> Thanks,
>
> I believe you should be able to use the same cooler on that as I'm using
> in my Athlon64 box, which is a Thermaltake Silent Max K8.  Assuming they
> still make it, it's not an insane Xtr3m3 Gam0r bling cooler, it's
> perfectly adequately effective (yeah, you might gain a degree or two by
> going to a two-kilogram $150 Zalman, but so what?), and it really is
> virtually silent.
>
>
> Does that board have GigaByte's dual-BIOS feature?  If so, heed my
> lesson:  DO NOT use the secondary BIOS as a backup BIOS.  Use it as a
> TESTBED BIOS.  Make new BIOS updates to the secondary BIOS FIRST, make
> sure the update is good and the machine is stable on the new BIOS, and
> *only then* use the BIOS utility to copy the secondary BIOS to the primary.
>
> This way, you always have a good primary BIOS image.  But if the primary
> becomes badly corrupted, it will NOT necessarily "fail over" to the
> secondary.

I've also heard bad things about the Windows tool for upgrading the
BIOS.  Iirc, the tweaktown forum folks (very helpful people on there
if you need over-clocking assistance) recommend using the DOS method
via boot floppy, cd or USB key.

=Nadine=