SFF.Network Behind The Scenes Updates

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
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View attachment 1535

It lives! So far in incredibly impressed by this build. The only issue I’ve had to deal with is a BIOS update for memory compatibility. The Meshlicious case is exactly the size I need, and the Noctua 140mm fans on the Z63 are dead silent.

Speaking of Silent, Silverstone sent us the SX1000 PSU that will be powering this rig. It’s a review sample not a sponsorship. I’d like to comment on its noise but it literally is making none right now. The fan has not spun up at all. I’m sure it will when I finish the build, but so far, I’m loving this SFX-L powerhouse.

Time to install Windows 11.
Nice. There are a lot of horror stories on Newegg about the Gigabyte Z690i but so far mine has been really good, glad yours is working too.
 
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Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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Nice. There are a lot of horror stories on Newegg about the Gigabyte Z690i but so far mine has been really good, glad yours is working too.
I keep looking at one for a 12700 65w fun toy build. Trying to resist until it gets a few more bios revisions / more exposure
I'd have to order off the Egg, UK availability is non existant.
Read all the horror stories it does seem hit and miss.
The Gigabyte B660 board looks utter trash for the money...........
1 NVME slot in 2022 is pitiful to say the least, wtf were they thinking there lol
 
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Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Revenant Tech
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Apr 21, 2017
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Nice. There are a lot of horror stories on Newegg about the Gigabyte Z690i but so far mine has been really good, glad yours is working too.

I just read through a lot of those and it seems the vast majority revolve around the RAM compatibility issues or driver issues. I load up Windows 98 on retro machines all the time so I guess I’m used to having to install drivers manually. I did have some RAM issues but the new F5 BIOS cleared it up. It booted fine at 2133, but hung at 3600. I just cleared the CMOS, updated, and it worked. Both the WD850 and 980PRO are recognized as PCIE 4.0, and I haven’t installed a GPU just yet.

I am getting some WHEA errors but that seems to affect a lot of Z690i boards.

One person complained it doesn’t fit Asetek AIOs. I had no issues with the Z63 once I got the adapter kit. I bought it directly from Amazon.
 
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Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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I just read through a lot of those and it seems the vast majority revolve around the RAM compatibility issues or driver issues. I load up Windows 98 on retro machines all the time so I guess I’m used to having to install drivers manually. I did have some RAM issues but the new F5 BIOS cleared it up. It booted fine at 2133, but hung at 3600. I just cleared the CMOS, updated, and it worked. Both the WD850 and 980PRO are recognized as PCIE 4.0, and I haven’t installed a GPU just yet.

I am getting some WHEA errors but that seems to affect a lot of Z690i boards.

One person complained it doesn’t fit Asetek AIOs. I had no issues with the Z63 once I got the adapter kit. I bought it directly from Amazon.

Running DDR4 above 3600 reliably is another "seemingly" Gigabyte specific bios issue across most of the Z690's atm. No major DDR4 testing on what Alderlake IMC is reliably capable of either as yet, could be a bit of both.
I have some B-die here I'd want to play with at 3800 C14 Gear 1. which just isnt happening on the boards atm.
Indeed the WHEA errors are rife across all Z690 boards as well.
Then there's the washer mods, check out this by Igor for more eye opening half-assery by Intel lol:

 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
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I just read through a lot of those and it seems the vast majority revolve around the RAM compatibility issues or driver issues. I load up Windows 98 on retro machines all the time so I guess I’m used to having to install drivers manually. I did have some RAM issues but the new F5 BIOS cleared it up. It booted fine at 2133, but hung at 3600. I just cleared the CMOS, updated, and it worked. Both the WD850 and 980PRO are recognized as PCIE 4.0, and I haven’t installed a GPU just yet.

I am getting some WHEA errors but that seems to affect a lot of Z690i boards.

One person complained it doesn’t fit Asetek AIOs. I had no issues with the Z63 once I got the adapter kit. I bought it directly from Amazon.
Someone on Reddit asked me about WHEA errors and so far I am showing none.
 

Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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Someone on Reddit asked me about WHEA errors and so far I am showing none.
You won't with PCI-E 3.0 drives, it happens on PCI-E 4.0.
The temp fix is to drop the lanes from 4.0 to 3.0 if using a 4.0 drive
 
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Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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I have one PCIe 3.0 and one PCIe 4.0.
It just shows how rushed to market this was, the major forums I frequent are rife with Z690 issues. Intel really haven't done much QA with it. Right now consumers are the beta testers.
I think you've been lucky to have had such a good experience so far. It's a far call from what others are going through though, many just want to throw in the towel with it. Tons of buyers remorse out there.
 
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Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Apr 21, 2017
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It just shows how rushed to market this was, the major forums I frequent are rife with Z690 issues. Intel really haven't done much QA with it. Right now consumers are the beta testers.
I think you've been lucky to have had such a good experience so far. It's a far call from what others are going through though, many just want to throw in the towel with it. Tons of buyers remorse out there.

Intel was rushing Alder Lake as a whole. They were getting beat down by AMD and this was their only response. Unfortunately, it arrived with issues. It will clear up or Intel will shoot themselves in the foot.
 

Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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Intel was rushing Alder Lake as a whole. They were getting beat down by AMD and this was their only response. Unfortunately, it arrived with issues. It will clear up or Intel will shoot themselves in the foot.

Bios F6 should be up today, worth trying !!!
 
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Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Apr 21, 2017
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Bios F6 should be up today, worth trying !!!

Nice. Gigabyte is one of the hardest companies to get to speak to so far from a journalist perspective. I’m glad Reddit forced the issue. Funny thing is that I get WHEA errors while using the iGPU.

Today I’ll upgrade to F6 after trying the F5 just to see.

This reminds me of the Athlon days and fighting the Soyo Dragon board. The difference being was that I had to get the BIOS fix at my local Soyo authorized dealer which was a 30 minute drive.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Revenant Tech
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Apr 21, 2017
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Well, I tried the F5 BIOS with q Gigabyte RTX 3070 OC card. It booted the first time at PCIE 4.0, but then crashed and wouldn't continue. I eventually had to completely disconnect the card, and use the iGPU to get back to the BIOS. I've just switched to PCIE 3.0 which cripples my M.2 drives, but has no WHEA errors.

Here is the working title for my review / overview of this board: "Broken Out of The Box"
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Well the F6 BIOS didn't fix anything. Let's see what Gigabyte does.

On a different note, I decided to run a very quick and dirty benchmark against my current 9900K / RTX 3080 OC rig. The difference though is that the 12900K would be paired with a stock RTX 3070. Crazy right? No way could a 3070 beat more over keep up with....STOP.....

It did.

While this was at 1080P which is more CPU bound than 1440 and 4K, I remind everyone that DLSS drops 4K to 1080P, and I was using an RTX 3080 on the 9900K and a 3070 for the 12900K.

F1 2021 had an Average of 142FPS and 1% low of 93.28 on my 9900K. The 12900K...with a 3070....hit 155 FPS average and 114.7 FPS for the 1% lows.

Dirt 5 the 9900K/3080 combo had an average FPS of 140.5 vs 126. However, the 1% low was tied at 110, and the 0.1% low was 81.5 vs 97.5 FPS on the 12900K.
 
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Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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Well the F6 BIOS didn't fix anything. Let's see what Gigabyte does.

On a different note, I decided to run a very quick and dirty benchmark against my current 9900K / RTX 3080 OC rig. The difference though is that the 12900K would be paired with a stock RTX 3070. Crazy right? No way could a 3070 beat more over keep up with....STOP.....

It did.

While this was at 1080P which is more CPU bound than 1440 and 4K, I remind everyone that DLSS drops 4K to 1080P, and I was using an RTX 3080 on the 9900K and a 3070 for the 12900K.

F1 2021 had an Average of 142FPS and 1% low of 93.28 on my 9900K. The 12900K...with a 3070....hit 155 FPS average and 114.7 FPS for the 1% lows.

Dirt 5 the 9900K/3080 combo had an average FPS of 140.5 vs 126. However, the 1% low was tied at 110, and the 0.1% low was 81.5 vs 97.5 FPS on the 12900K.

Try that one, a Gigabyte engineer just sneaked that link into that thread I don't know how long it will stay live for.
 
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Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Revenant Tech
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Apr 21, 2017
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Try that one, a Gigabyte engineer just sneaked that link into that thread I don't know how long it will stay live for.
Reduced it to under 100 WHEA errors, but still crashes. BIOS no longer exits properly though it does save changes.
 

Legion

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Nov 22, 2017
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Reduced it to under 100 WHEA errors, but still crashes. BIOS no longer exits properly though it does save changes.
I genuinely feel bad for anyone who's bought these boards and has all these issues. It should at least work on default out of the box. Gigabyte are being hammered by the community for what seems to be a shambles across all their Z690 range. Asus seem to be having the most success with boards actually functioning correctly, but to hell with their pricing across all of their Z690 and B660 boards and all their ITX offerings (b660 included) are exclusively DDR5
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
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Revenant Tech
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Apr 21, 2017
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I genuinely feel bad for anyone who's bought these boards and has all these issues. It should at least work on default out of the box. Gigabyte are being hammered by the community for what seems to be a shambles across all their Z690 range. Asus seem to be having the most success with boards actually functioning correctly, but to hell with their pricing across all of their Z690 and B660 boards and all their ITX offerings (b660 included) are exclusively DDR5
It's a pain as this system is going to be my primary gaming and testing machine, but it is good for discussion and content. LOL

Gigabyte is getting hammered and they deserve to for this. The last time I saw a board this bad was the Soyo Dragon two decades ago. They've dropped the ball a lot lately. Their VRM cooling and design are top notch, but their back-end and support leave much to be desired.
 

Bakaban

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Nov 13, 2020
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Any chance you'll bee diving into the Silverstone fx600 flex atx psu? They changed the fan curves a bit, perhaps there's finally something noteworthy aside from the famous Enhance unit?
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Original poster
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
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Any chance you'll bee diving into the Silverstone fx600 flex atx psu? They changed the fan curves a bit, perhaps there's finally something noteworthy aside from the famous Enhance unit?
It’s something I’d like to take a look at. I’m a bit back logged right now, but I’ll toss it on the list.