Member Avatar for Phaelax

What's your experience with them? Do you like them or hate them?
I had the first model they put out for the athlons years back. Didn't work too well. All three ram slots worked, but only one at a time. It wouldn't let me use more than 1 stick at a time. But hearing such good things about their boards, I bought another. A dual athlon board. (GA-7DPXDW) The two raid channels have given me problems from the start. Occationally, a bios checksum error pops up. I'll say that this is the last time I buy their boards. How could they get such high reviews all the time? Any good experiences anyone?

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Dani AI

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Short expert summary and next steps based on the thread: Gigabyte makes solid boards but sample failures and configuration pitfalls happen. ’s GA-7DPXDW symptoms (intermittent RAID problems and a MAIN BIOS CHECKSUM ERROR) most often point to either a corrupted BIOS/CMOS or marginal hardware (dead CMOS battery, bad RAM, or controller/driver issues). Start with the simplest fixes first — replace the CMOS battery, clear CMOS, and try a known-stable BIOS version. (lifewire.com)

RAM and population rules (why and are right): many motherboards have strict DIMM-population rules and validated-memory lists (QVL). If the manual or QVL doesn’t explicitly list the exact stick-size/configuration you’re using, the board may not behave as expected — test each DIMM one at a time and in the primary slot(s) shown in the manual. If a stick fails or behaves oddly, run a full MemTest (bootable MemTest86 or persistent stress tests) to confirm. Consult the board manual for slot rules and the vendor QVL when possible. (manualslib.com)

Chipset/driver and RAID notes (responding to ): VIA’s old “4‑in‑1/Hyperion” driver packs were known to cause instability on some systems; on VIA-based boards install chipset components selectively and try alternate versions if you see boot or DMA issues. For on‑board RAID, follow the manufacturer’s RAID-driver and cable/port recommendations (Promise/other controllers require their own drivers) and test arrays with drives and cables swapped to rule out simple hardware faults. (forums.anandtech.com)

Quick actionable checklist

  1. Replace CMOS battery + clear CMOS.
  2. Boot minimal (1 DIMM, onboard video or single GPU, no RAID drives).
  3. Run MemTest86 on each DIMM.
  4. Reflash to a stable BIOS per the manual.
  5. Update/remove chipset/RAID drivers, swap cables/ports, test one RAID channel at a time.
  6. If problems persist, document steps and request RMA or swap the board — sometimes a single bad sample is the culprit.

This ties back to comments from and about BIOS/brand differences and agrees with that OEM boards can complicate things — follow the manual, test methodically, and you’ll pinpoint the failing component.

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Member Avatar for orion

Well I myself have never used a gigabyte board, however I have a friend that only buys gigabyte boards. He has always liked gigabyte and until rercently he has come across a couple issues with them.

One being the via chipset mobo's...everytime he installed the via 4n1 drivers he's computer had a difficult time booting,running and etc.
The next thing was he bought a mini-atx board GA-7vm400m and is returning I must say. The board has more issues than one. Another one of his friends bought another gigabyte board and bought like 4 sticks of ocz ram to max it a 1 gig of ram because according to the gigabyte manual it would support it..well nope it would only 3 sticks of 256, so I guess to answer your question as to do I like them, well they have issues but what board doesn't. I would however if I were to purchase one I would get one with a nforce2 chipset opposed to via.

Member Avatar for TallCool1

What's your experience with them? Do you like them or hate them?
I had the first model they put out for the athlons years back. Didn't work too well. All three ram slots worked, but only one at a time. It wouldn't let me use more than 1 stick at a time. But hearing such good things about their boards, I bought another. A dual athlon board. (GA-7DPXDW) The two raid channels have given me problems from the start. Occationally, a bios checksum error pops up. I'll say that this is the last time I buy their boards. How could they get such high reviews all the time? Any good experiences anyone?

I haven't had problems with mine, nor the others that I have seen. The fact that I won mine in an AMD contest doesn't affect my judgement here; anything that's mass-produced is going to exhibit the occasional sample failure (electronic-technician-speak).

Have you tried Googling your problems? A BIOS update? What have you done to try to solve your problems?

Member Avatar for Dani

I had a Gigabyte board with an AMD processor not too long ago. It was okay I guess. It worked. I wasn't too impressed though. I've since used Asus and I'm much happier with them.

Member Avatar for i686-linux

I'm stuck with hand-me-down OEM boards from Packard-Bell, and Micron. No recommendation here. :sad:

Member Avatar for orion

I run al older asus board and enjoy it as well and haven't had any problems. However, I think my battery is starting to go. Oh well, normal wear and tear I guess.

Member Avatar for alc6379

All I know is, don't use cheap memory. This is true regardless of what board you buy. I've just purchased a KT600 board from Gigabyte, and the thing won't boot with the el-cheapo DDR memory I bought. I bought the board to replace another board I had, but I think now it may not have been the motherboard, but instead the memory. At least I might have the base to build two boxes now...

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