GA-EP45-UD3P rev1.6 for 3TB drives

[zamar26]

Thanks for your explanation. Not sure what hardware differences are btw v1.0 and 1.1, but they might not be chipset related, and therefore the same BIOS should work in both mobo versions. Since you found the BIOS versions don't match, the differences might exist in F10 BIOS, while this released was based on F11d beta BIOS posted for some time on GB website and broadly referenced and modded on forums. GB removed it later likely cutting off development for older boards.

Anyway, the attached is the BIOS I currently run on V1.0 board (based on its photo), and it seems to work the same if not better compare to F10 official BIOS. Both have similar issues with 4 sticks Corsair 8GB RAM though. The archive also includes the original F11d beta BIOS posted by Gigabyte.

[gto4ben]

Thanks for your explanation. Not sure what hardware differences are btw v1.0 and 1.1, but they might not be chipset related, and therefore the same BIOS should work in both mobo versions. Since you found the BIOS versions don't match, the differences might exist in F10 BIOS, while this released was based on F11d beta BIOS posted for some time on GB website and broadly referenced and modded on forums. GB removed it later likely cutting off development for older boards.

Anyway, the attached is the BIOS I currently run on V1.0 board (based on its photo), and it seems to work the same if not better compare to F10 official BIOS. Both have similar issues with 4 sticks Corsair 8GB RAM though. The archive also includes the original F11d beta BIOS posted by Gigabyte.

The following updates were made to your posted file.

ICH10R southbridge - v11.2.0.1527 with the TRIM mod
RTL8111C ethernet - rtegrom266.lom
SATA2 chip - j1.08.01
ICHAACHI 1.2 original from a EP45-USB3P
Updated NCPUCODE

[zamar26]

Thanks, will test now. Can you explain what ICHAACHI 1.2 is? I couldn't find it on Google. Do you know whether ICH10R Northbridge update exists? Would be nice to have it better support 8Gb of RAM, given the fact it should support 16Gb of RAM by specs, but I suspect it never did.

[gto4ben]

Thanks, will test now. Can you explain what ICHAACHI 1.2 is? I couldn't find it on Google. Do you know whether ICH10R Northbridge update exists? Would be nice to have it better support 8Gb of RAM, given the fact it should support 16Gb of RAM by specs, but I suspect it never did.

ICHAACHI1.2 is the standard I/O Controller Hub Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) used on these Gigabyte MBs. I added the "1.2" to indicate the revision.

The MCH (Master Controller Hub) is the northbridge. Intel has not released anything specific for it.
ICH10R is for the southbridge (I/O Controller Hub). The "R" indicates RAID capability.

This Eaglelake P45 chipset will indeed support 16GB of DRAM. The restriction is that it can only support 4GB per slot (4x4GB). I use four of the Patriot 2133 CL11 series. I tried 8GB per slot and it would not boot, probably because of how the 8GB address and data are arranged on the module. If the arrangement were compatible with the northbridge, it would simply ignore half of the capacity.

[zamar26]

May I ask, why do you think ASUS P5Q series supports Corsair 8GB RAM at 1066Mhz (I never had a single issue with Pro mobo for 4 years, though used a modded BIOS with this RAM added to the supported list), but GB EP45-UD3P doesn't? In both Mobo official BIOSes this RAM is unlisted, i.e. its recommended settings unknown. Can you decipher these RAM settings from the table looking at the attached below modded BIOS? Readme says, the guy replaced memory tables by Turbo and Premium once , and I think these memory tables contain optimal settings namely for Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5D, which were found by ASUS devs via multiple tests, which Gigabyte devs obviously didn't do. Can you amend or replace memory tables in a safe way, or at least add this RAM model and its optimal settings to Gigabyte existing RAM table? I'm certain based on 4-year running experience, the same P45 chipset will easily support 1066Mhz if proper settings are added for this RAM in the BIOS. For mobo makers, using different memory tables is just a way to sell higher priced mobo models.

I'm stuck with CPU 8 multiplier, so have to bump FSB frequency, and that's were RAM starts acting up above 900Mhz, despite CPU runs cool at OC 4Ghz compare to 2.66Ghz spec. As to supporting 16GB of RAM, did you read any positive experience of this posted anywhere for P45 chipset? I doubt it can do it stable in practice. ASUS forum mods said a few years back its unrealistic expectation.

[gto4ben]

May I ask, why do you think ASUS P5Q series supports Corsair 8GB RAM at 1066Mhz (I never had a single issue with Pro mobo for 4 years, though used a modded BIOS with this RAM added to the supported list), but GB EP45-UD3P doesn't? In both Mobo official BIOSes this RAM is unlisted, i.e. its recommended settings unknown. Can you decipher these RAM settings from the table looking at the attached below modded BIOS? Readme says, the guy replaced memory tables by Turbo and Premium once , and I think these memory tables contain optimal settings namely for Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5D, which were found by ASUS devs via multiple tests, which Gigabyte devs obviously didn't do. Can you amend or replace memory tables in a safe way, or at least add this RAM model and its optimal settings to Gigabyte existing RAM table? I'm certain based on 4-year running experience, the same P45 chipset will easily support 1066Mhz if proper settings are added for this RAM in the BIOS. For mobo makers, using different memory tables is just a way to sell higher priced mobo models.

I'm stuck with 8 multiplier for the CPU, so have to bump FSB frequency, and that's were RAM starts acting up above 900Mhz, despite CPU runs cool at 4Ghz compare to 2.66Mhz stock. As to supporting 16GB of RAM, did you read any positive experience of this posted anywhere for P45 chipset? I doubt it can do it stable in practice. ASUS forum mods said a few years back its unrealistic expectation.

These ASUS motherboards have AMI bios, not AWARD bios which Gigabyte uses. They use different bios tools which I'm not proficient in so I can't help in transplanting AWARD's  MINIT file which controls memory.

I double checked my GA-EP45-UD3P DDR2 machines and they are all 8GB DRAMs. ONLY my GA-EP45T-USB3 DDR3 DRAMs are 16GB. I mispoke if I said the GA-EP45-UD3P was 16GB. I also tried bumping up the speed on the DDR2 DRAMs a while back and could only increase it 10% before instabilities set in. Data corruption during writes to the HD was so bad, I had to wipe the drive and start over.  I guess my experience is the same as yours.

[zamar26]

May be you can hint of any BIOS guy who does both AMI and AWARD mods? I'm not familiar with guys who love and proficient to mod BIOS, but you probably know a lot more of them. Many folks still use P45 boards, and buy them off Ebay for replacement. Those Intel Quads overclock easily, and old Xeons are cheap, but RAM is the bottleneck. So everyone may benefit from using some ASUS RAM tables in old Gigabyte mobos, since 4GB RAM at 1066 is really very limited for today's tasks, so 8GB is a more realistic size but limits OC with instabilities above 900Mhz.

The reality is, only a few folks working for Mobo and RAM makers who understand all Mobo and RAM specs and settings extremely well, can jointly find optimal settings for Mobo and RAM combos. All this play on OC forums is just guessing, and most guys have no clue what they are changing, and how it may affect other pieces of the puzzle.  Of course some Mobo and RAM devs also play on forums for marketing and fun, and they might use in-house simulation software to optimize a number of settings.

Opps, found a report of someone running stable 16GB GSkill 800Mhz RAM at default settings on this board.

[zamar26]

gto4ben

I tested your last BIOS mode for v1.0 board, and so far it runs perfect. No issues, didn't try to further OC for now hopping to somehow get ASUS RAM table into this BIOS, or at least find out what exact voltages and other values it holds for Corsair RAM and related settings like MCH etc. It feels like PC runs notably faster with this BIOS, though I didn't do any benchmarks, being concerned of freezes due to high RAM frequency. But otherwise its just flying by, possibly due to faster AHCI disk access, internet adapter speed, and better CPU performance at the same clock. Do you think its possible to at least read these default Corsair RAM settings in the ASUS BIOS I posted? In that case we can enter them manually in Gigabyte BIOS, and may be your RAM will run faster too.

Thanks a lot for your pro BIOS updates!