GA-EP45T-USB3P rev1.0 for 3TB drives

[gto4ben]

If anyone is interested, I updated the GA-EP45T-USB3P rev 1.0 F2 BIOS with the latest Intel OROM 12.5.0.1815. and I'm testing it with RST 12.5.0.1066. After one day of testing, boots and sleeps fine. C1E and EIST was enabled in the BIOS but was inactive in windows till I physically performed a CLEAR BIOS on the MB, loaded the optimal defaults in the BIOS, and changed VCORE in the MIT from AUTO to NORMAL. CPU temperatures dropped from 49C to 33C with the core voltage idling at 1.1V vs the 1.34V

ICH10R southbridge - v12.5.0.1815
8111D ethernet - rtegrom253.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

Station drivers has firmware updates for the NEC/RENESAS USB3 Controller uPD720200 (3028 and 3034). Original is 3021. If anyone updated the USB3 firmware, please let me know how that worked out

[gto4ben]

If anyone is interested, I also updated the above GA-EP45T-USB3P rev 1.0 F2 BIOS with the latest Intel OROM 12.6.0.1867. and I'm testing it with RST 12.6.0.1028. Also included is the new Realtek 8111D rtegrom 2.54. After one day of testing, boots fine. No issues so far. RST 12.6.0.1028 not only has Link power management but the added the ability to enable Dynamic Storage Accelerator. Although this feature was not intended for this board, it does not appear to hurt. I gained a small percentage improvement on my RAID0. As before, the performance tab makes it easy to review your cache and link power management settings.

ICH10R southbridge - v12.6.0.1867
8111D ethernet - rtegrom254.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

[gto4ben]

Here's a update with the latest Intel RAID OROM and Realtek ethernet OROM for the GA-EP45T-USB3P rev1.0.
Use Intel's RST version 12.8.6.1000. I found it to be very stable with this OROM.

ICH10R southbridge - v12.7.0.1936
8111D ethernet - rtegrom257.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

BTW: I confirmed this MB can accept 16GB of DDR3 memory.

[gto4ben]

I confirmed that GA-EP45T-USB3P is capable of implementing CrossfireX, if the correct driver is used. I installed two Diamond AMD HD 7870 Model #7870PE52GDD video cards and I got the "Crossfire Not Enabled" bug for almost all drivers in existence. I tried solutions discussed on the web such as alternating card installations, removing remnants of the drivers, substituting the bridge cable, etc. all to no avail.

The driver that worked was from Gigabyte's GV-R787OC-2GD or GV-R797TO-3GD, version 8.982. The CCC describes this as Driver Packaging Version 8.982-120727a-145315C-ATI, AMD Catalyst version 13.9

It is not a bios problem or bios setting issue.

[gto4ben]

For those interested in something bleeding edge but working:
ICH10R southbridge - v13.1.0.2030
8111D ethernet - rtegrom258.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

System booted up with the RST 12 series as well as the latest RST 13.0.0.1072 beta & 13.0.0.1098.

[ngr2001]

Here's a update with the latest Intel RAID OROM and Realtek ethernet OROM for the GA-EP45T-USB3P rev1.0.
Use Intel's RST version 12.8.6.1000. I found it to be very stable with this OROM.

ICH10R southbridge - v12.7.0.1936
8111D ethernet - rtegrom257.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

BTW: I confirmed this MB can accept 16GB of DDR3 memory.

I have the same motherboard "GA-EP45T-USB3P rev1.0" I went with this bios post and can confirm so far its working great. Props to the author. I now have a 3TB Raid setup working great. I can also confirm everything is working great with the latest Intel RST drivers 12.9.0.1001

Thanks so much, I have a new love for this motherboard again.

[gto4ben]

You're welcome.

There's a quirk with my QX9770 and this MB in that the CPU is always running full bore and not using the HALT state. Other CPUs may exhibit similar behavior with resultant higher CPU temps. The fix is to go into the bios' MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) and under CPU VCORE, change it from AUTO to NORMAL. You may find that your temps will be lower.

[gto4ben]

There's a version of INTEL's RAID OROM that is modified to work on older chipsets
(as far back as P35 series) that allows TRIM to be enabled in RAID0. I updated the GA-EP45T-USB3P F2 bios with this and although I do not have an SSD to take advantage of this capability, I experienced no detrimental effects. with my RAID0 and RAID5 setups using conventional SATA drives.

ICH10R southbridge - v13.1.9.2030x universal mod for TRIM
8111D ethernet - rtegrom259.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

[gto4ben]

There's are several updates that may be of interest to folks wanting to get their MB bios current in addition to reading >3TB HDs.

The first is trim for SSDs on older chipsets like the P45.
The second is to install Xeon processors (LGA771) using a sticker into a LGA775 MB

For the second one, Gigabyte MBs have the microcodes already in the bios; however, it is outdated. The methods available on the web instruct one to append an existing NCPUCODE. This causes two versions of the microcode to exist in the bios so during boot, the older one gets read first and the newer ignored, unless the MB comes out of sleep mode (for reasons unknown). Using intel's microcode download, I have updated NCPUCODE to be current so SSE4.1 and VT-x is recognized. This was checked out on a QX9770, X5492, E8600 and a Q9650.

In addition, I added the jmb362_C_1.07.05 and ICHAACHI 1.2 original which bring up a screen at boot. This may help AHCI detection issues that some folks were having.

I downselected the Intel RAID to the latest 12 series since some folks had some issues with the 13 series.

Note: you'll still need to set VCORE from AUTO to NORMAL in the BIOS to get the MB to properly change the core voltage for power savings and thermal reduction.

I'm attaching a modified F2 bios' for GA-EP45T-USB3 rev 1.0 with the following updates:

ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod
8111 ethernet - rtegrom259.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.05
ICHAACHI 1.2 original from a EP45-USB3P
Updated NCPUCODE

[gto4ben]

Minor updates:
ICH10R southbridge - v12902006 with the TRIM mod
8111 ethernet - rtegrom260.lom
SATA2 chip - 1.07.28
ICHAACHI 1.2 original from a EP45-USB3P
Updated NCPUCODE (uses Intel 771/775 microcode-20140913)