Motherboard PCI-E version woes

[Athawolfus]

Hey guys

I'm going to do a Windows reinstall so I'm downloading necessary drivers in advance. The problem is that: my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R with a LGA 775 socket bought in April 2008, and I don't know its PCI-E revision version. There are three different drivers for different versions on the Gigabyte website.

I guess it's probably v1.1 but how can I make sure? It doesn't say on the board itself.

 

[trickson]

Strange it should say it on the board some where . Do you have the box ?

 

[cheesy999]

Hey guys

I'm going to do a Windows reinstall so I'm downloading necessary drivers in advance. The problem is that: my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R with a LGA 775 socket bought in April 2008, and I don't know its PCI-E revision version. There are three different drivers for different versions on the Gigabyte website.

I guess it's probably v1.1 but how can I make sure? It doesn't say on the board itself.

I thought you didn't need drivers for pci-e, this is news to me, they have a PCi-E, lan driver which i would assume is the onboard Ethernet, if you don't know then download all 3 and see which one works

if you really want to know your motherboards revision this should tell you http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

 

[mlee49]

Nearly every Gigabyte motherboard has the revision number on the lower left corner of the board. It's like the 1st thing in the manual.

Also, read the manual it helps.


Link to manual download:

http://us.test.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/Manual_Model.aspx?ProductID=2631&ver=#anchor_os

Picture from page 3

 

[erixx]

So if after some time, I forget the version PLUS on their shitty website they dont' tell you shit to differentiate them versions, you have to climb into the case and look at the mobo? I put one into my mothers pc, let's pray, LOL, OMFG

Gigabyte doesn't stop to amaze me, I can't stand them, no no no.

 

[mlee49]

So if after some time, I forget the version PLUS on their shitty website they dont' tell you shit to differentiate them versions, you have to climb into the case and look at the mobo? I put one into my mothers pc, let's pray, LOL, OMFG

Gigabyte doesn't stop to amaze me, I can't stand them, no no no.

Let me get this straight, you dont like Gigabyte because of their revision number placement? Not just that but because they dont tell you the difference between revisions either?

This judgment is simply childish. Gigabyte does offer a link to the different revisions of each motherboard directly under the board's model number(its right next to the picture). Why does Gigabyte owe you explanation between revisions?

 

[trickson]

LOL this is just to silly for me .

 

[Bo$$]

They are Generation 2 ports, and top runs at X16 and the second is at X4

 

[cyriene]

The revision number is on the box and the board itself. How much more difficult could i be?

 

[Athawolfus]

Call me stupid, but I can't find it on the board. It's not there. Maybe v1.0 boards do not have it? CPU-Z and Pc Wizard also show the version number simply as x.x, there is no info.

Also, the thing about PCI-E motherboards not needing any drivers, is that true?

 

[scaminatrix]

No you're talkin about the PCB revision number, not the PCI-E revision number.

Either way, it doesn't matter, there's absolutely no difference between the drivers for different versions.

Same with the BIOS'es. There's no difference between the BIOS for rev. 2.1, 2.0 or 1.x.

Download the drivers for your board and update the BIOS or whatever, whilst ignoring the revision number.

 

[Athawolfus]

No you're talkin about the PCB revision number, not the PCI-E revision number.

Either way, it doesn't matter, there's absolutely no difference between the drivers for different versions.

Same with the BIOS'es. There's no difference between the BIOS for rev. 2.1, 2.0 or 1.x.

Download the drivers for your board and update the BIOS or whatever, whilst ignoring the revision number.

Alright, thanks man. Gigabyte has different pages for the drivers of different revisions, but I noticed that the driver files seem to be all the same.

On a side note, Speccy gives the "chipset revision" of the motherboard as A2. What's this?

 

[scaminatrix]

It's also not important, but to answer your question; it's hard to tell as motherboards have multiple chipsets on them.

 

[Athawolfus]

Wait, one more thing: I did the Windows install and everything seems to be fine. The "motherboard driver" I downloaded turned out to be Intel Chipset Device Software (Intel INF) and a Beta version at that. What does this software do and do I need it? Thanks for bearing with me

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

yes you need it its the mobos drivers the pciex chipset drivers etc

 

[overclocking101]

most early P35's used 1.1 slots, just before X38 was released they changed them all to 2.0 because it was in the chipsets capability but it was originally planned to leave P35's with 1.1's and put 2.0's on X38's but it would'nt have made financial sense. I remember reading an article about it beacause I got into pc's around the time P35 was launched. ill try to find the article but I doubt I will be able to this was 4+ yrs ago. 1.1 and 2.0 are not that different really just a little more bandwidth but unless you rock a dual gpu card or sli you wont really notice any difference