Any news on US release date for Gigabyte GA-X99M-Gaming 5?

Got my board today, here's a mini-review / first impressions:

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Is a box


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Love how this board looks :cool:


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Accessories: Manual, quickstart guide, driver disk, SLI connector, IO shield, stickers, and 4 Sata cables


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Rear connectors, that small bracket to the right of the audio jacks is for mounting WiFi antennas


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Sata connectors, note the single Sata Express connector there in the middle


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Top view, full size (3000 x 2850) here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/emwgxamcwtzdwve/Gigabyte-X99M-Gaming-5-top.jpg


Gigabyte-X99M-Gaming-5-bottom-small.jpg

Backside, cause why not. View full size (3000 x 2861) here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/29ecm79ccu07avs/Gigabyte-X99M-Gaming-5-bottom.jpg


My custom case isn't done yet so I replaced my EVGA X99 Micro on the test bench:

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Love that the CPU socket is higher up on the motherboard, on the EVGA the socket is too close to the top PCIe slot so I couldn't use my Noctua C12


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The bottom of the RAM slots don't have clips so removing the RAM doesn't require removing the top video card, unlike the EVGA :rolleyes:


Gigabyte-X99M-Gaming-5-Build-rear-IO.jpg

Unfortunately Gigabyte went with the Killer NIC on this board so I used the empty middle slot for a real NIC :p


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Lookin good


Gigabyte-X99M-Gaming-5-desk.jpg

Almost there, just need a proper desk, second monitor, and my case :D


Overall I'm really liking this board so far, I think this is the best choice for mATX X99 currently available, much better than the EVGA I was using. Especially the CPU socket and RAM slot placement makes it much easier to work with.

I'm also really happy that the USB DAC-up feature works, my Schiit Modi is intermittent on an Asus Z87 Impact and completely unuseable on the EVGA but seems to work fine on the Gigabyte, I only tested for half an hour though so we'll see if it's stable in the long run.

Sadly only the CPU fan header is actually PWM, all the other fan headers are voltage control only :(

Speaking of the CPU fan connector, it's awkwardly placed between the socket and the top PCIe slot, making it somewhat difficult to get to with a large air cooler and video card installed. I'd rather have it along the top edge of the board where it usually goes.

And speaking of badly placed connectors, it's such a waste that Gigabyte went to the trouble of wiring up the bottom slot for PCIe 3.0 x8 (unlike the ASRock boards) so it's useable for spaced SLI like I'm doing but then placed both USB 3.0 headers along the bottom edge rendering them worthless to me.


I'll try overclocking this weekend, I didn't have time today.
 
I like this board!

But I'd install a m.2 wifi card in it. My only question is where do you find the antenna's or adapters from small (if anybody knows the name please tell) to normal sized (again names please) antenna wires?
 
Sky15 said:
Can't wait, I get mine probably Monday!
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Same here, mine is coming Monday also. Then I have to test it and slowly get all the water cooling parts and case put together. If only I had more time, I sense its going to be a multiple week project. Also trying to remodel a house and work full time, so we will see.
 
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I still have to find the time to build my system, I did get the board in though. I have a WC setup, so it may take some time.
 
i ordered the board and the other fixings this afternoon. should have it all by friday. i'll post my thoughts/overclocking results this weekend probably, if anyone else is on the fence.
 
alright, so i've got my build together. looks great. i'll post some pictures later. i am however, having issues already. got windows installed just fine (8.1), get to desktop, pop in driver cd.. pc shuts completely off. hm, alright. power button isn't doing much, so i switched to secondary bios.. started okay, but again, same problem :confused:

pretty strange. won't boot back up without a cmos reset. memtest came back fine after two passes. appears to just be a windows issue. thinking this is some random setting in the bios somewhere? has anyone experienced anything like this on x99, or this board in particular? save me some time! hah.
 
Aibohphobia said:
Shuts off and stays off? If so sounds like either overheating or PSU issue.
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hah.. yeah.. turns out, 24 pin wasn't entirely seated on the psu :cool: get so worked up trying to calculate all the possibilities, you sometimes forget to go back and check out the basics..
 
tacos4me said:
hah.. yeah.. turns out, 24 pin wasn't entirely seated on the psu :cool: get so worked up trying to calculate all the possibilities, you sometimes forget to go back and check out the basics..
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Been there, done that ;)

Glad it was something simple and not an issue with the board.
 
i've settled at 4.6ghz (5820k) with an offset of +0.245v. 1.35v under load. temps around 65c with an h105. stable so far, still testing a bit. i was getting random freezes, regardless of voltage.. ended up disabling cstates, and that solved it, so i'll be watching for a bios update i suppose.

good board, no serious complaints here.
 
i will add, i can't get my x-fi titanium hd working in anything other than the x1 slot, which isn't going to fly as that means a stupid hot gpu running at x8. card is lit up, but not detected in windows, in all full size pcie slots. i'm not going to blame the board, because i do know these x-fi cards are notorious for things like this :rolleyes: still though, sucks. i had my entire audio setup designed around the card.
 
I know the EVGA X99 boards have issues with those cards and sometimes changing the slot from 3.0 to 2.0 in the BIOS fixes it.
 
Aibohphobia said:
I tried overclocking mine by following a guide for the Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1.

Ran 4.5GHz on my 5930K for 30 minutes in Aida64 with no issue.

There's a guy on OCN who's got a build going with this board but it doesn't look like it's up and running yet: http://www.overclock.net/t/1529935/build-log-powder-keg
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You'll want to use something that tests AVX2 (i.e. latest build of Prime95) to truly test your OC. On my EVGA X99 Micro I had my first OC attempt (4.3 GHz) work great for almost 8 hours of AIDA64 stability test - then fail almost immediately in Prime95. I'm dialed back to 4.2 GHz for now with low voltage. 4.3 GHz has problems even with higher voltage...not looking good there (5930K/H110).

I "inherited" my EVGA X99 Micro (bought it used as a complete build and tore it down) but I'm pretty happy with it. The only negative for me has been having to remove the USB front header when you do SLI.
 
Looks like a sweet board! What's the ETA on your case, Aibohphobia? And what is that bench that you're using?

I'm not sure I'd even go micro ATX if it weren't for getting such a great deal on this used EVGA X99 Micro. I'm missing not being able to tri-SLI. :) Maybe I'll buy another board down the line. I'll surely get bored soon.
 
this seems to be the first result on google for any information regarding this board.. so i'll be keep updating this with my troubles, hah.

at this point, i'm kinda on the fence about this board. has the same quirky gigabyte issues i've always had with their stuff.
  • bios settings get cleared on cold boot 3/4ths of the time (on an otherwise 100% stable overclock), have to enter and save again.
  • on reboot from windows, it'll completely shutdown, start up with max fan speeds to complete POST, then reboot itself normally (wtf? hah).
  • going into, and then resuming from sleep will clear all overclock settings. no bueno. EDIT: this seems to be fixed by removing the gigabyte utilities (which suck). probably had some conflict there.
  • cstates are completely broken, at least for me. win 8.1 and 7 become choppy, and 100% unusable with them enabled.
  • x99 platform does not like sound cards. at all.
about those sound cards.. there is most definitely a major issue with the x99 platform and them. i've looked just about everywhere and tried just about everything. asus, gigabyte, evga.. all having problems with creative and asus sound cards.

some have said switching pcie slots to gen 1/2 worked, others have said booting up, and then entering sleep mode got their cards working. nothing has worked on this board for my xfi. i'd be interested to hear if anyone else with this board can get a sound card working in any of the full size slots.

all that being said, i do realize this is a completely new platform and board (and memory spec). dealing with this crap is just one of the pains of being an early(ish) adopter. i'm going to hold out, and hope gigabyte has a magical bios that fixes all my problems coming out early 2015.
 
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sk3tch, got the case. You can see the board mounted inside here: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041334712&postcount=623

tacos4me said:
  • bios settings get cleared on cold boot 3/4ths of the time (on an otherwise 100% stable overclock), have to enter and save again.
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I got this a lot at first but I updated to the beta BIOS and it doesn't seem to happen nearly as often now.


  • on reboot from windows, it'll completely shutdown, start up with max fan speeds to complete POST, then reboot itself normally (wtf? hah).
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Every now and then I get this but it's pretty infrequent.


  • cstates are completely broken, at least for me. win 8.1 and 7 become choppy, and 100% unusable with them enabled.
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What's the symptoms for this?


Any good fan control software that works with these boards? The controls in the BIOS are useless.
 
I was experiencing the same problems with the board, with the exception of the C-state issue. It seemed to refuse the save my OC settings most of the time.

Where did you find the beta BIOS, I did not see it on Gigabyte's website?
 
Aibohphobia said:
What's the symptoms for this?
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boots into windows fine, but the second you put any serious cpu load on it, windows goes into slideshow mode (<1 FPS) and will eventually just completely lock up, requiring a hard reset.

raidflex said:
I was experiencing the same problems with the board, with the exception of the C-state issue. It seemed to refuse the save my OC settings most of the time.

Where did you find the beta BIOS, I did not see it on Gigabyte's website?
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i see that it's listed here on the tweaktown forums. is this the one you grabbed, Aibohphobia?
 
it's a bit plasticy. window scratches way too easily. pci retention bracket does a terrible job of keeping things in place. those are my only complaints though. great to build with. lots of room to hide/route stuff. temps with that h105 in there are awesome. i'd buy it again.
 
The beta BIOS did help. I still noticed that the system shuts off when rebooting often, although not as much as before I upgraded the BIOS. I guess these are the growing pains of a new board/platform. It does seem there are quite a few issues, I do not remember having this many issues with the X58 platform. which I had purchased right when it came out. I suspect these newer UEFI BIOS's complicate things much more, thus more potential for issues.
 
finally got around to flashing that beta bios. indeed it does help with the reboot/cold start weirdness. was hoping to see my xfi magically start working, alas, it has not. gigabyte hasn't been at all helpful with figuring that out, they didn't have one on hand so they pretty much told me to fuck off.

C-states still cause windows to eventually grind to a halt under load. EIST is fine, but with all the other states turned on it will do this. not sure what the conflict with that is, i've wiped and installed fresh and still the same deal. going to remain disabled.
 
just fyi. bios F3 is officially released and available on gigabyte's website. i'll download later and have some time to check it out, hopefully.
 
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