Hi, has anyone tested this mainboard before?  Most of the recommended mainboard is either very expensive or out of stock in my place (Malaysia).

 

Appreciate any advice.

 

Thank you.

I'm using the GA-880GA-UD3H with no problems.  I did a quick check on the Gigabyte site and as best I can tell your board is the microATX version of mine (ATX).  The chipset and NIC are the same so I'd expect that you will have no problems either.  However you might want to do a more in depth comparison just to be sure.  If you have any specific questions about my board feel free to ask.

Thank you for the fast reply.  Appreciate it

 

I was thinking since the board has only 1 PCI Express x16 slot.  Will it work with AOC-SASLP-MV8 since it runs at x4?

According to the Gigabyte site the GA-880GM-UD2H has the following expansion slots:

1 x PCI

1 x PCI Express x1

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4

 

So you should be able to run two of the AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards in that board since all the card requires is a x4 slot or better.  Sometimes on Gigabyte MBs there are restrictions on the PCI Express slots like if you're running the x16 slot at x16 then the x4 slot is not available or runs at x1.  This is not mentioned on the website so perhaps you can use both slots simultaneously at their advertised speeds (x4 and x16).

 

FYI - I've never added an expansion card to my MB because it has 8 on-board SATA ports, so I can't comment on how well it would work but it seems that it is possible.

 

Hi,

 

There's not what I found out from Gigabyte website.  The GA-880GM-UD2H http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3635#sp has the following expansion slots.

 

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)

      (The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

2. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot

3. 2 x PCI slots

 

There's also no mentioning that the 1 PCI Express x16 slot will run at x8 or x4 though.

 

I am wondering still if I should get this board.  All other boards are just too expensive to buy. Those affordable ones are not available.

You are right, I was looking at the GA-880GMA-UD2H by mistake.  I apologize for misleading you.  So your board actually has a different chipset than mine (SB850 vs. SB710).  However my previous unRAID MB which was Gigabyte as well used a SB710 chipset just like this one and it worked flawlessly.  I've also used a Gigabyte board with a SB750 for unRAID as well BTW.

 

As far as putting a x4 card into the x16 slot I see no reason why you can't do this.  I don't think that the mfg would state that the x16 slot will run at x8, x4, or x1 speeds as well.  That's inherently implied by the x16 speed capability - i.e. x16 should support any card x16 and below.  Search the forum and you'll most likely find many instances of users putting a x4 card into the x16 slot and I'd bet that if you checked the manual for their MB that it does not mention that the x16 slot supports x4 operation.  Or check out the sites for the recommended boards you cannot get and I bet they do not specifically say that a x4 card will work in a x16 slot.  I personally would not worry about this but I'm not the one buying the board so if you want to be sure then send a message to Gigabyte and ask them.

 

Another thing to be aware of is the HPA issue with Gigabyte boards.  Search the forums and you'll find lots of discussion about this.  Bottom line is that most newer boards from Gigabyte do not have this problem anymore but just wanted you to be aware.  I checked the manual (the correct one this time) and your MB BIOS setting for this is just like mine.  This is what is says in the Advanced BIOS Features section (pg. 47) ...

 

Backup BIOS Image to HDD

Allows the system to copy the BIOS image file to the hard drive. If the system BIOS is corrupted, it will be recovered from this image file. (Default: Disabled)

 

That means that it will not write a BIOS backup to the HDD unless you change that setting.  If you enable this feature then you are in for a bunch of trouble.  So the good news is that as long as you don't mess with that parameter you are safe.  Older Gigabyte boards did not have the ability to disable this feature and it would cause problems in unRAID.  If you decide on another Gigabyte board then check the manual for this setting before buying it.

 

Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for your input, really appreciate it a lot.

 

I think I'll go ahead and get the board since other boards are either too expensive or not available.

 

I might just check out other stores see if ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO is available too just in case.  It's about RM100 (USD30) difference with this Gigabyte mainboard.

 

Cheers.

I have rev 3.1 of this board and I cannot seem to get it to boot from flash USB.  The same flash that worked in an older rig is failing.  I have also read this MOBO wont boot off anything other than exFAT formatted drives and sure enough I can see it in the boot menu as exFat but not fat.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

-sam