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I already had an identical board in my #1 PC. I wanted another for my older backup PC that had become a bit sick. I like this board because it can use either DDR2 or DDR3 RAM, supports RAID and has 6 SATA ports under control of the Intel chipset as well as 2 additional SATA ports under control of a Gigabyte chip. It also has a legacy parallel printer port. What I didn't know and what no site on the Internet I could find explained is if one installs a CPU to the board that the BOARD is CAPABLE of supporting but is not included in the BIOS revision on the board the BIOS will not POST, will not beep or display video. In other words it PLAYS DEAD. Without a live connection there is no way to update the BIOS to a higher revision that will recognize the CPU and come alive. So when I tried to start up new boxed Intel Q9500 CPU installed to the board having a BIOS that the previous owner had found no reason/need to update every indication was that I had purchased a board that was DOA. Gigabyte Technical Support was of no help in solving the problem in spite of dialog between us lasting a week. (I've suggested a new FAQ to them). I did find a company named BIOS Depot in San Jose, CA that could supply a BIOS with the latest code (F12) for a reasonable price but it would require that I unsolder the existing surface mounted BIOS from the board and solder the replacement BIOS in its place, an operation I preferred to avoid if possible. The thought finally occurred to me that incompatibility between the CPU and the revision level of the BIOS might cause the BIOS to play dead although I had not seen this possibility documented anywhere. So in desperation I completely backed up my #1 PC. Then after inserting a DOS boot disk containing the BIOS update program and the code for revision F12 into the floppy drive I started the PC. At the DOS A: prompt I entered the command to execute the flash program followed by a space followed by the name of the new F12 revision BIOS code file. The BIOS flash performed flawlessly. Then I shut the PC down, removed the old Intel Q6600 CPU and replaced it with the new Intel Q9500 CPU I had just purchased. The #1 PC then started up and ran perfectly including its existing two RAID arrays. Then I installed the old Intel Q6600 CPU into the board I had purchased here on auction. Now that the BIOS on the board encountered a CPU it recognized it POSTED and using the F9 key I could see that the BIOS was set to revision F2. I allowed it to boot into the same DOS boot disk, ran the BIOS update and received another flawless flash. Since I actually preferred to have the newer more capable CPU in the #1 PC I had no reason to swap the respective CPU's back but I am confident that either of them will now run on either board. So if you plan to sell such a Gigabyte board on eBay you will do a favor for yourself and your customer if you flash the BIOS up to the latest revision as found on the Gigabyte site for the specific board/Rev# under Downloads/Support/BIOS before you disassemble a running CPU from a running board. If you purchase a board on eBay that appears to be DEAD I suggest that you try to obtain an older CPU to boot it to that was on the boards original support list and flash it up to the latest BIOS revision from a DOS boot disk before concluding that the seller has sold you junk and/or kicking the cat. I hope this can lead to additional successful Gigabyte motherboard transactions on eBay.Read full review
Needed this for an exact replacement. This filled the need. BIOS was old version. When update attempted, it died. Moved BIOS chip from original failed board, worked great! I recommend adding an internal fan of some type to stir up the air in a tower case to reduce temp.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I'm not sure what the other reviewer was talking about, something being bad, but this board worked perfect and @ $50.00 + $15.00 shipping for the board with all the extras was a great value. I would have paid $75 or $80 for it, as it was the same board that went bad in the customers computer. A fast change of boards and few ticks in the bios and the computer was up and running like it was before the power surge. Gigabyte, MSI are some of the best low cost boards out there.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned