GigaByte mobo i/o shield Lan ports are shut?

[Chris K]

Hi,

Trying to build a new box with a GigaByte mobo. The holes in the i/o shield are all open exept for the two Lan ports. The board has two Lan ports so I think I've gotten the wrong shield. I can bend them up to open them but like to know if it perhaps has another purpose?

Some advice will be much appreciated.

Chris

[disturbed1]

That's just Gigabyte letting you know that onboard NICs are crap

Those I/O shields are mass produced from a single die to fit many different models. Someone at the factory forgot to punch the holes out. Just punch out the blanks you need. These should be completely removed, leaving one of the edges connected may cause chafing on adjacent wires.

[redwudz]

Actually they are shipped closed to keep the height of the package that contains the I/0 adapter down. Just bend them inward before installing the MB so they make contract with the metal sides of the LAN connector. I've installed a GB motherboard before and forgot to bend them in. Then you have to remove the MB and bend them, then reinstall it.

And I've never had any complaints about the GB onboard NICs. My newer GB MB has a Realtek RTL8168 NIC.

[Chris K]

Thanks both for the reply.

Just bend them inward before installing the MB so they make contract with the metal sides of the LAN connector.

Yeah! I've seen that done with other i/o shields without having to bend them inside up. That's why I wondered if that was their purpose.

I have another question which one of you maybe can answer. I'm not new to building my own system but it's an aweful long time ago and there's so much changed .

My mobo is a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P and has a 8 pins and a 24 pins power connector. My PSU came with a 20+4 pins section and a conector labeled 8 pin pci express (split up in a 6+2 pins section). It's an 500 watt Antec. I have no idea where the latter is fore because it dont fit in the 8 pins connector of the mobo.

Now my question is; do I have the wrong PSU for this board or is it adequate to only connect the 20+4 pins to the main connector of the mobo? The Gigabyte manual is very confusing about this, talking about removing protective covers which are not there at all.

[redwudz]

Yes, that's a newer MB that uses a 8 pin CPU power connector. You can get an adapter for a 4>8 pin PS connector and it should work fine. It you don't have the 4 pin PS connector either, then time for a new PS. As you noticed, the PCI-E connector is the wrong one. It's for video cards.

It would be surprising that a PS that has a PCI-E power connector wouldn't also have a 4 pin CPU power connector. The four pin and the 8 pin CPU connector are basically the same. They duplicate the wires and the socket pins to spread the load and keep from overheating the connector sockets. A 500W PS is usually sufficient for most PCs unless you are using SLI or dual SLI, which can draw a lot of power.

I should mention that you should be able to plug a existing 4 pin CPU PS connector into a 8 pin CPU socket. It should have the proper orientation, but I would check it before proceeding. Better to use the adapter or get a PS with the 8 pin connector already there.

With very new CPUs, maybe better to get a 8 pin complaint PS, then you may have less problems in the end. They tend to use a lot of power.

One last note: The PC is unlikely to operate at all without out at least a 4 pin CPU connector plugged in, besides the 24 pin. Newer MBs use a higher voltage for CPU supply and regulate it down to the CPU voltage on the motherboard. Much more stable that way.

[budz]

IMHO safer to just buy a new power supply that has a 8 pin power connector.

[redwudz]

I would agree. If you consider the power supply is the most important device on a new PC, having a good one can make a difference. I can tell you from sad experience, when a PS dies, it can take the whole PC with it. No survivors. When you pay $200US for a CPU and another $100 for a MB, don't scrimp on a cheap PS. You don't normally need a 700W+ PS, that's overkill unless you are interested in dual SLI or something else that has a huge power draw. 500W is a happy medium most times. JMO.

[Chris K]

I bought the PSU new for this setup but not from the same store. It's a Antec Earthwatts EA-500D.

I've now noticed that from the 6+2 connector leads that are marked "8 pin PCI express", the 6 pin connector is tapped to another 6 pin connector marked PS3. This one fits in the 8 pin connector of the mobo if I put it in the right position.

I guess the best to do is contact the store where I bought the PSU and clearly point to the mobo I need it for.

[disturbed1]

Actually they are shipped closed to keep the height of the package that contains the I/0 adapter down. Just bend them inward before installing the MB so they make contract with the metal sides of the LAN connector. I've installed a GB motherboard before and forgot to bend them in. Then you have to remove the MB and bend them, then reinstall it.

And I've never had any complaints about the GB onboard NICs. My newer GB MB has a Realtek RTL8168 NIC.

I was thinking it was an issue with the blanks not being pushed out not prongs.

For normal everyday use Realtek's are ok. Once you start shuffling real data across a beefy network, these things choke. Not to mention their poor support of jumbo frames, and over heating issues once RX/TX checksumming is enabled for extended periods of time. I guess they'd be OK for light tasks like surfing.

We currently have in use 12 Gigabyte's (x58's, P45's, G45's, 780's and 790's) with RTL's, along with a few Biostar P45/G45's and some Asus boards that use ATL chips. Not to mention the ones retired, sold, upgraded, commissioned for others .... I've personally had a fair deal of experience with Realtek nics from their 10m (pre 10/100) to recent 10G (post consumer Gigabit) - while talking directly to Realtek R&D. Though I will concede Realtek makes a better chip than Attansic (or Broadcom ), they still pale in comparison to Intel Pro cards. This reminds me of another thread were someone that had experience with one or 2 ISPs was able to conjure summation for all of the nation and infer because of their experience with such a limited exposure it must be true

Our Gigabyte's all use RTL811xx's, perhaps that's the difference? The R8169 is a slightly better chip if you can find one with a heatsink to get around the over heating issue.

Here's a few links to Gigabyte's website for specs -
http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&...e=GA-EP45-DS3L
Realtek 8111C chips (10/100/1000 Mbit)

http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&...A-EX58-EXTREME
2 x Realtek 8111D chips (10/100/1000 Mbit)

http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&...A-MA790GP-UD4H
Realtek 8111C chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Which Gigabyte board do you have the uses the R8168?

[Chris K]

I think I've found what I need. The PSU also has two 4 pins connectors with yellow and black leads (12v). These can be joined to an 8 pins connector which fits in the mobo's 8 pins connector .

Thanks to all for the the help! I really needed an update to todays technology . My latest box was (still is) a Athlon XP 2000+ running on a 200 watt psu.

[budz]

I think I've found what I need. The PSU also has two 4 pins connectors with yellow and black leads (12v). These can be joined to an 8 pins connector which fits in the mobo's 8 pins connector .

Thanks to all for the the help! I really needed an update to todays technology . My latest box was (still is) a Athlon XP 2000+ running on a 200 watt psu.

About 4 1/2 years ago I did the same thing with a antec ps too. I didn't notice the 4pin could be attached to make it a 24 pin.

[redwudz]

disturbed1, sorry I was wrong. I had looked at the Device Manager and it listed it as a R8169, but Gigabyte says its a 8111C. But I do have a handful of Intel Pro NICs that I also use on my Gigabit LAN. Both those and the Realtek perform about the same for me. I do get transfer rates with the Realtek up to about 85MB/s, though it usually drops down after a couple of minutes to about 75MB/s.

Chris K, sounds like you have it under control. Should be a nice PC after you're done. Undoubtedly a big improvement over Athlon 2000+.

[lacywest]

Talking about I/O shields ... I ... a few years ago ... bought 3 ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboards. Only one had a I/O shield ... the other 2 didn't come with them. Well ... I decided to do a search on Ebay again ... I looked and looked ... just about gave up. And then ... there they were. I tried some different key words and a guy has 3 types of I/O shields to choose ... just one ... from the three he has. The one I was looking for was there.

Description:
This is a brand new I O plate, auction for one I O shield only, please picks the correct one you want, Email me if you need any additional items or the I O plates is not for your Motherboard. Combine shipping is available.
· 1 x Ps/2 KB. 1 x Ps/2 Port
· 1 x Parallel Port
· 2 x Serial or Video Port
· 4 or 6 x USB Ports , 1 x 10/100 NIC
· Audio Port

Please indicate the top one, middle one or bottom one of picture when pay with Paypal.

Ebay item ... 230436005663 Ebay Webpage >>> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230436005663

I have 3 AMD 939 CPUs 3500+ and 3 AMD 939 X2 ... 2.2 MHZ

Systems built with these ... run just fine. For my needs.