P35C-DS3R Random Issues

[Ararat]

Hi, I purchased the P35C-DS3R 2 days ago, and have had quite a few very annoying issues to this point.
Firstly, it simply refused to boot at the beginning, and took hours of coaxing to even POST. Now, I have the OS installed, and most things up and running (can't complain about the performance), however there are still some problems that are irritating the hell out of me.

1) Program crashes cause BSOD's. I hate this, and it simply won't do. WCPUID (which admittedly doesn't seem to work properly on 2 of my computers which I have tested on), instead of simply failing to run, sends me to blue hell. Secondly, running 3dMark installation programs over the network gives BSOD's (but when i copy it over and run it locally, it's ok). These problems simply didn't exist with my previous board (AsRock 775Dual-VSTA). All other components are carried over.

2) Secondly, I bought (Samsung) DDR2-800 (which here in Australia is considered quite fast, as 1066 doesn't seem to be anywhere) to give myself some OC'ing headroom (because my AsRock wouldn't go ANYWHERE). However this stupid (supposedly MIB with the I being intelligent) Gigabyte board doesn't offer me the option of 1:1 memory divider. It aparently is supposed to automatically adjust the divider to best match the FSB speed, but just used the SPD anyway... (and thus trying to give me a fantastical '1200MHz' on my 800 rated RAM when I go to 400MHz). Secondly, even when I take over the divider myself, the lowest I can get is '2.5 multiplier', which i assume is gigabyte talk for a 5:4 divider. wtf? what if I had put in DDR2-533? Shall it overclock my RAM by default? Isn't the option of a 1:1 divider a MUST for a supposedly overclocking motherboard? How do I get past this? (I would think 400 would be an easy target for my E6300). Secondly, the board complains if I don't switch voltage control over to it when oc'ing. Can I really trust it too boost the voltage as needed (if needed).
Taking a look at CPU-Z shows a fluctuating core voltage while at stock speeds (I assume this is normal, as some power saving feature, should I turn this off?). ATM, the most I have successfully got to is 320 odd (leaving voltages to the board), and at that speed, Prime 95 encountered an error about 20 minutes into the torture test. What should I do, take the mobo back?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Ararat]

OK, got it stable at 320 (haven't yet tried higher since this was stable, mainly due to the memory divider). It seems that gigabyte's automatic voltage control doesn't do squat, so I raised the voltage manually to 1.4V (the mobo can complain all it wants, but it isn't doing the job).

Also, the BSOD's seem specific to some programs, and some situations. But they don't seem to widespread. Games seem to run fine (which is the 2nd most important thing), and encoding seems to be stable (which is the most important thing to me) albeit not as quick as I want given the underwhelming OC.

 

[NaDa]

Yup mate gigabyte makes strange mobos.
I purchased the P35-DS3P and for the first two weeks it gave me hell.

I can set the ram divider down to 1:1 but I had trouble booting at that divider. After a week I relized I had one stick of ram gone bad (kingmax DDR2 800). After the rma everything works perfectly.

I can testify it's a strange mobo and at first it won't overclock to where you want it but one morning you wake up and tweak up the bios just a bit more and it finaly works. Good luck mate

 

[NaDa]

What about your PCI-E frequency did you leave it at automatic or set to 100. I have read on some forum it's just best to leave at automatic.

 

[Ararat]

i left all frequencies at normal, only playing with the ram frequencies because i HAVE to. if it let me run 'aynchronously' and set them seperately, it'd be great. or if it would run them absolutely synchronous, great again. but i don't have the option of the 1:1 divider. (did your board have it from the start?). do you think i should take the chance that they will add it into the bios, or should i take it back and swap it for the P35-DS3R? Or even the Pro? Or is there another way to do it? Prices are pretty similar for the boards. $189 for the DS3-R, $199 for the C-DS3R, and $209 for the DS3P.
Does your pro have DDR3 support? I don't see it as a necessary feature, but it's nice, though i'd rather have an extra PCI slot than an extra graphics slot. To me though, at this point, the most important feature is the overclocking, which is almost non-existant without a 1:1 for me.