CPU/Mobo Parts missing in H81M-S1 and B85M-DS3H motherboard

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Rajesh Dsouza

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Hi,

I just buyed the Gigabyte H81M-S1 and Gigabyte B85M-DS3H mother board from Flipkart. I’m building two machines in my home and found these cheap and with good rating. But when I got the boxes on the weekend, I saw some parts are missing on the motherboard. I went to the website again to check (Flipkart.com) and I have only three black squares but the website shows four. Is this a faulty unit? Don’t want to put the CPU inside because not sure what other part is missing. I noticed this for both motherboards.

Someone please help me. Should I return it and ask for refund?

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@Rajesh Dsouza, did you trying comparing the pics in official gigabyte site. Dont relay/consider the pics uploaded in the sellers site.
There are different revisions of board layout in the same model, rev 1.0, 2.0, 2.1.
May be yours is different revision to the board shown in pics by flipkart.
To be sure check all revisions in official website. the revision number will be printed on PCB beside 'Designed in Taipei" printing.
 
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I have checked on Gigabyte's website and there are different versions. I also asked a friend who is more technical and he says the black squares are power phases or something. But the new versions have less number so isn't that bad? My point is the revision number is not mentioned on the retailer website when making purchase so its like lottery system. If you are lucky, you get the original otherwise you get the new version which has things missing.
 
Different versions might have change/s in design for various aspects such as improvement/efficient, placing of ports and also cost cutting. Hence newer version can be better or worse. Sometimes newer version would have corrected flaw, updated BIOS, etc. As mentioned in earlier post please compare pics with official Gigabyte website.
 
Rajesh Dsouza said:
But the new versions have less number so isn't that bad?
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Yes it is. Fewer phases = lower power handling capacity. The question is, which processor are you using with these motherboards?

Rajesh Dsouza said:
I have checked on Gigabyte's website and there are different versions
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Check your board and see , it probably says Rev 2 or Rev 3.

Rajesh Dsouza said:
My point is the revision number is not mentioned on the retailer website when making purchase so its like lottery system.
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Unfortunately yes. You can probably ask FK for a refund saying it isn't as described. It isn't faulty though, and unless they have old stock lying around, they will most likely replace it with the same board.
 
Well I checked on the website yours is the latest version which is 2.1 and the parts missing are just solid state capacitors they are not phases. Its still has 3 as I can still see the mosfets. One mosfet and some capacitors is normally is what comprises a phase. They just decreased the number capacitors for some valid reason I am sure.

I dont agree that a motherboard company would decrease capacitor for cost reasons. A capacitors cost like a few cents and its one component which fails most of the time in electronics, so I would rather have less capacitors than more.

Since you don't know what they do on the board you should not bother about it. They will release a new version for a reason mostly to remove bugs from older models. I would be more than happy to get the latest version rather than older rev just cause I see more capacitors in it. In my opinion less components can mean that there is a lesser probability that the board can fail due to a faulty capacitor.

If you really want to know about power phases http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/arti...e-Motherboard-Voltage-Regulator-Circuit/616/4

Its a H81 intel chipset which is a standard non overclocking motherboard which is for normal stable operation.

Update:
The second motheboard GA-B85M-DS3H they did decrease one phase from 4 to 3 for rev 2.0 onwards. This would drop the overclocking potential of the board but wont affect the normal operation or performance of the board in anyway. Do you plan to overclock ?
 
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4 Phases and stability are mostly meant for really power users who plan to overclock and push the board to the limit IMHO. I have a H81 pro board which I used for mining with this same CPU G3220. Then found it not so cost effective and switched to making my freenas server for 24/7 operation. I think you should have no problems with the boards you got.
 
@Rajesh Dsouza , I am too using G3220+h81m-s1 setup mine is rev 2.1 board , never thought checking the board before , after I bought it straight away assembled and fired it up. After seeing your thread I did some research but for normal use you don't see any gain/loss , the "missing parts" will be needed only if you want to do hardcore overclocking for benchmark tests. My setup is running for past 2months without any hiccups , so no need to worry.
 
Manufacturers often try to optimize the products though the revisions. Reducing the components in a newer revision does not necessarily mean that the manufacturer is reducing cost at the expense of performance or features. It may be that the new design does not need them to perform on par or better than the previous.

As an example, If you take the XBOX360 or PS3, the number of components and size of the mainboard itself was drastically reduced though the revisions. It does not mean that they were just cutting corners to reduce costs, the core functionality remained the same, power consumption reduced. stability improved. size got smaller. Cost reduced for both the manufacturer and the customer.

But yeah, there are also cases where the revisions are to cut costs, but then that would apparently translate as a cost reduction for the customer as well.
 
@Crazy_Eddy...I actually wanted to use the Intel Core i5 4570 on the B85M-DS3H mother board. But seeing that the power phases are less, i'm hesitating on doing that. I might want to overclock in the future for this PC.

I'm a little skeptical about buying Gigabyte motherboard now because I checked other B85 models and all have something reduced in the new versions.

My point is why are they still advertising old specifications and giving the user somehting else? Most people would just buy the product after looking at it on the etailer site, no one would go to the manufacture site and compare images.
 
Rajesh Dsouza said:
I actually wanted to use the Intel Core i5 4570 on the B85M-DS3H mother board. But seeing that the power phases are less, i'm hesitating on doing that.
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Yes even I would hesitate to use an i5 on it. Although all the chips you've listed are locked chips, so there's no multiplier overclocking possible, and raising the bus speed is not recommended.

Lord Nemesis said:
As an example, If you take the XBOX360 or PS3, the number of components and size of the mainboard itself was drastically reduced though the revisions.
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In those cases it was mainly due to the chip used shifting to smaller manufacturing process nodes translating to lower power consumption. In this case, there haven't been any changes to the Haswell CPUs. It's just a case of them assuming that budget H81 boards will be paired with budget dual-core chips, i.e. 3 phases is enough. Someone using an i5 would be expected to pick up a Hx7 or Zx7 board with more phases.
 
I've just picked up a GA-B85M-D3H from Snapdeal and it *just* got delivered. On opening I found out that it doesn't support Intel SBA! That's one of the major reason I bought this board for! Not only that, the VRM heatsinks are small and of below-par built . Even power phases are down to 3 from 4. I checked the http://www.gigabyte.in/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5013#ov product page and no mention of SBA in rev 2.0 but it clearly states SBA is included in ver 1.0. While the rev 1.0 clearly mentions ERP ready on the board, the rev 2.0 doesn't.

Meanwhile, Snapdeal product page http://www.snapdeal.com/product/gigabyte-b85md3h-motherboard/328478745 lists all feature of rev 1.0. Now that I've opened the package, I don't whether Snapdeal will take it back. They're very cocky with returns. And now I am stuck with something I don't want. WTF!! Seriously Gigabyte? How difficult is it to mention the rev number on the board packaging and ensure that the ecomm sites list it correctly?
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Is Snapdeal or the seller even authorized to sell Gigabyte motherboards?
If they are not authorized by Gigabyte, then there is no question of Gigabyte getting Snapdeal to list the specs correctly.
Also, most of the e-comm sites have disclaimers saying that they are not liable for any wrongly mentioned specs.
 
Saying that is almost like this forum where one comes expecting a solution for a query instead of answering a counter-question. So excuse me if I exert an normal consumer behavior of getting the best deal.
If Snapdeal is not an authorized seller, I see no clearly visible documentation or message from Gigabyte stating that. Even reputed reseller PrimeABGB is not an authorized reseller and still charges premium on the motherboards.
My question is whether Gigabyte is even aware of such ecommerce sites? If Gigabyte is not owning up to make an extra effort for its loyal customers, then it makes me wonder whether I should invest my time and money in them.
 
As far as I can see, the correct specs are listed on Gigabytes site and they must be listed on the box as well if I am not wrong. Is it the case that specs were incorrectly advertised on the box? If that is really the case that they are putting a revision 2 board in a first revision box with misleading specs on the box, you should get in touch with Gigabyte support for clarification. IMO that would also be grounds for taking them to consumer court.

With regards to Snapdeal listing, what Snapdeal/the third party sellers list on their site is not Gigabytes concern unless Gigabyte themselves are using Snapdeal as a authorized resale channel.

Gigabyte has listed its authorized distributors in their site. You probably have to get in touch with the distributors to know about re-sellers.
As to why its so complicated, you have to thank the Indian govt and its people for not letting the middle men go away.
 
It might be specific to Haswell and Devil canyon; for these at least the voltage regulator is in the processor itself. So VRM on board are for rest of the equipment.(Or not?)

I wonder now, shouldn't it only affect the memory overclock?
 
^ The on-die VRM is only a part of the overall VRM intended to help with faster transitions between idle and load voltages. The VRMs on the motherboard (around the cpu socket area) are indeed still being used for the CPU.
 
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http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/583...isons-present-markedly-different-test-results

"The significantly higher temperature of the components in the CPU power supply and the unbalanced load over the mosfets in the Rev 2.0 board make it likely that the new revision won't last as long as the Rev 1.0, even though we cannot prove that using this test. What we can demonstrate beyond any doubt is that the CPU power supply of the Rev 2.0 board is not up to the task, even for normal consumer workloads. The video encoding test shows that thanks to the lower amount of mosfets temperatures rise much more quickly, leading to CPU throttling and lowered performance. Rev 1.0 does not show that behaviour at all."
 
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