Motherboard choices.

[SiDiX007]

I have 2x2gb kingston ram and a e8400 cpu. My problem is i cant decide which motherboard to use. I have:

GIGABYTE - Support - Motherboard - BIOS - GA-P35-DS3L (rev. 2.0)
and
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

I bought the Gigabyte from a user on the forums and the P5K i won in a bet with a friend lol (long story). The boards look like they have alot of the same features to me. Now i know my ram isnt all that great but which board would be better for OC my CPU?
Thanks in advance for any input you guys (and girls) may have.

[SugarJ]

I had great sucess with my GA-P35-DS3L and a E8400. Whether it's better than the P5K, I don't know. Drop one in, see where you can get it, then try the other. Same chipset, you shouldn't have to re-install Windoze. Or delete the drivers before swapping boards.

[yycraven]

I have a Asus P5K still and I OCed my E6550 to 3.5Ghz no problem and got 3.9GHz with my E8400 on that board,
going to OC my E2140 next on that board once I get a HSF for it.

Both boards are good I think, never had a GA-P35-DS3L. But a lot of people here say there great.
flip a coin and pick that way..

[miggs78]

The Gigabyte I have to agree is a nice board, since its a newer chipset (p45) been designed to perform better than its younger brother. It comes down to what kind of video card you gonna use, if its dual then you have no choice but Asus, if its a single card, the gigabyte hands down.

[MacJunky]

miggs, they are both P35.


If they both allow the same overclocking you should take a good look at what you want and what you need and select between the two.

The P5K(vanilla) can use a P5KR BIOS for AHCI mode on the ICH9 SATA ports, it can do CF, has FireWire and eSATA.
The DS3L has more PCI-e 1x slots, has parallel port, PS/2 mouse, optical audio.

DS3L has external serial port but P5K has onboard serial header as well.
P5K has five internal SATA ports while it looks like the DS3L only has four.
I personally like the cooling around the CPU socket of the P5K more than the simple NB HS the DS3L has.

But yea, in the end I think you should just pick the one with the features you want most.

[miggs78]

Oops dunno why I read P45 DS3R.. My bad.. Sorry.. ^^ But yeah just like he says it.

[Oversized Rooster]

Go for the P5K. Why? Because I've always bought Asus over the Gigabyte - a superstition thing. Neither board is "better" than the other really.

[3.0charlie]

I've owned both. Several DS3Ls actually.

The P5K, as mentionned MacJunky has more features.
But the DS3L was the king of the oc, with an E8400 @ 4.2GHz and a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz.

Need features? Asus.
OC'ing? Gigabyte.
Otherwise, flip a coin, and sell the other.

[SiDiX007]

Thanks for the input guys. I think i will use the P5K in my main build.