Long-term Impressions

Before we wrap this all up, we are going to go over our long-term impressions after using this board for a few weeks. Overall, we feel Gigabyte did a great job putting together a solid board with not many issues at all. Solid capacitors and overall build quality are quite strong, the chipset very runs cool, and voltage is rock solid. The only negative attribute to the DS3R that we can see is that the auto voltages set when running 500+ FSB are excessively high. Potentially high enough to do some serious damage to your system if you don’t double check voltages. The safe voltage levels are open for debate, but we are going with what has been stated across the industry since the release of 45nm for now. Hopefully in a future BIOS update Gigabyte will put a cap on the voltages the auto settings implement even if it is only for the peace of mind for novice users.

Gigabyte has been using solid caps for a while now and it is nice to see solid caps even in this series of board. Solid capacitors are said to be more durable than older style caps so taking this into account and looking at the overall build quality of the board, we must say the design seems to be quite strong overall. Chipset and MOSFET temperatures remain very low, even after adding higher voltages and running orthos to produce heat. We have no long-term worries whatsoever seeing a chipset running under 40C and the DS3R never exceeded 35C. Add the power saving options for when your system is at idle to all of this and the board should do great in the long run.


Conclusion

Even with the arrival of the new Intel Nehalem platform and the increasing popularity of DDR3 boards, Gigabyte is still moving the s775 DDR2 boards at full speed. Why is this? Well it’s simple: the boards are selling, and selling well. Economies of scale from producing a ton of DDR2 boards bringing down the price, the dirt cheap prices of DDR2 memory, and minimal performance gains from switching to DDR3 help it all to make sense. Not to mention that switching to Nehalem involves upgrading your CPU, memory (to tri-channel kits), buying a very expensive immature board, and can cost upwards of $1000 for even a “cheap” system. That said, we don’t expect DDR2 board sales to drop off anytime soon.

In terms of target audience, Gigabyte made the EP45-DS3R to appeal to the masses. The entry level PC builder will like the durability of the board, the mid range user will like the features, and the enthusiast will like great overclockability at a cheap price. Looking at motherboard features, the EP45-DS3R has variety indeed: CrossFireX, HD audio, 45nm 1600 FSB support, power saving options, and DDR1333 support. EasyTune6 was really a pleasure to work with and we feel that Gigabyte has an advantage over all competitors with this tool. It worked flawlessly and made overclocking and hardware monitoring easier than we ever thought it would be.

DualBIOS is also a practical addition, and we only really have two minor BIOS complaints. First, the default settings would not allow the board to POST with our PC8500 kit in dual channel, and second, a bank to save BIOS settings is sorely missed. It would be more convenient for users if clearing CMOS did not require removing one memory stick and there was a place to save BIOS settings.

Layout wise, we only have positive comments for the DS3R. Gigabyte did an excellent job in designing the layout of the board and there is even plenty of room between the PCI-E slots - something often lacking. SATA connectors are in a convenient spot, the 24 pin ATX connector is out of the way on the right and there is plenty of clearance around the CPU socket.

The overclocking process for the board was relatively quick and painless. After learning a few quirks with auto settings and finding the best settings for GTL, VTT, and PLL settings, the rest was straightforward. Our final overclock was only limited by the CPU and not the board, and we were able to achieve a 24/7 stable overclock of 40%! An overclocker can’t ask for more than that. Reruning our benchmarking and gaming suite displayed that an overclocked system will be much faster than a stock system (of course) but add CrossFireX to that and you have sufficient power to do just about anything you need. CrossFireX results made the DS3R shine with huge gains in benchmarks and games when moving to two cards.

To sum this all up, the features on the board work great and the ton of Gigabyte extras like EasyTune6, DualBIOS, and high speed CPU and memory support are icing on the cake. The price of the board (~$150) makes it a viable alternative to ASUS P5Q series and the DS3R meets or exceeds any benchmarks that have been set. Overclocking went smoothly and the downsides of the board are few and far between. For those looking for a reasonably priced P45 DDR2 board, that overclocks well and has plenty of features, we feel the EP45-DS3R would be a smart choice. For that reason and many others, Gigabyte’s EP45-DS3R receives Hardware Canucks DAM GOOD award.


Pros

- CrossFireX support
- EasyTune6
- Quality design, with solid capacitors
- Very cool running chipset
- Excellent overclocker
- Strong BIOS & DualBIOS
- Well worth the price

Cons

- Selecting "auto" can lead to dangerous voltages
- Default BIOS settings would not allow the board to POST in dual channel
- Availability is dropping fast

Thanks to Gigabyte for making this review possible!