Synthesis of four Gigabyte P35-DS3R reviews

[Babrbarossa]

Here's a summary of four reviews of the new Gigabyte Bear-Lake based motherboard. Despite reaching some fairly impressive FSB speeds, the performance just seemed to lag. None of the reviewers outright slam the board but if you look at the results on the links, the board is decent but not stellar.



Bit-Tech 465MHz FSB with an x6800 rated 8/10
The obvious few down points of the board are the lack of Firewire and extra USB 2.0 PCI bracket. It's a shame Gigabyte didn't chose to include at least a couple of extra USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O rather than the questionably useful parallel and RS232 serial ports.

But we're still getting a cheap and solid motherboard that performs extremely well, keeping up with the more expensive P35 boards from Asus. It provides enough expansion that allows you to tailor it for what you want exactly, and a lot of people already have network cards, WiFi dongles and Firewire adapters stuffed away in boxes anyway.

It's inexpensive, as fast as other P35 boards and overclocks like a beast. You could certainly do better on the included feature and accessories front, but that's not like it doesn't give you plenty of expandability on-board. If I was looking for an inexpensive, solid performing, future proof backbone to a new system; the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R would certainly be high on my list.

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X-Bit Labs 505MHz FSB with a X6800
This mainboard still has some frustrating drawbacks, such as limited memory overclocking and not the ultimate performance level with FSB set above the nominal. Hopefully Gigabyte engineers will take our comments into account when working on new mainboard revisions and modifications.
Highs:

• Guaranteed support of future processors;
• High performance in nominal mode; <LI nd="6">Six-phase processor voltage regulator using very high-quality components;
• Easy and efficient CPU overclocking;
• Smart implementation of eSATA interface support;
• Attractive price.

Lows:

• No second PCI Express x16 graphics slot;
• Relatively low performance with overclocked FSB;
• Unstable operation with DDR2 SDRAM frequency exceeding 1150MHz;
• No voltage monitoring in the system.

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Legit Reviews 499MHz FSB with an e6600
First of all, the Gigabyte P35-DS3R disappointed us with its results in our testing. It scored at pretty much the same levels, or even a little lower than most of the other boards represented in our testing. It surprised us just a little to see this, and we hope that some BIOS tweaks will help with this.
The bundle that came with the board was adaquate. Nothing flashy, but certainly also not to thin to leave you running out the door to get to a local computer shop to pick up an item or two that you need to have to even get the board running.
The layout and design of the board was just fine. i am still amazed that floppy connectors, serial ports and parallel ports are still being added to boards these days, but i am sure that someone out there will send me an email on how important that it is to have that parallel port for their Barbie or Transformers game that they bought in 1993.
Overclocking was terrific on this board. The Intel chipsets have been incredibly easy to use, even in the area of overclocking. To see a board push 500fsb without any special tweaking is just fantastic, and speaks well of not only the new P35 chipset, but also of the Gigabyte P35-DS3R board we have here.
Pricing is a little high for my taste at the moment. A quick look over the internet finds pricing to be anywhere from $190 - $230. Over the next few weeks, I am sure that it will come down, but that price is certainly not justified over the lower priced 965 and 975 boards that perform just as good if not better.

Legit Bottom Line: The Gigabyte P5-DS3R is a good motherboard that is well built, overclocks like crazy and is built around the latest Intel chipset. After the prices settle down, this will be one to watch for as you prepare to upgrade or build the rig of yours.
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VR-Zone 575MHz FSB with an X6800 (475MHz w. QX6700)--Best Buy award and 90 VR points
If you're not an overclocker, from the performance side of the spectrum, one has little to anticipate for over current 965P chipsets. There seems to be little performance improvements. The Bearlake chipset seems to be more of an upgrade over the 965P chipset to support DDR2 and DDR3 RAMs. The chipset does seem to run a little cooler than it's 965P predecessor. If you are interested in overclocking, then you may be as impressed as me with this board. The overclocking certainly seems to have been enhanced over the 965P, and the capability of this board in the area is simply stunning out of the box. Do not be fooled by the USD$180 price tag, this board can really satisfy the overclocking enthusiast who is used to the USD$300 motherboards. The value one gets from the dollars spent on this motherboard is simply smashing!

[pscout]

Nice summary

One minor point ... the quad (qx6700) test was done in the vrzone review, not in the xbit review.

[Babrbarossa]

You`re right about the VR-Zone thanks, I`ve updated it, but the X-Bit review used both, and the 575MHx was acheived with the X6800- I`ve added the quad core max FSB though.

[pscout]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

You`re right about the VR-Zone thanks, I`ve updated it, but the X-Bit review used both, and the 575MHx was acheived with the X6800- I`ve added the quad core max FSB though.

oops ... i guess i didn't read the whole xbit review

[Babrbarossa]

HAHA- sorry I keep getting the four jumbled- what I meant to say is that you were right about the X-Bit review- the VR-Zone used both quad and the X6800.....boiyoiyoiyoing! Anyway- the results are reported correctly, so just ignore me...

It would be nice if reviews like these were all done using 2 and four cores though.