Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R

[Rob Williams]

Gigabyte, like others, released a slew of motherboards utilizing Intel's P35 chipset when it was first announced. The P35C-DS3R is unique to their line-up though, since it will accept both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. We pit the boards performance using both types of memory against our recently reviewed ASUS P5K and P5K3.

You can read the full review here and discuss it here.

 

[yehuda]

Hi Rob,

"Compared to the south bridge, the north bridge has a massive cooler, appropriately so since the NB will get far warmer than the SB. For hardcore overclockers, a fan would be recommended."

Do you think people like me, who don't like their components getting too hot to the touch, would be comfortable with this board at stock speed?

Also, do you feel P35 draws more power than 965P? I'm asking specifically about Gigabyte boards (if you could compare P35C-DS3R with e.g. 965P-DS3), as P35-based boards from Asus seem to have inflated power consumption by at least 20W and it's still unclear what is to blame. There's a thread about it at SPCR:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41484

Regarding the onboard audio, I've seen people complain about P35-DS3R and P35-DS4, saying the output is horribly noisy to the point they consider it a deal breaker:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=351489&highlight=#351489
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41262&highlight=p35ds4

Have you noticed any issues with the audio on your sample?

 

[Mike2977]

I like the features of this board

I like the connectivity of this board. Makes it a good transition from my old system which is now about 7 years old (AMD P2500+) w/Asus motherboard and AGP video.

I don't plan on dual video cards, so the single 16 PCI-e is fine, and I gain another PCI slot, which I want.

I also have several legacy serial devices (mail scale, diabetic sugar meter) that both use the serial ports on my present motherboard. Since this mb retains the serial port, I can run it to a switch and still use my legacy devices.

The layout and review support the large CPU coolers, so that's also a plus.

I've wanted a good mb for the new Core-duo chips from Intel, so after a lot of searching on the web, your review helped make my decision.