The GIGABYTE 965P-DS4 delivers outstanding performance with enhanced stability for power users and enthusiasts. Equipped with industry leading performance tuning facilities and a... more
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A review by emilne82 on Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 - motherboard - ATX - iP965 November 6th, 2006
Author's product rating:
Speed
Very fast
Ease of Installation
Good - quick to install
Stability
Very stable
Value For Money
Excellent
Advantages:
Overclocks very well, Connectivity, Price
Disadvantages:
Poor bundle from Gigabyte
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Full list of Specs http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2288
Gigabyte have been a forerunner in creating quality computer components for a number of years, often trading blows with the likes of DFI and Asus with many of gigabytes motherboards brining new technology. The Gigbayte GA-965P-DS4 is no exception.
The first thing you notice with the motherboard is the radical chipset cooling solution. The south and north bridge are connected to the Voltage regulators via an elaborate system of heat pipes and heat sinks. This cooling method allows the vital components of the board to remain at cool stable temperatures without the need for noisy fans. The best thing is that the technology actually works, heat pipes are more and more being used in the cooling processors with a great deal of success. The onboard temperate sensor on the north bridge reports 30oC (ambient 25oc) this is cooler than what my MSI motherboard could achieve with a screaming fan. The lower temperature means that the vital components are more stable especially at over clocked speeds.
The overclocking ability of the DS4 is phenomenal with the possibility of raising the FSB to a massive 600Mhz potentially you run a Core2Duo E6400 @ twice its recommended speed. The amazing overclocking ability is helped by the cooling system mention above and the use of a very stable power delivery system. As with all the motherboards is the DS series the D stands for durability. The motherboard makes of solid state capacitors these are supposed to last five years longer than normal capacitors and provide a more reliable flow.
The DS4 contains a magnitude of I/O features. The back panel consists of 4 usb ver 2 ports, IEEE Firewire digital audio out, High def audio out. As well as the normal mouse and keyboard connectors. The board itself has connections for 2 more firewire ports, 6 more usb ports and more audio connections. As for storage connectors there is 8 SATA sockets, (6 yellow and 4 purple) The purple connectors allow a RAID system to be set up. The connectors support both versions 1 and 2. There is 1IDE port running at ATA166 and 1 floppy drive. Expansion capabilities is 3 pci express slots and 2 pci slots for graphics cards. Feature wise the DS4 is more beefed up than its little brother the DS3 which is essentially a cut down version.
The layout of the board is very logical, the power and drive connectors are located at the edge of the board allowing the wires to be hidden. There is no bulky components is the way of the expansion cards and nothing appears to block the airflow over the board.
The board was easy to fit but I would recommend fitting the cpu and heatsink fan before installing the board in the case.
The package that Gigabyte provides with the board is rather disappointing, you get a driver CD, 6 Serial ATA cables one Ide and a floppy cable. Compared to other manufactures that offer rounded IDE cables, USB connections and audio connections it does seem a bit less. However to make up for the short fallings gigabyte provide a very helpful quick start guide and a very comprehensive instruction manual. The cd supplied contains the normal array of drivers and also Norton Internet Security 2006 along with a hardware monitoring and overclocking utility. The overclocking utility allowed me to raise the speed of my Core 2 Duo E6400 up to 3.5Ghz.
Overclocking can also be done via the BIOS, however I recommend flashing the bios with the latest version at the time of writing this it is F6 and available from Gigabytes website. Pressing Ctrl + F1 on the bios page displays the overclocking features allowing you to raise the fsb, change multipliers, memory timings, chipset, cpu and ram voltages as well as the PCU bus frequency. Every option that you want for overclocking can be access here. The DS4 makes use of a duel bios, meaning that if something goes wrong and the system wont post then the old bios settings will be reloaded.
Compared to the Abit AB9Pro motherboard which retails for the same price, the gigabyte has many more features. Although the DS4 is an enthusiasts motherboard and only overclockers will get the full benefit of the motherboards features. For normal computers users this motherboard should still be worth while considering due to its connectivity options.
Overclocking results for this board Core2Duo E6400 : 3.2Ghz Stable CPUVolts = 1.375 Mem = 2.0V Mch = +0.3 vFSB = +0.5
The GIGABYTE 965P-DS4 delivers outstanding performance with enhanced stability for power users and enthusiasts. Equipped with industry leading performance tuning facilities and a complete heat-pipe cooling mechanism, the 965P-DS4 presents a quiet and stable high-performance desktop platform. Boasting solid capacitors, this platform is specifically designed for enhanced durability, allowing it to operate in extreme conditions for long periods of time. Together with Intel Core2 Duo processors, the GIGABYTE 965P-DS4 offers the best multi-purpose desktop solution.
I wanted a cheap motherboard for a cheap core 2 processor tine E2000 and I've noticed this cheap EliteGroup motherboard based on the great Intel 965 chipset. So I've took this motherboard from a friend's hardware store and I've started to test it.
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