ASUS P5B Deluxe vs. Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

[boneca1]

Processor E6400 C2D will be added.

Overclocking - possible.

TIA
boneca

 

[n7]

P5B Deluxe
P5B-E (ideally rev. 1.02G)
P5N-E SLI
Bad Axe 2

Those would be my picks for cheaper mobos...

 

[daction]

I went with the DS3 from ClubIT (rev. 3.3) because of it's 1333mhz support. Not to mention it is substantially cheaper.

 

[integramodder]

What benefits does the Asus have over the Gigabyte?

The Asus has two extra SATA ports (one onboard and one external) with more raid capabilities, an extra gigabit, spdif, firewire.

The lack of firewire isnt a good thing, but I dont use it now unless its for ripping video, and for that I can get a 10 dollar add on card...

 

[Gusty987]

Save the $$ and get the DS3 (or S3 for that matter). I have an S3 running steady as a rock with E4300 at 2700mhz (300mhz FSB) on stock air and voltage, and ddr2 at 4-4-4-12

 

[integramodder]

The difference is about 70 bucks shipped, but now that I looked into hard drives, I can get 3 5050GB Seagates for 110 each, and the raid 5 capability would be nice to have.

Should I just look into a raid controller card?

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: daction
I went with the DS3 from ClubIT (rev. 3.3) because of it's 1333mhz support. Not to mention it is substantially cheaper.

The P5B Deluxe also supports 1333MHz FSB...

 

[integramodder]

I looked into raid cards, and decent ones that support raid 5 for 4 drives are more than the 70 dollar difference, so Asus it is...

 

[Midnight Rambler]

A wise choice ...

 

[Ulfhednar]

I have owned both of these boards and the Asus P5B Deluxe has quite a high vdroop compared to the Gigabyte DS3, which means you will have to push the voltages a bit more to achieve the same overclock on a P5B Deluxe and generate more heat in the process.

The advantage of the Asus P5B Deluxe is that it has an awesome black PCB.

 

[Roguestar]

The gigabyte S3 is a good choice if you need to save a few $$$ but if you can splash out a handful more the P5B may be a better choice.

 

[gneGne]

Any difference in on-board audio quality?

 

[Roguestar]

The onboard audio for most of them is Realtek HD 8-channel digital. Good quality.

 

[Boyo]

GO with the Asus. Better choice of a board.

 

[sjandrewbsme]

I just got a DS3 (3.3) - here are a couple of observations (independant of anything else):

• The location of the IDE connector stinks if you have a server case

• The clear CMOS switch doesn't ship with a jumper - you'll need one to clear it and you'll also have to remove the video card to do so (bad placement imo)

• There's only one system fan header

• The BIOS is a little weak - not much tweaking (compared to the Asus I'm used to)..and yes I know about the advanced features via Ctrl-F1 or whatever it is

Mainly I don't like the placement of the IDE plug. If you have legacy DVD's (like most people do) you have to stretch the cable vertically pretty well tight to get it to reach. Doing so covers the SATA plugs.

I do like the look of the board, and it seems pretty solid (all solid capacitors unlike my Asus P5N32, the PCI-e slot has a tab that's a lot more robust and easier to operate than my Asus, and the I/O plate is color coded and looks darn good).

More than anything though...it's running. This is more than I can say for the three Asus boards I've had to RMA.

 

[sthaznpride17]

The DFI Infinity P965-S is another one to consider if you are OC'ing. DFI is rock solid in my experience.

 

[integramodder]

Originally posted by: Roguestar
The onboard audio for most of them is Realtek HD 8-channel digital. Good quality.

WRONG.

According to the anandtech review, the audio in the ASUS (AT1 I believe) is superior to the realtek in the gigabyte

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: boneca1
ASUS P5B Deluxe vs. Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

Processor E6400 C2D will be added.

Overclocking - possible.

yes

Originally posted by: integramodder

Originally posted by: Roguestar
The onboard audio for most of them is Realtek HD 8-channel digital. Good quality.

WRONG.

According to the anandtech review, the audio in the ASUS (AT1 I believe) is superior to the realtek in the gigabyte

Got a link for that review?

 

[Roguestar]

^ Ah, I was under the impression they were both the same audio chipset and codec. My bad.

Edit: damnit Blain I was pointing to the post above yours! Sneaking in while I'm typing up a reply. Pff.

Originally posted by: sjandrewbsme
I just got a DS3 (3.3) - here are a couple of observations (independant of anything else):

• The clear CMOS switch doesn't ship with a jumper - you'll need one to clear it and you'll also have to remove the video card to do so (bad placement imo)

Or you could use pretty much any metal object at all to short the CMOS jumpers

 

[sjandrewbsme]

That's what I did (I used a penny) - but I still had to remove the GPU.

When compared with other boards that I can clear in about 20 seconds, this one taks about 10 times longer. It's not that big of a deal - I just think it would be better placed almost anywhere else.

 

[Cheezeit]

With the clear cmos thing, the DS3 is also nice in a way that it automatically does so after 3 failed reboots. This way I don't even have to reach into my case, which is in a hard to access spot. This is a nice feature when ocing, as it doesn't actually clear your settings, but "disables" them so that you don't lose all your work.

 

[sjandrewbsme]

The Asus I have (P5N32-E) has something similar - and it doesn't always work (just like the Gigabyte doesn't always work). I tried booting 20 times with my DS3 (brand new, out of the box) along with trying a million other things. In desparation, I manually cleared the CMOS and that fixed it.

My Asus was similar. It has a BIOS recovery feature. It would work about 1/2 of the time. The other times (especially when tweaking RAM settings, the 1T versus 2T) it plain will not boot - ever - without a hard jumper CMOS reset.

 

[integramodder]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: boneca1
ASUS P5B Deluxe vs. Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

Processor E6400 C2D will be added.

Overclocking - possible.

yes

Originally posted by: integramodder

Originally posted by: Roguestar
The onboard audio for most of them is Realtek HD 8-channel digital. Good quality.

WRONG.

According to the anandtech review, the audio in the ASUS (AT1 I believe) is superior to the realtek in the gigabyte

Got a link for that review?

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2914&p=4

The Analog Devices AD1988A/B HD Audio Codecs used on the ASUS boards really put the screws to the Realtek ALC-88x series of HD Audio Codecs in our EAX 2 gaming tests. The EAX sounds were clear and concise unlike some of the warbling and muddy sound generated by the Realtek codecs in our Battlefield 2 and F.E.A.R. tests. While the audio quality of both codecs was almost equal in our standard game, DVD video, and audio tests we still think the ADI had the superior overall audio quality.

 

[integramodder]

Originally posted by: sjandrewbsme
The Asus I have (P5N32-E) has something similar - and it doesn't always work (just like the Gigabyte doesn't always work). I tried booting 20 times with my DS3 (brand new, out of the box) along with trying a million other things. In desparation, I manually cleared the CMOS and that fixed it.

My Asus was similar. It has a BIOS recovery feature. It would work about 1/2 of the time. The other times (especially when tweaking RAM settings, the 1T versus 2T) it plain will not boot - ever - without a hard jumper CMOS reset.

Momentary switch with jumper plug is an easy solution...

 

[sjandrewbsme]

That's true - but the pins are right undeneath the VC. If you have a large GPU (like I do) there isn't room for a plug or wire. I was thinking of using a spare reset switch I have from another case to do just this - there wasn't room.