Buyers beware of the P35-DQ6 series of motherboards

[kevinali]

I was thinkging about getting the p36-DQ6 until i heard that Gigabyte will discontinue it right after the x38-DQ6 comes out at the end of aug or early sept

Here is a quote from an interview with a Gigabyte product manager

"While we were waiting for other guests to arrive, I had an opportunity to pose some questions to Thomas Lee, Gigabyte's Marketing Manager, getting some insight into Gigabyte's plans and upcoming products. While we will be posting an interview with Thomas within the next week or two, right now we can tell you that Gigabyte will be discontinuing at least one of the P35-DQ6 model of motherboards once the X38 board hits the market. While some may be a bit confused as to why Gigabyte would stop selling their most popular board, its simply a case of them not wanting to compete against themselves as Gigabyte will offer the X38 motherboard in both DDR2 and DDR3 flavors, filling the high end enthusiast niche"

http://hardwarelogic.com/news/...1450/2/2007-07-25.html

Kevin

 

[Ozoneman]

I guess I'm not as concerned as you. I just bought the P35-DQ6 and plan to put my new system together tonight. I think it will perform well over the next couple years. It doesn't matter to me that they may not be selling it in a couple months. It still is what it is. At least they aren't dicontinuing it because it has a problem...

The one discontinued may be one of the other DQ6 like the P35T-DQ6. So until we know, just relax.

 

[Noubourne]

Probably not so much a warning to those buying Gigabyte P35s, but anyone buying P35s.

Intel is replacing this chipset really quickly.

It's still the best OC chipset out there for quad cores.

It's not like Gigabyte is going to cut off support for it, and the warranty is still the same. It's a great chipset and it's somewhat short lifespan should not be considered when looking for a high performing OC mobo.

That said, I'm more impressed with the benches and reports of the ASUS P35K Deluxe than the Gigabyte. The DS3 was a killer budget OC board. If you're going to spend as much as $200 on a board though, you're not in budget land anymore.

 

[nitromullet]

This makes sense. P35 is supposed to be Intel's mainstream chipset, whereas the X38 is the high end chipset. Unless Gigabyte plans on selling their X38 board for $300+ there wouldn't be much of a market left for the higher priced P35 motherboard once the X38 boards come out. I imagine that the P35 based GA-P35*-DS3* series boards won't be going anywhere.

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Too bad I didn't wait for the x38 boards...

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Ozoneman
I guess I'm not as concerned as you. I just bought the P35-DQ6 and plan to put my new system together tonight. I think it will perform well over the next couple years. It doesn't matter to me that they may not be selling it in a couple months. It still is what it is. At least they aren't dicontinuing it because it has a problem...

The one discontinued may be one of the other DQ6 like the P35T-DQ6. So until we know, just relax.

Thing is... Gigabyte will halt all BIOS development on the board once they remove it from circulation in the market.

edit: I don't see the x38 doing any better than the p35 really. It's like the 975x vs p965 where the 975x didn't have anything special that made it that much better than the p965.

 

[nitromullet]

I don't see the x38 doing any better than the p35 really. It's like the 975x vs p965 where the 975x didn't have anything special that made it that much better than the p965.

...except for PCIe 2.0, true PCIe 16x/16x (instead of 16x/4x), and the big one: possible officially supported SLI AND Crossfire on the same motherboard. If true, X38 will be the video enthusiast's chipset.

edit: P35 looks to be a great, decently priced, overclocker chipset, but I wouldn't get into the $250+ boards myself. No matter what gizmos and extras they put on the high priced boards, you still have a mainstream chipset board.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

I don't see the x38 doing any better than the p35 really. It's like the 975x vs p965 where the 975x didn't have anything special that made it that much better than the p965.

...except for PCIe 2.0, true PCIe 16x/16x (instead of 16x/4x), and the big one: possible officially supported SLI AND Crossfire on the same motherboard. If true, X38 will be the video enthusiast's chipset.

edit: P35 looks to be a great, decently priced, overclocker chipset, but I wouldn't get into the $250+ boards myself. No matter what gizmos and extras they put on the high priced boards, you still have a mainstream chipset board.

I don't see the big deal with SLi or crossfire...especially with the way it tends to cause more problems in the driver end. I'd say that 90% of the users out there will not need SLI and the 10% that do have it probably just do it for the wow factor. I dunno, maybe I think differently.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

It's difficult to justify paying more than $120 for a P35 board. That said, PCI-E 2.0 isn't necessary faster because no PCI-E hardware today even come close to maxing out the available bandwidth. Same goes with the ancient PCI @ 133MB/s. Today's biggest bottleneck is the hard drive. Even under ideal condition, the maximum write speed is limited to under 50MB/s.

With high-end GPU costing an arm and a leg, it's more prudent to avoid SLI. SLI will place additional load on the PSU and the system cooling. Price/performance is not very attractive with SLI. Plus you can dump the old GPU for a faster GPU within six months if you stick with a single GPU solution. Therefore, I suspect that Intel will never fully embrace SLI.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: nitromullet

I don't see the x38 doing any better than the p35 really. It's like the 975x vs p965 where the 975x didn't have anything special that made it that much better than the p965.

...except for PCIe 2.0, true PCIe 16x/16x (instead of 16x/4x), and the big one: possible officially supported SLI AND Crossfire on the same motherboard. If true, X38 will be the video enthusiast's chipset.

edit: P35 looks to be a great, decently priced, overclocker chipset, but I wouldn't get into the $250+ boards myself. No matter what gizmos and extras they put on the high priced boards, you still have a mainstream chipset board.

I don't see the big deal with SLi or crossfire...especially with the way it tends to cause more problems in the driver end. I'd say that 90% of the users out there will not need SLI and the 10% that do have it probably just do it for the wow factor. I dunno, maybe I think differently.

That's why I said, "If true, X38 will be the video enthusiast's chipset" and not, "X38 will be the best chipset for you and your momma". For people not interested in SLI/Crossfire, a good $150ish P35 board would be the ticket IMO. I'd still stay away from the overpriced (IMO) $250ish priced P35 boards.

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
With high-end GPU costing an arm and a leg, it's more prudent to avoid SLI. SLI will place additional load on the PSU and the system cooling. Price/performance is not very attractive with SLI. Plus you can dump the old GPU for a faster GPU within six months if you stick with a single GPU solution. Therefore, I suspect that Intel will never fully embrace SLI.

Clearly multiple video card setups are not for everyone, but if you have the cash and enjoy tweaking a bit there is no other single component or overclock that can out match the FPS boost you will see with adding a second video card.

Also, I'm sure Intel has realized that there are way more people interested in SLI than Crossfire. Working out a deal for the SLI license with NV would be a score for Intel in the enthusiast market, and it is undeniable that Intel has taken notice of this segment as of late.