DS3L v DS3R

[desolation777]

Which would you prefer? I know that there bascally both the same boards and just Gigabyet's Ds3R has RAID and is better for overclocking.

 

[Drsignguy]

In my opinion, after some long studying about these boards. I looked at many BTW. I chose the GA EP35C-DS3R. Owned it about a week now. Great board! And the major reason was the Upgrades for the 45 nm proceesers and the added DDR3 memory slots. It also removes the Serial and LPT ports. With that they also just added more USB's. So far this board is just rock stable and I am very happy with it.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: desolation777
Which would you prefer? I know that there bascally both the same boards and just Gigabyet's Ds3R has RAID and is better for overclocking.

DS3R is the better board. I needed 4HD, 2 Esata and 2 sata DVD support. Can't get that on the cheap one. I didn't want the EP35C model though, didn't want to pay for DDR3. X out the C and you get DDR2 model. But it's up to the user which model you get. But yeah, all models I've used are rock solid and built to OC. I'm not using 2 for sata DVD yet, but will replace my ides shortly and be at 8 drives total. So no choice by DS3R for me.

[EDIT} changed the typo on DDR3. Meant to say didn't want to pay for DDR3 (I had hit a 2 previously).

Agreed, DDR3 is worthless at the moment. But either board is good. I'm not knocking the EP35C, just the DDR3. You can put that extra money into video and a second hard drive or something

 

[andrei3333]

DDR 3 support is a waste
45nm processors are supportted out of the box by tge DS3L i have first hand experience in that, and if you want yorkfield than a bios flash to F8b allows for those
the DS3L Rev 2.0 (which is probly the only one being sold by this time) adds 2USB ports on the back
and its also using all solid capacitors and has the same power phase circuit as the other boards

dont pay for features you will not use

 

[toadeater]

Besides what was already mentioned, DS3R because the audio is better.

 

[nevbie]

IIRC DS3R has more of those funny capacitors near the CPU socket that make people think that it is better. If you don't care about RAID or so, you could also check the DS3. I think it was DS3R with ICH9 instead of ICH9R as south bridge, so no raid. One step up would be DS3P which has 8-pin 12v EPS whatever-thingy, that feeds CPU with power or something, instead of the 4-pin in these lower class boards.

All these boards probably share the same "gigabyte problems", so you can just pick what you need. You can also compare otherwise similar boards by looking their northbridge cooling, as heatpipes probably work better than just a pile of copper/aluminum. (don't get scared when i say "gigabyte problems", as each manufacturer seems to have their native little problems that 1% of buyers get - or something like that).

I'd personally pick DS3 (it's between L and R but might not be available in america or so).

 

[The Keeper]

Yeah, I agree with the above poster. I picked up DS3 myself which is the same as DS3R, but without RAID and two additional Intel SATA ports.

 

[evident]

ds3r is a good board. from my 2 months with it it's very stable with no crashes, EXCEPT when i try to suspend (S3) it's a clusterfck. so if you don't really S3 suspend it will be great for you!

 

[MeSh1]

Be weary if you plan to overclock. There are a bunch of posts across different forums regarding the bios settings on these boards DS3L is the one I have. When oc settings set and saved, POST shows stock upon boot, go back into the bios to investigate, but the OC settings are still there. So even though the OC settings seem to have saved in the BIOS when thy system goes through POST it shows stock. Its a wierd problem with no solution as of yet. The only way to get around it is to open up the case pull the cmos battery, wait like 10-20 mins, put the battery back in and then you're able to boot with your OC settings no problem. Just something you should know.

 

[Modelworks]

Go with the DS3R.
It has dual bios that might save you in a bad flash.
The ds3l only has the virtual bios crap.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: nevbie
IIRC DS3R has more of those funny capacitors near the CPU socket that make people think that it is better. If you don't care about RAID or so, you could also check the DS3. I think it was DS3R with ICH9 instead of ICH9R as south bridge, so no raid. One step up would be DS3P which has 8-pin 12v EPS whatever-thingy, that feeds CPU with power or something, instead of the 4-pin in these lower class boards.

All these boards probably share the same "gigabyte problems", so you can just pick what you need. You can also compare otherwise similar boards by looking their northbridge cooling, as heatpipes probably work better than just a pile of copper/aluminum. (don't get scared when i say "gigabyte problems", as each manufacturer seems to have their native little problems that 1% of buyers get - or something like that).

I'd personally pick DS3 (it's between L and R but might not be available in america or so).

Those extra funny capacitors don't make you THINK it's better it IS BETTER. Also with 8 Sata's two of those are used as Esata which enables all sorts of things (box comes with a 2esata bracket). It's extremely handy for hooking up temp storage to dump a dupe of important data etc. I have a 640GB used just for this. If images on a drive get toasted I can just stick in the RMA when it comes back and re-copy them from my Esata which is always unplugged so I never fear it dying while at work etc. It just sits there waiting for my other drives to go belly up (which they all will eventually...). For $120 peace of mind is a cable away at all times. Though you can do the same with USB, it sucks compared to SATA. More often than not you'll hit a higher FSB on DS3R than DS3L. Of course if you have no need for more than 1HD and 2DVD's you can run a bracket outside for the 4th anyway but that is an extra cost that gets you closer to just getting the whole thing in a DS3R anyway with better components (8sata, Esata bracket, better audio, more caps, better cooling etc).

There's quite a bit of difference between these two boards and the DS3 isn't widely sold in USA as you stated. They don't even have the part listed on gigabyte-usa's part list for comparison (unless I just missed it). But Ewiz sells it...LOL. But it does have ALC888 audio so lower audio quality. Note it's the old NON EP35 version that Ewiz has.

Also I have experienced no problems with OC settings NOT sticking as stated by the other poster. I've built multiple PC's with 3 versions of the board (EP35-DS3L/R and P35-DS3R). There is no need to leave a battery out for 15-20 minutes to whack your cmos and get your settings to stick Usually 15 seconds will do (if you're a fast counter...LOL) and I'm not sure that has anything to do with getting settings to stick, that's news to me. IF that's the case I'd say their board is bad as one of mine was with a problem where the PC could NOT be shut down. It just comes back to life RMA as did many others with exact symptoms. Apparently a quality control issue slipped some by. The PC would go down for 3 seconds or so (totally off, no fans etc) then spring to life. RMA in that case. That's not normal and neither is the case with any board requiring removal of a battery to get settings to stick (that's completely opposite of normal..ROFL). RMA them. You'll get back a good board and realize no problem with the same hardware. Translation: some new defect slipped by