GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0

[BrianPotter]

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0

I'm planning to purchase parts for a new system sometime today, and I was wondering if someone out there could recommend this board? It seems to be newly listed on Newegg and not too many people mention this board at all. However, it seems to be a slightly trimmed down version of the DS6 and if it can prove to be just as reliable and OC friendly then I'll probably buy this board.

 

[aiya24]

the P35 DS4 is the same board as the P35 DS3P just without the heatpipe cooling. so you can use the reviews from the DS3P as well.

any reason your looking at the DS4? there are plenty of other boards that are OC friendly and are just as reliable for less money. take a look at abit's IP35-E, gigabyte P35-DS3R, asus P5K-E.

 

[BrianPotter]

Well at this point I'm sticking with the Gigabyte boards sicne I've seen a lot on here with people preferring them for OCing the Q6600. I considered all of those boards you mentioned and the DS3P was/is the board I want, but Newegg doesn't seem to be restocking that board. I need a board with firewire and raid, and with a decent amount of connections (a bunch of usb, etc). Also, I'm a little bit worried about heat so I'd like to get a board with decent heat pipes/sinks. I was considering the abit IP35 Pro for a while, but the mention of a vdroop problem with the quad cores turned me off from getting that board. Really though, when it comes down to it, many of these boards are very similar, I'm just trying to weigh the best option at this point before I make a decision. I've been able to choose every other part of my system with no problem, but I'm worried the most about the motherboard preventing me from OCing well or reducing the life of my system, etc. I also don't want to run into problems down the road because a board has certain quirks (I've had similar problems before).

 

[aiya24]

i was gonna go for the DS3P myself but figured i didn't need RAID or firewire so i picked the IP35-E and saved some money. vdroop is present on all boards in one way or another, some big some little. anyway you'll be happy with the DS4 since you going quad now.

 

[Nickel020]

The DS4 Rev 1.0 did very well in many reviews and is a great board.
The Rev 2.0 has more USB ports in the I/O panel but the COM and LPT ports got scraped. It also has the same smaler heatpipe that ws introduced with the Rev 1.1 boards (DS4 and DQ6)

And aya24 is mistaken, the DS4 has the full heatpipe, the DS3 and DS3R boards are the ones that have no heatpipe. The DS3P has a small heatpipe cooler just for the northbridge.

If you need Firewire and want to overclock a quad, the DS4 is the baord I would get (unless you want to shell otu the money for the DQ6 of course). I have a DS3 and a DQ6 and they're both great boards.

 

[BrianPotter]

Thanks guys.
I think I'm gonna go ahead and order the DS4 today along with the rest of my parts.


Edit: Some people are no recommending the P5K-E a bunch to me and I'm really considering it now.

 

[aiya24]

well since they released the rev 2.0 boards, the DS3P not longer comes with a small heatpipe cooler on the NB, just a standard heatsink like the one on the DS3R, maybe a bit bigger.

i would just stick with the DS4. to me, it has a way better layout then the P5K-E. ie. the ide connector is in a bad play for the P5K-E.

 

[renethx]

I predict GA-P35-DS4 will be the second-best selling GIGABYTE (or even P35) motherboard (the best-selling is GA-P35-DS3R; don't blame me if I am wrong ). I am glad that GIGABYTE decided to sell this board in US (last year GIGABYTE made a big mistake of not selling DS4 in US).

 

[BrianPotter]

LoL, too late...I already decided on the P5K-E...but if I have any problems with that board I'll just return it for the DS4...However, I don't plan on using IDE at all, so it's a non-issue for me. I also saved $30.