Mini Gigabyte P965 DS3P review

[tuteja1986]

Okay so my Intel Bad Axe Motherboard died so i went and bought a Gigabyte DS3P after seeing it was awesome overclocking motherboard. My personal mini review

specification
Intel P965 chipset (Quad core , Core 2 Duo , Intel P4 Extreme , P4 D)
Supports 1333/1066/800/533Mhz FSB
Supports DDR2 800/677/533 memory
Intel ICH8R Southbridge
Marvell 8056 Gigabit LAN
Reltek ALC888 8 Channel Audio COdec
4 DIMM slot support 8GB of dual channel DDR2 ram
2x PCI Express X16 slot(x16, x4)
3x PCI Express X1 slots
2x PCI slots
8x Sata 3GB/s port
1x FDD port
1x IDE port

Durability Enhanced- All Solid Capacitor Motherboard
Silent Pipe Cooling
Over-clocking Features
Crossfire support



[Test Setup

Topower 750W PSU
X6800 @ 3500 MHz (500 * 7)
2GB PATRIOT PD22G8000ELK
X1650pro PCIE
Tuniq Tower 120
200GB Western Digital IDE HDD


Benchmark


Memory Test

-Sisoft2007 Memory Bandwidth Test

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/sandra_memory_bandwidth.jpg

-sandra 2007 Memory Latency

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/sandra_memory_latency.jpg

- MemTach Analyze Tests

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/bpa.jpg

CPU performance Test

-CPU Mark 2.1
http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/cpu_mark_test02.jpg
-Sissoft2007 Processor

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/bpa.jpg

-SiSoft 2007 Mutlimedia

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/sandra_processor_multimedia_bechmark.jpg

- Sisoft PI Test (1M and 512K )

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/benchmark_supperpi_1m.jpg



Synthetic Test
- 3D 2001
http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/3dmark_2001.jpg

- PC 2005
HDD - XP Startup : 8.04 MB/s
Physics and 3D : 303.26 FPS
Transparent Windows : 557.26 Windows/s
3D - Pixel Shader : 119.21 FPS
Web Page Rendering : 6.09 Pages/s
File Decryption : 95.32 MB/s
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines : 1450.77 FPS
HDD - General Usage : 5.68 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Audio Compression : 3497.18 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / Video Encoding : 600.1 KB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit : 237.93 Pages/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression : 49.14 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Compression : 8.19 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / File Encryption : 45.88 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / HDD - Virus Scan : 28.2 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency - Random 16 MB : 11.6 MAccesses/s


Overclocking

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=175137
Freq : 3499.79 MHz (499.97 * 7)

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=175195
Freq : 3859.98 MHz (386 * 10)

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=175196
Freq : 3900.04 MHz (390 * 10)

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=175395
Freq : 3570.13 MHz (510.02 * 7)

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=175396
Freq : 3605.16 MHz (515.02 * 7)

Stability Prime 95 Test
http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/primetest95.jpg

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/510x7_test01.jpg



Thoughts
I really liked the 965P DS3P and i think its the best bang for buck enthusiastic motherboard. Over clocking wise its an spectacular motherboard. I am able to hit 500FBS without a problem. Its loaded with extra feature like all solid Capacitor , cover coke points , 6 Phaze Power Supply , 8 Sata port , Crossfire support and its got fuse on the USB port to protect it from Voltage and Current overload. This board can be bought for 130USD and its loaded with high Quality Features but If you have a X6800 or Quad core CPU then i do suggest buying a higher end chipset like 680i or RD600 to gain better overclocking result. I wish this motherboard had more options for overclocking but i ain't complaining since its hell cheaper than the high end motherboard.

 

[tuteja1986]

I am going to do more testing... but if you need have a question or want to test something in particular then ask away. : )

 

[brencat]

Hi Tuteja. I started a separate thread "Which Mobo would you Pick for High FSB?" yesterday asking for opinions on 3 mobos I'm considering...and the DS3 Rev 3.3 is one of them. My question to you is...since you are using an X6800 with the unlocked multi, is it easier to keep your NB cool at high FSB with this CPU versus when trying to use an E6600 (with a default 9x) and dropping it to 8 or 7 ? Isn't this why the lower default multi cpus like the E6400 have an advantage with high FSB overclocks?

 

[tuteja1986]

Okay if i had a E6600 i could easily overclock it to (7x500Mhz) = 3500 with this setup. My problem is the RAM i have, refuses to overclock higher than 1030Mhz. Now if i had a Crucial PC8000 Micron Ram or PC8500 then i could easily get a rock solid stable 520FSB from this board. As for NB cooling... it would around the same with either.

IF you do go with this board then i do suggest you get a 2GB of Curcial PC8000 with Tuniq Tower 120. But if your just going for the highest clock speed then don't need the that type of ram unless you wanted the ram to run at ultra low cas.

 

[brencat]

Good to hear that you think 500 FSB would be stable 24/7. I have G-Skill PC6400HZ (Micron D9s) + PC Power & Cooling 610W PSU with 49A on 12v rail. Air cooling with Thermalright Ultra 120 + Scythe fan (same setup Anandtech reviewed recently). Just need to order the CPU and mobo and waiting for April/May price drop.

No matter which of the 3 mobos I choose, I plan to remove the NB heatsink and put some AS5 in place of the crap that ships with these boards. The DS3 NB seems to provide a lot of grooves to easily fasten a 40mm fan to also.

 

[apoppin]

really nice MB ... the O/C'ing potential is awesome!

 

[brencat]

Tuteja...are you running stock NB at 500+ FSB or did you modify anything like adding a fan? lapping? use AS5 ? Lots of forum comments that this NB gets smokin' hot ~ 460 FSB

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: brencat
Tuteja...are you running stock NB at 500+ FSB or did you modify anything like adding a fan? lapping? use AS5 ? Lots of forum comments that this NB gets smokin' hot ~ 460 FSB

well i don't know about DS3... but with DS3P i am using the stock heatsink. I am dong a 4hr+ orthos test to make sure its rock solid stable at 500FSB. I will post a screenshot later today.

 

[brencat]

I'm an idiot. You're talking about the DS3P not the DS3. The DS3P is not available yet in the U.S. :disgust:

In fact, googling for some pictures...the DS3P looks very much the same as a DS4 but without the heatpipe

 

[tuteja1986]

well i live in Australia and its available to us ... one of the few things that we get early. But you guys have newegg which is the cheapest online computer store. It cost $10 more than DS3.

Intel S775 Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3Pro V3.3

 

[tuteja1986]

Update

Orthos 5hr testing : )

http://home.exetel.com.au/tictech/orthos_5hr_4mins.jpg