Gibabyte P35 based MB rec's

[monkelyoy]

I broke a pin on the socket in my Gigabyte P35 DS3R motherboard so I'm out to purchase another board. Probably going to stay with P35 based Gigabyte board. Can anyone make sense of the Gigabyte word salad? All the models sound very similar. I think the EP-35 versions have the revised heatpipe and dual PCI-E which may be the ticket for me. Any of these boards have firewire??

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You could just look it up... I think all the models from DS3C up have firewire...

 

[monkelyoy]

Thanks, but there is a few things that are still not clear after looking at the Gigabyte website. I still don't know the difference between a P35 and a EP35 series; they have the same system specs. I believe the C mean they can take both DDR3 and DDR2 but I think that is the only difference between models.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

So get the cheaper one...

 

[amheck]

I'm in the same boat. It's all pretty confusing. I'd like one with firewire, too, but haven't seen too many budget boards (~$100) with 1394a.

I go read up on one of the GB MB's and try to come back later to remember which one I was looking at, and the numbers are so similar, I can't make heads nor tails of it.

 

[DSF]

EP35 models have the Dynamic Energy Saver feature. I guess they're probably slightly more energy efficient, but I think that's about it.

DS3L has 4 SATA ports, no RAID, no Firewire.
DS3R has 8 SATA ports, RAID, but no Firewire.
DS3P has 8 SATA ports, RAID, Firewire and a second PCI-e x16 slot, although I believe it's only x4 electrical.

"C" models take both DDR2 and DDR3, but not at the same time. I wouldn't recommend those boards.

 

[Mondoman]

Yes, the EP35 is just the DS3P V2.1 renamed now that it has the Dynamic Energy Saver.

 

[codeyh]

thanks for the info on this guys, I'm looking at a gigabyte myself..

 

[Exterous]

IIRC the DSL3 has a slightly inferior onboard sound card as well

 

[yehuda]

I too have recently looked at the differences. Here are my findings if you're interested.

P35-DS3L: Base model, so to speak. 4 SATA ports through ICH9. 2 SATA cables in the box. 3 fan headers: SYS_FAN1, PWR_FAN and 4-pin CPU_FAN. Only CPU_FAN is speed-controlled at BIOS level.

P35-DS3: Better cooling for the northbridge through a bigger aluminum heatsink. 2 more SATA ports through JMB363. eSATA bracket and cabling. Superior audio chip (ALC889A).

P35-DS3R: RAID. 2 more SATA ports through ICH9R. 2 more SATA cables.

P35-DS3P: Better cooling for the northbridge though a copper heatpipe. Width increases by 34mm to full ATX size. An IEEE 1394 (Firewire) controller. 2 more fan connectors: NB_FAN and 4-pin SYS_FAN2. According to user reports, SYS_FAN2 is speed-controlled at BIOS level. Dual BIOS (two physical chips on board) to protect from a bad flash. Support for x16 + x4 CrossFire. Support for an 8-pin CPU power connector.

P35-DS4: Heatpipe extends to the southbridge and the upper MOSFET row.

Rev 2.0: 4 more USB ports on the back panel (for a total of 8) as well as 1 more IEEE 1394 port on DS3P and DS4. These come at the expense of the legacy serial (COM) and parallel (LPT) connectors which, fortunately, remain as standard onboard headers along the bottom edge of the board. The "heatpipe city" in DS3P and DS4 changes to a more modest version.

Rev 2.1: Dynamic Energy Saver.

C in the model name denotes DDR3 support through 2 additional memory slots.
T in the model name denotes exclusive DDR3 design.
E in the model name denotes Rev 2.1.

The "Ultra Durable" initiative was originally introduced with P965 boards. The "Ultra Durable 2" refresh applies to all P35 boards.

 

[idiotekniQues]

ahhh what a helpful post yehuda. thanks.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

IIRC, the EP-DS3R has the Dual Bios also ...

 

[The Keeper]

My DS3 wasn't branded as EP35-DS3 but GA-P35-DS3, yet the revision number is 2.1. Does the mobo have this much touted Dynamic Energy Saver? Hell if I know, but it seems more like a marketing gimmick because I really don't think it'll save that many pennies or cents in the long run.

 

[braddy752]

If the socket pin is damaged, why don't you send it back to GIGABYTE for repair?
I'm sure that your board is still under warranty..

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: braddy752
If the socket pin is damaged, why don't you send it back to GIGABYTE for repair?
I'm sure that your board is still under warranty..

Bent pin not covered.

 

[PinkPanther1970]

Originally posted by: The Keeper
My DS3 wasn't branded as EP35-DS3 but GA-P35-DS3, yet the revision number is 2.1. Does the mobo have this much touted Dynamic Energy Saver?

Yes, it does.
You can download the DES software from the Gigabyte website.

 

[superstition]

You can get a Firewire PCI card for peanuts (six dollars) from Newegg. I have one of these and it works fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16815124032

 

[fritzfield]

Looks like a nice alternative to a costly mobo x-tra. I'd bite if I could be sure it would work as advertised.

 

[superstition]

Nothing in this world is certain.

 

[amheck]

Geeks has a few fireware cards, too, fairly cheap. A couple Adaptec card under $10, too

http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=149