Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6: DDR3 comes a knocking, again
by Gary Key on May 30, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 Board Layout and Features
Gigabyte provides the user with a good layout considering the massive heatsink system employed on this board. The board features a dual six-phase power regulation system and 100% use of conductive polymer aluminum capacitors that provided excellent stability during testing at stock and overclocked speeds. The P35T-DQ6 installed easily into our Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 case and cable management was very good for power, optical, and hard drives, although the 8-pin ATX connector was a tight fit due to the heatpipe system.
During our overclocking tests we found the massive heatpipe system worked well but additional airflow was required to ensure stability. However, our larger heatsinks such as the Scythe Infinity barely fit and were difficult to install. Also note that the cooling backplate on the bottom of the board requires removal or the use of longer screws to attach coolers that require a backplate mount.
The board comes with two PCI Express x16 connectors (1x16 electrical, 1x4 electrical), three PCI Express x1, and two PCI 2.2 connectors. This is a very good dual x16 connector design. The second PCI Express x1 slot and first PCI slot will be physically unavailable if you utilize a double slot card design in either x16 slot.
Unlike the ASUS P5K series, Gigabyte took a more legacy approach with the rear panel options. The standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel, and serial ports are included compared to ASUS only including a PS/2 keyboard port.
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| Click to enlarge |
Gigabyte provides the user with a good layout considering the massive heatsink system employed on this board. The board features a dual six-phase power regulation system and 100% use of conductive polymer aluminum capacitors that provided excellent stability during testing at stock and overclocked speeds. The P35T-DQ6 installed easily into our Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 case and cable management was very good for power, optical, and hard drives, although the 8-pin ATX connector was a tight fit due to the heatpipe system.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
During our overclocking tests we found the massive heatpipe system worked well but additional airflow was required to ensure stability. However, our larger heatsinks such as the Scythe Infinity barely fit and were difficult to install. Also note that the cooling backplate on the bottom of the board requires removal or the use of longer screws to attach coolers that require a backplate mount.
The board comes with two PCI Express x16 connectors (1x16 electrical, 1x4 electrical), three PCI Express x1, and two PCI 2.2 connectors. This is a very good dual x16 connector design. The second PCI Express x1 slot and first PCI slot will be physically unavailable if you utilize a double slot card design in either x16 slot.
Unlike the ASUS P5K series, Gigabyte took a more legacy approach with the rear panel options. The standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel, and serial ports are included compared to ASUS only including a PS/2 keyboard port.
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yzkbug - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Will we ever see boards supporting both DDR2 and DDR3 memory? It would be nice to be able to run DDR2 for now, and switch to DDR3 in the future without buying a new mobo.Stele - Friday, June 1, 2007 - link
There's already at least one in existence - the Asus P5KC. Check it out http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&a...">here.It would be interesting if Anandtech could get hold of this board and see if having support for both memory types sacrifices fine tuning and hence performance/overclocking capability by a measurable degree.
slayerized - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
I know it is a bit premature, but do you have n estimate on the targeted price points for these boards and ddr3 memory modules?gigahertz20 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
You can already buy the Asus P5K Deluxe for $225 from here.http://www.xpcgear.com/p5kdeluxe.html">http://www.xpcgear.com/p5kdeluxe.html
My guess is once Newegg and some other places get them in hopefully around $200 or below but maybe not. They will be expensive at first.
xsilver - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
are p35 boards recommended for midrange overclocking systems just yet?a gigabyte ds3 + e6320 vs. a asus p5k + e4400 combo; which system is likly to have better performance after OC?
Sunrise089 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
The above comments reminded me of something many reviews have said recently - that "additional airflow needed to OC" line. What exactly does that mean? Does it simply mean airflow inside the case, as in you first tested with so case fans at all, and had to add some? Or does it mean you added some sort of motherboard specific additional cooling? If the latter, a motherboard that does not require such an added part would be much more appealing.Googer - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Good Article. But where are the disk and I/O benchmarks?Treripica - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
What the hell is a niggle?johnsonx - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
a 'niggle' is a minor complaint, or perhaps a complaint about a small detail. It's completely unrelated to another word like that with an 'r' at the end.TallBill - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
All applications were run with administer privileges.