Functionality

Now let’s discuss the features of the new Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. We would first of all like to point out that it should be considered one of the most promising solutions of all available in the market. The thing is that new Intel P35 chipset ensures that this mainboard will work fine with LGA775 processors supporting 1333MHz system bus as well as with the upcoming 45nm processors. When it comes to mainboards based on chipsets other than Intel P35, the compatibility with upcoming processors is still questionable.

As for the supported memory types, Gigabyte engineers decided not to introduce the innovative DDR3 interface in their GA-P35-DS3R mainboard. At this time, this is a totally justified solution, because this memory is not available in retail yet. Even when it starts selling its price will evidently be higher than that of DDR2 SDRAM, even though there will be no evident performance advantages at the time and the only factor affecting the price will be the fact that it is a new product.

As a result, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R features four traditional DDR2 SDRAM slots, like many other mainboards on older iP965 and i975X chipsets. Like many other mainboards, our hero can perform at its best with dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM. Therefore, DIMM slots on the mainboard PCB are color-coded, indicating how the module pairs should be installed for maximum performance.

Since Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R is an inexpensive solution, most mainboard features are implemented through the chipset. You can see it clearly from the mainboard block diagram:

As for additional controllers, the mainboard has a network chip and a chip ensuring Parallel ATA channel and two additional Serial ATA channels implementation. Gigabyte engineers chose PCI Express x1 Gigabit LAN controller from Realtek – RTL 8111B. The addiotnal ATA controller is a PCI Express x1 Gigabyte SATA2 chip. It provides the board with a Parallel ATA-133 channel, because the chipset doesn’t support Parallel ATA interface. However, besides PATA, this chip also supports two Serial ATA-300 channels that can also be utilized for the best.

So, the board ends up having 8 Serial ATA channels (with NCQ support and 3Gbit/s data transfer rate): 6 of these ports are connected to ICH9R and the remaining 2 – to the external controller chip. Both, the integrated ICH9R ATA controller as well as Gigabyte SATA2 chip, allow creating RAID 0 and 1 arrays. ICH9R also supports RAID 0+1 and 5 arrays and Matrix Storage Technology.

I would like to give Gigabyte engineers kudos for eSATA interface implementation. Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R doesn’t have the corresponding ports on the rear panel, as we would see in most cases, but it features two ports laid out on a separate bracket included with the board.

The advantage of this solution is that the same bracket also carries a MOLEX power connector. This connector and the cables included with the board give you the opportunity to connect not only special external HDD chassis to these eSATA ports, but also regular SATA hard disk drives.

Since we haven’t yet had a chance to play with any of the Intel P35 based mainboards, we got pretty excited about 12 (!) USB 2.0 ports. Four of them are traditionally laid out on the mainboard rear panel, while another eight are present in the form of pin-connectors. Note that the board has no IEEE1394 ports at all, Gigabyte engineers obviously decided to save on the corresponding controller.

Integrated HD sound is implemented via the new eight-channel Realtek ALC889A codec. The distinguishing feature of this solution is not just the pretty high sound quality (106dBA SNR), but also Blue-Ray and HD DVD formats support. Moreover, this codec boasts two additional independent output channels (for the front panel) that can be used for the headset, for instance.

As for the expansion slots, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R offers a pretty god list of them. besides the PCI Express x16 graphics card slot, the mainboard also carries three PCI Express x1 slots (one of them may be blocked by the graphics card cooling system), and three PCI slots. Unfortunately, Gigabyte engineers decided not to equip their mainboard with a second PCI Express x16 slot physically connected to the PCI x4 bus. It means that this mainboard is not compatible with ATI Crossfire technology.