DS3 vs. DQ6 ...worth the extra money?

[EvilLost]

While the DQ6 has the 1394 port I much need, it has 1 less PCI port (which would equate to a firewire card for me anyway..) so aside from this, is the DQ6 really worth the $80 more?

I am going with a 6300 and will be OCing, though its my first time and don't plan on doing it "extreme" but getting upwards of 3.2Ghz would be ideal..higher would be great if not aw well...

I guess the main question is, what exactly DOES the dq6 offer that the DS3 doesn't for such a huge jump in price? Spec-wise it seems rather similar..

Thanks in advance


EDIT: I was originally considering the DS4 but noone seems to know where I could find that, and I have slowly given up caring much about SLI.

Also, I know the DQ6 has better built in cooling, but with $80 I could easily drop that on aftermarket cooling, and may even consider putting a little extra on top to go water cooling instead of air? Would that give me a significant extra edge to OC even further (using the DS3 of course)?

 

[EvilLost]

I was under the impression the DS3 also had the solid capacitors (the "D" represents that no?)

so basically its about $80 for the 12phase power reg (which, tbh I'm not entirely sure what this IS exactly..or mor specifically, how USEFUL it is..)

and the RAID?


which makes me think the DS3 is the winner in that case

 

[mikeny]

DS3 does have solid capacitors.

 

[cb62fcni]

Um, stating the obvious here, but DQ6 has gots an extra X16 right? Anyone know if there's hacked drivers for crossfire or SLI? That'd be a nice feature if you're into that sort of thing....

 

[EvilLost]

actually i was for a short while, but I'm more or less over it as I'm sure I'll be picking up a DX10 card instead of SLIing anyway

 

[lcandy]

EvilLost, the DQ6 is supposed to be amazing for overclocking. It's not. The latest BIOS F4 for the DS3 means they have fixed 99% of the issues and it overclocks a lot higher.

Right now, I feel my DQ6 is worthless until they can get a proper BIOS out. Long run when/if the bugs are worked out, it should be a much better board. If given the choice again I would go for the DS3. But maybe a few months down the line I will be saying the opposite :?

 

[EvilLost]

ty folks, ds3 it is..

now if i could just decide on a case i'm all set !

 

[ornryactor]

I was actually trying to make the same choice today, so this thread was quite helpful. I can't seem to find a DS4, either.

Where did/are you buying your DS3? I think I'll probably get one of those, too.

 

[vsamaco]

ds3 should be in stock in many places.
-newegg
-zipzoomfly
-ewiz
-or search gigabyte ds3 on froogle

From what I've seen in other oc forums, the ds3 is great ocer at its price point for 6300 and 6400 with updated bios. 6600 seem to be mix, but the wk 27-28 chips seem to be better candidates. For me, I don't need dual video cards and I managed to use all pci slots already (x3) vs. dq6 x2 pci.

The ds4 is nice too. Same as ds3 and it has heatpipes on northbridge and southbridge, x2 pci-e, intel matrix raid, firewire. The nb on my ds3 get ridicilously hot, so I balanced a 40mm fan on it.

I would consider the asus p5b deluxe over dq6 at about same price. Tho I'm waiting to see if ati rd600 will be a good mobo as a replacement.

 

[GigabyteRules]

EvilLost, the DQ6 is supposed to be amazing for overclocking. It's not. The latest BIOS F4 for the DS3 means they have fixed 99% of the issues and it overclocks a lot higher.

Right now, I feel my DQ6 is worthless until they can get a proper BIOS out. Long run when/if the bugs are worked out, it should be a much better board. If given the choice again I would go for the DS3. But maybe a few months down the line I will be saying the opposite :?

Wot bugs have u encounted?

 

[GigabyteRules]

Um, stating the obvious here, but DQ6 has gots an extra X16 right? Anyone know if there's hacked drivers for crossfire or SLI? That'd be a nice feature if you're into that sort of thing....

Electrically they are 16x/4x and I haven't seen SLI on them.... yet.

if i recall when 2 gfx card are inserted it go's from 16x/4x to 8x/8x

 

[GigabyteRules]

Um, stating the obvious here, but DQ6 has gots an extra X16 right? Anyone know if there's hacked drivers for crossfire or SLI? That'd be a nice feature if you're into that sort of thing....

Electrically they are 16x/4x and I haven't seen SLI on them.... yet.

if i recall when 2 gfx card are inserted it go's from 16x/4x to 8x/8x
What's the point of telling me that if you can't be 100% sure?
And I ain't gonna do the dirty work for you.


http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/941/2/page_2_intel_p965_vs_975x/index.html


P965 also gets Crossfire support due to the ability to split the PCI Express x16 lane down to two PCI Express x8 slots - dual x16 slots would have been better, but Intel still hasn’t caught onto this yet.

 

[lcandy]

EvilLost, the DQ6 is supposed to be amazing for overclocking. It's not. The latest BIOS F4 for the DS3 means they have fixed 99% of the issues and it overclocks a lot higher.

Right now, I feel my DQ6 is worthless until they can get a proper BIOS out. Long run when/if the bugs are worked out, it should be a much better board. If given the choice again I would go for the DS3. But maybe a few months down the line I will be saying the opposite :?

Wot bugs have u encounted?

Lots of little things. Most importantly, incomptability with my memory (which it claims to be compatable with), so no MIB/MIB2 support. Also as detailed in another thread, the ram becomes unstable at 2V and above. Also, the FSB won't get past 360MHz, no matter what I do.

I could go on about the flakey USB hub, interfering built in sound, improper fan control. I could go on further, needless to say: if Gigabyte don't start fixing these faults soon it will be going back and I will switch to Asus. For a premium board this is just shocking.

 

[GigabyteRules]

I wasted 30s of my life to read that article then another 3minutes to see why P5B Deluxe and DQ6 doesn't support Crossfire (dunno about SLI).

1. There's no switching mechanism (either through PCB or switch-bridge control through BIOS) to swap between 16x/4x and 8x/8x (but that's not an excuse to not support either)
2. The chipset does have the capability to support both SLI and Crossfire, but no licence either driver.
3. 965P doesn't support Crossfire because no-one has hacked its licence it on Catalyst

Theoratically since Forceware has already been hacked, 965P should be able to work in SLI with 16x/4x.

thats y they call u the master