Gigabyte GA965P DS4 VS Gigabyte GA965P S3

[NewPC]

Gigabyte GA965P DS4 VS Gigabyte GA965P S3

Deciding between the two, not overclocking yet but maybe in a years time to prolong the life of my PC. Currently i want stability!
DS4 is £40 more expensive, which is a fair bit! However, DS4 has CROSS FIRE SUPPORT! But is it worth the upgrade?


Opinions please?

Links for comparison:
DS4 = http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-062-GI
S3 = http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-063-GI

 

[locky28]

Do you want Crossfire support? Your probably not going to need it.

From what I've looked at, the DS4 just has the heatpipes the crossfire. That's wear the 40 bucks is at.

Considered the DS3? same as the S3 but with higher quality capacitors which is what your looking for when you need a long lasting and stable mobo.

 

[NewPC]

I looked as DS3, seemed to be not much better than S3?

What advantage is there to purchasing this? £10 more, but what do i get? Just new capacitors(No idea what this is )?

 

[locky28]

Well the first thing I check when my mobo fails is whether my capacitors have blown, they’re the vertical cylindrical things attached to the mother board usually above or to the left of your CPU (they'll be in a row of 4 or more usually), basically they steady your power flow and help prevent it from fluctuating, if you cop a power surge and it gets past your power supply these can pop. Also cheap capacitors start to leak as they get older or take a beating so having better quality ones means better stability/longevity.

 

[NewPC]

what makes them better? is it a rumur or have there been tests?

£10 is £10

 

[locky28]

Normal Capacitors do not have fluid inside them therefore they can't leak which is a problem with some cheap capacitors. This also means the fluid can't evaporate which causes the capacitors to bulge or explode. There was a phase when there were a butt-load of poor quality capacitors coming out of Taiwan (I think this was around 2001) which were causing a lot of problems and without doubt these would still be in circulation.

It all depend on important stability is to you, here in Australia the difference is around $40 which is not worth it for someone like myself so I would buy the S3, but as I said I don’t know how important stability is to you so if you think it’s worth it go for it. Note that the DS3 is more popular among other forum members whoever you can’t really know how many know what they’re paying for.

 

[NewPC]

yeah £40 is over 50% increase in price, i wonder if i cant just RMA it back within the year if i get problems?

I think ill save the cash and buy the cheaper one today, will watch out for this capacitor problem though now and possible upgrade if i experience problems.