Asus P5N-E SLI or Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

[jedi940]

I am building a computer that will be for overclocking and gaming. It will have the e6600 and a 8800gts 320 in it. My delima is which motherboard to get.

I like the Asus because the 650i chipset runs FSB 1333 and has a second PCIe x16 slot. This will allow me to upgrade to four monitors down the road.

On the other hand, the DS3 has the ICH8 south bridge which will increase my hard drive performance. It also comes with 6 SATA ports which will be nice for adding more hard drives later.

I am just wondering what everyone else's opinion is on the boards as to which one I should get. I am looking for Rock Solid stability and performance. One thing that would make this choice easy is if they had PCIe x1 Graphics cards. The second card will not be for gaming, just to allow me to use four monitors. I do alot of multitasking when Browsing and writing papers. Has anyone seen x1 GC's??

 

[htoonthura]

I am building a computer that will be for overclocking and gaming. It will have the e6600 and a 8800gts 320 in it. My delima is which motherboard to get.

I like the Asus because the 650i chipset runs FSB 1333 and has a second PCIe x16 slot. This will allow me to upgrade to four monitors down the road.

On the other hand, the DS3 has the ICH8 south bridge which will increase my hard drive performance. It also comes with 6 SATA ports which will be nice for adding more hard drives later.

I am just wondering what everyone else's opinion is on the boards as to which one I should get. I am looking for Rock Solid stability and performance. One thing that would make this choice easy is if they had PCIe x1 Graphics cards. The second card will not be for gaming, just to allow me to use four monitors. I do alot of multitasking when Browsing and writing papers. Has anyone seen x1 GC's??

Ds 3 rev 3.3

 

[uri]

If you just need the extra monitors you can get something like the Gigabyte GA965PDS4 or any other 965 board that has two PCI-Ex16 (the other one will work at x4). and you will have all the benefits of the ICH8, more SATA, lower power consumption, better stability...

I've used a similar set up for 6 monitors with the Asus P5B-E Plus, 7300GT and Quadro NVS 440 and it works perfectly.

*You can also get a PCI card... and save some money on the board.

As for the 1333FSB the 965 boards can overclock to that speed without a problem and some of the new ones (like Gigabyte rev3.3) also support FSB1333.

The only downside is that you won't be able to use SLI in the future.

GL

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I'm thinking of getting the DS3 myself, but be aware that it doesn't have IEEE 1394a, if that's important to you. You can add a firewire card, but I'm not sure if you could connect a pci card to your front, case IEEE 1394a ports (if your case has one or more).

 

[lcliow]

gigabyte got a similar model GA-965P-DS3P which got firewire and 2 PCI Express X16 slot(x16, x4).

 

[jedi940]

Revision 3.3 adds the P on the end of the model number GA-965P-DS3P

Where can i buy this motherboard. I can't find it on newegg, or zipzoomfly??

Any websites would be awesome

 

[Fulmar]

I own the Asus P5N-E SLI and it does not have a second 16X PCI-E. If you're running SLI, both PCI-E run at 8x and not 16x. And if you want to run SLI in the future I know that the 8800 GTS 640 will not run at 8x SLI, I can't say for the 320 GTS.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Revision 3.3 adds the P on the end of the model number GA-965P-DS3P

Where can i buy this motherboard. I can't find it on newegg, or zipzoomfly??

Any websites would be awesome

Google it. I think you'll find it very similar to the DQ6

 

[egel]

Revision 3.3 adds the P on the end of the model number GA-965P-DS3P

Where can i buy this motherboard. I can't find it on newegg, or zipzoomfly??

Any websites would be awesome

No, rev 3.3 does NOT add the P on the end. Look at the Gigabyte site. Anyway, I own a DS3 rev 3.3. Supports FSB 1333 etc, as said above. The main differences between the DS3 rev3.3 and the DS3P rev 3.3 are the DS3P has 2 PCI-E 16x, 4x rather than one 16x, it has firewire, one less PCI slot (cos of the xtra graphics slot), and 2 extra SATA ports. It has the ICH8R southbridge, rather than ICH8.

It's only a little more money rather than a DS4 or a DQ6 which are quite alot more expensive.

As to where to find, google it.

 

[vanka]

And if you want to run SLI in the future I know that the 8800 GTS 640 will not run at 8x SLI, I can't say for the 320 GTS.

Care to back this up? Not calling you a liar; just want a little proof before I believe you.

 

[uri]

Are you sure the 8800 GTS640 can't run on x8SLI?

That's odd because I've seen that those cards can work with pci-e x1, so I can't really see the problem here...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/index.html

 

[jedi940]

do you have a link to the gigabyte site where it says rev. 3.3? where did you buy yours egel. I looked at the gigabyte site and the ds3 is rev. 2.0

 

[Jake_Barnes]

do you have a link to the gigabyte site where it says rev. 3.3? where did you buy yours egel. I looked at the gigabyte site and the ds3 is rev. 2.0

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

Use google :roll:

 

[jedi940]

thanks for the link

 

[jedi940]

This is posted at the bottom of the specifications at newegg

Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

What does this mean? I can't use memory with 4-4-4-12 timings at 2.2 volts?

 

[Jake_Barnes]

This is posted at the bottom of the specifications at newegg

Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

What does this mean? I can't use memory with 4-4-4-12 timings at 2.2 volts?

See this thread: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/GIGABYTE-GA-965P-DS3-Rev-compatable-RAM-ftopict233276.html

 

[egel]

do you have a link to the gigabyte site where it says rev. 3.3? where did you buy yours egel. I looked at the gigabyte site and the ds3 is rev. 2.0

Here: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2456
I beleive it says GA-965P-DS3 (rev 3.3) at the top.


As I live in New Zealand, where I bought mine is probably not going to help you but: here
As they didn't state what revision it is on that page, it's stats are slightly wrong, but I emailed them before I bought it and they said it was rev 3.3, and the board I received is rev 3.3, despite the stats on their page.

 

[winrot]

Can anyone confirm if this newegg link is the 3.3 version? I am getting confused with their multiple offerings. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042

if thats not it, can somone provide me with a link?

 

[jedi940]

That one is revision 1.3. It says that in the title. The following link does not provide a revision number. I emailed newegg as to the revision of the board and they said that there is no way to be sure which one I will get, but that product moves so quickly that they usually have the latest version. I decided to trust them on that and I ordered the DS3 from the following link and it will arrive tomorrow. I will post as to the revision and inform you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012

 

[jedi940]

My ds3 arrived today and it is revision 3.3