Pipe Dreams: Six P35-DDR3 Motherboards Compared

[pschmid]

Intel's P35 Express chipset represents next-generation processor and memory compatibility. While other media outlets consider the "DDR2 v DDR3" debate, we instead analyze six motherboards that support the newest memory "standard."

 

[shooter124]

Reading this as we speak, yumm more p35 reviews

seems these boards are almost the same... personally i want something with both ddr2 and ddr3 support so the p35c is right up my alley.

 

[Chef_Boyardee]

Good article. Good to know that the boards are quite consistent in performance. when are we gonna see a ddr2 vs. ddr3 comparison? Because I remember an article stating that there is not much difference between the two.

 

[shooter124]

they said they were going to do a ddr2 run through of p35 boards... then you will be able to compare.. also at the beginning of the article they said something about ddr2 1066 being able to keep up with ddr3 1066... looking forward to that next review.

 

[shooter124]

double post

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Great review.... meh.

How about performance vs old tech like DDR2?

 

[Crashman]

The DDR2 motherboard comparison will show how much performance advantage there is to lower-latency memory of the same clock speed.

 

[Sarchasmo]

Asus' webpage states that the P5K family of boards support RAID 0 and 1, but the article says RAID 0,1,5,10

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1645&modelmenu=2

So which is true :?:

 

[Crashman]

Go by what the CHIPSET supports.

 

[rts_fan]

What good is a review of new technology without a comparison to the old? Where's the 965P or 975X or whatever for comparison. Very bad review technique.

 

[Crashman]

The memory timings are crap for DDR3 right now. You'll want to check out the DDR2 motherboard reviews for comparing P35 to old technology.

The review wasn't about DDR2 vs DDR3 no matter how badly you want it to be. To compare some boards with the least mature DDR3 to other boards with the most mature DDR2 modules would be a very bad review technique.

 

[yakyb]

would it be possible to get a power draw both at load and at idle comparison for the boards however im guessing that its going to be the same throughout

 

[rts_fan]

What I'm saying is, would it have been to much to have some reference MBs included in the test? The Asus P5W DH, the Gigabyte DS3 or DQ6, the EVGA 122-CK-NF63 would have been nice. Other reviews may not have the same setup, so an apples to apples comparison is not possible.

 

[Crashman]

Anything like that would have been a DDR2-1066 CAS4 vs DDR3-1066 CAS7 article, which is a different subject. The article references upcomming DDR2 motherboard review, so we should at least look forward to the P35 being compared to a P965 board being used to show progress.

 

[lordsnow]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of buying a P35 based motherboard - one with both DDr2 and DDR3 support. This means that, as far as I can see, the choice is between a Gigabyte and a MSI motherboard.

Now, in the review on TH, when you look at the accompanying picture of the GA-P35C-DS3R it shows 6 memory banks (4 DDR2 and 2 DDR3). However, on various webstores they show pics of this motherboard with only 4 momory banks. Can anyone tell for definite which is correct? I live in The Netherlands, just in case that matters (maybe they ship different versions to variousparts of the world?).

On a totally different note: does anyone know of a P35 motherboard with an ADI sound chipset?

 

[Canuck1]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of buying a P35 based motherboard - one with both DDr2 and DDR3 support. This means that, as far as I can see, the choice is between a Gigabyte and a MSI motherboard.

On a totally different note: does anyone know of a P35 motherboard with an ADI sound chipset?

I thought there were only 4 memory slots, two for DDR2 or two for DDR3. As far as I know, you can only use two of one or the other. I was considering this same Gigabyte board and method but then someone pointed out to me that you are restricted to only 2GB of memory, whether it is DDR2 or DDR3. I thought that was a good point although it is not common to really need 4GB unless you are doing intensive computer processing needing that much memory.

I decided on getting a DDR2 board as motherboards are rapidly changing and eventually, the board will be outdated but still decent. That is why I am going by price/performance ratios and looking at P35 boards but with DDR2. Yeah, when DDR3 is common place, my board won't be able to use the memory but it will be a while until the prices come down anyway. The P35 boards with DDR2 memory are already competitive performance-wise and I wanted a board for video stuff. I don't need the best board.

I thought most of the Asus motherboards use the ADI sound chipset. You might be interested in the P5K-series of motherboards?

 

[rts_fan]

You must be confusing me with someone else. The test setup states that the memory used for this test is

Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
2x 1024 MB DDR2-1111 (CL 4.0-4-4-12)

How can my request for a direct comparison to existing chipsets be construed to be a

DDR2-1066 CAS4 vs DDR3-1066 CAS7 article?

 

[Crashman]

The memory is going to be set as either DDR2-1066 CAS 4-4-4-12 or DDR3-1066 CAS 7-7-7-20. The 1111MHz data rate means nothing. Comparing DDR3 to DDR2 motherboard directly would only prove that CAS 7 is slower than CAS 4, which everyone already knows anyway.

 

[lordsnow]

I thought there were only 4 memory slots, two for DDR2 or two for DDR3. As far as I know, you can only use two of one or the other. I was considering this same Gigabyte board and method but then someone pointed out to me that you are restricted to only 2GB of memory, whether it is DDR2 or DDR3. I thought that was a good point although it is not common to really need 4GB unless you are doing intensive computer processing needing that much memory.

Yes, you can use only DDR2 or DDR3 - you canot mix them. As there are 2GB modules available, at the moment you could have 2x 2GB of DDR2.

But 2GB modules are still fairly expensive, so I was hoping that the motherboard would have 4 DDR2 banks so can buy 2x 1GB now and add more memory later.

I decided on getting a DDR2 board as motherboards are rapidly changing and eventually, the board will be outdated but still decent. That is why I am going by price/performance ratios and looking at P35 boards but with DDR2. Yeah, when DDR3 is common place, my board won't be able to use the memory but it will be a while until the prices come down anyway.

Good point. I'll consider this as well.

I thought most of the Asus motherboards use the ADI sound chipset. You might be interested in the P5K-series of motherboards?

Yes, but I don't really want to get a Asus motherboard - they seem to suffer a lot from memory incompatibbility problems.

 

[Canuck1]

Yes, but I don't really want to get a Asus motherboard - they seem to suffer a lot from memory incompatibbility problems.

I have OCZ DDR2 in my current Asus mb (AMD). I had no problems. I think it is a problem of setting up and not the compatibility but I am only speculating. It could be a problem with the voltages? I think I have read of many Asus customers trying most brands of memory. I usually shop for either OCZ or Crucial as I often find they are the best price/performance combos. OCZ is especially plentiful for me as there are a wide choices of speed/grade etc. The only problem I have with the boards is that the price is usually high no matter where you order from. I'd have to wait a while before prices go down. I bought my current board locally last time but I would order online this time around.

 

[dobby]

best of all there a DS3 model of the G35, YAY!!!

 

[harry_callahan]

1066fsb ddr3, 1-16x pciE, who cares??? Put some more lipstick on that pig.

 

[86rev]

Now, in the review on TH, when you look at the accompanying picture of the GA-P35C-DS3R it shows 6 memory banks (4 DDR2 and 2 DDR3). However, on various webstores they show pics of this motherboard with only 4 momory banks. Can anyone tell for definite which is correct? I live in The Netherlands, just in case that matters (maybe they ship different versions to variousparts of the world?).

the ones you were lookin at were probably pa-p35-ds3r

 

[Nightowl0707]

Now, in the review on TH, when you look at the accompanying picture of the GA-P35C-DS3R it shows 6 memory banks (4 DDR2 and 2 DDR3). However, on various webstores they show pics of this motherboard with only 4 momory banks. Can anyone tell for definite which is correct? I live in The Netherlands, just in case that matters (maybe they ship different versions to variousparts of the world?).

the ones you were lookin at were probably pa-p35-ds3r

Exactly…

There also appears to be a lot of misinformation concerning the P35C in this thread. It takes…


DDR3:

1. 2 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of system memory

2. Dual channel memory architecture

3. Support for DDR3 1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules

DDR2:

1. 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 8 GB of system memory(Note 1)

2. Dual channel memory architecture

3. Support for DDR2 1066*/800/667 MHz memory modules

Source: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2551&ProductName=GA-P35C-DS3R

I’m not sure where comments like “you can only use two of one or the other [DDR2 or DDR3]” are coming from...and this one…”But 2GB modules are still fairly expensive, so I was hoping that the motherboard would have 4 DDR2 banks so can buy 2x 1GB now and add more memory later.”

It does and you can…

 

[Diren]

okay guys im gonna buy the ga-p35c-ds3r and i just want to get a clear yes or no answer... Can you work with ddr2 and ddr3 at the same time?