GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R or ASUS P5KC

a4092940

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Aug 22, 2007
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Hey Wrath, I was considering the same question.

It generally boils down to how much you want to pay and what you want to use the board for. The Asus is more expensive but it a better overclocker and has few more extra features. The Gigabyte is a lot cheaper but doesn't overclock as well and doesn't have the extra bells and whistles.

The Asus also supports only DDR3, whereas the Gigabyte has 4 slots for DDR2 and 2 slots for DDR3. By the time that DDR3 comes down in price though, I'm sure that there will be better DDR3 motherboards coming out.

If this is the case, then there's the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R and the GA-P35-DS3P. The GA-P35-DS3R doesn't have the DDR3 support, as doesn't the GA-P35-DS3P, but the DS3P is an upgrade of the GA-P35C-DS3R you queried in the post.

It's just not complicated enough is it!
 

hheiber

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Jun 4, 2007
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I am looking at the same two options, but I am not sure everything you have listed here is completely accurate. As far as I can tell:

The P5KC has support for both DDR2 (4 slots) and DDR3 (2 slots) as well.
The P5KC has firewire and the GA-P35C-DS3R does not
The P5KC is $150 at Newegg right now and the GA-P35C-DS3R is $160 right now

Please correct me this is wrong, but based on the above, I am leaning towards the P5KC.
 
The P35C has higher quality components. It will last longer.
It consumes 30W less (which also helps with overclocking).
It needs less cooling, which is nice if your case is not cooled very well.
It has better customer service.
It allows 3 PCI slots to be used with an 8800 GTX (the Asus has a different layout and one PCI slot is blocked by the huge video card).
And of course the lemming effect. After you see it recommended 57 times you start recommending it yourself :)

I bought the P35C and I'm happy with it, by the way. I really needed all 3 PCI slots, but I also like the part about consuming less.

 

sasogmk

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Aug 22, 2007
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I was considering the same question.

Both motherboards have future for combo memory DDR2 and DDR3, but Asus P5KC has better overclocking capability. But my opinion is to wait X38 motherboard chipset to comeout on the market and the prize of P35 motherboards will be a little cheaper than the current prize.