EP35C-DS3R vs P35C-DS3R vs P35C-DS3

[murymury]

I am asking whats the main difference between these boards?
they all have the same specifications, except the ones noted down

GA-P35C-DS3 (rev. 2.0) no on board raid, Over-clocking Enhanced, Supports Virtual DualBIOS
GA-P35C-DS3R (rev. 2.1) on board raid
GA-EP35C-DS3R (rev. 2.1)

other question i have. what does the Supports Virtual DualBIOS and Over-clocking Enhanced options denote. are they worthy i might invest in a raid controller if they are woth it.

thanks.

 

[weilin]

virtual dual bios means 2 bios images on the same bios chip. Should one get corrupted, the other will kick in and allow the board to post. However, should the chip itself fail, both images will be lost. This is different than dual bios. dual bios = 2 independent bios chips, should one fail the other will take over. both chips would have to fail for the system to not post.

overclocking enhanced options is well, more blurred, that could mean voltage control, could mean freer reign of ram speed/timings etc. Its a really subjective feature.

As for the differences between the boards, you have pretty much noted all of them... the R in th second one stands for RAID which is essentially the biggest feature the vanilla edition doesn't have. As for the EP35 vs P35... you got me... they look identical...

 

[murymury]

thanks for your reply.
I think the "E" stands for dynamic energy saver.

 

[geofelt]

The C in P35C stands for combined ddr2 and ddr3 memory slot capability. To my mind it is a very poor option. You can have either two sticks of ddr2 OR two sticks of ddr3, not both. This effectively limits you to 4gb max instead of 8gb. In addition, the lowest priced 4gb kit of ddr3 is about $600, while you can get a 4gb kit of ddr2 for <$100. DDR3 is not likely to be a good option before the nehalem boards arrive.

 

[zenmaster]

Yeah, No point for a mobo that supports DDR3 unless you have tons of money to blow.

DDR3 will not future-proof you either.
You will need a new mobo anyway in a year when Nehalm comes out if you want to upgrade.