Gigabyte P35-DS4 - Which Board?

[dcinmich]

Below is the picture of the Gigabyte P35-DS4 from the Gigabyte site:

Here's the same board at Newegg:

This is the P35-DS4 picture on the Legion Hardware review:

However, on the Legion Hardware review the DS4 looks completely different. I'm referring mainly to the heatsinks. I actually like the one pictured in the Legion review, but since it doesn't look anything like the ones pictured everywhere else I'm wondering has the board been changed? If anyone knows I'd appreciate the info.

Thanks.

 

[IndigoMoss]

I think there was releases of ones with better heat pipes, sort of like when a video card gets released with better cooling. I may be wrong though, but I think that's what's going on. Newegg says something special about the heatsink, so that's where I'm basing it off of.

 

[dcinmich]

That would suck. The heatpipe arrangement on the Legion board looks much better than the other ones pictured.

 

[dcinmich]

Either way, would the DS4 be a better mobo than the DS3R?

 

[evongugg]

DS4 has 1 PATA and 2 PCI-Express 16x.

Here is a comparison.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_ComparisonSheet.aspx?ProductID=2745,2746

 

[myriad46]

The board from Legion Hardware is Ver. 1.0 of the board. Note the presence of the parallel port that was only on Ver. 1.0 and 1.1.

I think I am settled on this board. I was still trying to decide over the ASUS P5K-E Wi-Fi, due to its eSATA ports.

 

[blackened144]

The DS4 works perfectly for me. I got the version 2.0, due to its lack of useless parallel and serial ports on the back. The huge heatpipe system stays very cool with my GeminII CPU heatsink..

 

[dcinmich]

Does the most recent version of this board still have the large copper backplate? I had read on Thermalright's site that the UE120 could not be installed on the DS4 unless the backplate was removed.

 

[blackened144]

No, the 2.0 revision I have did not have the heatsink on the back of the motherboard.

 

[dcinmich]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm getting the DS4 come payday.