Help with Gigabyte's naming convetion...

[gwolfman]

Can anyone help me out with Gigabyte's naming convetion? I read an article a while back but can't find it. I'll look at Gigabyte's P45 boards since I'm looking to buy one. Also looking for recommendations for ~$150 or less range.


GA-EP45-DQ6
GA-EP45-DS3
GA-EP45-DS3L
GA-EP45-DS3P
GA-EP45-DS3R
GA-EP45-DS4
GA-EP45-DS4P
GA-EP45-DS5


■GA: Gigabyte

■E: Energy saving technology
■P45: Chipset

■D: Durable ? What does this mean? All solid caps?
■L: Lite? Only one PCIe x16?
■R: RAID ? Adds RAID to an S3 since it is normally not included?
■Sx: Gigabyte's "safe, secure, and" ...?
■-S3: No RAID/Dolby HT/onboad LEDs/onboard switches?
■-S4: Includes what S3 is missing (above)?
■-S5: Includes smart backup (including all of S4's features)?
■Q: Flagship product with all features?
■P: includes TPM ?

And where does FireWire come into play here? Is it attached to one of the letters? Any help in clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Andrius]

As far as I know there is no general pattern for the naming convention (the higher the number and letter the better equiped the board, DS3L & DS3R being the exception).

D stands for ultra durable 2 (low rds mosfet, ferrite core chokes, all solid capacitors)
-S3 stands for speed-smart-safe
-S4 adds silent pipe cooling (DS3P adds onboard switches, LEDs over DS3R)
-S5 adds the Smart plug and play hardware RAID feature whatever it is.

All P45 boards except the DS3L appear to have 2 PCIEx16(not electrical).
All but DS3L and DS3 have dolby home theater support.
All except the DS3L also have FireWire.

DS3R, DS4P, DS5, DQ6 have TPM support.
DS5 and DQ6 have 10 SATA ports, the others have 6.
DQ6 has 4 EtherNet ports and 2 eSATA brackets and 1 FireWire bracket.

 

[gwolfman]

ok, so s4 upgrades the cooling some, that'll be useful... though I notice the DS3P has 1 heat-pipe. interesting. Thanks for the reply. Anyone else have more input?

 

[Mondoman]

The L version(s) are "lite" or entry level. For example, the DS3L has only 3-phase power (I think).
The R version(s) have RAID, are "mainstream" level.
The P version(s) are "pro" or high level, with more ports etc.

 

[Shadow703793]

Agree with above posters

 

[p7389]

Great thread! I'm looking at Gigabyte P45 motherboards myself currently, and have been quite confused on the different boards they offer.

I plan to get a E8400 (and OC it, which wioll be intersting), a 48XX ATI card and DDR2 memory. I'm looking at DS3R, DS3P or possibly DS4... Any thoughts?

 

[Shadow703793]

^X38 DS4 would be a good choice for you. Just wait a for more mature P45 boards to come out.

 

[p7389]

^X38 DS4 would be a good choice for you. Just wait a for more mature P45 boards to come out.

I looked at some X38s, and I have another naming convention question: What is the difference between GA-X38T-DQ6 (which falls in my price range and costs less then the X38-DS4 - strange I thought) and the GA-(E)X38-DQ6 (too expensive)? I looked at Gigabyte's site, but couldn't spot any immediate difference. What's the significance of the 'T'?

Choices choices.

 

[p7389]

Ah... Think I found it... DDR3 vs DDR2...

 

[SpinachEater]

Yes, you are correct. T = DDR3, No T = DDR2. The C = DDR2 and DDR3 if you find one.

The E has been dropped in the X48 chipsets for some reason (by default they support the DES) but I see it shows up on the P45 again. E is the Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) support. You can get older versions of the X38 for example that don't have it (X38 vs EX38). Maybe they put it back on the P45s because dropping it off the X48s got confusing.

Pay attention to the cooling solutions as well. That is usually where a big price difference comes into play when there are two similar boards. Their "crazy cool" setup has backside heatsinks to better the cooling of the CPU and chipsets for the Q series. In the Q series, there is also a heatpipe connecting the two chipsets and in the S series, there isn't. So the Qs are geared towards heavier overclocking than the S series but in a sense are the same boards. My theory is you pay that premium for all of the extra copper they throw in.

If you look on the Gigabyte website you can figure out most of this information just by comparing two boards and reading about the features. Newegg also helps with picture comparisons if you want to see the cooling solutions. Gigabyte also has a decent side by side board comparison chart if you want to put the features under a microscope.

Oh yeah, FYI for anyone else... The X38 chipset is going extinct. The X48 has replaced them. So if you find an X38 they are just left over stock. Also, the X48 boards are exactly the same as the X38 boards for Gigabyte. I got a late EX38-DQ6 and it had a sticker on it for the model number. I peeled the sticker off and the board is stamped as an X48-DQ6.

 

[gwolfman]

The L version(s) are "lite" or entry level. For example, the DS3L has only 3-phase power (I think).
The R version(s) have RAID, are "mainstream" level.
The P version(s) are "pro" or high level, with more ports etc.

Great thread! I'm looking at Gigabyte P45 motherboards myself currently, and have been quite confused on the different boards they offer.

I plan to get a E8400 (and OC it, which wioll be intersting), a 48XX ATI card and DDR2 memory. I'm looking at DS3R, DS3P or possibly DS4... Any thoughts?

^X38 DS4 would be a good choice for you. Just wait a for more mature P45 boards to come out.

Thanks for the replies! With regards to Shadow's comments, I don't want to wait too long because then Nehalem will be out! I'm looking for this board to be my "in between-er." That's why I didn't want to spend more than $150.

 

[gwolfman]

Has anyone used any of Gigabyte's P45 boards? Share your experiences if you have, I'm still trying to decide which one I want to get.