X-bitlabs review Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
Our today’s review will be devoted to an inexpensive Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mainboard based on Intel P35 Express chipset that sells at a little over $100 these days. We were very pleased with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mainboard: smart PCB design, pretty rich set of connectors, features and functions. We admired easy and quick processor overclocking procedure. Read more in our review!
After a while we decided to resume testing Intel P35 Express based mainboards. In fact, it is not surprising at all, although it is fairly easy to purchase an Intel X38 Express based mainboard these days, and some mainboard makers are even offering X48 based mainboards in the nearest future. Our Asus P5E Mainboard Review revealed that Intel X38 doesn’t have any significant advantages over P35, however the higher chipset cost automatically increases the price of mainboards based on it. We will still be looking at the features and performance of the new Intel X48 solution later on, however, judging by the hasty launch and some preliminary data circling around, it is none other but an X38 with corrected bugs and will hardly be any cheaper. However, the price point is an important aspect when deciding on a platform. Even AMD processor fans admit some advantages of processors on Core micro-architecture, however, they remind us that the total system cost is usually higher for Intel platforms. Usually it results from the fact that LGA775 mainboards with good overclocking friendly features are normally more expensive than Socket AM2 solutions with some overclocking potential...
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