Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 @ Hardwarezone
Hardwarezone reviews the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard which supports Intel’s new Core 2 Duo CPUs. Hardwarezone gives this motherboard a final score of 4.5/5 and the ‘Most Overclockable Product Award’ writing in the conclusion:
The GA-965P-DS3 is the mainstream offering from Gigabyte’s new S-series Core 2 Duo ready motherboards featuring the Intel P965 chipset. Like MSI’s P965 Neo, the board sets a compromise on features for a greatly reduced cost to target the mainstream market. This includes using the basic ICH8 Southbridge (that lacks SATA AHCI/NCQ and RAID capabilities), cheaper audio component and removing all ‘extreme’ features such as heat-pipe cooling. However, one must understand that even with a simple configuration, the Intel P965 chipset is no slouch.
Unlike the MSI P965 Neo, which was clearly intended for the mainstream/budget segment, the GA-965P-DS3 is more of a hybrid. Feature-wise, Gigabyte made sure that the DS3 is a more complete board compared to its competitors. S/PDIF, PCIe Gigabit LAN, better expansion capabilities and it even boasts an excellent overclocking BIOS from Gigabyte’s high-end lineup. With additional features like the full solid capacitors, the GA-965P-DS3 should still be able to fulfill even the needs of the enthusiast, as long as you’re not pining for a dual-GPU system yet.
[...]With its solid build, great out-of-the-box compatibility and ultimately its extreme overclocking bandwidth, the GA-965P-DS3 will probably be a shoo-in as a favorite budget Core 2 Duo motherboard for a long while.
Read the full review of the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 here.