5punk

Gigabyte - GA-P35-DS3L
£64 - ocuk

Introduction
Mid range mobo, needed something fast, cheap and reliable to sit in tukkake, so I bought this, didn't do any research at all.

This review isn't long, as I only spent a few days with the mobo and didn't really spend long working on it. Also won't contain any reliability info unless something goes very wrong.

Features(I love this bit, copy and paste FTW)
Intel® P35 + ICH9 Chipset
1. Supports Intel® Core™ 2 multi-core and upcoming 45nm processors
2. Supports DDR2 1066 memory for outstanding system performance
3. Features PCI Express x16 for outstanding graphics performance
4. Integrated SATA 3Gb/s interface
5. Features high speed Gigabit Ethernet
6. All solid capacitors design.
7. 8 Channel High Definition Audio

Package Contents and Quality
Usual packing job, big box, air-pillow-things.

The Mobo packing is sparse, mobo in static bag on thin foam, that's to be expected on a cheapy mobo like this, tis totally adequate, if not sexy.

2 sata (nice clippy ones), 1 FDD and 1 PATA cables were included. Otherwise just manual and driver DVD

Product and Build Quality
Mobo layout is fine, easy to work on.

I must admit, I was surprised to see all solid capacitors on such a cheap motherboard, this time last year you'd've had to sink £150 for the same feature. very good thing indeed as they don't asplode or wear oyt like normal capacitors do, which means your motherboard will last for longer and probably be more stable due to less power fluctuations.

The BIOS seemed a bit messy, but I didn't have to spend any real time in there due to the nature of the build. (I'd only expect it to be a problem for people overclocking a lot)

Overall build quality seems fine, nothing really notably good/bad.

Machine specs
Intel Q6600
8GB OCZ PC2-6400C5 DDR2
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
500GB WD RE2 HDD
7900GT
480W Tagan modular PSU.
Silverstone TJ01

Only Thing i'd note here is that it worked out of the box with 8GB of ram, which is fairly remarkable.


Conclusion
Awesome budget mobo, Will certainly consider gigabyte motherboards and intel chipsets for future machines.

The Good
Price
Compatibility
All solid capacitors

The Bad
Bundle could have been better (usb pci thingies would have been nice)
Colour scheme devised in conjunction with crayola and a herd of 5 year olds

Score 9/10

Asus Striker Extreme
$400 (~£200) Newegg

Introduction
Well, This was the first of the Asus Republic Of Gamers motherboards - Silly high end products made for enthusiasts, aimed directly at overclockers and the like.

Features
- Support Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU (see: Machine specs)
- Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready
- Intel® Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo Ready
- NVIDIA nForce® 680i SLI™
- Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/533 (note: I think this used to say 1066 too, but more on that later)
- Extreme Tweaker
- SupremeFX / DTS Connect / Array Mic / Noise felcher
- LCD Poster
- EL I/O
- Onboard LED
- Onboard Switches

many, many useful PCI-E slots (2 16x, 1 8x)

Package Contents and Quality
Usual packing job, big box, air-pillow-things.

The bundle on this thing was Obscene, The box contained:

FDD, PATA Cables.
6x sata cables
3x Temperature probes
3x molex to sata power adaptors
1x weird fan thing
USB and Firewire PCI backplates
Asus Q-Connector jobbies
GRAW & 3dmark 06, full versions.
3 month license for Kaspersky AV
SLI connector

Product and Build Quality
Okay, This is gonna be a long one.

The build quality of this mobo is very nice, everything fits well, the board is quite rigid and heavy (due to being a 6 layer PCB, rather than 4) The heatpipes don't get in the way at all and add to the feel of quality.

The motherboard itself is reasonably well laid out, Unfortunately, the 24 pin power and PATA connectors are close together, the SATA sockets are the 90 degree type which are meant to be neater, unfortunately they make it a cupcake to plug stuff in easily.

The 8pin power connector can push against the heatpipe on early revisions of the mobo (only with certain PSUs though, I never had this issue)

The Striker uses all solid capacitors, which is a good thing as they don't asplode or wear out like normal capacitors do, which means your motherboard will last for longer and probably be more stable due to less power fluctuations.

The main problem with this board is the 680i chipset, it's known for running hot, eating memory and not being too stable.

Also, the striker often doesn't get on with having all 4 memory slots populated.

BIOS is well laid out, easy to use and not too cluttered, quite remarkable given all the toys on the board.

However, this board has some quirks, the worst of which is known as the cpu init error (the error shown on the LCD poster) This error is a problem because it can be caused by almost anything in a system*, or it can be the sign of a dead motherboard.

*I've seen it caused by unseated ram, unseated PCI cards, unseated PCIE cards, nothing in particular and an errant bit of ham.

On the other hand while the board is behaving, it's an absolute pleasure, very easy to work with, and super stable at stock speeds.


Machine specs(stuff in bold is current where there's a few choices)
Lian Li Pc343
Asus Striker Extreme
Core 2 duo E6600, 6600 & Q6600 G0
Corsair XMS2-8500-C5 2x1GB & OCZ (2x1GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC
Galaxy 7900GT & Evga 8800gtx Superclocked
2x Supermicro 5 Bay SATA Backplane
2x Raptor 150GB RAID-0
5x WD Caviar RE 500GB
2x Samsung SATA 18x dvd burner
Enermax Galaxy 1kw PSU

Now, for the incompatibilities.

Most important here, the striker doesn't like OCZ memory, the Striker (and 680i in general) seems to be more stable with lower ram voltages, OCZ likes a bit more juice than usual into their rams.

I've never been able to get stability while running at full memory speed, only at 6400 (800mhz)

There is also an issue with the striker (all 680i chipsets) and the new 45nm quad core intel CPUs, like. they don't work.

Overclocking
As much as this motherboard promised, it fails to deliver, I've found overclocking is great to a point, but is sadly let down by a poor, finicky chipset, vdroop and various other issues


Conclusion
Overpriced, under performing. Avoid.

The Good
Many PCI-E slots
Very stable when in a good mood
Great bundle


The Bad
680i chipset
Poor memory compatibility
No support for future CPUs

The Other
Hasn't died, despite watercooling leaking down it a few times.

Score 3.5/10