Gigabyte - enters to the game !!!!!

Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Overview:

• Support for all Intel LGA775 processors including Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme;
• Intel P965 chipset and ICH8R southbridge with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 support;
• Support for up to 8GB of DDR2-533, DDR2-667 or DDR2-800MHz memory;
• One PCI-Express x16 slot and one PCI-Express x4 slot (x16 physical interconnect) with ATI Crossfire support using Catalyst 6.9 (or newer) drivers;
• Three PCI-Express x1 slots (either use the three x1 slots, or use the PCI-Express x4 slot with no PCI-Express x1 slots) and two PCI slots;
• Realtek ALC888D High Definition audio codec with 8 channel sound support, Dolby Digital and S/PDIF;
• Marvell 8053 PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet;
• Six native SATA 3Gbps ports;
• Two Gigabyte SATA 3Gbps ports and a single IDE channel;
• Firewire T.I. TSB43AB23 with three ports;
• Ten USB 2.0 ports, six internal and four on the rear I/O.

Box Contents:

• User Manual, CD and RAID/eSATA floppy disks;
• One blue IDE cable;
• One blue floppy cable;
• Four orange serial ATA cables;
• Two serial SATA molex power adapter;
• Two eSATA cables;
• Two PCI brackets providing support for four eSATA devises;
• A metal I/O shield.

Wow...Gigabyte has come so far, but left out a few essentials from the bundle. The provision of eSATA is just unheard of elsewhere, and is definitely a good thing for external storage. Having said that, though, if you don't have a case to put your hard disks in, you leave them prone to static attack or being dropped in daily life. This is a pretty big worry.

The board's layout is good, and the varying colours highlight all the necessary items distinctly without looking like it belongs in a primary school classroom. Gigabyte has used 100% solid state capacitors on the DQ6 model, which is similar to the Abit AW9D-MAX. These cost more, but performance and overclocking capabilities are improved slightly. Whilst this cost is passed onto the consumer, paying that bit more will also mean that the board lasts longer and will probably be a more consistent overclocker than anything the competition can offer.

Gigabyte has various boards that use the P965 chipset - the DQ6 version highlights the use of quad everything: support for Intel's Core 2 Quad processors when released, "Quad cooling" from the four heatsinks and heatpipe arrangement, "Quad BIOS" in the form of a dual-dual BIOS for the ultimate in screw-up proof BIOS updating support, Quad eSATA2 (in the form of four lots of two) and Quad triple-phase power regulation. That's a loose "Quad" ethos by any stretch of the "multiples of four" imagination, but don't think that we're complaining here.

The board does support CrossFire, although you are restricted to using one full speed PCI-Express x16 slot and the other at x4 speed...and that's only if you aren't using any PCI-Express x1 slots. Yes, if you plug something into any of the PCI-Express x1 slots, the orange x16 slot is reduced to a lowly x1 bandwidth - which seriously cripples any extra performance a second graphics card will give you.


The SATA ports are the clip-lock type to prevent you from accidentally pulling out the plug or bending and breaking it. Quite a few people will attest to breaking SATA plugs by simply applying a little lateral pressure. The front I/O pin header is colour-coded for ease of use, and the internal pin outs for six USB 2.0 (in orange) and two Firewire (in grey) are neatly placed and easy to get to. The power plugs are also easy to use, positioned nicely near the top edges of the board.

Extracted from Bit-tech.net