Gigabyte DS4 intel P35-mini review

[steelballzz]

Hey guys
I just received the Gigabyte DS4 P35 motherboard and i went testing right away
I was curious about this new chipsets from intel and especially the new products from gigabyte
Already prepared to 1333 cpus and with much more ram dividers it promises very good performance at a reasonable cost…
Would it deliver…?
For now lets see some generic and bios pics





The board prepared to mount the waterblock








The bios is very easy…..too easy for my taste ……the drawback is that you need to CTRL-F1 every time you want to access advanced options














Much more ram divisors allowing more flexibility and giving the chance to run high ram speed with low fsb





Concerning voltage options, Gigabyte was very generous offering 2,3 V vcore and 2,9 V vdimm, enough even for the most extreme overclocker











The 2nd setback in this bios was the page where you can see the voltages and temperatures…(hardware monitor).instead of a nominal value it only say vcore (ok) or (fail) wich is very little information





I also got a pair of thermalright HR-07 to go with my D9 ram




1st impression is very good….all worked out of the box….and i even used my former 965 OS


I already have XP and VISTA with a clean install and a set of mushkin 2x2048 to run more tests
For now this is what I have

Test bed



X6800 (cooled by apogee WB & 2 x 240 BIX)
Gigabyte DS4 intel P35
2 x 1024 teamgroup 5300 D9GMH (cooled by HR-07)
Twintech 8600 gts (158.18 nvidia driver)
Lc-power 850w
Xp sp2
















I know that everybody is waiting for Max fsb on this board but the Max with this cpu was 500
It’s the 2nd board where I get stuck at 500…so I assume it’s the cpu fsb wall
I have a 6600 arriving that i know can do 540 fsb no problems


On the other hand i went for Max benchable speed/ low cas with my ram using this board and the HR-07 solution

And I was pretty happy with it
Only a couple of hours running this board and everything comes so easy




The board is very easy to tune
Excelent voltage options
Everything seems so natural

[BobHarris]

Thanks for the review. Do you think a scythe infinity or a thermalright ultra 120 extreme will fit? Can the "silentpipe" piece of metal above the NB be removed if the HSF does touch it? Does the DS4 have 6 or 12 voltage regulators? Will the DS4 be avail. in North America?

Any cold boot problems?

[DAK1640]

Nice results...now I have to get one...I love my DS3 (Rev2) but this DS4 looks sweet.

[steelballzz]

@bobharris
no problems whatsoever
even when i do some crazy configuration it juts starts and shuts off 2 or 3 times and then reset the fsb to 266 and ram to 400....boots right up

when it doesnt......just turn the psu switch off and on.....and voila......back in business


been working with the mobo for 3 days and didnt do a clear cmos yet


changed ram......installed 2 OS......everything is smooth and easy

[kiwi]

Can you check if the board has a strap change at 417 like DS3R has?

[steelballzz]

Can you check if the board has a strap change at 417 like DS3R has?

sure
later on when i arrive home

[kiwi]

Did you manage to get home finally? hehe

[Okda]

is 450 is the maximum u can achieve ??

[Lu523]

I am looking forward to more results onthis also. Sure to goodness it should out do a 975 chipset.

[Richard Dower]

Thanks for the review. Do you think a scythe infinity or a thermalright ultra 120 extreme will fit? Can the "silentpipe" piece of metal above the NB be removed if the HSF does touch it? Does the DS4 have 6 or 12 voltage regulators? Will the DS4 be avail. in North America?

Any cold boot problems?

The Scythe Infinity definately fits...there are pics of it sitting on the P35-DQ6 on another thread, the Ultra-120 Xtreme...someone said it did while someone else said it didn't. I'd wait until confirmation/pics come along.

The P35-DS4 has 6 phase power, the heatsinks can't be removed, i'd assume Newegg will have it in stock soon enough.

[steelballzz]

Did you manage to get home finally? hehe

i did but was too late......
working my butt off these days
i also have some tests running 2x2048 mushkin 6400 ready to post.....in XP and vista...
so grant me a few hours and tonight i will show what i have and test what you asked

is 450 is the maximum u can achieve ??

nope

i did 498.......not a single mhz more......same happened to me with dfi dark infinity and this cpu...so i assume its the fsb wall on the cpu....in a few days i will test a 6600 that i know can do 537....then we will see if its the board or not

regards

[Neon Biker]

Is it just me or this board can't run the RAM 1:1 with a 1066 FSB CPU?

[steelballzz]

Can you check if the board has a strap change at 417 like DS3R has?

i didnt had the time to run pi and 2k5 but i did run memtest
415 x 9............24409
416 x 9............24467
417 x 9............24526
418 x 9............24585
419 x 9............24644

ram running 1: at 5-4-4

Is it just me or this board can't run the RAM 1:1 with a 1066 FSB CPU?

i have no issues....didnt try 2x1024 but with this 4 g kit all is fine...


490 1:1........

[Lu523]

I look forward to the results with the E6600.

[kiwi]

Hmm, a bit confused, what are those numbers there? That cant be bandwidth

[whoodiestyle]

this is micro atx right?

[steelballzz]

[kiwi]

Oh, I see, I used memtest86+ 1.7V
I always use +

[steelballzz]

this is micro atx right?

nope


@ kiwi

that was the cd i had at hand on my desk

does it show what you needed?

[kiwi]

Well, I haven't tried that memtest version myself. I might try and see. But I have a suspicion it doesn't detect right. + version detected L2 cache speed too

[steelballzz]

i did a comparative between XP and VISTA, and also diferent ram timings

[Richard Dower]

So Vista is slower, more pronounced in 3DMark01...less so on 3DMark06. Guess this is to be expected.

[MichelinGuy]

Did you already try to crossflash it into a DQ6?

[Viss]

What dividers are available? Saw a pic with 5/6 in it somewhere and am curious if 500fsb with mem at 600 is possible. Would be rather nice with E6600. How far can you get booting at 400 and clockgen your way up? Thanks.

[steelballzz]

What dividers are available? Saw a pic with 5/6 in it somewhere and am curious if 500fsb with mem at 600 is possible. Would be rather nice with E6600. How far can you get booting at 400 and clockgen your way up? Thanks.

see 2 as 1:1....

i have a 6600 instaled that i know can do 540 fsb but 510 was the max i was able to do

voltages all maxed but still no go
one thing curious....i can boot at 500 from bios to vista but not to xp.....


here is the SS