A couple days ago I got a DS3 which turned out to be a version 3.3. About 3 months ago I purchased a version 1 DS3 and a 6300 and overclocked to 3.2ghz no problem.

The new DS3 3.3 is *much* different than the version 1. For one thing it has 6 phase power regulation vs (this is from memory) 3 for the version 1 DS3. Huge difference there. The 3.3 is marketed as being QUAD core compatible all over the box so I figure that is where the extra 3 regulators come from.

The larger problem with version 3.3 is overclocking. Basically settings that worked for version 1 don't work the same on 3.3

Things I have noticed:

1. Vdroop, 3.3 has vdroop more like the ASUS p5b (deluxe), so if I set 1.375v in bios, cpu-z reports ~1.33v. DS3 version 1 had no perceptable vdroop.

2. PCI 1x issue (just like ASUS p5b). You have to set the northbridge up a voltage notch to get PCI 16x.

3. Overall bios wierdness. All kinds of wierd including non boots, half boots, double boots. Thing is once you are booted, it will stay up as long as you have the power on.

4. Power savings/sleep/resume. So far I have not gotten reliable S3 sleep working when overclocked. This sucks and is annoying. I use Vista though, which is different than when I had the version 1 I used XP. Bottom line is that so far it isn't working well.

5. Possible RAM destroyer. This is not different than version 1 but no , both of these boards killed one of two Corsair XMS Twin2x 5,5,5,18 1.9v DDR2 800. I am not a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: though, it could easily be that Corsair has had some bad batches of this RAM. Either way the replacements work %100 and overclocked quite a lot.

6. Northbridge heat sink is different. I don't have a picture but it is roughly the same size but has more fins. Either way the northbridge on the DS3 runs HOT. Definitely add a fan if you can.

7. Limited to bios f10. Version 3.3 simply has no other bioses available. I feel that a lot of these issues can and will be taken care of with a couple BIOS updates, still its annoying that after all the work done on version 1, 3.3 seems like a completely new board.

8. I am able to overclock at least as well as the version 1 board. It just takes more screwing around in the BIOS. Bottom line is once you are booted, this board is ROCK stable.


Feel free to add your observations. I feel the DS3 3.3 is a great board and it is different enough to warrant its own thread.