Reviews for GigaByte GA-P35-DS3L Desktop Motherboard - Intel P35 Express Chipset - Socket T LGA-775

Gigabyte P35-DS3L

Strengths: Great overclocker for people that are on a budget. Has just the right amount of SATA ports as well as features such as dual channel pc-6400 RAM support and quad core support. Rev. 2.0 adds 2 USB ports

Weakness: Not as good as the DS3R for just about $30 more. Lacking an additional IDE connector. no raid.

Upgrading from an ECS board so the difference was astounding. Not only did the ECS board not have any overclocking ability at all, but you would have to manually reset the CMOS pin each time you pushed your system over the limit. With this motherboard, overclocking was a breeze with the many options in BIOS, and furthermore, when my overclock fails, the system resets the BIOS so there is no need for manual reset. For people that need more SATA, eSATA, and raid, consider the DS3R. I just checked out my friend's and i can say it does offer a lot more. Even his northbridge heatsink is much larger, as well as 4 additional SATA ports. And best of all, the DS3R has built-in raid, which the DS3L does not have at all.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Very Good Budget P-35 Overclocking Mobo

Strengths: Really good no frills oc'ing mobo, solid capacitors, accepts upcoming 45nm Penryn

Weakness: Northbridge and southbridge heatsinks can get very hot.

Purchased this mobo as a budget overclocker (under $100); paired it with X3210 "G0" and got it stable at 3.4ghz using the Ultra 120 Extreme. The NB and SB heatsinks do get quite hot. Bios is pretty straightforward (ctrl + F1 to get access to ram timings). I got a Revision 1.0; there's a Rev 2.0 coming out with changes to heatsinks and IO ports. Overall, quite satisfied.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Super value

Strengths: OC ability, sata connectors, WORKS LIKE IT SHOULD!

Weakness: No raid, only 1 IDE connector.

Awesome board. I installed this, a e8400 and some crucial RAM and it booted on first try and went smooth from there. Also recognized my 500gig WD Sata HD with no trouble. The bios is easy to work with, and the supplied software is great. You can OC in the bios or within windows. From full advanced mode to a easy(percentage) mode.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Decent Intel P35 chipset based budget motherboard...

Strengths: Stable, economical, Intel P35 chipset

Weakness: No RAID, NO Firewire, only 1 PATA port

I bought this motherboard to build a faster rig. This is a basic P35 chipset based motherboard and at the time was competing with an ABIT MB which seemed to have a dual bootup problem. I am running it with 4x1 GB DD2 RAM and Vista Premium x64 with a Q6600 processor. It is very stable and fast. Using stock fan and no overclocking, I have not had any problems. I would highly recommend it for anyone who does not need RAID. If you need that, Gigabyte offers the DS3R model. The layout on it is pretty nice and allows for easy access to various components. 4 USB ports on the back panel and has headers for 8 more on the MB. In addition, it has digital Audio OUT on the back panel which is pretty nice if you need to use it in an HTPC. Overall very happy with the build quality and the price that I paid for it.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great motherboard, works perfect

Strengths: competitive price, high quality and very nicely built.

Weakness: no 1394 port, only one IDE port.

Bought this MB for my E4500, overclocked to 2.8GHz with no single problem, works great. I wish it could have a on-board 1394 port, so that I don't need to leave empty the 1394 port on the front panel of my computer case. Besides that, no complains. And the pro thing is, the SATA ports are easily accessible since they are vertical towards the MB.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Good Budget Board

Strengths: Overclock friendly, low price

Weakness: None

I’ve got this paired with an E2160 @ 3.15GHz. Obviously, at this price, it lacks certain features (RAID, firewire) that I don’t need. It also has only one IDE connector. But this board is a good performer with good BIOS controls. I had no problems with installation, setup, compatibility or anything else. It’s a pretty good value for a basic Intel board with good overclocking ability.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Budjet MB for c2d overclockers

Strengths: 4 SATA, supports c2extreme and quad core as well.1333 FSB support. optical spdif out which is great for HTPC purpose. My first OC experience and was a success with this board and E2180.

Weakness: no onboard DVI or HDMI. only 1 PATA connection. All my DVD drives are PATA. NO e-SATA output.

I have version 2.0. It comes with 2 SATA cables as well. My case has a ESATA out and I just connected the ESATA cable in my case to one of the SATA port. overclocked my E2180 from 2.0G to 3.33 (333 FSB * 10 multiplier) easily on stock cooling. Gigabyte website says it supports upcoming 45nm processors which is great for upgrade in future. Download the latest bios from gigabyte website and update it in windows environment using @BIOS

My system: E2180 OC @ 3.33GHz, GA-P35-DS3L MB, 320GB seagate HD, 2 GB crucial Ballistix RAM (no OC), NEC DVD-Burner, EVGA e-GeForce 6200LE PCI-E video card.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Good budget overclocking board

Strengths: Price is usually under $100, great overclocking options, solid construction

Weakness: Uses the IHC9 southbridge so of course it doesn't have RAID. No firewire, only 4 usb, no esata, only 4 sata, etc. All of this is expected on a board for this price of course.

I bought this board to overclock an E2180. Currently running stable at 3.33GHz (66% overclock). This board is an excellent budget overclocking board. The placement of components is good except for the IDE plug which may be in an awkward position for some users. This board also has four onboard USB headers for up to eight additional USB ports.

86% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

stable overclocker

Strengths: overclock easily

Weakness: tweaking only show as +, not true number. No Raid

I can overclock my E2180 from 200x10(2 GHz) to 400x8(3.2 GHz) with this motherboard, just like many many other reviewers. If I did something wrong, it would fix itself and I donot worry about srew up my hardwares. Wish it has Raid. Also the voltage increasement shows as +.1,+.2,etc. I wish it show 1.8V,1.9V instead. Go for this one and you cannot be wrong with this greatly reviewed one. Very happy experience!

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great motherboard!

Strengths: Easy overclocking, well made, best value for the money

Weakness: BIOS could be more intuitive

This is just a fantastic motherboard. It's got all the features that most users will ever use--how many people do you know that actually use SLI or RAID? It's well made, durable, and intelligently designed/laid out, and offers the best value for your dollar of any comparable motherboard. The only downside is that the BIOS is slightly counterintuitive. In order to access the more complicated BIOS functions, you have to press CTRL-F1 to get to the "secret menu." A minor flaw in a fantastic board.

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

GigaByte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard

Strengths: super oc functionality, solid capacitors

Weakness: no raid, no 1394

It is a great overlocking board. My intell e4500 core 2 duo runs stably at 3Ghz with stock fan and voltage. However vcore needs to be increased a little bit for 3.2G with stock fan.

I am not sure if there is a small bug in the bios. cpu fan sometimes does not spin until I restart the computer when the room temperature goes pretty low. I then used easytune to set the minimal temp to 12C, and then it runs great.

67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

P35-DS3L

Strengths: Lowe price, solid performance.

Weakness: No raid controller

No eSATA and raid. Only 4 SATA ports .1333 FSB, but only support for 1066 RAM. Frontpanel audio pins are located at the back of the board about halfway up. Gigabyte EasyTune5 utility errored out on Vista about 50% of the time.

0% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

THE Best Mobo for Leopard Compatibility

Strengths: Low price - under $100 Powerful overclocking utility built into the BIOS Supports the latest 45nm processors shutdown/sleep/audio/mic all work with Vista & Leopard...

Weakness: Personally I like the smaller form factor Mobo's but this is the bomb...

Support for Quad-Core, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Extreme, and Pentium D CPUs (including 65nm chips)
Max 8 gigs of ram (4 memory slots)
(1) 16x PCI Express slot, (3) 1x PCI Express slots, and (3) PCI slots for maximum upgradability
4 working SATA ports
Onboard Realtek ALC888 sound card - fully working!
4) external USB ports and (3) internal USB ports

This is one of the best-working, most hassle-free Hackintosh motherboards on the market. It offers rock-solid performance, excellent compatibility, and an assortment of expansion options.

this review is really from Weaksause12... he summed the mobo up

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Budget Performer

Strengths: All solid capacitors

Weakness: Limited addons

This is a great budget P35 board. It has a solid 4-phase power regulator to support quad cores. The capacitors are all solid polymer, so there will be little drop in their performance as they age.

The layout is good as well. The memory slots are spaced far away so that you can remove them without removing the graphics card. The main ATX power connector is placed away from the CPU so it does not block airflow. The SATA ports are placed far away from the PCI-Express 16X connector so a two slot graphics card does not block any of them.

However, as a budget board, it lacks a lot of the features you find in better boards. There is only 4 SATA and 1 PATA port. There is no IEEE1394 (FireWire/iLink) port. There is only one network port. The heatsinks are small and do not have a fan.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Good basis for a HTPC build

Strengths: . Its rock solid, easy to find the drivers for and a good bargain.

Weakness: one of the drivers wouldn't install from the CD so I downloaded a more recent version from the manufacturer's website.

I used this board as the foundation for my HTPC (re)build. I need that system to be able to accept CPU and video upgrades for years to come and this looks like a good candidate. I'm pleased! I will definitely consider this board for my desktop upgrade.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Decent p35 overclocking board

Strengths: price

Weakness: no AHCI in Win XP

This is a pretty good board if you are on a budget and don't care for RAID, AHCI(only supported in Vista), firewire and have no use for more than 4 sata ports. I have a e4400 running on this board overclocked to 3ghz at 1.375 voltage. Can get 3.1ghz at 1.450 but it's a bit too high for me. This board will also boot twice when doing a cold boot although it's quicker than the Abit IP35-E(before they fixed it).

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A Decent Inexpensive Board

Strengths: Runs cool, 4 usb, gigabit LAN, 4 SATA, 4 DDR2 slots, PCI-E

Weakness: Only 1 IDE, only 4 USB (need more), no firewire support, no external SATA (but you get what you pay for), NO AHCI SUPPORT!!

This is a good inexpensive board that does not support RAID. I don't use RAID so I thought I was saving money by not choosing a higher board; but it also does not support AHCI. I was disappointed. My HDD would not be recognized when I switched to AHCI support (why is there an option if it's not supported? I haven't found the answer yet; but supposedly from www.MSFN.org/board fourms, they say that Intel left it out in the P35 chipset).

Anyway, there's no firewire. You'll have to add as PCI card.

Sound is good (Realtek). The board runs very cool. CPU temp remains around 41 C (< 45 C). Heatsink and fan are quite (I'm using Core 2 Duo E6550).

The 1 IDE port is far from where it should be; sort of inconvenient.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Works great except...

Strengths: Booted up flawlessly. Seems to work well with my Core 2 Quad. Lots of bios configurations to mess with.

Weakness: Center/Sub audio jack didn't work. I configured the side speaker jack to take its place since I only use a 6 speaker system. Hard to believe but setting CAS timings is not available unless.....

To set CAS timing you need to use F3 bios. F2 and by what I heard F4 beta bios don't allow CAS settings. When in main bios window press ctrl-f1 then you will be able to set the CAS timing. I was able to get 4-4-4-12 that the Crucial Ballistic was advertising but also had to raise the ram voltage to 2v.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L

Testseek.com has collected 2 expert reviews for Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the average expert rating is 90 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

Read Full Review