Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6: DDR3 comes a knocking, again
by Gary Key on May 30, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 Basic Features
Gigabyte has provided the user a fairly comprehensive BIOS that is enthusiast oriented in the latest F2N release. In our opinion, Gigabyte continues to annoy the crowd that will buy this board by insisting on using the Ctrl-F1 sequence to open up the additional performance oriented BIOS settings. However, with the "secret" settings revealed we were able to match all BIOS settings on the ASUS P5K3 when tuning the board.
The most important option to change is the Performance Enhance setting from Normal to Turbo. This will improve memory performance in much the same way as the Transaction Booster from ASUS, although the level of fine tuning does not match the ASUS board. We found the Extreme setting to be just that: on the extreme fringe of usefulness. We could not complete our benchmarks when using it. We measured VCore droop to be around .03V under load testing with our QX6700.
| Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 | |
| Market Segment: | Enthusiast - $279.99 |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Pentium EE, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme |
| Chipset: | Intel P35 MCH and Intel ICH9R |
| Bus Speeds: | Auto, 100 ~ 700 in 1MHz increments |
| Memory Ratio: DDR3 | Auto, 2.40, 3.0, 3.20, 4.0 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 90MHz~150MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| Core Voltage: | Normal, .00625V ~ 2.35000V in 0.00500V increments |
| PCIe Voltage: | Normal, +.05V ~+.35V in +.05V increments |
| FSB Voltage: | Normal, +.05V ~+.35V in +.05V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-16x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked, Core 2 Duo |
| DRAM Voltage: DDR3 | Normal, +.05V ~ +1.55V in +.05V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 12 DRAM Timing Options |
| Performance Enhancement: | Standard, Turbo, Extreme |
| NB Voltage: | Normal, +.025V ~ +.375V in +.025V increments |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 2 - PCIe X16 (1x16, 1x4 electrical for CrossFire or Multi-GPU) 3 - PCIe x1 2 - PCI Slot 2.2 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9R (RAID 0,1, 10, 5) 2 SATA 3Gbps Port - JMicron JMB363 - RAID 0, 1 |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - JMicron JMB363 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 12 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel - 8 via Headers 3 Firewire 400 Ports by TI TSb43AB23 - 1 I/O Panel, 2 via Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Realtek RTL8111B PCIe Gigabit Ethernet controller |
| Onboard Audio: | Realtek ALC889A - 8-channel HD audio codec |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 8-pin EATX 12V, 4-pin Molex connector |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel Port 1 x Serial Port 1 x S/PDIF Coaxial/Optical - Out 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| BIOS Revision: | F2N |
| Board Revision: | v1.0 |
Gigabyte has provided the user a fairly comprehensive BIOS that is enthusiast oriented in the latest F2N release. In our opinion, Gigabyte continues to annoy the crowd that will buy this board by insisting on using the Ctrl-F1 sequence to open up the additional performance oriented BIOS settings. However, with the "secret" settings revealed we were able to match all BIOS settings on the ASUS P5K3 when tuning the board.
The most important option to change is the Performance Enhance setting from Normal to Turbo. This will improve memory performance in much the same way as the Transaction Booster from ASUS, although the level of fine tuning does not match the ASUS board. We found the Extreme setting to be just that: on the extreme fringe of usefulness. We could not complete our benchmarks when using it. We measured VCore droop to be around .03V under load testing with our QX6700.
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SirJoe - Saturday, June 2, 2007 - link
this is cool for you computer buffsGooger - Saturday, June 2, 2007 - link
I just did a google search for XMS3 and the only merchant to have it in stock at the bargain price of $599 is Tiger Direct! Yikes, I think I will wait a while untill the price of DDR3 becomes competitive with DDR2.AdamK47 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Sorry Gigabyte, I just can't see myself ever buying a board with pink memory slots. Shoulda stuck with the blue.Stele - Friday, June 1, 2007 - link
"Pink it's my new obsessionPink it's not even a question..."
:D Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation :P
yacoub - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Thank you especially for the note about larger heatsinks being very difficult to mount and the associated image of the back of the motherboard so folks can see what they face if they have a heatsink that requires connecting a backing plate (as most of the larger ones do).yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
What annoys me, is that every Gigabyte motherbord review has this same 'annoyance' written in. Come now fellas, you can only say it about 500 times, beore it starts getting old, and how hard is it really to press two keys in combination ? Gigabyte obviously is doing this for a reason, and if it takes me writting this comment to point that out, well, I just dont know . . .
Saying something like: 'You will need to press cntl + F1 to access the 'protected' portion of the BIOS . . .' Would sounds less critical, would not come off as negativity, and would keep you guys from sounding lazy . . .
TA152H - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
It's not hitting the keys that is the problem, it's remembering to do it. When you have loads of computers with motherboards, it's nice if they have a standard way to access features, instead of adding an inane key sequence like CTRL-F1. It is annoying, because four years down the road if you have to work on this motherboard, for whatever reason, you have to try to remember this bizarre and otherwise trivial detail. Standards are nice, especially when following them doesn't involve a tradeoff.yyrkoon - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
Yeah, well I personally have a bad memory, but after reading countless Gigabyte motherboard reviews from AT here, I do not think I will ever forget this key combination.Anyhow, this is one reason why when given the chance I always opt for ABIT boards, while other may opt for Asus, Gigabyte, whatever. Once you become used to a given OEM BIOS Layout, it is hard to make a change in OEMs without suffering a bit in the knowledge department(at least temporarily).
*yyrkoon hugs his NF-M2 nView . . .
TA152H - Saturday, June 2, 2007 - link
Keep in mind, not everyone buying a motherboard from Gigabyte is going to be reading these articles, and proper journalism dictates they don't depend on people knowing every previous article, so they appropriately bring it up. Before you remark what's the point in them mentioning it for people that don't read it, it's certainly going to be read by Gigabyte and by complaining enough times, they may take notice.I agree that it is often best to just buy from one maker, or limit the number. Unfortunately, I'm an idiot and I end up with stuff from too many makers. I try to buy only Intel and Supermicro, but they are too expensive sometimes, so I've ended up buying a lot of Taiwanese junk before finally finding a company from there I have had success with (don't ask me why, but Epox seems to work best for me). So, I've got all this Asus, Soyo, Aopen, MSI, Gigabyte, Tyan and a few I don't even remember running and it's difficult to deal with all the different BIOS settings when they get cute and try to be different. On the plus side, these motherboards tend to break pretty regularly so I have less and less of the inferior brands. Well, except for Epox. I have no idea why these things never break on me, but I have a feeling it's just random luck :P .
Frumious1 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
I won't forget, but I'm still annoyed by this, just like I'm annoyed by a BIOS that moves certain features into odd areas. I hate that there are about 20 ways to manage memory timings, voltages, bus speeds, etc. (and that's just picking either an AMD or an Intel platform). What's really stupid about Gigabyte's method of hiding settings is that it's not even all of the settings that get hidden. The major area lately that doesn't show up is memory timings. You can tweak voltages and fry your RAM, but GOD FORBID you play with memory timings! (There are some other things that get hidden as well, but I don't recall exactly what. I base this off my DS3 system.)