We were really impressed by Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R. Its performance is similar to other P35-based motherboards but it brings a better manufacturing quality and a higher overclocking support, plus is it quoted at a very good price. It can be found, on average, around USD 150 but on some e-tailers like Newegg.com and Mwave.com you can buy this motherboard by USD 130, which is a terrific price for such product.
Its main features include support for the new 1,333 MHz external bus, eight SATA-300 ports supporting RAID – and you can transform two of them into eSATA ports; the adaptor is included –, two DDR3 sockets and four DDR2 sockets.
The on-board audio quality brought by this motherboard is fantastic, based on a high-end codec that provides an impressive 106 signal-to-noise ratio. It also features both optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs soldered directly on the board, making it easy to connect your PC to your home theater receiver. It also brings full analog speaker support, so if you prefer to use a set of analog speakers, you won’t kill your mic in and line in inputs.
The manufacturing quality is probably the strongest point of this motherboard, featuring only high-end components: solid aluminum capacitors, ferrite coils and high-end MOSFET transistors.
With GA-P35C-DS3R we could achieve the second best overclocking from all socket 775 motherboards we reviewed to date without playing with any fancy adjustments. With more time and patience you will probably achieve an even higher overclocking than we did.
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R is, in our opinion, a flawless product for the average user that wants a high-end product with a mainstream price. Go for it.
If you want even more features – and we can only think of SLI or Crossfire, Firewire ports and two Gigabit Ethernet ports – then of course you will need to look for another product.
