Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L, any good?

sunama

sunama

sunama

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I'm putting together a system for internet browsing, word processing/office tasks and most importantly viewing HD material and outputting to a plasma screen. I'm also looking to keep costs low. Ive narrowed the motherboard choice down to either the

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L £56, Intel P31 chipset

Or the

Abit IP35-E £65, Intel P35 chipset

I need to know if there is any harm in going for the cheaper Gigabyte?

I intend to use the motherboard with:
CPU: Intel E2160 (overclock to around 3Ghz)
Ram: OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2

Thanks
 
I can recommend the P31 board for your requirements. I have one with the same RAM and a E4400 clocked to 3GHz - I use 9 x 333. This board benchmarks exactly the same as my P35-S3 with the same CPU/RAM. The P31 has a couple of limitations vs P35, max. RAM is 4MB vs 8MB and generally only works well with 2 sticks; the southbridge is ICH7 so less USB and SATA ports. 4 SATAs are enough for me and I've had no problems with it at all.

I have had this mobo over 2 months now and I use it for all my non-games applications and would recommend it highly.
 
Last edited:
Topitoff said:
I can recommend the P31 board for your requirements. I have one with the same RAM and a E4400 clocked to 3GHz - I use 9 x 333. This board benchmarks exactly the same as my P35-S3 with the same CPU/RAM. The P31 has a couple of limitations vs P35, max. RAM is 4MB vs 8MB and generally only works well with 2 sticks; the southbridge is ICH7 so less USB and SATA ports. 4 SATAs are enough for me and I've had no problems with it at all.

I have had this mobo over 2 months now and I use it for all my non-games applications and would recommend it highly.
Click to expand...


Thats good enough for me.
I read some reviews and they all seemed positive.
Thank you, Topitoff.
 
My E2160 (1.8Ghz) is overclocked at 2.9Ghz, default voltage.
Ive only been running the system for a day now, but it seems pretty stable at this speed (Orthos for 2hrs).

Its a good cheap motherboard.
 
definitely recommended..

currently have it running at 330x10 (e2180), but this board will do 400x8, so I know it clocks nicely :)

Only thing it's lacking is ram timing tweaks - it just goes from spd.

Still, for the price it's a nice board :)
 
uvmain said:
definitely recommended..

currently have it running at 330x10 (e2180), but this board will do 400x8, so I know it clocks nicely :)

Only thing it's lacking is ram timing tweaks - it just goes from spd.

Still, for the price it's a nice board :)
Click to expand...

What voltage?
 
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