Functionality

The first thing that catches your eye is the similarity between Gigabyte P35C-DS3R and Gigabyte P35-DS3R mainboard that we have reviewed recently. In fact, the difference between the two boards is only in the implementation of the memory subsystem. For example, you can clearly see it from the functional flow-chart of the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R:

Gigabyte P35C-DS3R is based on Intel P35 chipset and it uses all of its features in full. It means that the board can not only work with the entire range of contemporary CPUs supporting 800, 1066 or 1333MHz bus, but will also support the upcoming Penryn processor family. This way Gigabyte P35C-DS3R is one of the promising products that will remain up-to-date and compatible with all contemporary technologies for quite a while.

The main peculiarity of Gigabyte P35C-DS3R is the simultaneous support of two memory types. That is why the board comes with 6 DIMM slots: three per channel.

Yellow and red DIMMs are intended for DDR2 SDRAM, green ones ?for DDR3 SDRAM. The mainboard can work with either DDR2 or DDR2 memory, but not with both memory types at the same time. When you configure your Gigabyte P35C-DS3R based platform for use of DDR3 SDRAM, the whole process remains the same: in order to enable the most efficient work mode the memory modules should be installed in pairs and for the best results the DIMMs should be identical.

Although the mainboard features only two DDR3 SDRAM slots, it is hardly a significant drawback. There are quite a few high capacity DDR3 memory modules in the market already, so you will easily be able to equip your system with 2GB and even 4GB of RAM. Another important thing is that 2GB DDR3 memory modules shouldn’t cost more than a pair of 1GB modules anyway.

Despite the flexibility of the memory subsystem, we can’t say the same about the graphics subsystem. Gigabyte P35C-DS3R features only one PCI Express x16 slot, which means that it doesn’t support ATI CrossFire technology. Only more expensive Gigabyte mainboards offer support for multiple graphics accelerators.

Gigabyte P35C-DS3R offers pretty advanced options for hard disk drive connection. It uses RAID modification of the ICH9R South Bridge that supports six SATA-300 ports, so that you could arrange the connected HDDs into RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 arrays. Besides, the mainboard also features an additional PCIE x1 controller ?Gigabyte SATA2 that provides support for the PATA-133 channel and two additional SATA-300 ports marked with purple color on the PCB. These ports support RAID 0 and 1 arrays.

I would like to specifically stress the original implementation of the eSATA interface on this mainboard. The corresponding ports are not laid out on the rear connector panel, as they usually are. Instead these two ports are placed on a separate bracket. The advantage of this solution is evident?the MOLEX power connector is on the same bracket. This connector and the cables bundled with the board allow connecting to this eSATA port not only special HDD chassis, but also regular SATA hard drives. BY the way, the HDD plug-n-play feature is implemented in both: the ICH9R chip as well as Gigabyte SATA2 controller. So, eSATA ports can be actually connected to any SATA-300 connectors on the board.

The new ICH9R South Bridge model differs from the predecessors by the support of 12 USB 2.0 ports. All of them are laid out on Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mainboard one way or another. However, the board doesn’t offer support for IEEE1394 interface: the manufacturer decided to save some money on the additional controller for that.

At the same time, the mainboard does have a Gigabit network controller. It is Realtek RTL 8111B chip connected to PCIE x1 bus. Since Gigabyte P35C-DS3R is a relatively inexpensive product, there is only one Gigabit Ethernet interface.

Integrated HD sound is implemented via the integrated 8-channel Realtek ALC889A codec. High-quality sound quality (106dBA SNR) is not the only distinguishing feature of this solution. It also supports Blu-Ray and HD DVD audio formats. Besides, this codec boasts two independent output channels (for the front panel) that can be used for headphones, for instance.