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Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 Review
[Abstract]
IntroductionWhen Intel first launched their P965 (Broadwater) chipset, the first motherboard we managed to get our hands on was the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6, an over-engineered motherboard with a v...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Overclocking
- FSB Settings: 100MHz to 700MHz
- DDR2 Settings: Auto, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 2.66, 3.33, 4.0+
- PCIe Settings: 90MHz to 150MHz
- CPU Voltage Settings: 0.51250V to 1.60000V (in 0.00625V steps), 1.60V to 2.35 (in 0.05V steps)
- Memory Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +1.55V (in 0.05V steps)
- PCIe Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +0.35V (in 0.05V steps)
- MCH Voltage Settings: +0.025V to +0.375V (in 0.025V steps)
- FSB Voltage Settings: +0.05V to +0.35V (in 0.05V steps)
- Multiplier Selection: Yes (unlocked CPUs only)
Although Gigabyte's DS3 series of boards (eg. GA-P35-DS3R) have become known as some of the best budget overclocking boards around, the whole family of Ultra Durable 2 boards more or less fit into the highly overclockable category; they're basically just variants of each other after all. The GA-P35-DQ6 sits at the top as its flagship model and besides the much more elaborate design of its cooler, the board also features a more expansive overclocking BIOS. Much of the options found on the GA-P35-DQ6 are identical to those on the GA-P35-DS3R when we reviewed it, but the stepping granularity and range have been enhanced. For example, the GA-P35-DS3R allowed memory overvoltage up to +0.7V while the GA-P35-DQ6 more than doubles this with a whopping +1.55V limit.
Overclocking the GA-P35-DQ6 was just as simple as it was on the GA-P35-DS3R. The board had no problems ramping FSB right from the start and did not require any controlled steps or burn-in. We were able to push the board from a default 266MHz FSB to 515MHz using stock air cooling. The only tweaking we had to do was increase the MCH and FSB voltages slightly by 0.2V. This result is actually identical to what we achieved with the GA-P35-DS3R before and the only thing different this time is a cooler board due to the extensive heat-pipe system on the GA-P35-DQ6.
CPU-Z overclocking screenshot. Click for full sized image. |
Test Setup
As a DDR2 motherboard, the GA-P35-DQ6 will be compared against its DDR2-based competition and since it is an enthusiast board, the natural choices for benchmark comparisons were the ASUS P5K Deluxe and MSI P35 Platinum. We will also be using our existing benchmark scores for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R as a baseline comparison against the higher end DQ6. Test bed configuration is listed below and true for all boards used in this review to maintain result consistency unless otherwise stated:-
- Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor (2.93GHz)
- 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 @ 4-4-12 CAS 4.0
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
- MSI GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB - with ForceWare 158.22 drivers
- Intel INF 8.3.1.1013 and AHCI 7.5.0.1017 driver set
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks will be run to determine the performance of the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6:-
- BAPco SYSmark 2004
- Futuremark PCMark05
- SPECviewperf 9.0
- Futuremark 3DMark06
- AquaMark3
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