Review: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Core 2 Duo/Extreme motherboard

Apart from Intel's own 975XBX, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 motherboard is the only board we’ve seen that supports the new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors.

Although based around Intel’s mainstream 965P/ICH8R chipset combination, the GA-965P-DQ6 is the new flagship board of the 965 model line, with enough added features to allow it to claim its high-end status.

It supports 1,066/800/533MHz FSB (front side bus) Intel processors and the four Dimm slots provide memory support for up to 8GB of 800/677/533MHz DDR2 memory.

Like a number of high-end boards that have passed through the PCW labs lately, the GA-965P-DQ6 uses a passive heat-pipe system to keep both the chipsets and the MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) cool.

Heat dispensation is further aided by the heat sink situated under the board, which Gigabyte has decided to call Crazy Cool. Add to this the 12-phase power design and solid capacitors (an industry first) and you can see that the board has been designed to cope with the heavy power loads that result from extreme overclocking.

Continuing on the overclocking theme, Gigabyte has provided a wealth of tweaks in the Bios for adjusting FSB and PCI speeds, as well as voltage settings for the CPU, memory, PCI Express, MCH (memory controller hub) and FSB.

Design-wise, the board is well laid out. However, the battery and Cmos reset jumper are tucked away at the back of the board between part of the heat-pipe cooling system and the back I/O panel. As a result, they can be fiddly to get at once the board is installed in a case.

Expansion opportunities are available using the four free PCI Express slots x16 (two x16, two x1) but, frankly, these are a waste of space. It would have been a better use of board real estate to increase the number of normal PCI slots from the meagre two provided.

Although there are two x16 PCI Express slots, this is no Crossfire board. This is due to the lack of support for multi GPUs on the Intel 965P. You can, however, use two graphics cards to give a quad-monitor setup.

Eight Serial ATA 3Gbit/sec ports give plenty of opportunity to set up Raid arrays using the ICH8R Southbridge, and there’s even a backplate with four eSata (external Serial ATA) ports.

Although it is expensive, this Gigabyte motherboard is loaded with features that will appeal to overclockers and, of course, supports Intel's brand new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors.

Related reviews :
Core 2 Duo/Extreme processor review - We take a closer look at these blazingly fast processors
Hi-Grade Ultis Core 2 Extreme PC review - Hi-Grade puts the Core 2 Extreme processor to good use in this ultra-fast PC