Product Reviews

Gigabyte's GA-965P-DSP (Rev 3.3) is the first motherboard we've seen that natively supports a 1,333MHz frontside bus (FSB). This FSB speed will be used by some of Intel's new processors; the Core 2 Duo E6550, E6750 and E6850 look set to be the first released. The higher speed means the processor can communicate with peripherals faster, so the overall system performance should be improved.

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motherboard is also the first to use all-solid capacitors. Rather than the fluid electrolyte most motherboard capacitors use, solid capacitors use a solid organic polymer. These capacitors have a higher tolerance of higher temperatures and a longer life-span and should make the motherboard more reliable and stable. For more details, visit http://tinyurl.com/ysf3ev.

Although we didn't have a 1,333MHz FSB processor to test with, the GA-965P-DS3P had some of the best performance results we've seen from a motherboard. The board is cooled passively, so the high performance won't mean extra noise. It's a very flexible motherboard with plenty of room for expansion, including two PCI-E x16 slots, so you can use ATI's CrossFire. With three PCI-E x1 and two PCI slots, there's plenty of room for any expansion cards.

If you want to buy a motherboard now that you can use to upgrade to a more powerful processor later, this is an excellent choice.