Product Reviews

Gigabyte's GA-P35T-DQ6 is the first motherboard we've reviewed to use DDR3 memory, which is capable of higher clock speeds than current DDR2 modules. The GA-P35T-DQ6 can take memory up to 1,333MHz, which matches the front side bus (FSB) speed of Intel's new processors. With none of this memory available, we tested with DDR3 1,066MHz memory instead. We got marginally better performance,

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particularly in our multitasking test, but DDR3 currently isn't significantly better than DDR2 and it's around three times the cost.

The board takes all Intel's LGA775 processors, including the new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors that we've also reviewed in this section.

Installing the GA-P35T-DQ6 could prove to be a pain, as the three heatsinks surrounding the processor socket get in the way. We had trouble getting a reference Intel cooler to fit, and it would be impossible to fit some larger coolers. The heatsinks also get in the way of the top PCI-E x1 slot, making it difficult to install anything but the shortest of cards.

Strangely, there are parallel and serial ports on the back panel, but no eSATA. This seems a strange choice.

Gigabyte's GA-P35T-DQ6 isn't a bad board and its performance was excellent. But the huge heatsinks and current high price of DDR3 mean that Asus's P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP is a much better choice.