Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4
10. Conclusion
Review Pages
2. The Package
3. BIOS, test configuration, Energy Saving function
4. Benchmarks - Everest Ultimate Edition, SiSoftware Sandra
5. Benchmarks - PCMark Vantage, SYSmark 2007 Preview
6. Benchmarks - MAXON CINEBENCH, x264 HD Benchmark, - TMPGEnc 4 Xpress
7. Benchmarks - SuperPI, wPrime
8. Benchmarks - 3DMark 06, Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3
9. Overclocking
10. Conclusion
With all those talking about energy efficiency and environmental concerns, Gigabyte' s EP35-DS4 will probably attract users who need a decent solution. The product works as advertised, even we cannot be certain of the exact power savings we got using the special "Dynamic Energy Saver" feature.
Beside that special feature, the Gigabyte EP35-DS4 offers a good board layout, although we would like to see a more space-efficient approach when it comes adding a second graphics card for CrossFire. In that case several SATA ports would be wasted...But for most users this won't be such issue, since Crossfire configurations are expensive and as such, they would probably match better to a different high-end motherboard solution by Gigabyte.
Looking at the performance figures, we see that clearly, the compared Asus motherboards are slightly faster, but again the performance gains are to small to make that statement look absolutely true. What's true is the retail price of this model, which is around 130~150 Euro, at least for Europe. For that price you are getting a well balanced Intel P35 motherboard, with good overclocking abilities. While there are no exotic features like dual 1GB network, the package has good potentials. In addition, we didn't have any stability issues even with a 45nm quad core. So go ahead and add Gigabyte P35-DS4 to your cue list, at least if your budget is low and need a product that will not give you any headaches.
Review Pages
2. The Package
3. BIOS, test configuration, Energy Saving function
4. Benchmarks - Everest Ultimate Edition, SiSoftware Sandra
5. Benchmarks - PCMark Vantage, SYSmark 2007 Preview
6. Benchmarks - MAXON CINEBENCH, x264 HD Benchmark, - TMPGEnc 4 Xpress
7. Benchmarks - SuperPI, wPrime
8. Benchmarks - 3DMark 06, Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3
9. Overclocking
10. Conclusion