The layout of the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 is very consistent with current LGA775 motherboards, and it makes good use of the available real estate. The four DDR2 sockets are mounted at the top-right of the board, a very standard position for an Intel motherboard, and these are color-coded in red and yellow. This design choice also translates into a standard location for the LGA775 CPU socket and Northbridge chipset, and Gigabyte has obviously not tried to reinvent the wheel with this motherboard design. The P965 Northbridge features a fanless gold heatsink, as does the ICH8 Southbridge.
The primary 24-pin ATX power connector is well positioned, directly on the top-right edge of the PCB, and the secondary 4-pin +12V connector has been placed above the CPU socket. This last point will be a positive for many, as there is no need to snake the +12V cable around the CPU or memory, but it can sit very close to the PSU in smaller case enclosures. The floppy cable is also on the right-edge of the board, while the single IDE connector is placed down at the bottom right corner. This last point can make the CD/DVD cable management more difficult with larger tower cases, but for hard drives, SATA is the de facto standard. The six SATA ports are directly above the IDE connector, and are easily accessible for hard drives. The front panel connectors both color-coded and silk-screened, so there should be no problems locating the Power On, Reset and HD LED pins.
The onboard peripheral options include a single PCI Express x16, three PCI Express x1, and three PCI slots, which is quite expansive, but lacks any multi-GPU configuration. These are arranged with a PCIe x1 at the top, followed by the PCIe x16 graphics slot, then two more PCIe x1, and finally the trio of PCI slots. This also makes it possible to add or remove DDR2 memory with a PCI Express graphics card installed. The PCI Express x16 graphics slot also features an innovative push-button retention mechanism, which is an improvement over the hard-lock ones found on most Intel boards. There are only two fan headers, one CPU and one System, which may disappoint some high-end buyers.
For the most part, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 is a very well designed motherboard, with plenty of real estate, expansion slots and upgrade opportunities. Everything is nicely color-coded, well labeled and otherwise conducive to a seamless system install. The only issue we had is the decision to place the single IDE connector at the very bottom of the board. We are no fans of this design, as even though hard drives have gone Serial ATA, the vast majority of CD and DVD drives are still Parallel ATA, and tend to be mounted right at the top of the case. This can create an issue with IDE cable length in some larger cases, and we would prefer to see the IDE connector right next to the floppy on the top-right of the PCB. Otherwise, Gigabyte has done a super job with the GA-965P-DS3 design and layout.
The ATX backplate format is also standard for a P965 board, and includes connectors for PS/2 keyboard and mouse, Coaxial/Optical SPDIF-out, LPT and Serial ports, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0 (four), and audio jacks for center/sub/rear/side speakers, line-in, line-out, and mic-in. Unfortunately, as the Intel P965 Express does not support Firewire, there is no IEEE 1394 port present on the backplate or through an external connector.
Installing the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 was extremely simple, and with the excellent layout coupled with a color-coded design scheme, it's very tough to go wrong. The CPU socket allows some freedom with heatsink-fan designs and sizes, while DDR2 memory can be loaded up or removed, even with a PCI Express graphics card installed. The power connectors are easy to attach and virtually every other component was a cinch to install. The only potential issue, as we stated earlier, is the location of the single IDE connector, which may be a bit low for those with larger cases. In terms of the software install, Windows XP Pro loaded up without issue, and the Gigabyte driver CD was very intuitive and easy to use. Even the manual is very nice, and included everything from diagrams and pictures, to BIOS and driver screenshots.
The System BIOS of the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 is certainly very high-end, and offers a wealth of tweaking and overclock settings. The basics are all there, and using the latest F7 Award BIOS, the standard boot options, enable/disable integrated peripherals, and power management screens are all in evidence. There is also a hardware monitoring section, which offers voltage, temperature, and fan speed readings, as well as all system warning/safety settings. The overall BIOS structure is very familiar, and par for the course when it comes to a performance motherboard.
When we move into the more detailed BIOS options, things start to open up a great deal. Gigabyte calls this section the Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker, or M.I.T. for short, and it includes the standard clock ratio and clock speed options that every enthusiast knows and loves. There are also options to change the PCI Express frequency, enable auto-overclocking, and adjust the memory multiplier up to 4X. These offer some very impressive overclocks, and we were able to take our Core 2 Duo processor over 3.6 GHz and our DDR2 memory to 1066 MHz. The latest BIOS revisions have cleared up a few potential overclocking issues, and the board took to the higher FSB speeds with relative ease.
The upper limits of these settings are very impressive, such as a 700 MHz CPU bus speed, a PCI Express clock of up to 150 MHz, and top DDR2 speed of 1066 MHz. There is also a full complement of voltage settings, which you can let the BIOS optimize for you, or change manually. These include voltage settings for CPU, DDR2, PCIe, FSB, and Northbridge components, some of which feature very wide ranges.
The only area that initially confused us was the total lack of memory timing settings. Most of our reference DDR2 initialized perfectly, and ran at the proper SPD settings, but the OCZ DDR2-800 locked up immediately and our first thought was the motherboard was misinterpreting the memory timings. Unfortunately, it appeared that options like CAS, TRCD and TRAS were either hidden or simply not available in this BIOS revision.
After a quick perusal of the user manual, we found a small notation of "hidden BIOS settings" which needed a quick Crtl-F1 in the BIOS screen, to make them appear. This worked perfectly, and suddenly all of the memory timing settings were available in the M.I.T. screen, and we were able to adjust the OCZ memory to standard 4-4-4-12 settings. This is a very strange decision, as Gigabyte will let you jack the FSB to 700 MHz and ramp up voltages to the moon, but chooses to hide basic options like memory timings.
