e4300: Gigabyte DS3 or Abit AB9 Pro

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Firelord

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
414
Hi guys,

Due to some recent good fortune i've got some spare cash lying around for me to do an update to Core2Duo. I am on a budget and as such have decided to go e4300, 1GB DDR2 800 (cheap stuff for a while till I can afford the 2GB OCZ XTC Rev 2 DDR2-800) and either a DS3 or AB9 Pro.

Really I after a mid range board with some decent features but also able to maintain a decent OC (3 to 3.2GHz would be a great goal). I will be using my Big Typhoon from my current 939 setup.

Reason I have picked those boards is that:

a) I don't do Asus boards as the BIOSs drive me crazy and have had plenty of bad experiences.
b) I don't need SLI or Crossfire
c) 6 + SATA ports is very useful.
d) Gigabyte is £78 and the Abit is £90.

So which would you go for out of those two boards or any other suggestions than Asus.

Cheers
 
can't speak for the abit...but +1 vote for DS3...I've had mine for about a month now and love it....many, many features....very easy to obtain great overclocks and I think most people are getting the latest rev of the board now...I guess most rev 2's are gone now...anyways..you can't go wrong with the DS3..my 2 cents:p
 
DS3 will overclock better but the abit is better featured (firewire, uGuru, ICH8R etc.).

& the OCZ 6400XTC rev2 is cheap right now ~£120 for 2Gb so if you can I would go straight to it.
 
Ive heard many bad things about the AB9 and AB9 pro. Maybe a recent bios release has improved it.
 
The DS3 might be better for me becuase it has 3 PCI slots and I use 2 for TV Tuners and the third might be useful.

Which has the better sound as I have a DFI NF4 SLi Infinity at the moment and the sound is actually quite buzzy and crappy!

The DS3 is a bit cheaper so I *may* be able to get the OCZ at the same time.

Any more opinions at all?
 
Buy the DS3. I have one myself and it is simply an amazing mobo. You shan't be disappointed.
 
I've just reserved the DS3 rev 3.3 from a local supplier and also a e4300 and 1GB DDR2-667 generic to tide me over till I can sort out the OCZ (will come in a couple of weeks)

Go to collect on monday (can't get it till then :( ) and will build monday night!
 
Firelord said:
The DS3 might be better for me becuase it has 3 PCI slots and I use 2 for TV Tuners and the third might be useful.

Which has the better sound as I have a DFI NF4 SLi Infinity at the moment and the sound is actually quite buzzy and crappy!

The DS3 is a bit cheaper so I *may* be able to get the OCZ at the same time.

Any more opinions at all?
Click to expand...

That is the exact reason I bought a DS3. I have three soundcards and needed three PCI slots. It overclocks well and is good for my needs.
 
dexx said:
Ive heard many bad things about the AB9 and AB9 pro. Maybe a recent bios release has improved it.
Click to expand...
Probably mostly centred around the JMicron just like most other 965 mobos.
Imo it's 1 of the best performing /best vfm 965 boards at stock but has limited overclocking (~usually 400fsb) - pretty similar to the MSI 965 Platinum.
 
Anyone got anything on Sata performance with the DS3. I keep hearing horror stories.

I'm looking to use to NCQ sata II drives in raid0 but it may not be worth going to that effort if the sata stuff is bad, either that or find another board maybe.....
 
imo better to get a board with Intel SATA RAID rather than using the JMicron RAID.
 
I have a similar setup like what u want to do:

E4300 1.8ghz --> 2.66ghz at a 295fsb
Asrock 775Dual-VSTA (picked this b/c it was suppose to be a medium upgrade and migrate old agp card and ddr ram over....that didn't happen, but kept the board anyway)
2gb ddr2 800 corsair
1 sata hdd
3 ide hdd
1 dvdrw
2 hauppauge hvr-1600
1 hauppauge pvr-150mce
gecube x1950pro pcie

I actually tried the DS3, I couldn't oc anything, system was just unstable and I just stayed with he Asrock
 
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