Gigabyte scores another first for the LGA775 board based on the Intel P35 chipset. Being the first and the first review here, we have high expectations of the board. Gigabyte did not disappoint me with its quality and performance.

We have seen the performance of this board to perform better than the rest of the boards running the QX6700 Processor. Although the differences aren't that much, we can see from the results that the board is heavily optimised for the Quad processor.

Features wise, this board uses the Intel P35/ICH9R chipset. It supports the newer 1333FSB processors including all mutli core processors including the 45nm processors. It alsos upport DDR2-1066*. It features Dual PCIe graphics interface that supports CrossFire. Solid caps are used for for enhanced stability and extended short circuit protection.

The board comes with SATA II and Quad eSATA2 interfaces. There is a Quad bios solution for extended protection. 8 Ch audio codec ALC889A and DTS connect features 106dB S/N ratio for wide range of home entertainment , gaming and multimedia with best audio clarity. On top of all these, there is a GbE and 1394 support. The NB and SB are also passively cooled by Silent Heatpipe.

Installation might be a problem with large heatsinks. For example, we tried to use our old proven G-Cooler from Gigabyte. It could fit but you would need to squeeze it in. We gave up and used the Rocket II cooler instead. The rule of thumb, use tall and slim coolers, avoid fat bulky ones.

The overclocking features is very complete. With crazy voltage range, one can test out watercooling for those high voltages. In our test, we are able to overclock the E6300 to 6  x 525MHz on Air cooled. The memory bandwdith shot up to 8000MB/s. For a list of options in the BIOS, you can refer to our Gallery for a view of the options available.

Overall, this board has performed wel (F2G). It works with current processors and is also future proof. The price might be a bit steep this board. Well, that is the premium you have to pay for such a designer board.

Pricing

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Pros

• CrossFire

• 45nm future CPU support

• Plenty of oc options in BIOS

• eSATAII

• 1394

Cons

• PCIe 4x+16x for CrossFire

• Expensive

• No WIFI

• Some heatsinks might not fit

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.