Gigabyte 970A-DS3P review
It doesn't have many ports, but this ATX AM3+ board is a good foundation for an AMD FX processor
The rest of the board was more promising. Its four DDR3 memory slots can hold up to 32GB of RAM and can take modules with default speeds of up to 1,866MHz, but it will also support a maximum speed of 2,000MHz when overclocked. With six SATA3 ports at its disposal, all your drives will be able to perform at the best speeds possible as well, so you won’t have to worry about switching them round to get the best performance.
We tested the 970A-DS3 with an AMD FX-8350 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM running at 1,600MHz. It scored 86 overall, which is three points slower than what we’d normally expect to see from this processor, but at least the board’s BIOS is easy to use if you want to overclock your system to increase its performance.
The Gigabyte 970A-DS3P isn’t perfect, but this is still a decent AM3+ board. It doesn’t have many ports or display outputs, but its greater number of SATA 3 ports and expansion slots mean it’s a great choice for most people.
Basic Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Rating | **** |
| Processor socket | AM3+ |
| Form factor | ATX |
| Size | 220x305mm |
| Processor support | FX, Phenom II, Athlon II |
| Processor external bus | 100MHz |
| Chipset north bridge | AMD 970 |
| Chipset south bridge | AMD SB950 |
| Passively-cooled north bridge | yes |
| Integrated graphics | No |
| Supported memory type | DDR3 |
| Maximum memory speed | PC3-16000 |
| Memory slots | 4 |
| Maximum memory | 32GB |
| Dual-channel support | yes |
Buying Information | |
| Price | £50 |
| Supplier | http://www.scan.co.uk |
| Details | www.giga-byte.com |
Internal Ports | |
| Power connectors | 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 4-pin ATX |
| PCI-E x16 slots | 2 |
| Dual graphics architecture | CrossFireX |
| PCI-E x4 slots | 0 |
| PCI-E x1 slots | 3 |
| PCI slots | 2 |
| Fan headers | 4 |
| Floppy ports | 0 |
| IDE ports | 0 |
| Serial ATA ports | 0 |
| RAID chipset (max disks) | AMD SB950 (6x SATA III, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) |
Features | |
| Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
| Sound (ports) | Realtek High Definition Audio (3x analogue) |
| USB2 ports / headers | 8/6 |
| Firewire ports / headers | 0/0 |
| Legacy ports | 1x PS/2 |
| Other ports | none |
| Cables included | 2x SATA |
| Brackets included | none |
| Software included | none |
Setup and Overclocking | |
| Voltage adjustment | CPU/RAM/Chipset |
| CPU clock max adjustment | 7,900MHz |