| Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Motherboard Review |
| Written by Maxit | |||||
Page 2 of 3 A Closer LookHeatpipes are now the de-facto standard used by motherboard manufacturers to cool critical hot-spots on their boards, and the story is no different in the case of the DQ6. The heatpipe system Gigabyte have come up with really looks promising and really stands out. The system consisting of aluminium sinks and a heatpipe cools the Northbridge, Southbridge and voltage regulators. By the look of the design, it appears that the passively cooled setup depends on airflow from a heatsink to ensure optimum performance. Unfortunately unlike Asus, Gigabyte didn't include an optional fan to use for those of us who are lucky enough to use water, or even phase change cooling. There is another side to the story however - the sinks that cool the VRMs are quite close to the socket, which could prevent the use of some larger heatsinks. What really impresses is the 12 phase voltage regulation found on this board. This is an industry first, and we commend Gigabyte for including it on the DQ6, as this should ensure outstanding stability when overclocking.  The bundle isn't anything to write home about, mainly consisting of manuals driver CDs and various cables. It is very well presented though. 
Also included are some molex to SATA power converters as well as PCI brackets with USB and firewire ports. The latter is greatly welcomed as it's not long before you run out of USB ports.  |
