The stock vCore for our processor is 1.2875v, and to acheive this overclock, we had to set the vCore to 1.375v in the BIOS, however under load this dropped to 1.312v. Whille the vDroop isn't intolerable, it is a slightly too much for our liking. Also to enable this overclock, the MCH had to be overvolted by 0.3v, the maximum allowed in the BIOS. Playing with the FSB and PCI-e bus voltages didn't have any effect on overclockability. Even with the mutliplier dropped to 6x, we were not able to push the FSB any further without the system crashing  during prime. None the less, 450 MHz absolutely rock stable is very impressive from a £100 board. Most boards costing 50% more can't match this.

Final thoughts

We were gobsmacked with the performance of the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. Despite it's price, this is one of, if not the best overclocking Core 2 Duo motherboards on the market. Although it may not support crossfire, it will make an excellent foundation for a system in which multiple GPUs aren't requred. Although there are a few niggles such as the problem setting the tRAS, unknown stock voltages and the 0.06v vDrop under load, it's upsides definitely outweigh it's minor problems. We heartily recommend this motherboard to those who don't intend to run a crossfire setup.

PROS

• Low Price compared to other boards
  
• Amazing Overclocking potential
  
• Stability at high speeds
• Easy functional layout
• 6 x SATA
• Upto 8GB DDR2

CONS

• Minor voltage fluctuations under load
• Unknown stock voltages in current bios revision
• Impossible to set tRAS lower than 9
• Only 3 Phase power may mean Kentsfield wont be supported
  

 

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