Got the DS3R today and heres a very quick review

[Sora]

To sum up this board in one sentence... "Amazing board, untouchable overclocker, excellent price, quirky bios"

Yep thats right I put it in today and just to be safe I tried 500 FSB with 1.42 vcore my second test and it booted up...I ram orthos for an hour to just see if it wasnt a suicide. it may not be 100% stable but 500 FSB is just what I typed in...it may hit 515 for all I know.

The BIOS are different...overclocking options are very weird. To keep the ram at a 1:1 ratio the DRAm ratio has to be set to "2.0"

However I have not figured out how to manually set the timings yet and they are very bad at 5-7-7-17. I know my ram can do 5-5-5-15@1000mhz but I'm sure I will figure it out.

I was also concerned about my Arctic freezer pro 7 not fitting with that NB heatsink because it didn't fit right on the P5N-E and it's kind of the same however....it clears the heatsink by about a quarter inch hehe and thats fine with me.

As with the hype....this board is hyped for a reason. At a mere 130 bucks this board is Penryn ready, supports Quad-Core, seems to hit 500 FSB with low vcore like it's no ones business, and a nice board layout.

I really can't recommend any other board to an overclocking enthusiast!

[Sora]

As a follow up...I figured out th you press Crtl+F1 just like DS3 to unlock ram timings.

I was able to post at 528 FSB and go into windows....thats 3.7ghz. This is fricking insane...that is on E6300!!!!! Most people can do that with their E6400 or E6600 even on older boards...I'm going to see if I can't get it orthos stable at 515 FSB since 525 I'm sure will give out after a while.

[MaV II DARK II]

What would you say the DS3 could overclock a q6600 to?

[meat_helmet]

Originally Posted by MaV II DARK II

What would you say the DS3 could overclock a q6600 to?

Ive got mine to 3.6Ghz and im sure it could go further, but ive only got stock cooling at the moment so im waiting on a tuniq tower.

And yes, this board is just brilliant! It might lack a few features other baords have, but for overclocking and the price you cant beat it!

[MaV II DARK II]

Originally Posted by meat_helmet

Ive got mine to 3.6Ghz and im sure it could go further, but ive only got stock cooling at the moment so im waiting on a tuniq tower.

And yes, this board is just brilliant! It might lack a few features other baords have, but for overclocking and the price you cant beat it!

Are you serious?!?!?!

Iam getting a q6600 soon with g0 and this board with a tuniq

How much would you say that would go?

Whats your Multiplier,FSB,and Vcore for your Overclock?

[meat_helmet]

It was actually a mistake, lol, i meant to change the fsb to 400 and the multiplier to 8, but accidently left it at 9. But i got into windows, then realised and was amazed. The vcore was i think only about +0.05 over stock, so pretty much no difference really (some motherboards have different stock voltage anyway...)

[Sora]

Im running my E6300 @ 1.38 vcore 515 FSb right now in orthos to see how long it goes. God I would be so happy if my E6300 was 3.6ghz stable.

[MaV II DARK II]

Originally Posted by meat_helmet

It was actually a mistake, lol, i meant to change the fsb to 400 and the multiplier to 8, but accidently left it at 9. But i got into windows, then realised and was amazed. The vcore was i think only about +0.05 over stock, so pretty much no difference really (some motherboards have different stock voltage anyway...)

Would you say its safe for me to OC to 3.4-3.8 with evrything iam getting?

What would you recommend for Vcore,FSB, and the multiplier?

[meat_helmet]

Originally Posted by MaV II DARK II

Would you say its safe for me to OC to 3.4-3.8 with evrything iam getting?

What would you recommend for Vcore,FSB, and the multiplier?

I would say you should be able to get 3.4 fairly easy, but it really depends on you cpu. I think i was lucky and got one that oc's well. At the moment ive got it at 3.3Ghz, 366fsb, 9x, and stock vcore, simply cuz i am still using stock cooling.

You will have to find out what best suits you situation when you get the stuff. Everything comes into play, for example; i had 2GB of G.Skill ram which overclocked to almost 1100, but when i put another 2Gb in from a different batch i had to lower it because they obviously didnt overclock as well.

So it really depends how luck you are, but from my experience the q6600 on a P35-DS3R is a great combo.

[psp_crazy1]

yea the DS3/R mobos have a different bios... i dont like them :/