SPCR

It seems that all of the P35 based Gigabyte motherboards have been updated to rev. 2.0. The biggest differences are related to the back panel. They have removed the parallel and serial ports and added 4 USB ports for a total of 8 USB ports on the back panel. The removed ports are now made available through headers on the motherboard.

Also, it seems that some of the solid polymer aluminum capacitors have been changed in some way as there are far less red coloured capacitors on the new boards and they are populated almost exclusively with blue and violet colour coded capacitors. I am not certain if the colour of the vinyl cover is a mark which defines tolerance (or other parameters of the capacitor) or just a MFG-related marking.

For example, the GA-P35-DS3P motherboard:
Rev. 1.x vs. Rev 2.0

vs.

I've always thought gigabyte p35 boards looked a little "old" when compared to asus p35 boards when looking at the back panel cuz of the legacy ports...hopefully they've taken out the back cpu heatsinks on their top of the line boards that interfear w/ modern cpu cooler backplates.

Actually if they have removed the legacy ports they just removed their boards from my consideration list for my next build.

Some of us still have and use peripherals requiring those ports and it can be a royal PITA to use expansion boards for them these days both in terms of cost and slot usage.

NyteOwl wrote:Some of us still have and use peripherals requiring those ports and it can be a royal PITA to use expansion boards for them these days both in terms of cost and slot usage.

I'd imagine that they include the Parallel break-out cable with the board, and since there is a header on the motherboard, this wouldn't take up another PCI slot.

ddrueding1 wrote:I'd imagine that they include the Parallel break-out cable with the board, and since there is a header on the motherboard, this wouldn't take up another PCI slot.

What he means is that the breakout board still takes up a "slot" even though there's no card to plug in. It occupies a space where another card could go.

NyteOwl wrote:Actually if they have removed the legacy ports they just removed their boards from my consideration list for my next build.

Some of us still have and use peripherals requiring those ports and it can be a royal PITA to use expansion boards for them these days both in terms of cost and slot usage.

sorry to hear that...all the more reason to upgrade to usb devices

the removal of legacy ports and inclusion of extra usb ports just moved gigabytes ahead of asus for my next build, i know it sounds weird but i've got ocd for things like this.

i think there just isnt much of a market for legacy devices hence the revision...but it was also smart of them to have the pin-outs on the board for a bracket.

also I think for the DS4/DQ6 they replaced that heatpipe city with something more regular like on their P965 boards.

ghettojiggalo wrote: sorry to hear that...all the more reason to upgrade to usb devices

the removal of legacy ports and inclusion of extra usb ports just moved gigabytes ahead of asus for my next build, i know it sounds weird but i've got ocd for things like this.

i think there just isnt much of a market for legacy devices hence the revision...but it was also smart of them to have the pin-outs on the board for a bracket.

I guess those who in desperately need of legacy ports are hardware developers. In my past experience, some low-level developing tools still occupy serial/parallel ports, and there's no usb substitutes. As for common user, me luckily now , peripherals such as printer， mouse, scanner are all usb ready.
But I agree that 2.0 would meet most people's need.

I would love to buy this mobo? But how do you get REV 2.0?

Drexl wrote:What he means is that the breakout board still takes up a "slot" even though there's no card to plug in. It occupies a space where another card could go.

A "slot" in the case, not a "slot" in the motherboard. Most systems I've built have at least one case slot that doesn't correlate with an AGP/PCI/PCIe/whatever connection. Therefore it wouldn't reduce the number of usable motherboard connections.

sorry to hear that...all the more reason to upgrade to usb devices

Not all devices have USB equivalents, and not all device work well with USB converters, nor are all parallel and RS232 devices old and in need of upgrading.

USB is a crap interface rammed into popularity primarily by MS in it's "new computing vision". It is way behind IEEE-1394 in performance but as that was popularized by Apple, M$ needed something "unique". It also has a shitty connector system that is easily disconnected, a limited cable length and is generally a PITA.

Its only advantage if you can call it that is that any idiot, er consumer, with 2 brain cells working can plug it in with less than .1 dynes of force anad usually get it right way up the first time.

treker wrote:I would love to buy this mobo? But how do you get REV 2.0?

email the etailers that stock the boards, my guess is that majority still hold older revs

Nice move.
I have just built a new PC with P35-DS3R and I was really annoyed by the fact that there were only 4 USBs at the back. In the end I spent a few bucks on ebay to get this

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0137040110

But it takes away one of my expansion slot....

I have in my PC a 8800GTS graphic card, a X-fi soundcard, a TV tuner card. Together with the eSATA and the USB panels...I have only 1 expansion slot left at the back of my P182!

Awesome change that probably makes the Gigabyte P35 boards the best. I remember the TechReport review giving them Editor's Choice, but two complaints were that the heatsink was crazy and the ports on the back were old. Fixed now though!

Here is a comparison of their new high end DDR2 boards, FYI: http://www.gigabyte.com.hr/Products/Mot ... ,2626,2624

Looks like Crossfire, fancy heatpipe, and extra SATA plugs are the big differences between them.

NyteOwl wrote:

sorry to hear that...all the more reason to upgrade to usb devices

Not all devices have USB equivalents, and not all device work well with USB converters, nor are all parallel and RS232 devices old and in need of upgrading.

USB is a crap interface rammed into popularity primarily by MS in it's "new computing vision". It is way behind IEEE-1394 in performance but as that was popularized by Apple, M$ needed something "unique". It also has a shitty connector system that is easily disconnected, a limited cable length and is generally a PITA.

Its only advantage if you can call it that is that any idiot, er consumer, with 2 brain cells working can plug it in with less than .1 dynes of force anad usually get it right way up the first time.

lol i guess being one of those consumers you mentioned, i automatically thought usb was an upgrade...you might wanna pick up the "old" revision boards before they are out of stock

i rilly wanted an asus board this time around but since i started lurking on spcr i just cant get past the fact asus boards gobbles up 20-30W more than comparable boards from other brands

NyteOwl wrote: USB is a crap interface rammed into popularity primarily by MS in it's "new computing vision". It is way behind IEEE-1394 in performance but as that was popularized by Apple, M$ needed something "unique". It also has a shitty connector system that is easily disconnected, a limited cable length and is generally a PITA.

More Intel, and mainly caused by Apple's desire for royalties on IEEE-1394, which directly led Intel to developing USB 2.0. USB 1 was pretty much widely accepted by everybody, including Apple who didn't have any problems eliminating all of the legacy ports early on for it.

NyteOwl wrote: Its only advantage if you can call it that is that any idiot, er consumer, with 2 brain cells working can plug it in with less than .1 dynes of force anad usually get it right way up the first time.

Come on, not everyone is hardware developer. USB are more widely accepted by common users, and I think Gigabyte meet most people's needs. Owning 12 ports, but limited to 4~6(front case panel) is ridiculous for me.

I've connected 8 ports from nForce4, 2 ports left disconnected.

Aside from swapping the locations of the serial/parallel ports and USB ports... (even if the motherboard does not come with a serial/parallel bracket, you could probably find one separately...)

...take a look at the motherboard itself. The rev 1.1 board has zillions of little components all over it. The rev 2 board has a lot more empty surface. It looks much cleaner. A lot more has changed than the mere positions of the external connectors.

...take a look at the motherboard itself. The rev 1.1 board has zillions of little components all over it. The rev 2 board has a lot more empty surface. It looks much cleaner. A lot more has changed than the mere positions of the external connectors.

What you are referring to aren't components but just printing on the PCB.

I think that for most users the additional USB ports will be a welcome change and as has been said before, the users in need of serial and parallel ports can still use them with the help of a suitable bracket. This is a logical step by Gigabyte as users needing more USB ports by far outnumber those in need of serial/parallel ports.

As for when the revision will be available from the retailers, well, that's hard to tell. Supposedly people are still getting rev. 1.0 boards so it's safe to assume that for the next two months there will be scarce availability of these new 2.0 boards.

My board is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I'll report which revision I receive. It was ordered on 8/11.

I'm obviously behind the times, but why do I need more USB ports? Are there peripherals I'm missing out on?

I recieved my DS3R from Newegg today. Version 1.

Check out the main Gigabyte site. There is no BIOS listed for the rev. 2.0 so I am guessing you cannot get the 2.0 board until they at least put up the BIOS (download) for it.

Anyone know of an ETA on these? I'm up for an upgrade, and this seals my mobo choice...if I can actually get one within a month or so.

Lensman: mice, printers, scanners, sound cards, hard drives, flash drives, serial and parallel and ps/2 and IDE adapters...

I think things like TV tuners on USB are silly, but generally, it works quite well, and I'm running low with only 6.

NyteOwl: Firewire was a niche interface from the start. Multiple connectors (800 uses a different one than 400, FI), different length specs by card/device, and royalties per chip caused it to be marginalized. Yes, USB is CPU-heavy; yes, it can't transfer up to as fast as FW...but FW was made as if Sony were involved, and it's lack of popularity compared to USB is the result.

If you really need serial/parallel ports, there's always adapters from the mobo headers and PCI cards. Expansion is an issue, but it's always been, and always will be, driving those $200+ boards with the kitchen sink included (in a zip back with silica gel, of course). If the looks of the coolers are the only differences between brands of parts, why not get the cheapest?

What is the big deal with lots of USB ports? It is nice to have more than one so that any device needing a lot of bandwidth can be on a controller of it's own, but for most devices that I use anyway, that is no big deal. Hubs are really cheap and let you add basically as many ports as you want. Although most of my recent computers have had at least 4 ports on back and 2 on front, I am sure that with 2 on back and 2 on front and a hub, I would be just fine.

<edited out: apparently, I was wrong!>

I have a healthy number of USB devices connected to my PC:

Logitech G15 Keyboard
Razer Copperhead Mouse
External DVD-RW
External HD-DVD
2-3 USB Thumb drives
1-2 USB Hard drives
Printer
Scanner
Cellphone
Digital Camera
Bluetooth Receiver
External Mic
Joystick

I think that is it. I use external optical drives because the computer is some distance away, and I like the drives on my desk. I have hubs for the low-speed stuff, but I like direct connectivity of the opticals, HDDs, keyboard and mouse.

VanWaGuy wrote:What is the big deal with lots of USB ports?

I'm not impressed by a bunch of USB ports either.

Stuff like thumb drives, iPods, digital cameras and similar devices I prefer to use temporarily with my front ports, usually only one at a time.

If I had to have external storage beyond a thumb drive, I still wouldn't use USB, I'd go with eSATA.

This is not a change I am looking for, Legacy serial was a deciding factor in favor of Gigabyte for me, I have serial based GPS.

More USB? Bah. You have the 4 on back, most cases have more on the front to connect to headers and you can use a hub, my monitor also has a built in hub and if you still need more then uses a slot for to fill out more connected to the built in headers.

It's pretty slick that you can have multiple usb mice attached and active simultaneously - comes in handy a few times a year.

Recently was helping a mechanic friend download engine info from a unit on his race car. It had a serial to usb converter to connect to his laptop usb port. It didn't work. Luckily, I was able to resurrect an old laptop with a serial port.

Don't know how efficient usb is. I read somewhere that it's polled instead of interrupt driven - seems unlikely.

Seem to remember about somebody coming out with a 1394 flash drive soon...