Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 - The Overclockers Dream - Board Layout - Up Close

Up Close:

This board has a nice layout, lots of features and is eye catching with its colorful theme.  Take a look below and see what we are talking about.  You can click on any of the pictures below to view a full-sized image.

Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 - Back I/O

As you can see on the back I/O, the Gigabyte board is a mixture of old and new.  It supports legacy PS/2, Parallel, and Serial ports as well as Digital Audio outputs through optical and composite connectors.  Also on the back are four USB2.0 ports, a single 6-Pin Firewire port, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet jack as well as support four 8 channel audio.  If I had a choice, I'd drop the serial for a couple extra USB2.0 ports or even an extra Ethernet jack.

Power:

In order to provide solid power to the components, companies are now using 24-pin power connector's standard.  Gigabyte also uses an auxiliary 8 Pin power connector as well as a standard Molex connector.  All of this power is filtered through a 12 phase system that provides clean power to the CPU. 

Cooling:

In order to be an overclocking friendly board, you need to be able to run your chipset at high FSB without getting too hot.  The cooling solution Gigabyte has used on this board is really tremendous.  They use a long heatpipes that cools the Southbridge, Northbridge and voltage regulators around the CPU socket.  Not only that, but Gigabyte has included a "CrazyCool" heatsink on the back of the board to help cool the back of the CPU socket.  While this seems like a good idea, and in practice is actually a good idea, it makes the installation of aftermarket coolers quite challenging.  If you have a cooler than requires a back plate, you will need longer screws or to remove the heat sink.

Sockets & Slots:

As we carry on, we take a look at the CPU socket and expansion slots around the board.  Below are some close up pictures that show more detail.

Gigabyte hasn't chosen a color theme on this board as you can see.  Slots and ports range from blue to green, to black, orange, purple and yellow.  If you think variety is the spice of life, this board color may suite you.

Get Chipped:

We wrap up the gallery of the Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 with a look at some of the chips that make things happen.  The BIOS chip is small, unlabeled and so is the CMOS reset.  Gigabit Network is taken care of by Marvel while Audio is taken care of by Realtek.

Please take a look at the next page as we go over the official specs of this board.