Ds5 Or Dq6 ?

[Cosworth]

Well having convinced myself that the GA-X48-DQ6 was the only board for me I have now discovered that the previously unobtainable EX38 boards are now available, though still not widely yet.

So this brings a new dilemma. My choices are:

1. Gigabyte X48-DQ6 @ £200 (available in store)
2. Gigabyte EX38-DQ6 @ £166 (web purchase only)
3. Gigabyte EX38-DS5 @ £128 (available in store)

Now my obvious choice would be DS5 and save my self £72 but other than Quad Bios (not necessary I think) a couple of capacitor changes and the crazy cooling for under the CPU, which I would need to remove anyway to add the water cooling, IS there any real benefit over a DQ6 model to that of the DS5

[DDY]

There is no real benefit, at least nothing worth the extra £72. Go for the DS5!

[Cosworth]

Belated thanks for the reply only my motherboard finally gave up altogether. Funnily enough two days before I was due to replace it, it must have known.

Anyhow I decided on the GA-EX38-DS5 for it shares the same board layout as the DQ6 including the new DES (Dynamic Energy Saving) software as well. Both boards support 1600MHz even if the X48 is officially the one to support it but this frequency is not an issue for me at this stage.

The X48 has Quad Bios which when you read about it is simply 4 copies of BIOS distributed between the Flash ROM, hard-disk and driver CD. The EX-38 also has dual BIOS and setting recovery technology alongside software such as Xpress Recovery 2.

The CPU voltage regulation circuity is the same on both.

So all in all it's practically the same board and £72 cheaper as well. This saving then allowed me to buy a 750GB Samsung F1, costing me only an extra £10 over what would have been the price of the X48