GIGABYTE GA-X38-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Reviewed By: on 8/31/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Appeared to be a well built board. Good layout, usuable documentation. Performed very well the first 7 months.

Cons: I had the same experience that other users have described -- the motherboard went into an endless rebooting loop. Mouse and keyboard locked up, rebooted and suddenly the entire board appears to be shot. I tried resetting the BIOS, removing components, etc. but none of it helped. Basically, the machine powers on for about 3-4 seconds and then reboots, and just does this continuously.

Other Thoughts: Requires 1.8v RAM which seems to be non-standard compared to other manufactuers. Paying for extended warrenty might not be a bad thing in the future.

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Wonderful product

Reviewed By: Teehee on 2/25/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: less than 1 day

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Upgraded from a Gigabyte p965 ds3. I skip p35 because I don't see the need for it. Bought G.Skill 4gb ddr2 1066 good memory to go along with this mobo and it reconize it by defualt. Overclock q6600 @ 3.2GHz with just +1v added and memory running at 1068MHz but have to maualy select timming to 5-5-5-15 and 2.66 multiplier with no volt added. More overclock friendly compare to the little brother p965. Beside overclocking setting, I leave the other setting alone so when my computer is not doing heavy task like encoding, rendering, and gaming... cpu went back to 2.4GHz and normal vottage to ensure it doesn't heat up too much on normal use. Since I ugrade from the p965 ds3 mobo with the latest sound driver and hardware...I don't need to reinstalled those driver except the chipset. Runing Vista 32bit ultimate at blazing speed. Might upgraded to 64bit and 8gb total memory when Vista is stable enough but now I'm a happy camper.

Cons: I really wanted to wait for the x48 but I need a good enough mobo that can overclocked my CPU stable until the 45nm quad core came out...and the new revision of the ds4 just came out...but it's gone as of writing...

Other Thoughts: You might have seen alot of Asus mobo on Newegg, but most of those are open box. I don't remember a Gigabyte board being an open box because people decide to keep this board because they like it.

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Problems

Reviewed By: JJimmy on 2/20/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: It worked well for the first 35 days I owned it.

Cons: I had the same experience that a different reviewer mentioned-- the motherboard went into an endless rebooting loop that I could not break after only a month of ownership. I made one simple change to the on-board audio setting, saved the change to the BIOS and suddenly the entire board appears to be shot. I tried resetting the BIOS, removing components, etc. but none of it helped. Basically, the machine powers on for about 3-4 seconds and then reboots, and just does this continuously.

Other Thoughts: I'm really not pleased with Gigabyte at this point. This is the second board I've had of theirs that has gone bad on me within a few months of ownership. In both instances, I was able to verify others experiencing the same issue, so I'm almost positive it's nothing to do with my setup. Now I have to wait 3 weeks for a replacement motherboard, and just cross my fingers that I don't end up with a third lemon.

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