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The new mainstream Intel P35 Express Northbridge looks quite a lot like Intel's old P965 series chipset, but with two very major inclusions; support for 1333 MHz Front Side Bus and official support for DDR3 RAM.
86% Rating: 
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Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 |
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Motherboard Thermal Solutions Get Complex
The most visible component that you should look for are
solid-state Low ESR conductive polymer capacitors. These are housed in very
distinguishable aluminum cans, and will not burst or leak. Good capacitors will
not make your computer faster, but they will ensure it
runs reliably longer. The electro-conductive polymer capacitor does not use
electrolyte, so they will not dry out, leak, or suffer gas buildup and
burst.
Gigabyte have introduced a very complex chipset
and MOSFET thermal solution on the GGA-P35DQ6 motherboard. Called
the "SilentPipe", this heatsink employs a very large collection
of copper heatpipes and cooling fins that stretch across the surface of the
board. Arrays of cooling fins are located in areas where airflow from
the CPU fan, or videocard fan are likely to pass, which in the ideal
situation allows the motherboard core logic and power circuitry to remain cool
without the need for additional fans that create noise.
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Since much of
the heat produced by the MOSFETs, Northbridge and Southbridge is
conducted through the solder joints into the PCB, Gigabyte places a couple of
heatsinks on the back of the motherboard. Dubbed CRAZYCOOL, these heatsinks do
a decent job at keeping the motherboard itself cool, which in turn
lowers the temperatures of heat-producing board mounted components.
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This system is used in conjunction
with a heatsink mounted to the rear of the PCB itself. A lot of heat produced by
board mounted components is actually absorbed by the PCB, or the copper
electrical plans it contains.
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The SilentPipe name cover can
be pulled off which allows you to access the one of the Philips screws. Hidden
under this heatsink is the CPUs PWM fan connector (lower right
corner).
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The Intel P35 Express
chipset is built on Intel's 65nm manufacturing process and contains upwards
of 45 million transistors. In terms of heat output, the P35 is on the same level
as the previous Intel P965 Express chipset - hot. As Gigabyte has demonstrated
the P35 can be cooled passively, but of course you need a large heatsink to do
so.
Up next, PCSTATS will try its hand
overclocking on a P35 'Bearlake" motherboard. This is going to be good... so click
"next"!
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