GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R

Budget builders: buy belligerently bemusing board!

Previous offerings from GIGABYTE have often provided very good performance for very little outlay of cash, and this board manages to live up to its predecessors. With the DS3R, many premium features are not present, though there are a few interesting inclusions.

Starting at the back of the mobo, we see that there is a veritable cornucopia of inputs, even including two Ethernet ports and two Firewire, as well as the standard USB, PS/2 and audio ports. Right next to this area is the CPU socket that, while not as well-arranged or cluttered as other offerings, has the bare essentials ready for any CPU you can throw at it – with enough room for the largest of aftermarket cooling. The RAM slots are equally as bare, though they’re in an awkward place for those who often swap out memory as the graphics card will need removal first. The eight-pin and 24-pin power connectors are all in their usual places, and there is an FDD and right-angled IDE connector also on the right hand side of the board.

Six SATA ports occupy the bottom corner, though the top three may be blocked by long dual-slot graphics cards – right angled SATA cables would be a great choice here. Thankfully GIGABYTE predicted this need, and includes two of these cables in the box, with two more standard cables also present.

All the usual power, USB and firewire headers are present at the bottom of the board, except for the audio header, which is placed in a very frustrating location – the middle of the board. Plenty of expansion slots are available for those with older tech, as well as lots of capacity for newer gear.

The PCB is dyed the traditional GIGABYTE blue, with purple capacitors and brightly coloured slots. This certainly doesn’t appeal to everyone, but the performance is definitely on par with the rest of the crowd, with a great price that will let even the least knowledgeable overclockers have a go. We definitely like this board, and your wallet will too.