Gigabyte Intros The 970A-DS3 Ultra Durable 4 Classic Motherboard

btarunr · Feb 6, 2012

Gigabyte introduced a new value socket AM3+ motherboard designed for AMD FX processors, the 970A-DS3. Based on the AMD 970 + SB950 chipset, this board is a product of some clever cost-balancing by its designers, which will spice-up both its specs-sheet, and price-tag, compared to the 970A-UD3. To begin with, the 970A-DS3 uses a much lighter component loadout compared to the UD3. The 970A-UD3's Ultra Durable 3 Classic component loadout makes way for Ultra Durable 4 Classic on the 970A-DS3, which includes a better weaved fiberglass PCB that's better resistant to humidity; features high ESD-resistance ICs located in key circuits; anti-surge ICs that prevent installed processors and memory from getting fried if something goes terribly wrong with the VRM; and of course low-RDS (on) MOSFETs and 100% solid-state capacitor design.

The CPU is powered by a simple 5-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866+ MHz memory. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (wired to the 970), one PCIe 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4, wired to the SB950), three PCIe x1, and two legacy PCI. Gigabyte didn't cheap-out on the southbridge (by opting for SB710), and so we have a full-fledged SB950, complete with six SATA 6 Gb/s ports supporting RAID5. There are two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel, driven by an Etron EJ168 controller. The audio is driven by Realtek ALC887, wired to just a 5.1-channel analog output cluster, apart from the front-panel header. Gigabit Ethernet driven by Realtek 8111E tops it up. Gigabyte included its DualBIOS (AwardBIOS) with the board. Expect this one to be priced around US $100 (or below), making it a nice buy for single-GPU budget gaming-PC builds.

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m1dg3t · Feb 6, 2012

Nice layout! Angled SATA port's would be nice

reverze · Feb 6, 2012

so its marked as DS but has the ultra durable layers like the UD marked mobos got?

btarunr · Feb 6, 2012

reverze said:
so its marked as DS but has the ultra durable layers like the UD marked mobos got?

UD4 Classic is different from UD3 Classic, in that it lacks a double-thick copper layer (normal thickness), but has a more rigid fiberglass weave. Then there are active anti-surge and anti-ESD components.

Batou1986 · Feb 6, 2012

I got me a 970a-ud3 great board bios can be a little tweaky tho.
The ud3 is ~100$ i guess this will just fill its spot.

Just noticed no vrm heatsink and a 4pin cpu :confused:

well there go's any oc potential glad i got my ud3

nonkX3 · Feb 6, 2012

no VRM heatsink??? Again?? i can smell something's burning...

m1dg3t · Feb 6, 2012

Didn't realize VRM cooling was so important on newer board's, this is a budget board so they gotta save somewhere right? You can spend ~ $30 and sink the whole MOBO with Enzotech/Swiftech sink's if you wanted to push for heavy OC's

nonkX3 · Feb 7, 2012

On a budget board i think they better off ditching the second pcie slot...IMHO

btarunr · Feb 7, 2012

nonkX3 said:
no VRM heatsink??? Again?? i can smell something's burning...

My $210 X58 motherboard lacks VRM heatsink, and runs fine.

nonkX3 · Feb 7, 2012

btarunr said:
My $210 X58 motherboard lacks VRM heatsink, and runs fine.

Just some of my bad experience bta...i just think thats a pretty risky for me...cuz some people still don't mind about temperatures at all, i'm just imagining...that board, and an Oc-ed 81xx series. God knows what would happenned

btarunr · Feb 7, 2012

nonkX3 said:
Just some of my bad experience bta...i just think thats a pretty risky for me...cuz some people still don't mind about temperatures at all, i'm just imagining...that board, and an Oc-ed 81xx series. God knows what would happenned

I think it should be fine. Chokes don't produce as much heat, and there are two-each of up-dn FETs per phase on this board, so heat is spread between the two. My DX58OG has just 5 phases, and that too using DrMOS (nucleation of heat), it handles 130W CPUs with mild OC just fine. Besides if you want to do extreme OC, you would spend more than $100 on a motherboard. Gigabyte has a 990FX-based motherboard with VRM heatsinks under $140 (990FXA-UD3).

kid41212003 · Feb 7, 2012

i see a retarded face with uneven eyes on the socket.

nonkX3 · Feb 7, 2012

btarunr said:
I think it should be fine. Chokes don't produce as much heat, and there are two-each of up-dn FETs per phase on this board, so heat is spread between the two. My DX58OG has just 5 phases, and that too using DrMOS (nucleation of heat), it handles 130W CPUs with mild OC just fine. Besides if you want to do extreme OC, you would spend more than $100 on a motherboard. Gigabyte has a 990FX-based motherboard with VRM heatsinks under $140 (990FXA-UD3).

i thought so...and i'm not saying it as generally, just happens to me for a few times, again it's just an opinion based on self experiences, i also notice a $80 can stand years of usage, anyway :toast:

THE_EGG · Feb 8, 2012

I would only buy this because I have a Citroen DS3 car. :cool:

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

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Case	BitFenix Prodigy - m0dd3d \| Antec Fusion Remote MAX
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Toslink > Yamaha HTR 6290 \| Xonar HDAV1.3 > Yamaha DSP z7
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Mouse	Logitech G700s \| Logitech G9x - Cable Repaired
Keyboard	TT Meka G1 - Black w Cherry Blacks\| Logitech G11
Software	Win7 Home \| Xp sp3 & Vista ultimate \| Raspbian
Benchmark Scores	Epeen!! Who needs epeen??

Processor	AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Deneb @ 3.7GHz
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P
Cooling	ZALMAN CNPS9700 CPU Heatsink
Memory	OCZ 4GB DDR3 1600 @ 7-7-7-24 1.85v
Video Card(s)	ATI Sapphire OC 7850 1200c/5800m @ 64c Full Load
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Display(s)	SAMSUNG ToC T240 24'' LCD
Case	Silverstone FT01-BW
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	ZALMAN ZM-750
Software	Win 7 x64 SP1

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

Processor	Ryzen 5900X
Motherboard	ASUS Prime X470 Pro
Cooling	Arctic liquid freezer II 240
Memory	2 x 16 Gb Gskill Trident Z 3600 Mhz
Video Card(s)	MSI Ventus 3060 Ti OC
Storage	Samsung 960 EVO 500 Gb / 860 EVO 1 Tb
Display(s)	Dell S2719DGF
Case	Lian Li Lancool II Mesh
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster Z
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x
Mouse	Logitech G703
Keyboard	Logitech G513
Software	Win 11

Gigabyte Intros The 970A-DS3 Ultra Durable 4 Classic Motherboard

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

m1dg3t

reverze

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Batou1986

nonkX3

New Member

m1dg3t

nonkX3

New Member

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

nonkX3

New Member

btarunr

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kid41212003

nonkX3

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THE_EGG

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Case	This CM HAF922 is freakin heavy!!
Audio Device(s)	i've got two of these!!
Power Supply	a 3 yrs old 600W Silverstone still do the trick
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System Name	Shoebox Sandwich \| Razer Blade 14 \| Synology DS423+ w/ 4X8TB WD Red \| ROG Ally \| Mac mini
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Motherboard	ASRock B650E PG-ITX WiFi \| Razer thing
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Memory	G.Skill Flare X5 2x16GB 6000MHz CL32 DDR5 \| 16GB 3200MHz DDR4
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX \| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 520 2TB + Lexar NM790 4TB \| 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB NVMe external SSD
Display(s)	Alienware AW3423DW & Sony A90K 42" \| 14" QHD IPS 165Hz & Sony BRAVIA 9 75" TV
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