Gigabyte 970A-DS3P review

If you’re looking to build an AM3+ system, Gigabyte’s 970A-DS3 could be the ATX motherboard for you. It’s compatible with AMD’s AM3+ FX processors as well as AM3 Phenom II and Athlon II models and uses the AMD 970 north bridge chipset and AMD SB950 south bridge chipset.

Measuring 225x305mm, there’s plenty of room for expansion, as the 970A-DS3 comes with two PCI-E x16 slots. The first slot runs at the full x16 speed, so it should be the first choice for a single graphics card installation; the second slot runs at x4 speed. This is only likely to cause a bottleneck if you run dual high-end graphics cards in CrossFireX mode. In addition there are three PCI-E x1 slots and PCI slots.

You’ll need to install at least one graphics card, as the 970A-DS3 has no display outputs. A lot of PC users will do this anyway as most processors’ on-chip graphics aren’t good enough to run games or watch 4K video footage, for example, but it does mean you’ll have to factor in the extra cost of a graphics card if you don’t have one already.

Instead, all you get on the rear panel are six USB2 and two USB3 ports, two PS/2 ports for older mice and keyboards, a Gigabit Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks. Bear in mind that it doesn’t have any USB3 headers for adding more USB3 ports at the front of your PC, so you’ll have to make do with its three USB2 headers if you need more ports, or install a USB3 card.