Verdict: A capable overclocker, but far too expensive.
The GA-X38-DQ6 veers dangerously close to marketing overload with a larger than usual box festooned with all kinds of logos, hyperbole and bold claims. This Intel X38 board boasts six kinds of quad, plus Ultra Durable 2 technology (presumably because Ultra Durable 1 just wasn't durable enough), SilentPipe and CrazyCool technology. Would 'MundaneButEffectiveCool' have been so bad? Like a miracle cream that claims to make you look 20 years younger, let's just hope this board lives up to the hype.
As the GA-X38-DQ6 is an X38 board, it has two high-speed PCI-E slots for a CrossFire setup, both of which are supplied with 16 PCI-E 2.0-compliant lanes. Should ATi or Nvidia release a PCI-E 2.0 graphics card anytime soon, it will receive double the amount of bandwidth of a PCI-E 1.1 card from these slots. The slots have two of the three 1x PCI-E slots between them, with two PCI slots below the secondary 16x slot. This means that if you use two dual-slot graphics cards, you'll have the use of two 1x PCI-E slots and one PCI slot.
Another new technology in X38 is XMP - illiterately, Extreme Memory Profile - which works much like SLI memory. Extra information about the abilities of XMP DIMMs is stored in the SPD chip, which the BIOS of an X38 board automatically reads before setting the RAM to run at its highest settings. Gigabyte sensibly uses DDR2 memory with this board, as DDR3 costs almost twice as much at the moment. We've yet to see XMP memory of any kind.
As an expensive motherboard that purports to be a 'Gamer's Choice!' there's some convoluted cooling on the GA-X38-DQ6. The upper cooling system comprises a heatpipe that snakes from the ICH9R Southbridge via the X38 Northbridge, and across to the 12-phase VRM circuitry (which is described elsewhere as 'Virtual Quad Triple Phase power design', suggesting that there are actually four paths of triple-phase power circuitry). There's plenty of room around the CPU socket for exotic cooling, but the 8-pin EPS12V power connector is a pain to fit and remove. It's tucked between the VRM heatsink and rear I/O ports, with only 4mm clearance in which to push the release clip.
Elsewhere, the PCB layout is good, with the 24-pin ATX power socket at the front edge, and EIDE and floppy to either side. The GA-X38-DQ6 has eight S-ATA II ports in the lower front corner, and provides a further four eSATA ports and one Molex power plug on a pair of backplates. Two eSATA disks sounds like plenty to us, so it appears that the inclusion of the second backplate is only to let Gigabyte chalk up the sixth 'quad' it boasts about (quad eSATA), and not for your benefit.
No USB backplates are provided, as the backpanel already has eight USB 2 ports. Gigabyte has crammed in other good additions, though, such as optical and digital S/PDIF outputs, and the usual six mini-jack audio connectors, FireWire port and two Gigabit Ethernet ports that can be teamed. It also has two PS/2 connectors, so you won't be forced to chuck away your favourite mouse and buy a USB rodent.
With plenty of talk circulating about Ultra Durable 2 technology - a combination of high-end capacitors and other VRM components - plus the CrazyCool backplate, which aims to reduce temperatures around the CPU socket by15 per cent, we hoped for good performance. Stock speeds were fair, with most scores around the 1,000 mark that we'd expect for a board of this type.
Dropping into that BIOS gave us a nice surprise - the juicy overclocking options are displayed by default, unlike other Gigabyte boards that hide them until you hit Ctrl+F1. There are all the settings you'll need, including memory timings and a full spread of voltage controls (even if some of the latter is unhelpfully listed by how much extra voltage they apply rather than the absolute value of the voltage applied). By boosting the vcore to 1.5125V, we overclocked our 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E6750 to its maximum of 3.66GHz. This gave the GA-X38-DQ6 a good speed boost, but the Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP scored higher in every test, giving it an overall score of 1,216 compared to the GA-X38-DQ6's 1,171.
While we were trying to determine the maximum stable FSB, we discovered that the minimum memory divider the BIOS supports is 2:1. Theoretically, this means that our 1,066MHz test RAM would fall over if we raised the FSB any higher than 533MHz. However, the GA-X38-DQ6 wouldn't benchmark stably with the FSB raised above 531MHz, which is 9MHz short of the Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP.
Conclusion
Any motherboard costing more than £180 has to be special; it has to have more than a ton of I/O ports, and do more than push our test CPU to its limit in order to justify such a price. The maximum stable FSB of 531MHz and the twin 16x PCI-E slots are benefits, but many of the extra features are gimmicks that unnecessarily push up the price. As such, there isn't enough here to justify the high cost of the GA-X38-DQ6.
