Strengths: 1. Good motherboard layout2. All solid capacitors3. Very reasonably priced

Weaknesses: 1. Gigabyte still uses a funky, fruity color scheme2. Despite it's size the northbridge heatsink still gets quite hot3. IDE connector is a bit out of the way

Summary: When upgrading my PC with the latest and greatest PCI-E 2.0 video card, a Sapphire HD4870, I decided that my motherboard should get upgraded also. My previous motherboard was of the Intel P35 chipset, which only supported PCI-E 1.1a. The chipset on the Gigabyte EP45-DS3L, the Intel P45, supports PCI-E 2.0. Although the differences are minimal, and the performance is pretty much the same, I always like having the most up to date hardware. I needed a no-frills, fairly basic, stable, mild overclocking motherboard priced at around $100. The EP45-DS3L fit that bill completely. --------------------- The box of the EP45-DS3L is adorned with all sorts of graphics, logos, and tech jargon, which emphasizes many nifty features of Gigabyte's newest P45 motherboard. Inside you find some SATA cables, IDE cables, a rear panel bracket, driver CD, some stickers (yay!), and various paper inserts/information. --------------------- The first thing you see is the awful combination of colors used by Gigabyte for this motherboard. Red and yellow memory slots, a light blue PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, orange SATA connectors, a lime green IDE connector; all on a darker blue PCB. It's very much an eyesore, but thankfully it doesn't affect the stability or performance of the motherboard. --------------------- The PCB layout, unlike the color scheme, is for the most part, very good. I had no problems using large CPU coolers, like the Scythe Ninja or Thermalright HR-01 Plus. Memory is easily swapped out even with a full length PCI-E video card installed. The ATX and floppy connectors are along the edge of the board, making cabling a bit simpler. There are a few things that aren't as good. The IDE connector is quite far down near the front panel pin area, and is rotated in a way that can make cabling difficult to route to a DVD/CD drive mounted high in a PC case. Also, during normal operation, the large northbridge heatsink gets very hot to the touch, and even hotter when overclocking the CPU. Gigabyte could have put an even larger or more elaborate cooling system on the P45 chipset, but considering that it's just a basic motherboard, this heatsink does fine, with no noticeable stability concerns. --------------------- The EP45-DS3L's BIOS is fairly easy to figure out, and I had no problem making changes to the many settings available, including advanced CPU settings, CPU and memory voltages, and other small tweaks. --------------------- Using an Intel E8400 CPU which runs at default at 3.0GHz, I was easily able to run at 3.8GHz, with all the voltages set to AUTO. This translates into a 423MHz front side bus speed, which is pretty good, considering this isn't a supreme overclocking motherboard. --------------------- As with most motherboards based on Intel chipsets, this one just works. It won't WOW you with super features or extreme performance, but it does do what it's supposed to do. One important thing I should mention, is that I recommend you download the latest BIOS before booting up your PC with this motherboard. Make sure you flash the EP45-DS3L with the latest BIOS available from Gigabyte. This will decrease any possible problems you may have, since the board ships with a fairly old BIOS.