ASUS P5K-E WiFi vs. Gigabyte P35-DS4
GA-P35-DS4 Board Layout:
Moving onto the Gigabyte P35-DS4 motherboard, it's layout and features is fairly similar. In the upper right hand corner are four DDR2 memory slots that do support DDR2-1066, like the P5K-E WiFi motherboard. There are also the 24-pin ATX and FDD connectors next to the memory slots, but there is also a 4-pin molex connector. This connector is used if your power supply doesn't support an 8-pin EPS 12V connection and you're using two PCI Express graphics cards.
Near the ICH9R Southbridge on this motherboard are eight Serial ATA 2.0, which support the same RAID capabilities as the P5K-E. In addition, there is one IDE ATA-133 adapter and four USB 2.0 headers. The ICH9R on the GA-P35-DS4 is passively cooled by a copper heatsink that is also part of the heatpipe loop on this motherboard that runs to the top of the motherboard.
At the rear of the motherboard are three PCI Express x1. two PCI Express x16, and two PCI slots. Like the P5K-E WiFi, the second PCI Express x16 slot is limited to PCI-E x4/x1 and its CrossFire compatible. The CMOS battery for this motherboard is located between the two PCI Express x16 slots.
The Intel P35 Northbridge is cooled by Gigabyte's Silent-Pipe, which starts at the ICH9R and continues cooling some of the motherboard's MOSFETs along the way and finally ends at the very top of the motherboard. While this cooler does surround three sides of the LGA-775 CPU socket, it's far enough away from the socket itself that it shouldn't cause any issues for after-market heatsinks or water blocks. In the corner is the 4/8-pin ATX +12V connector. The Gigabyte P35-DS4 supports the same processors as the P5K-E accompanied by the 1333MHz FSB and 45nm support. The audio controller used on this motherboard is the Realtek ALC889A. This Gigabyte "Ultra Durable 2" motherboard features Ferrite core chokes, low RDS MOFSETs, and solid Japanese capacitors.
At the rear of the motherboard are four USB 2.0, two S/PDIF outputs, one IEEE-1394a Firewire, one printer, one COM, one Gigabit ethernet, six audio, and PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports. Unlike the ASUS P5K-E WiFi that has its eSATA ports integrated on the motherboard itself, the Gigabyte External SATA comes from using the included expansion slot adapter.