Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R

The Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R is a midrange, socket 775 ATX motherboard designed for Intel Core 2, Pentium, and Celeron processors. It’s available in three formats, including the standard GA-EP35-DS3R, the GA-EP35-DS3L with 8-channel audio, and the premier GA-EP35-DS3P, which inherits everything from its predecessors and adds IEEE 1394a (x2) and an extra PCI Express x16 slot—meaning support for an ATI Crossfire configuration.

Also featured on the standard are eight SATA ports with optional RAID, Gigabit LAN, and most importantly, Dynamic Energy Saver. This is a unique interface that lets users monitor CPU power consummation and then reduce it (like an underclocking ability). The one limiting factor is that all three models rely on DDR2 RAM.