It seems that every time Intel releases a new CPU it also has to release a new chipset to run it. A case in point is the new Core 2 Duo CPUs, which will require a version of the Intel 965 chipset to run.

Gigabyte has been quick to market with its first Core 2 Duo motherboard, the GA-965P-DQ6, which runs Intel's P965 chipset and ICH8 (I/O Controller Hub 8). These are cooled using heat-pipe technology and Gigabyte has also provided cooling for the fast-switching transistors that reside around the LGA775 CPU socket.

The board's build quality is excellent. None of the ports and sockets feel flimsy and there are no tall capacitors in awkward positions to accidentally bump into when installing the CPU or graphics card. In fact, Gigabyte has installed solid capacitors instead of electrolytic ones, and these are a uniform height and sit flush with the circuit board.

We built up the board and tested it using a Core 2 Duo CPU, a range of NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards and 1GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM. We didn't experience any hardware problems and PC WorldBench 5 ran through its suite of applications, multiple times, without faltering.

Our overall impressions of this motherboard are positive and, even though you should initially expect to pay well over $400 for it, it offers a good amount of connectivity, including four external SATA ports and up to eight internal SATA ports. But, it does lack a second IDE and Gigabit port and does not support SLI or CrossFire.