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Last month, we looked at the Gigabyte EX58-Extreme motherboard. It's Gigabyte's flagship X58 motherboard designed and aimed at the highend enthusiast user. We liked it very much, so much so we give it our Editor's Choice award. It's one of the most feature-packed motherboard based on the Intel X58 chipset, offering great performance and plenty of new innovative features.

Offering a motherboard such as the EX58-Extreme is all good for the highend enthusiast users ... but what about the mainstream and other power users, who don't need all the extras like Tri-SLI/Crossfire support? Well, Gigabyte have the answer. By releasing their new EX58-DS4, they can now offer the same performance similar to that of the EX58-Extreme, at a price that's affordable to many users.

Gigabyte's EX58-DS4 costs a lot less than their Extreme version. And for this reason, you also get a little less in terms of features. There's no support for Tri-SLI/Crossfire ... you only get the standard 2-way Crossfire support. No extreme chipset cooling (Hybrid Silent Pipe 2) and no Ultra Durable 3. In essence, the EX58-DS4 is a cut-down version of the EX58-Extreme/UD5 model. The table below is a quick comparison quide ...

We've already seen the amazing performance from Intel's new X58 chipset and Core i7 processors in many of our other reviews. Intel's new Socket-1366 platform is a true winner. However, having said that, the main issue for a lot of users is the cost actual cost of an upgrade. New motherboard, new processor and new triple channel memory all add up to a very nasty surprise.

Although the Gigabyte EX58-DS4 motherboard does lack some of the exciting features found on their Extreme enthusiast model, it is by no means a motherboard that's lacking in performance. The EX58-DS4 is just a "mainstream" version designed and aimed at ordinary users like you and me.

We're expecting the EX58-DS4 to compete pretty well against other X58 based motherboards on the market. We'll also take a lot a its overclocking abilities too. The lack of Tri-SLI/Crossfire support may deter some of the extreme enthusiasts, but as long it has the standard 2-way Crossfire support for ATI Radeon cards ... then that's fine by me.

We'll be testing the Gigabyte EX58-DS4  using the usual PC Mark 2005, 3D Mark 2005, 2006 and Vantage tests. We'll also be running some DX games too. Our test rig includes the newly released Intel Core i7 - 920 @ default 2.67Ghz, ATI Radeon HD 4870x2, Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 Tri-Channel 3Gb Kit, PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860W PSU and a 24" Samsung SyncMaster 245B LCD monitor. Windows Vista with native DX10 was used as our OS.

OK, let's not waste any more time an take a look a closer look at the Gigabyte EX58-DS4 motherboard ...