Gigabyte DS3 vs DS4? silentpipe?

[ichabod]

From reading through the specs it appears the DS4 has these extras:

2xPCI expressx16(x8) rather than 1
Firewire
Quad bios
Silent pipe thermal solution

Are there any other important differences that I have missed?

My question is what is the advantage in the Silentpipe heatsink on the DS4? Doesnt the DS3 use a fanless heatsink anyway? Why would the DS4 be ceating so much more heat than the DS3?

A further question.. I read in another post that the new Intel chipset is about to be released. Should I hold on and wait? What advantage will the new chipset hold?

Thanks
Dan

 

[Jake_Barnes]

The difference is the chipset used.
DS3 = Intel's 965P
DS4 = NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI

Different chipsets and different temperature issues.

 

[uri]

Actually there are two DS4 boards one with the 965p chipset (GA-965P-DS4) and on with the 650i chipset (GA-N650SLI-DS4).

If you are looking at the 965p then the difference between them is what you've written.

1. 2xPCI-Ex16 - this will let you use ATI crossfire though the second one will only run at x4 and as far as I know will limit the crossfire set-up (please correct me if I'm wrong). It will also let you add a physics card in the future (maybe) but we can't really know cause they don't really help (for now).

2. The better cooling could be because the chipset also has a second pci-e though I believe that it will just give you better cooling, which will help in OC though the DS3 doesn't realy have problems there...