Replacement suggestions for Gigabyte EP35 DS3-P

[bennals]

Sadly my DS3-P decided to short out just under the 24 pin power connector (flames, smoke...the lot). Only a couple of months out of warranty too.

 

So I'm left with a Q6600, 7300GT and perfectly working install of iAtkos 4.1i (10.5.4) and very slim chances of finding an EP35 DS3-P seeing as they're discontinued. What would be the best replacement option, ideally to give me the best chance of the existing install working without any hitches? I would prefer onboard firewire (TI based prefereably) and I'd love to be able to avoid a reinstall.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers.

 

Bill.

[bennals]

Well, just in case this happens to someone else, I thought I'd post that I took the plunge and bought a new Gigabyte EP45 DS4-P. I fully expected to have to do a full reinstall but, lo and behold, it works fine as a simple drop-in replacement!

 

After settting the BIOS up like the old EP35 DS3-P (from memory largely), the first boot up was a bit slow but fine ever since. The existing iAtkos 4.1i install was pretty much vanilla if I recall (apart from the nvinject kext for the 7300 GT).

 

Had one freak out moment soon after plugging in the firewire cable of my audio interface. I heard a pop and smelt the magic smoke. The machine shut down and I thought it must be the same issue that fried the DS3-P (dodgy power supply perhaps). On inspection though, it was just the firewire front panel header. A similar thing actually happend on the DS3-P just after I purchased it but seeing as it didn't seem to affect the rear panel FW ports I just ignored it. So, I fired it back up again and ran it for a couple of hours without using the FW ports. No problems. Shut it down, plugged the FW cable in, powered up again and all is good. FW interface properly recognised and all.

 

Hope that helps someone in the future.

 

Bill.