GIGABYTE have just provided us with some 'results' of a somewhat brief thermal test comparison between their new P35-DQ6 motherboard and ASUS's P5K Deluxe, both these boards sharing the same Intel P35 (Bearlake) chipset.

Two tests were performed on each board, the first is a little uninformative in that it just says they'd put both boards under an equal amount of load using a method they call "P4 MAX POWER" (what the heck?!) for 20 minutes, then to record the temperatures of various hotspots on the boards (such as the backside of the CPU socket region, a couple of capacitors and the northbridge).

The second of the two tests states that they opted for a 20 minute run of 3DMark 2006 prior to taking readings of the same hotspots on the boards.

Based on their results, the GIGABYTE offering appears to run a HELL of a lot cooler across the board, so much so that you have to question the accuracy of their testing methods. Even though a thermal camera was used, one has to wonder how the difference can be so extreme.

To wrap up the conclusion of the PDF formatted test, GIGABYTE explain why the results are heavily in favour of their board over the ASUS offering, with such advancements as 12 phase power, all-copper silent pipe cooling, better quality solid capacitors and some other odd bits and ends. They finish off by stating the ASUS board's overall temperature gain to be above their P35-DQ6 by a whopping 64.1c!

Though I cant resist the urge to add a smidgeon of irony here. Wasn't it up until just recently that GIGABYTE and ASUS were in a joint venture to produce some lower-end and mid-range motherboard parts? OK, so the deal broke off a short time ago. I think its safe to say they didnt exactly cut ties very 'cleanly' to put it mildly. Otherwise I dare say the need to fire up this backlash wouldnt be there.

My 2 cents; Given the anomalies apparent in this test, I would certainly be taking these results with a grain of salt.