When Intel launched its superb Core 2 Duo processor (see review here), it also launched the 965 family of chipsets. The 965P was supposed to be 'the exciting one' as it was the performance option, but we felt that it offered very little that wasn't available in the existing 975X, so unusually the interest lay in the integrated graphics side of things.

We weren't too fussed about the Q965 chipset, as the GMA 3000 graphics are only marginally more powerful than previous Intel offerings, although it does sport hardware T&L which is a DirectX 7 feature that is long overdue. No, the chipset we were keen to see was the G965 with GMA X3000 graphics core.

That 'X' makes a whole heap of difference, as it is the first Intel graphics core to support Shader Model 3.0 and DirectX 9.0c, which qualifies the chipset for the Microsoft Windows Display Driver Model or WDDM. The significance being that G965 supports the funky 3D Aero interface you'll find in Windows Vista Premium.

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So the DG965OT motherboard has a Micro ATX form factor and an LGA775 processor socket with support for Core 2 Duo, but the key factor is that it includes a new generation of Intel graphics.

Before we take a look at the performance let's have a quick scamper around the features, as Intel has packed a surprising amount into such a tiny piece of hardware. There are four memory slots which support up to 8GB of dual channel DDR2-800 memory, six SATA connectors (thanks to the new ICH8 Southbridge) one ATA133 connector at the foot of the board and a floppy connector next to the main power connector.

Both parts of the chipset use Intel's standard passive heatsinks and there's a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics expansion, one PCI Express x1 slot and two regular PCI slots. On the I/O panel you get two PS/2 ports, a parallel port, VGA output for the graphics, one Firewire port, six USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit LAN, as well as optical output and five mini jacks for the Sigmatel STAC9271D audio.

The only annoyance is that you don't get a DVI output or support for dual monitors. On the plus side, there are two USB headers so if you have four ports on the front of your case you could stretch to a total of ten USB ports.

We tested the board with a T6700 Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of Corsair XMS2 memory and a 150GB Western Digital Raptor hard drive. Starting with the integrated graphics we got the following scores:

PCMark05: Overall 4,453 marks, CPU 6,712 marks, Memory 5,280 marks, Graphics 1,410 marks and HDD 7,051 marks.
3DMark05: 858 marks
3DMark06: 317 marks

Those scores are directly comparable with any decent P965 or 975X motherboard on the market, however the graphics aren't up to the job of gaming. We ran a time demo in Far Cry and saw frame rates of 6fps, so although the display looked great, it was unplayable.

Plugging in an Asus Radeon 1950 Pro the scores leapt up to the following:
PCMark05: Overall 7,147 marks, CPU 6,767 marks, Memory 5,334 marks, Graphics 6,592 marks and HDD 6,988 marks.
3DMark05: 10,424 marks
3DMark06: 5,053 marks

The DG965OT was completely stable in operation and, with a suitable CPU cooler, near-silent too. While the graphics are no good for 3D gaming this is a superb motherboard for a workstation or home PC and it offers good performance and excellent value for money.