Recent revisional changes in mid and low end intel boards

First things first: at Hardware.Info we are no fans at all of significant product changes that are not reflected in a change in product codes and preferably product names. Even when products improve, as happens frequently with PSU manufacturers, this simply should not happen.

If Gigabyte had provided a different product and EAN code for the Rev 2.0 and Rev 3.0 boards, as well as updated product photos to the shops, there would not be much of a problem as far as we're concerned. In that case it would be clear to everyone that these are new, different products where the specifications and test results of earlier revisions do not necessarily apply to the newer revisions.

Now however a shop or end user can order a board based on reviews of the original and receive a product that is clearly different and, as we illustrated in this test, potentially inferior. And that is very questionable indeed.

The analysis of the B85M-D2V is shocking as Gigabyte has removed a feature from the original list of specifications, i.e. Dual BIOS. It's like ordering a car from a catalogue and discovering a missing right hand side mirror on delivery: not acceptable.

With the B85M-HD3 at least on paper there seems to be less of an issue: all the original Rev 1.0 specs are present in Rev 2.0. To play devil's advocate: Gigabyte doesn't promise anywhere that the board comes with a 4-phase power supply. Still, even if it passes muster legally, this is hardly the way to do business. Our test results moreover show that the Rev 2.0 has a potentially lower lifespan thanks to its lower number of mosfets and without any doubt will deliver lower performance than the first version in normal consumer applications (such as video encoding).

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