Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME

There are two kinds of computer enthusiasts in this world: those with a personal connection to the system motherboard, and those who simply refer to the part as a computer mainboard. For overclockers, the relationship with a well-designed motherboard can mean love or hate, and no two parts are alike. The motherboard is, after all, the foundation of every computer, and the importance is central to stable system operation. No matter if you are a low-demand office worker who plugs away on letters or spreadsheets every day or if you are a high-performance hardware enthusiast who demands extreme frame rates from your video games, one component alone will determine your ability: the motherboard.

So it is because absolutely everything rides on the system mainboard that you must make certain your livelihood is based on a solid and dependable investment. Gigabyte isn't a new name to the industry, and for years now they have offered some of the most reliable and stable motherboard sold. In fact, over the past year there really only seemed to be two realistic options for motherboard manufacturer's when you shopped for new hardware; and Gigabyte was one of them. In this article Benchmark Reviews tests the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 Ultra-Durable 2 DES motherboard against our harsh overclocking demands.

If there's one thing my experience has taught me, it's that Gigabyte knows how to deliver product longevity and system stability. Unlike Tyan, which briefly made it's way to the desktop sector before pulling back to the more familiar server back-plane foundation, Gigabyte has been successful on both product fronts. At the Super Computing 2007 event last year, Gigabyte was already on top of the industry with several cutting-edge server platforms. Now they are back with yet another bleeding-edge product based on the Intel P45 Express chipset.

The motherboard industry isn't very far off from the graphics card industry. The connection I make here is that there are very few major innovations by chipset manufacturers; only noticiable changes. Because of this, consumers have been the victim of an ever-quickening product launch rythm that rarely changes the landscape. This isn't going to change anytime soon, as it has been common practive by chip makers for many years already, so your best choice is to pick the best solution to fit your expected needs into the next two years.

About the company: Gigabyte United Inc. (G.B.T. Inc. USA)

Gigabyte United Inc., established in December 2006, is assuming the GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd. Brand, which for the past 20 years has been a world-renowned leader in the motherboard industry. Continuing to focus on its core businesses of GIGABYTE branded motherboards and graphics cards, Gigabyte United Inc. is committed to providing our valued customers with the highest quality products and services featuring the industry's most innovative design.

In order to meet the challenges of today's intensely competitive channel market, Gigabyte United Inc. fully utilizes its key assets including its cutting-edge research and development team as well as its professional sales and marketing resources to continue to develop technologies to fit a complete range of digital life solutions. Now and for the future, Gigabyte United Inc. will continue to embody the unique spirit and culture, which has made Gigabyte one of the foremost brands in the industry.

More information about Gigabyte is available by visiting their website.

Intel P45 Express Features

Gigabyte has gone to great lengths to avoid having their GA-EP45T-EXTREME from becoming "just another" P45 motherboard. In addition to all of the major features and specifications you hear about, such as the front side bus and system memory support, Gigabyte also adds in some very valuable features of their own.

• Supports Intel Core 2 multi-core 45nm processors.
• 1600 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) support.
• DDR3 1900 memory with Intel XMP technology enables new levels of memory performance.
• High quality CPU power module with Ferrite Core Chokes, Lower RDS (on) MOSFETs and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors.
• Unique thermal design featuring all copper Hybrid Silent-Pipe
• Japanese manufactured SMD All Solid Capacitor motherboard design.
• Supports ATI CrossFireX for extreme gaming performance.
• Features SATA-II 3 Gb/s with Quad eSATA 2 interface.
• Realtek ALC889A with DTS Connect enables high quality Full Rate Lossless Audio and support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD.
• Quad BIOS for an extended level of protection.
• Quad-Triple Phase Power Design for ultimate system stability.
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN with Teaming functionality.
• Certified for Microsoft Vista Operating Systems.

Designed for ultimate flexibility, Intel XMP-based platforms offer major advantages for pro gamers, novices, and everyone in between. With predefined and certified memory optimizations built into Intel XMP, overclocking on Intel technology-based PCs is easy right out of the box. Expert users still have the option of manually changing specific parameters for more aggressive "I'll do it myself thanks" tuning.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME Specifications

Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Technology)

Intel Extreme Memory Technology provides a simple and robust high performance, DDR3 based memory solution for Intel based platforms. Users can choose from preset optimized memory configurations or manually adjust memory timing parameters to fine-tune memory performance.

• Adjust memory performance based on computing need.
• Boost memory performance for intense gaming sessions.
• Standard configuration for everyday computing.

Extreme memory for power-packed performance tuning.
Overclocking masters, meet your memory. There's a new solution on the block designed to make the most hardcore Intel Core^TM2 Extreme processor-based PCs even more powerful. Introducing the Intel Extreme Memory Profiles (Intel XMP), a rockin' and easy-to-use, high-performance DDR3 memory overclocking solution.

Looking for that extra boost? Add this to your arsenal.
Intel XMP is a performance-packed expansion of the standard DDR3 memory specification, enabling a robust, overclocking solution designed to take advantage of the mega-gaming features built into Intel technology-based PCs. If you like to overclock and squeeze every possible ounce of performance from your PC, memory based on Intel XMP is the solution you need to make overpowering your opposition look easy.

EDITORS NOTE: Benchmark Reviews has also published the article DDR3 RAM: System Memory Technology Explained.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME Unique Features

Motherboards are rarely ever just a printed circuit board stuffed into a cardboard box with a driver disc anymore. Gigabyte is always looking for new ways to add value to the purchase of their motherboards, and the large library of included software applications and tools shows they are succeeding. Several usefull unique features are included on the GA-EP45T-EXTREME, all which improve the user experience at several different levels. This is not the complete list, believe it or not, but rather the more interesting and useful features that are unique to the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard.

EasyTune 6

Gigabyte's EasyTune 6 is a simple and easy-to-use interface that allows users to fine-tune their system settings or do overclock/overvoltage in Windows environment. The EasyTune 6 interface also includes tabbed pages for CPU and memory information, lettings users read their system-related information without the need to install additional software. EasyTune is an excellent alternative to changing system variables in the BIOS, and yields immediate feedback to the changes made. Of course, incorrectly overclocking or adding overvoltage may result in damage to the hardware components, and even when done correctly it may reduce the useful life of your system components.

Time Repair

Based on the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services technology, Time Repair allows you to quickly back up and restore your system data in the Windows Vista operating system. Time Repair supports NTFS file system and can restore system data on PATA and SATA hard drives. Choose a system restore point using the navigation bar on the right or at the bottom of the screen to view the system data backed up at different time. You can choose files and directories and then simply click the
Copy button to restore the files (or click Restore to restore the entire system).

Gigabyte also offers a host of other features with the GA-EP45T-EXTREME, but many do not require additional software to function. Some of the more notable functions are:

Advanced Dynamic Energy Saver

Gigabyte first launched their full range of Dynamic Energy Saver motherboards beginning with the P35-based series, and later included the X38 and X48 motherboards. Dynamic Energy Saver, or DES, allows you to receive unparalleled power savings of up to 70% and up to 20% improved power efficiency with the simple click of a button. Back as a new "Advanced" edition, the GA-EP45T-EXTREME allows even greater control and power savings.

"With more than one year of intensive design and testing, Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver represents a truly amazing revolution in motherboard development," said Johnson Lin, CEO of Gigabyte United. "With one little click, users are able to take advantage of up to 70% CPU power savings without sacrificing computing performance. Imagine the potential for power savings on a global scale if every motherboard in the world was able to provide similar power savings."

Featuring an advanced proprietary software and hardware design, including high quality components from Intersil, Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver is a unique technology that provides exceptional power savings and improved power efficiency. The unique multi-gear power phase design of Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver allows for the most efficient switching of power phases depending on CPU workload. When the CPU workload is light or at idle, the Dynamic Energy Saver downshifts gears and only allows the minimum required power phases needed to accomplish the task to operate. By turning off the power phases that are not needed, Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver is able to dramatically save power, up to 70% compared to traditional motherboards, that would normally have been wasted. As soon as the workload increases, Dynamic Energy Saver recognizes that more power is needed and is able to shift into higher gear, turning on power phases as they are needed.

Unlike traditional power designs that keep all power phases active at all times no matter what the loading, Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver features multiple gears, allowing the CPU to maintain optimum power efficiency from light all the way to heavy loading. In a traditional power phase design, each gear needs to operate at less than optimum efficiency, causing gaps in power efficiency. With the ability to switch on and off gears before they start to loose efficiency, Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver is able to provide up to 20% improved power efficiency.

Dynamic Energy Saver User Interface Gigabyte's user-friendly Dynamic Energy Saver interface allows users to turn on and off the power saving features with a simple click of the Dynamic Energy Saver button. Not only can users see real-time CPU power consumption in Watts, but once Dynamic Energy Saver is enabled, users can also see how much power they are actually saving. In Meter Mode, Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver shows how much power users have saved in a set period of time. Like a trip odometer in a car, users are able to reset the power savings meter to zero. In Total Mode, users are able to see how much total power savings they have accumulated since activating Dynamic Energy Saver for the first time. Even if the Dynamic Energy Saver functionality is turned off, the total amount of power saved will be recorded until re-activated, when total power savings will resume recording power savings.

Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver technology also delivers additional power savings with its Dynamic CPU Voltage Control. Adjust the CPU voltage according to power saving needs; Level 1 for Normal Power Savings, Level 2 for Advanced Power Savings, and Level 3 for Extreme Power Savings. Gigabyte's Dynamic Frequency Control (CPU Throttling) allows for additional system power savings with a simple 1-click on/off button.

Unique Dynamic Energy Saver Hardware Design
Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver enabled motherboards feature an LED display located directly on the motherboard, allowing users to see the dynamic gear shifting in real-time. As each gear is activated, a color-coded LED representing the gear lights up.

Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver + Intel 45nm CPU = Unmatched Energy Efficiency
Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver motherboards paired with Intel 45nm CPUs deliver the very best platform for multitasking, multimedia and high performance gaming, all while consuming very little power. By combining the improved performance-per-watt and optimized power savings of the Intel 45nm CPUs with the Ultra Durable, Ultra Cool and Ultra Energy Efficient performance of Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver motherboards, users will be able to experience a new world of energy efficient computing.

Benefits of Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver
Not only does Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver help users save money on electricity costs, but Dynamic Energy Saver enabled motherboards also help to reduce the impact everyday computing has on the environment. Less power consumption means less energy is needed to be produced from coal burning power plants. This cuts down on carbon dioxide output, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels for electricity and a known component of greenhouse gasses.

Today it is more important than ever to help conserve and protect our environment. That is why Gigabyte has taken the lead to develop responsible computing technologies that have as little impact on the environment as possible. In addition to Dynamic Energy Saver, Gigabyte has removed lead and other hazardous materials from their products, helping to create a greener computing future.

Gigabyte offers a video demonstration of their Dynamic Energy Saver feature in action. You can download or view the demonstration here.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME BIOS (Part 1)

If you're a true hardcore overclocking enthusiast, then chances are good that you'll be mighty concerned about the motherboards BIOS. For years now, I have found the BIOS to be the one factor that manufacturers overlook on their products. All of the heatsinks, heat-pipes, and fan will not offer nearly the control over any decent overclock to the same degree as a well designed BIOS will. For just as many years, I have also been keeping track of who incorporates the good designs, and who doesn't. This experience has made me become very picky about how I like to have the BIOS presented. I recall a previous review where another manufacturer made the entire background pink, and another made it completely yellow. Blue works for me, despite its closeness to the BSOD.

So once you get past the enormous retail box Gigabyte packages theGA-EP45T-EXTREME in, you'll be ready to subject this "extreme" edition motherboard to some seriously harsh overclocking workloads. The very first thing that I advise any hardware enthusiast or overclocker to do is visit the manufacturers website and download the latest BIOS before you ever begin loading the Operating System. The BIOS we used for our configuration was version named "ep45tex.f3b" and was flashed via a USB flash drive before we ever complete our first POST. After successfully uploading the new version "F3" BIOS, we reset the system and began the fun.

Like any good system builder, the first thing I do is set the date and time. After that, it's straight into the Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) section of this Award BIOS. In the image below, which was created with composite sections of the entire MIT page, you can see how far Gigabyte has come with their BIOS programming... and this is just the main MIT page.

Most of the familiar variables are present and accounted for. Enabling CPU Host Clock Control allows the enthusiast to set their own CPU clock crystal multiplier. along with adjusting the Front Side Bus frequency. You can adjust the PCI Express frequency is you desire, but I suggest keeping it nailed down at 100 MHz since over/under-clocking has shown no positive benefits. Gigabyte includes eXtreme Memory Profile (XMP) functionality on the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard, which I found to be functional in theory but not necessarily in practice. My biggest past complaint with Gigabyte motherboards is the lack of exact voltage specifications for the system memory; also a problem that is now solved with this product release.

Overclocking the CPU was as easy as making a few clicks here and there followed by a restart. It wasn't until I moved on to overclock the RAM that I experienced my first difficulties. In fact, after a whole lot of time spent on the subject, I found it almost impossible to overclock any number of the dozen or more DDR3 system memory kits I had at my disposal. If it wasn't a tricky combination of system memory multipliers matched to obscure MCH frequency latch preferences, it was the unfamiliar DRAM voltage variables. At the end of a long week filled with trail and error, I finally found myself capable of getting at least one memory kit to operate at the 1800 MHz it was designed for.

For now, I will credit my lack of advanced overclocking ability and experience as the primary reason I experienced so many road-blocks with overclocking system memory on this motherboard. If all I had to understand was this single MIT page, I might have been fine. Gigabyte offers several advanced sub-menus from the main GA-EP45T-EXTREME Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker page, which are illustrated in the next section. The faint at heart need not continue, because some of these settings are suitable for extremely advanced overclocking only.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME BIOS (Part 2)

To the very best of my memory, Gigabyte has always released stable BIOS programming. Nevertheless, there has also always been just one area that never quite captures the crown: fine tuning for overclocking. Clearly, with the images you've seen so far, this is not a problem the GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard needs to be concerned with. For once, I actually had to look up the definitions for particular settings - on a Gigabyte BIOS. Go figure.

Prior to the Intel 915 series and the Core 2 Duo, I didn't have a lot of experience with overclocking on a Gigabyte motherboard. Since that time almost three years ago I have seen at least ten other Gigabyte product releases and combed through the BIOS architecture for almost fifty motherboards (as a system builder). The very first thing I could discern is that the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard BIOS is nothing at all like the GA-X48T-DQ6 X48 Motherboard I recently reviewed. The P45 is supposed to reside beneath the X48 series, at least in terms of Intel's designated pecking order. But these two products share very little in common.

In addition to the standard DRAM latency timings available for a range of setting adjustments, the advanced precharge and static adjustments are also available. For most basic overclocking, these are best left with the default [Auto] setting. However if your overclocking requires a lab coat and goggles, then it's a good thing that Gigabyte didn't leave you unsupported.

Let me come right out and admit to you, the enthusiast reader, that the Advanced Timing Control menu you see above is exactly as it remained (and still remains) on the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard. I wrote an entire article encompassing the DDR3 RAM System Memory Technology, yet nearly one-third of the terms used in the advanced settings were unfamiliar to me.

Making things a little more scary (for me), I stumbled across the Advanced Clock Control page. For most purposes, these settings can remain at the pre-defined defaults. However, if you're serious about tweaking your hardware, this is an area I expect you'll visit (and probably understand better than I did).

Throughout my testing of the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME BIOS, I didn't see a single problem that would prevent the average hardware enthusiast or overclocker from tweaking the component settings to exactly the position they required (except for system memory, which still remains a complicated project). There was a little concern for voltage stability on the EP45T, because looking at the PC Health Status section determined the current operating voltage of the hardware actually several steps different than the actual settings. This will give you a reliable idea of where your voltage is supposed to be compared to how far you'll stretch it.

Although the BIOS version I received is still very immature and at a release-day level, the overclock results I was able to attain were considerably good and completely stable. When compared against slightly older products such as the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe Intel P35 motherboard (utilizing the tenth version of that BIOS), the GA-EP45T-EXTREME could exceed CPU overclocks but was not able to match RAM overclocking results. While the results were similar, DDR3 speeds that could be reached with the P5K3 would give MemTest errors on the EP45T-EXTREME. Again, I attribute this entirely on my lack of experience with ultra-advanced overclock settings, and possibly an immature BIOS.

So now you know what to expect for the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME, and I think that calling the configuration variables "extreme" is actually playing it down. Next we take a look at the rest of this P45 motherboard in our closer look section.

Closer Look: GA-EP45T-EXTREME

In this section we (finally) put our hands on the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME Ultra Durable 2 DES motherboard and give it a close inspection. Go ahead an take a look, because I know that's what you came here for. I can't really blame you for checking out the pictures first and then (hopefully) returning to the article. Seeing so much color, so much copper, and so many I/O ports, it all makes me feel bad for motherboard reviews of years past. How did they ever survive the boredom? This review will focus less on fashion and more on functionality, but it's difficult to deny that the EP45T deserves equal attention on both.

Gigabyte builds the GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard from a dark blue printed circuit board (PCB), which seems to create a nice clean background effect which shows off the contrasting components. Well known for using colorful plastics, Gigabyte keeps to tradition and uses every tool made available to them for molding the plastic connection and port pieces. The added color really seems to set their motherboard products apart, in my opinion.

One of the primary selling points to the Gigabyte EP45T is that it supports Intel's Core 2 Multi-Core and 45nm processors with 1600 MHz front side bus (FSB) speeds. Presently, the only processors to have this high of a Front Side Bus (FSB) will be among the most expensive Intel Elite offerings with unlocked multipliers. But then again, this is the EXTREME edition motherboard so it all makes sense.

For graphics, the first PCI Express slot offers 16 lanes of bandwidth, the second offers 8 lanes, and the third PCI Express slot delivers only 4 lanes (despite the Gigabyte website claim of two 16x and one 4x). When two video cards are installed using PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX8_1 slots, they both operate with eight lanes (8 GBps) of bandwidth. This is going to be useful for only a few combinations of ATI CrossFireX configurations, because I imagine most hardcore gamers will demand 16x out of each slot for the most expensive Radeon products. Finally, there is just one single PCI Express 1x slot, however it becomes unusable if you elect to use the Hybrid Silent-Pipe add-on or populate the PCI Express 4x slot. To my dismay, Gigabyte does not include a CrossFireX bridge with this kit.

The EP45T features the second generation of Gigabyte's Ultra Durable motherboard functionality. The all new copper Hybrid Silent-Pipe thermal cooling solution covers the P45 Northbridge and ICH10R Southbridge chipsets and CPU power MOSFETs. This inventive design dramatically reduces CPU zone temperature as we have seen before in the P35 GIGABYTE vs ASUS Thermal Test Report. Cool electronics last longer, and offer better stability when overclocked, so every little bit of extra effort helps.

Two pairs of DDR3 DIMM sockets are available to this Intel P45 motherboard, with color-coding present to assist the enthusiast in matching memory modules for dual-channel compatibility. In the expansion slot area there are three PCI 2.3-compliant slots total, matched with another three PCI Express slots.

Gigabyte has added Intel's XMP (Extreme Memory Technology) support for DDR3 on the GA-EP45T-EXTREME, which allows for overclocker-specific memory profiles to automatically adjust the system variables. To understand XMP, think of SPD from days past and then know that the settings are meant for extremely tweaked overclocks. And while most overclockers would never find themselves in this situation, it's important to note that when memory modules of different capacity are installed the Intel Flex Memory Technology will activate to retain dual channel memory performance.

If one thing is made certain, it's that the GA-EP45T-EXTREME is made "Ultra Durable" through the generous use of copper cooling components. The heatpipe assembly begins at the ICH10R Southbridge where temperatures are fairly lukewarm, and travel up to the Northbridge via a single heatpipe interconnect. At the Intel P45 Express northbridge chipset, which appears to be the heart of the heatpipe cooling efforts, two additional rods reach out to an area behind the I/O panel to expel heat through a long copper cooling fin assembly.

Gigabyte has done away with their Crazy Cool feature from on the backside of the PCB. Previously, such as on the GA-X48T-DQ6 X48, Gigabyte added copper-plated metal heatsinks to the back of the motherboard. However, with the GA-EP45T-EXTREME there is nothing more than a few support braces for the Hybrid Silent-Pipe feature.

In our next section, Benchmark Reviews goes in deeper to examine some of the fine details that make up the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherbard.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME Details

From everything that I have read on the P45 Express chipset up to the point of this article, you might think that it's an X48 underachiever. Not So. While the Intel X48 series has generated a lot of industry hype as the highest-level chipset from Intel, there are more than a few difference on the P45 which make it nearly as valuable. All on its own the new Intel P45 Express chipset doesn't deserve much attention, but when you add the matched ICH10R Southbridge chipset to the equation it begins to add up.

Additionally, the Ultra Durable 2 components and Hybrid Silent-Pipe certainly add a high level of reliability to this Gigabyte product, and the Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) feature allows your system to virtually pay for itself over time by cutting back power phases at the main board level which saves electricity (and thus indirectly makes you a more globally-conscious person). So let's begin our look at the add-in functionality Gigabyte has supplemented into the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard to make it appealing.

There are several new improvements that accompany the P45 chipset which make is worthwhile over some of the older predecessors. Aside from the obvious support for the 1600MHz FSB, there is also the update to 1900MHz DDR3 (through overclocking), and PCI Express 2.0. What I consider to be the biggest improvement is in the ICH10R Southbridge, which replaces the ICH9/9R found on the X48-Express chipset. The new ICH10 improves over the past generations, and more specifically, it corrects a problem previous controllers has with Solid State Drive (SSD) technology.

Gigabyte includes an add-on cooling component with the GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard called Hybrid SilentPipe. This item features a very large fin-sink array integrated around two heatpipes which connect to the base. The entire Hybrid SilentPipe unit attaches to the P45 Northbridge base, so a combination of liquid cooling (optional) can be combined with the high-performance air-cooling functionality of copper heat-pipes. Our Hybrid SilentPipe component was mounted using a very thin layer of thermal paste (not included). I recommend reading our Best Thermal Paste Application Methods guide to get a better understanding of how less is more, but also recognize that this is not a perfectly flat surface and some addition TIM is required to fill in the excessive gaps.

Surrounding the processor socket there are many high quality CPU power modules which utilizes ferrite core chokes which minimize electromagnetic (and radio) interference signals noise for a cleaner electrical circuit. A lower Resistance from Drain to Source rDS (ON) MOSFET array allows for transitional power steps, which is the heart of Gigabytes DES feature. Japanese manufactured SMD solid state capacitors, which contain a solid organic polymer and lower equivalent series resistance (ESR), are implemented throughout this board and will likely outlast the useful life of the GA-EP45T-EXTREME.

External SATA connectors are not part of the I/O panel, however Gigabyte has included a total of two SATA brackets with the GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard kit. On each bracket, there are two eSATA ports available with a 4-pin Molex power connector between them. A total of four eSATA ports are made available with these two brackets installed.

Gigabyte includes the high-definition Realtek ALC889A audio controller with DTS Connect capability on the EP45T. This audio chipset may be integrated, but with a featured 106 dB Signal to Noise ratio over eight channels it is anything but low-end. Digital audio outputs arrive in two varieties: optical and coaxial S/PDIF connectors. Realtek's ALC889A with DTS Connect is meant to enable high quality full-rate lossless audio, and offer support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

A total of eight High-Speed USB 2.0 ports populate the I/O panel, with another four available at the mainboard header connection. There are not any IEEE-1394 Firewire ports here, but the Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 processor allows up to three to be added from the motherboards header panel. Gigabyte includes one dual-port Firewire bracket, which leaves one more port available to your computer case I/O panel if it is supported.

The remainder of the input/output panel is quite busy, with a wide assortment of ports and connections for everything that is connectable by today's standard. Dual Realtek 8111C Gigabit Ethernet LAN with Teaming functionality are supplied, with activity and link speed indicators at the corner of each RJ-45 port. With teaming functionality enabled the two single connections can operate as one for twice the bandwidth, which improves the overall throughput with lower CPU utilization and adds network fault tolerance to prevent downtime by transferring the workload from a failed port to a working port.

In the next section, component layout is examined and a few small concerns given necessary attention. I recommend reading this section is you are one of the many users of NVIDIA's latest graphics solutions.

Component Layout

Gigabyte has certainly had to redesign the landscape for their GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard. While PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports are still made available, which is rare but necessary for when USB devices fail to be seen because of stability issues, the remainder of the rear I/O panel is a mix of old and new. Optical and coaxial digital audio connections occupy the next parcel of real estate, but a double-wide section of Silent-Pipe copper cooling fins come in directly afterwards.

One feature that seems to have been borrowed from the ASUS Striker II NSE nForce 790i SLI Motherboard we've recently reviewed is the "Clr CMOS" button, which allows the user to clear the custom settings of their BIOS and start over from scratch. I found this function to be very useful, but not at all in a convenient area. I recommend that Gigabyte move this button away from the USB ports which are directly beside it, so that when you're reaching around the backside of the computer case to plug in a cable you don't accidentally reset you hard-earned overclock.

Gigabyte uses bright Canary-yellow plastics to identify the Intel ICH10R SATA-II ports, which offer six points of connectivity. The first set of SATA connections are transverse mounted so the cables do not rise up from the motherboard, but the second and third sets are in a traditional upright position. Last but not least, an iTE IT8213 chip manages the floppy drive and PATA interface controller for ATA-66/100/133 bandwidth.

Gigabyte makes it convenient for hardware enthusiasts to tweak the motherboard without having to reach for a power button, or even have the unit installed inside a computer case. By adding a reset and power button switch directly on the header panel, overclockers can make quick changes and simply press the closest button. Because of the trials and tribulations I had with finding a stable DDR3 overclock, these two buttons (along with the Reset CMOS button) came in very handy.

Because I use several combinations of storage and optical drives, I usually require at least four SATA-port connections. Initially I connected all SATA devices through ports 1, 2, 5, and 6. At the time I was using a ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB AMP! Edition video card, which occupied the top 16x PCI-Express graphics slot. However, with this video card SATA port 4 was obstructed and could not be used. The same problem was encountered when I installed the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850. Since I didn't need all six SATA ports, I didn't think very much of it. But then I needed to change out my graphics card for additional testing and...

Because of placement on the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME, only the two transverse mounted ports were accessible. Using the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 or any of the double-size NVIDIA GeForce video cards (such as the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 AMP! Edition shown below), all four of the lower SATA-II ports were completely covered and could not be used to any capacity. This didn't make me happy at all, since all of my test software and driver library reside on a separate drive, and I use a SSD for a large paging file. So unless you require only two SATA ports for your drives or use a single-slot size video card, I strongly suggest considering your options here.

Gigabyte's layout on the GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard wasn't all bad, however. Back when the GA-X48T-DQ6 X48 was tested, I noticed that you had to install the DDR3 system memory prior to installing a video card because of how close the DIMM sockets were to the PCI Express slot. In the EP45T you'll have enough room to open the DIMM retaining clips while a graphics card is installed, which is very important to those of you who swap out RAM on a regular basis (like me).

In the next section, Benchmark Reviews begins testing the GA-EP45T-EXTREME, as we compare it against the P35 and X48 chipsets, along with a little rivalry from the 790i to make it all interesting. Please continue on to find out how this P45 motherboard compares.

Motherboard Testing

Testing a motherboard is one of the most difficult tasks I've had as a product analyst. There are several different methods to compare one product to another, but even when you try to measure one against another the features don't always stack up. Benchmark Reviews hasn't been around long enough to have a wide variety of same or past-generation chipset motherboards on hand to test against, which shifts the role of our testing away from who makes the best whatever-chipset motherboard to more of a comparison between this product and other previously-released chipset versions for the same processor and memory.

There is a benefit to being "new" to the review industry however, and this is that we can learn from the mistakes of others and not repeat them ourselves. Additionally, we are able to come up with new idea's of our own and introduce them here. One example of this is how Benchmark Reviews introduced the cost-per-frame analysis of video cards, which showed the price you'll pay for each frame of performance in your favorite video game. In this review, Benchmark Reviews will add to this ingenuity and introduce power consumption results for the motherboards tested.

Testing Methodology

The Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME motherboard features two of Intel's latest chipset technologies: the ICH10 Southbridge and P45 Express Northbridge. While testing could have easily be left to a simple "this vs. that" routine, we here at Benchmark Reviews think that this is less than educating. For our tests, each motherboard was overclocked as far as safe limits would allow utilizing the exact same supplemental components. Benchmarks are recorded after each test, and a system shut down and restart followed thereafter. Because the NF790i and X48 also offer PCI-Express 2,0, we also spent considerable time testing the "real-world" difference between the two motherboards with the exact same video card and drivers.

Benchmark Applications

• PCMark05 v1.2.0 System Test Suite for Windows XP
• PCMark Vantage v1.01 System Test Suite for Windows Vista
• Crysis v1.21 Benchmark (High Settings, No Anti Aliasing)
• World in Conflict v1.0.0.7 Performance Test (Very High Setting)

Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME (Intel P45 Chipset)
• Processor: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz (Overclocked to 3.6 GHz)
• System Memory: Corsair PC3-14400 DDR3 1800MHz
• Audio: HT Omega Claro Plus+ AD8620BR Op Amp Sound Card
• Video: ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB Video Card
• Disk Drive 1: OCZ SATA-II 32GB 2.5-Inch SSD OCZSSD2-1S32G
• Optical Drive: ASUS BC-1205PT SATA Blu-ray Disc Optical Drive
• Enclosure: Lian Li PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case
• PSU: ePower Technology EP-1200P10 xScale 1200W PSU
• Display: SOYO 26-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor DYLM26E6
• Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP-3 (optimized to 16 processes at idle)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Ultimate SP-1 (optimized to 38 processes at idle)

Support Equipment

• Extech 450 Auto ranging Digital Multimeter
• CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA 900W LCD UPS
• P3 International Kill A Watt EZ (model P4460)
• Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 (Intel X48 Chipset)
• ASUS Striker II NSE (nForce 790i Chipset)

PCMark05 System Tests

Using synthetic benchmarks to compare one product to another has some distinct advantages when testing similar hardware, yet I have never found myself completely satisfied by the process. I have come to understand that they're important for comparing "apples to apples", and that the results are usually very consistent. But as with any synthetic benchmark, the numbers can often mean very little more than just numbers. We don't take a high score on a synthetic benchmark to mean that a product will/should perform well, and neither should you. The difference between projected performance and actual performance is the difference between fire and the fire-fly.

PCMark is a series of computer benchmark tools developed by Futuremark. The tools are designed to test the performance of the user's CPU, read/write speeds of RAM and hard drives. We have used these tests to simulate a battery of applications and tasks, which will produce results we can compare to other systems using similar hardware.

After a series of five looped tests, the average of the results were charted below. Keep in mind that the EP45T-EXTREME as well as the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 and ASUS Striker II NSE all shared the same hardware (specified in the Test Methodology section) and operated at the same exact CPU and RAM speed. The idea here was to isolate the motherboard to determine if one product performed better than the other.

I am curious what differences, if any, there might be between the P45, X48, and 790i chipsets. I know that Intel's ICH9 (and ICH9R) South Bridge has some issues with SSD's, which forced us to use the JMicron JMB363 SATA-II controller on the X48 motherboard whenever we did testing. But has ICH10 (and ICH10R) brought forth any substantial improvements?

So after one very long series of benchmark testing with PCMark05, the results were a lot less divided than I had hoped. All of the motherboard products tested produced nearly identical results, with less than half of one percent separating them. The ASUS Striker II NSE nForce 790i motherboard pushed ahead of the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 by whopping 0.17%, and held a substantial 0.01% lead (this is sarcasm people) over the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME.

The chipsets are all different, but the system memory and processors are all identical. So what does this mean? It means that there's no difference in performance between motherboards when the same hardware is used with the same settings. Obviously each has its own strength (overclocking, SLI, CrossFireX), but I hope the testing doesn't go on this way or I will feel like days of testing was all for nothing.

PCMark Vantage System Tests

PCMark Vantage is the first objective hardware performance benchmark for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and hi-end gaming rigs.

Regardless of whether the person benchmarking is an artist or an IT Professional, PCMark Vantage shows the user where their system soars or falls flat, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware. PCMark Vantage is easy enough for even the most casual enthusiast to use yet supports in-depth, professional industry grade testing.

After less than impressive results on the first day of testing with PCMark05, I hoped that Windows Vista Ultimate would create a wider divide between the motherboards and put one out ahead of the other.

PCMark Vantage was benchmark tested five times and the results averaged in the chart above. For the most part, final results were once again so close they are virtually identical; however there were considerably different scores on particular tests that favor one product over another.

In PCMark Vantage the ASUS Striker II NSE falls behind almost 5% in overall PC Marks, for whatever they're worth. The X48 motherboard also led by a margin in the Memory, TV & Movies, Communication, and Productivity test sections. Gigabyte's GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard kept in-step with the GA-X48T-DQ6 for the most part, but was much closer to the 790i chipset in terms of Disk Driver performance.

Conversely, the nForce 790i SLI motherboard showed some strength in the Gaming, Music, and Disk Drive sections. I'm not sure what algorithm PCMark Vantage uses to calculate Marks, but both motherboards felt identical throughout this testing.

Now that I have confirmed that almost two days worth of testing have gone to waste on a collection of identically performing products, I move on to the World in Conflict benchmark results in hope of finding some margin of difference in graphics performance.

WiC Benchmark Results

The latest version of Massive's proprietary Masstech engine utilizes DX10 technology and features advanced lighting and physics effects, and allows for a full 360 degree range of camera control. Massive's MassTech engine scales down to accommodate a wide range of PC specifications, if you've played a modern PC game within the last two years, you'll be able to play World in Conflict.

World in Conflict's FPS-like control scheme and 360-degree camera make its action-strategy game play accessible to strategy fans and fans of other genres... if you love strategy, you'll love World in Conflict. If you've never played strategy, World in Conflict is the strategy game to try.

World in Conflict offers an in-game benchmark, which records the minimum, average, and maximum frame rates during the test. Very recently another hardware review website made the assertion that these tests are worthless, but we couldn't disagree more. When used to compare the same component on two separate platforms, the in-game benchmark works very well. This doesn't prove to be the case when comparing different GPU's, however.

For World in Conflict testing, only the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME and GA-X48T-DQ6 were compared. With the Intel E8400 CPU lightly overclocked to 3600 MHz and the Corsair PC3-14400 DDR3 working at 1800 MHz, each product was matched with the same video card so that architectural differences might indicate a performance advantage. At least, that was my plan.

This is the reason behind the low-end resolution of 1280x1024, because at 1.3 MP the software becomes more dependant on the system hardware to keep up with demands than it does the graphics hardware.

As it turns out, P45 might have some strengths in drive I/O with the new ICH10 Southbridge, but the diced-up graphics pipeline isn't done any favors by the P45 Express Northbridge. In our tests, nearly all of the single-card configurations were identical (1 FPS is a safe margin of error). However, when we placed the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Video Card 100242L into a CrossFireX set with an identical card there was a slight difference seen in performance. Changing the CrossFireX set to include the high-performance Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Video Card 100243L only broadened the difference.

In concluding our World in Conflict test results, it appears that the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME might offer CrossFireX configurations gamers but only at the expense of performance each card is reduced from 16 to 8 lanes of bandwidth. The differences weren't very big, falling between 5-6% for the Radeon 4850 and 4870 CrossFireX set we tested, but they exist. If you plan to use only one or two graphics cards, the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 can put the PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth to better use.

Crysis Benchmarks

Crysis uses a new graphics engine: the CryENGINE2, which is the successor to Far Cry's CryENGINE. CryENGINE2 is among the first engines to use the Direct3D 10 (DirectX10) framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Roy Taylor, Vice President of Content Relations at NVIDIA, has spoken on the subject of the engine's complexity, stating that Crysis has over a million lines of code, 1GB of texture data, and 85,000 shaders.

To get the most out of modern multicore processor architectures, CPU intensive subsystems of CryENGINE 2 such as physics, networking and sound, have been re-written to support multi-threading.

Crysis offers an in-game benchmark tool, which is similar to World in Conflict. This short test does place some high amounts of stress on a graphics card, since there are so many landscape features rendered. For benchmarking purposes, Crysis can mean trouble as it places a high demand on both GPU and CPU resources. Benchmark Reviews uses the Crysis Benchmark Tool by Mad Boris to test frame rates in batches, which allows the results of many tests to be averaged.

When we tested with World in Conflict, there was a noticeable disadvantage for CrossFireX sets when used on the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME when compared to the same set on the GA-X48T-DQ6 X48 motherboard. Things only get more separated with Crysis, as the CrossFireX sets show more of a preference for the full 16 lanes of bandwidth at each end. Dropping both PCI Express 2.0 compliant ports down to 8x, the EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard produced results 7-14% below the performance of the same hardware on a 16x + 16x lane configuration.

Aside from CrossFireX multi-card configurations, there's no real difference between the P45 and X48 in terms of single-unit performance. Based on our series of Crysis benchmarks, the test results indicate that the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME cannot offer the same level of performance as their GA-X48T-DQ6 in CrossFireX, but both perform the same otherwise.

This concludes our benchmark testing portion, and now we move on to measuring the power consumption of the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME and compare it to the others.

Natural Resources and our Planet

I dislike how much doom and gloom I hear on the news every day, but it would be a sin to ignore the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in today. Our forefathers did their best to build these nations, but despite good intentions the industrial revolution began a trend that we must now struggle to cope with. Fossil fuels are diminishing from sustainable supply, and with nuclear reactors rapidly being shut down because of drying water supplies we will soon see a major rise in the household cost of electricity. Natural resources are rapidly disappearing, along with our polar ice caps and much of the wildlife worldwide, which makes this next decade a critical time for us all.

Since our planet is proving to us that it cannot sustain the present rate of human growth, we must collectively do what we can to restore some level of balance in our favor. Several motherboard manufacturers have embraced this idea, such as Gigabyte, who understands that conservation is an effort worth working at. This is why all Gigabyte motherboards built in recent years comply with RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substance) guidelines as part of concerted effort to reduce pollution.

Once upon a time televisions and refrigerators were the largest consumers of household electricity, but over the past decade that shift has completely moved towards personal computers. While it's great that I can overclock the my processor and video card for a few extra frames per second out of my favorite games, it always comes at a cost. But we all still like to play with our toys. While it's absurd how far some people will go for that last extra bit of performance, most of us could find a happy middle ground with high-end components running on less power. After all, who doesn't want better gas mileage?

So in this section I have compared the P45 Express chipset to the nForce 790i SLI on the ASUS Striker II NSE, and X48 on the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6. All of the motherboards were tested using the same hardware, and both systems were repeatedly tested for consistent results. Below are the power consumption results at at full load and idle (login screen).

Test Systems

• ASUS P5K3 Deluxe Wi-Fi-AP (Intel P35 Express Chipset)
• Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 (Intel X48 Express Chipset)
• ASUS Striker II NSE (nForce 790i SLI Chipset)
• Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME (Intel P45 Express Chipset)

Support Equipment

• EVEREST Ultimate Engineer Version 4.50.1330
• Extech 450 Auto ranging Digital Multimeter
• CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD 1500VA 900W LCD UPS
• P3 International Kill A Watt EZ model P4460

Power Consumption Results

During the test period the power supply was given power and left in standby mode for several minutes. This test was repeated five times, and the average for each system is displayed (although each test result was identical to the previous). The system was then powered on, and left at the login screen for approximately five minutes before the idle readings were taken and averaged.

I've never been one to do as others do. Benchmark Reviews is my tool for breaking the mold, and that's what I was thinking when I removed the video card from each system and powered on to an idle POST state.

If anything, the no-VGA tests are meant to isolate the motherboard as much as possible. At the end of the testing, it was beginning to look like the ASUS Striker II was actually more efficient than the Gigabyte X48 motherboard, but the GA-EP45T-EXTREME was right behind it.

Once the systems were booted into Windows and left idle at the logon screen, I recorded the power consumption readings. While the X48 motherboard does better than the P35, it takes the nForce 790i motherboard to show some real prowess. Shaving a full 7W of power while at idle, the ASUS Striker II NSE pulls away from the EP45T by only 4W at idle.

Finally, after starting the system stability tests included in EVEREST Ultimate Engineer Version, each system was measured for power consumption. Nearly tied for identical power consumption under full load, the GA-EP45T-EXTREME comes in just behind the ASUS Striker II NSE.

There are some caveats that I should mention. Gigabyte offers the Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced utility with the P45 (and X48 series with BIOS update) motherboards, which further reduces power consumption on a non-overclocked computer system. Since all of our systems were tested at identical speeds (all overclocked), we did not go further into testing DES software. If you're interested, you can see how the software performed in our Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 review.

Intel P45 Express Final Thoughts

Life has been good for Intel over the past two years since the Core 2 brand of CPU's was launched, but if Intel's new 45nm Penryn-based Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors are any indication of how they incrementally improve upon technology rather than innovate it, there might be trouble in store for them into the future. The continued pursuit of faster front side bus speeds and larger L2 cache only begins to reveal the weakness plaguing the ancient Direct Media Interconnect (DMI) technology, and reminds us of the Pentium 4 days when faster clock speeds were the quick-fix for lacking real technology improvements. Intel won't be able to fight back with their distant QuickPath replacement for DMI until 2009 at the earliest, which might have been the best time to launch the 4-series of chipsets.

The X48 Express chipset was first made available to consumer almost eight months before Intel released the mainstream P45 Express chipset. Although I can see the benefits behind the P45 chipset, I think that the launch should have been switched (X48 for P45). At the time that X48 launched, X38 was still brand new to the scene and doing quite well for itself. This made for a tame introduction of eXtreme chipset performance from the 4-series, and once again makes us less than enthusiastic about a P45 launch.

taking away some of the gusto is the fact that AMD has fired back with the launch of their Spider platform which presently includes: ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPU's, AMD (Barcelona) Phenom CPU's, and the AMD 7-series motherboard chipset. This new hardware synergy has allowed the involved components to work together using HyperTransport 3.0 in ways that Intel never could deliver. While HyperTransport 3.0 presently uses DDR2, it still beats the bandwidth of DMI without even approaching it's plateau and gives value back to consumers not ready for the expense of DDR3. By the time Intel releases QuickPath, AMD will have moved onto DDR3 support and a Socket F structure.

After visiting with manufacturers at the 2008 International CES, I was left unimpressed by the limited list of features added into the Intel X48 launch, and now that August is here and the P45 chipset has launched I feel much the same way as I did back then. To some very plausible degree, all notions have been proven correct by this review since there seems to be no reasonable justification to launch of an entirely new series of chipsets.

Intel may not have officially supported the 1600MHz front side bus in the X38 chipset, but nearly all motherboard manufacturers enabled it as a default setting and P35 owners could achieve it through overclocking. PCI Express 2.0 and XMP were also both supported in the X38 chipset launch; and DDR3 has been available since the P35 chipset. Intel seems to have really dismissed value as an incentive for product placement, because anyone who owns a 3-series motherboard essentially receives the same functionality as they would with the X48. This (X48) chipset really just combined it all the unofficial features into one official package. So what about P45 Express?

The P45 chipset isn't just a clone, to be fair. Sure, it's a fallback part from the X48 line, but it also introduces the ICH10 (and ICH10R) Southbridge. I know, I know, this isn't really news-worthy, but it's what we've got. This puts the burden to successfully market and sell the product onto the shoulders of the add-in partner manufacturer; and this is where Gigabyte comes to shine. Adding Advanced Dynamic Energy Saver functionality to the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard is a good start, but additional features such as Ultra TPM (which offers 2048-bit chip-based encryption) is where value becomes more evident.

GA-EP45T-EXTREME Conclusion

Having served for eight years in the Marines, I find myself a little desensitized to camouflaged patterns. Back when I reviewed the GA-X48T-DQ6, Gigabyte certainly captured my attention with a large gold retail box. For the GA-EP45T-EXTREME however, a camo-on-black design was used. Call me picky, but I think that even a solid red package would have been more eye-catching. Nevertheless, the information on the package was enough to educate consumers on their purchase, and at the same time gives you a glimpse of what's inside.

Once the retail package is opened, there becomes an undeniable difference as you switch from dark colors to bright pastels with Copper almost everywhere. Much like other Gigabyte motherboards, the use of bright and unique colored plastics paired with brilliant metals seems to work to their advantage. The appearance Gigabyte has developed with the GA-EP45T-EXTREME is certainly one of excitement, and it gives some credit to the Extreme moniker. Just as I indicated within this article, I am yet to see another motherboard look as interesting as one that Gigabyte designs.

Most would agree that the Ultra Durable feature has helped to launch Gigabyte's motherboard technology into mainstream conversation. Now into the second generation of the technology, Gigabyte certainly offers everything available to make sure their product exceeds all expectations. High-quality CPU power modules with ferrite core chokes, lower RDS MOSFETs, and lower ESR solid capacitors all create the basis for the best constructed motherboard Benchmark Reviews has seen to date.

Performance is a measure that takes on several meanings when we look at the GA-EP45T-EXTREME. Overclockers, not the kiddie tweakers who occasionally use software tools, but the hardcore bunch that dream of liquid Nitrogen set-ups, will absolutely love the BIOS on this motherboard. It's extreme... it's advanced... and it's way out of reach for most novices. I personally spent more time getting the right combination of settings in the BIOS than I did testing all of the motherboards. So to that extent, the hardware enthusiast will be pleased.

On the other hand, there are a few sacrifices made on the EP45T that won't exactly cause gamers to swoon. The original design of the P45 Express chipset accommodates either a full 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics port, and I could be wrong about this but it seems to me that reducing the bandwidth down to 8x for each card in a CrossFireX isn't very impressive. You still get one full-speed lane, so single card graphics are uneffected, but CrossFireX is not would it could have been.

But the hits don't stop there. SATA port location renders all but two connections useless if you're among the many users who own a dual-slot sized graphics card. Gigabyte could easily remedy this in future PCB design revisions of the EP45T by making all six SATA ports turned sideway for transverse mounting. I'm hopeful on this one, since it wouldn't require change to their production process.

Motherboards, while getting much better at offering everything a person could ever want, have also gradually gotten to be more expensive as well. Long gone are the days of high-end mainboards costing less than $100. It was only back when the Intel 945 chipset launched that top-end motherboards would approach $200. So when it comes to value, I think that the consumer must approach the subject with their own personal list of qualifications.

At the time of this writing NewEgg lists the GA-EP45-EXTREME P45 motherboard for $264.99. This is a higher-end price for a extreme-level motherboard, but without question there's a whole lot that comes with the kit. There hasn't been a solid launch date for Intel's 5-series of motherboards, so hopefully the P45 will be the last chipset update from Intel for at least another several months. Serious overclockers will really see their investment pay off with the EP45T-EXTREME, while gamers with a taste for three-way CrossFireX will also be satisfied. On the other hand, NewEgg still offers the GA-X48T-DQ6 for $309.99, which puts the P45 chipset centered almost $50 less than the X48.

Those who are keen to system tweaking will enjoy the overclocking potential of this chipset, without question. So after all of the tests and benchmarks I've conducted, can I still recommend the P45 chipset? Yes. Do I think that the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME is the best delivery of Intels chipset? Not so much. The EXTREME connotation should not be taken lightly, and only the most hardcore overclockers should approach a product like the EP45T-EXTREME. The BIOS is overwhelming to anyone who lacks a deep experience in fine-tweaking hardware parameters, relegating this product to only a very small niche of enthusiasts. Gamers will have a mixed opinion on this motherboard, too. At one end you have full 16-lane bandwidth for single-card graphic solutions, and at the other end you have a CrossFireX configuration crippled by 8x lanes for video data bandwidth.

If you already own either a P35 or X38 chipset than it becomes less of a value decision, and more of a need for special features. Gigabyte loads their GA-EP45T-EXTREME with more additional system functionality and product features than anyone else, but you don't get them for free, and the price may have an impact on budget-conscious overclockers. In conclusion, the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME P45 motherboard is the perfect platform for enthusiast overclockers and multi-card gamers, but there are some rough edges to get around that might cause a snag for everyone else.

Pros:

+ Outstanding BIOS - designed for overclockers!
+ Hyrbid Silent-Pipe component improves P45 thermal stability
+ Advanced Dynamic Energy Saver offers VRD 11.1 ultra-low power state
+ Dual PCI Express 2.0 compliant graphics
+ BIOS updates are made safe with dual-BIOS
+ Japanese-manufactured surface mount all-solid capacitors
+ Blu-Ray/HD DVD Full rate audio with DTS connect
+ Supports three-way ATI CrossFireX video card set
+ Industry-leading thermal cooling architecture
+ DDR3 1900 memory support (via OC) with Intel XMP technology
+ Dual Gigabit LAN network teaming
+ Supports 45nm processors with 1600MHz FSB

Cons:

- Extremely poor SATA2 connection port location/orientation
- Only one PCI Express 16-lane (16 GBps) interface
- Expensive motherboard solution
- Lacks SLI and ESA support
- Complicated BIOS for novice overclockers
- System Memory is difficult to overclock without advanced experience
- Kit does not include CrossFireX bridge component

Ratings:

• Presentation: 8.75
• Appearance: 9.50
• Construction: 8.75
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 6.75

Final Score: 8.65 out of 10.

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