GA-EP45-DQ6
Gigabyte - $275
www.giga-byte.com

Pros:
- Long list of features
- Overclocker friendly
- Tons of room for expansion

Cons:
- Price of entry too steep for some

Intel recently launched its P45 Express chipset, widening support and increasing performance in mainstream Intel-based motherboards. Naturally, motherboard manufacturers have been eagerly awaiting the chipset since it offers a price advantage over Intel’s higher-end parts, while retaining support for all of the high-end technological goodies.

Being one of the biggest third-party hardware manufacturers, Gigabyte has launched an entire line-up of P45 based motherboards in order to completely fill the space, from entry-level and high-end. The motherboard we’re looking at in this article, the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6, is positioned as Gigabyte’s Top-of-the-line P45-based motherboard. Ironically, what Gigabyte has managed to do with the GA-EP45-DQ6 is turn the mainstream P45 chipset into a powerhouse.

Design-wise, the biggest difference between the P45 and Intel’s current high-end X48 chipset is that the P45 uses a 65nm fabrication process, whereas the X48 (and all previous Intel chipsets for that matter) still use a 90nm design. Smaller fabrication process means it’s cheaper to produce as it uses less silicon and should operate at a cooler running temperature.

Other than that, there are no major technologies being introduced with the P45. Intel has instead decided to migrate many of the X48’s major features over to the new mainstream chipset. This is a win-win for consumers since P45 motherboards will typically cost less than their X48 counterparts and many of the X48 features that are now available in the P45 are quite substantial.

Of particular interest is that PCI Express 2.0 is supported in the P45, doubling PCIe bandwidth from 250mb/s to 500mb/s. While the current real-world performance improvement is negligible (you might see a slight boost in video card performance), PCIe 2.0 support is important because it ensures the future compatibility of P45 motherboards.

Surprisingly, Intel opted to include their Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) technology in the P45 as well. With support for 16GB of RAM, the P45’s ability to utilize XMP will offer considerable performance to memory that would otherwise go untweaked. XMP automatically configures system RAM to run at optimal and stable settings. In traditional chipsets (e.g. everything prior to the X48/38), memory timings would default to the most stable — and hence slowest — settings available. Like PCIe 2.0, while this isn’t necessarily a new technology, it will be new to the vast majority of users.

Speaking of memory, it’s important to note that while the P45 supports both DDR2 and DDR3, it’s up to the motherboard manufacturer to decide which type of memory is supported. Although DDR3 is considered futureproof, DDR2 is currently less than half the price. In that respect, depending on your usage, it may be more beneficial to have 8GBs of DDR2 now, rather than 4GB of DDR3. The GA-EP45-DQ6 that we’re reviewing is the DDR2 version. Gigabyte has also launched the GA-EP45T-DQ6 which is exactly the same as the GA-EP45-DQ6, but uses DDR3 instead.

Next: Did they go overboard?

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