Thread: Gigabyte X48T DQ6 Living Review

SouthBridge


NorthBridge


PWM
12 Phase PWM (memory & NB both run on 2 Phase)


Rear Panel
Left to right
PS/2 keyboard port
PS/2 mouse port
coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
optical S/PDIF Out connector
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x IEEE 1394a ports
2 x RJ-45 port
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

The extras that come with the motherboard is identical to that that came with the X38.

• Motherboard driver disk
• User's Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• Intel® LGA775 CPU Installation Guide
• One IDE cable and one floppy disk drive cable
• Four SATA 3Gb/s cables
• Two SATA brackets
• I/O Shield
• Two screw nuts (To secure NB if CrazyCool is removed)

My own favourites in this package are the E-Sata Brackets
See X38 for more info

Package Outake
Cat got in on the act

Like the X38 the X48 uses the CrazyCool panels under the motherboard to help remove heat from the CPU, NB & SB.


what I did find quiet suprising, comparing the X48 to the X38 CrazyCool

The X48 NB has virtually no coverage as can be seen here

The square of solder point just to the right is the NB Core, which is uncovered on the X48, whilst being covered on the X38 (See link above.)

If using a large after market Air Cooler such as the Thermalright Ultra Extreme, you will need to remove the CrazyCool CPU heatsink. This is realtively easy to do, provided you've not lost the 2 bolts that come with the motherboard:-

These replace the crazycool heatsink and go through the back of the board to secure the Northbrige with the spring screws used on the nortbrige.


1) Remove 3 top screws from around CPU Socket



2) Unscrew the Spring Screws that secure the Northbridge.
3) The CrazyCool Heatsink can now be removed

4) One at a time , push the bolts through the bottom of the motherbord as shown :-
Fasten, but don't overtighten, one of the spring screws from 2)onto the end of the bolt on the top of the mobo. Repeat for the 2nd bolt.
5) Alternatively tighten the NB spring screws so that the springs are fully and evenly, compressed, maximising pressure on the NB.
see Securing NB spring screws (X38)

Out of the crop of X38 boards and the Foxconn Mars using copper heatpipes, the Gigabyte X38 DQ6, had the best heatpipes in my opinion. Looking at the X48, that title looks pretty secure.
X48 has put on about 75~100g over the X38


Heatpipes
Once again it's just a question of having a look & remounting. Covering is perfect, with no adhesives been used anywhere.

Northbridge and Southbridge are secured by spring screws. These are larger and seem better quality than used by other manufacturers,
Northbridge

Southbridge

PWM

[B]
The Board Uncovered
PWM & NB


PWM


NB


SB

Main Page


Standard Cmos Features


Advanced Bios Features
Note: CPU Settings are included here, most need to be disabled to support Overclocking.


Advanced Bios Features - Hard Drive Boot Order
Use this to select your permanent Boot Drive. Press [F12] at post to select a one off boot option.

Integrated Peripherals


Power Management


PnP/PCI Configuration


PC Health Status

The bit where we'll spend most of our time
Options are little changed from X38.
Certain features - CPU GTLREF1 &2 Voltage Ratio are hidden options and you need to press [CTRL] + [F1] in the Main Menu page to enable accress.



Robust Graphics Booster - Best to use Auto or Turbo

CPU Clock Ratio - Set CPU Multiplier
For 45nm CPU's the half multiplier is also available.

CPU Host Clock Control - Options are Enabled or Disabled - Enable allows changing the FSB, if an overclock fails this setting will be reset to Disabled.

Options are Enabled and Disabled. Select Enabled to change the FSB and overclock your processor. In the event of a failed overclock this function will return to Disabled.

PCI Express Frequency - set up to 115Mhz gives a slight boost to performance & 3dmark. > 115Mhz can lead to issues with Sata drives.

C.I.A. 2 - Gigabyte's automatic overclocking.

• Disabled
  
• Cruise
  
• Sports
  
• Racing
  
• Turbo
  
• Full Thrust

Performance Enhance

• Standard
  
• Turbo
  
• Extreme

If Static tREAD Value (tRD) is left on Auto The tRD - Performance level is set accordingh to the Option set here. Extreme gives the Tightest tRD , with Turbo being slacker & Standard slacker still. Has a big hit on performance.

System Memory Multiplier
Select the ratio that memory will run to the FSB. Note: 2.0 = 1:1


DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) - Options Auto , Manual. If Left on Auto Bios will set timings depending on FSB & SPD. To manually set memory timings , you guessed, use manual. If overclocking fails this option is set back to auto.


CPU Clock Skew Control - - AKA As CPU PLL on other Motherboards
(G)MCH Clock Skew Control - AKS NB PLL on other Motherboards

DDR3 Overvoltage Control - Stock = 1.5v increases Memory Voltage Over 1.5v by 0.05v to 1.55v in 0.05v Increments giving a Max DDR3 Voltage of 3.05v (1.5v stock +1.55v)

PCI-E Overvoltage Control - Stock = 1.5v Alows increasing the PCI-E Voltage Maximum overvoltage 0.75v to give a maximum 2.25v increment 0.05v

FSB Overvoltage Control - AKA VTT on other motherboards. Stock is 1.10v Overvoltage = 0.35v giving a maximum absolute voltage of 1.45v increment 0.05v

(G)MCH Overvoltage Control - Stock = 1.45v Max Overvoltage = 0.775v Giving 2.225v Maximum absolute Voltage. Increment 0.025v

GTLRef Is Particulasrly useful for fine tuning Quad overclocks. There isn't as wideer options here as with other Motherbords DFI & the Abit IX38 QuadGT have much more clockable options.
CPU GTLREF1 - Default 67% of FSB Overvoltage Control Options are shown below giving Options of 70. 67, 64 & 61% for Die1


CPU GTLREF2 - Default 63% of FSB Overvoltage Control Options are shown below giving Options 63, 60, 57, 54% for Die2


On the Abit board I found a GTLref of 67% Die1 & 66% Die2 gave me that extra bit. As you can see thereis little option to fine tune GTLRef very far here.

Loadline Calibration - AKA Voltage Damper. Reduces the amount of vdroop & therefore reduces the overall vcore required to overclock the CPU. Vdroop under load is around 0.05, so If a Load vcore of 1.38v is needed to get an overclock the vcore needs to be 1.38v +.05v = 1.43v. However with Loadline Calibration enabled vdroop is reduced to about 0.02v so in the above example a vcore of 1.40v will probably work.
Bad news is that using this feature does stress PWM.

CPU Voltage Control - Range is deperndent on installed CPU (45nm CPU have a lower voltage)

Great job, lets see what you and Ace-A-Rue can come up with for this DDR3 stuff