Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME Living Review

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Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME
If you rate it please :-

Gigabyte have kindly supplied us with their premier P45 DDR2 Board to test and evaluate in a Living Review. Note: This is a pre release board, not the retail package.

The company are really going to town with the new P45 Chipset with 12 P45 Models
We've reviewed the Gigabyte X48T DQ6 and the Gigabyte GA X38 already , which are excellent boards, but were similar, not being that different from the P35 in terms of the board design and features. However for P45 Gigabyte seem to have pulled out all the stops with new features & a completely new Bios layout that we already reported on.

So not only are we looking at a new chipset, but also several new features, which appear at first sight to be exactly what we've been wanting, let's see what it's like and how it performs.


Useful Links
# Bios Template
# Post Error Codes
# EasyTune6
#Backplate Obstruction
#Gigabyte Announce Memboost
#Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME Living Review - The DDR3 version of this motherboard
# Watch those Auto Voltages!!

Index
1) The Motherboard
2) Features
3) The Specifications
4) Test Components
5) Board Details
6) Miscellaneous Features
7) Northbridge Cooler
8) Hybrid SilentPipe
9) Board Layout Observations & Air cooling
10) Barebones & Other shots
Bios
11) Main Bios Menu & Features
12) Motherbaord Intelligent Tweaker (1of3) - Clock Chip Control
13) Advanced Clock control Sub Menu
14) Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 2of3 - Dram Performance Control
15) Advanced Timing Control Sub Menu
16) Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 3of3 - Mother Board Voltage Control
17) Bios - Other Settings (1of2)
18) Bios - Other Settings (2of2)
19) Beta Bios F5E - Adds Ram Clock Skew Control
20) Beta Bios F6Cl
21) Beta Bios F6H - Adds Channel Driving Optoions
Clocks, Benches & Bios Settings
22) Tuning Bios - GTLREF & DRAM Sub Voltages
23) Tweaking tRD2WR
Air Cooled:-
24) 8x520@1:1 1040 5,5,5,24
25) 9x470@2.40B 1128Mhz 5-5-5-20
26) 8x533@2b 5-5-5-20
27) 575x7.0@2.0B 1,150 5,5,5,22
Water Cooled:-
28) 555x7.5@2.0B 1,111 5,5,5,20
29) 565x7.5@2.0B 1,130 5,5,5,24
30) 4,310 7.5x575@2B 1,150 5-5-5-20
31) Bios F6C - 4,310 7.5x575@2B 1,150 5-5-5-20 Revisited 1min off super Pi32m
32) 4,387 -7.5x585@2.00B= 1,170 5-5-5-18 v2.28 Increase Dram Sub Voltages > 1,150Mhz Ram speeds
33) F6K Tested
34) 4,600 8.5x542@2.40b 1,300Mhz 5-5-5-18
35) F6 Bios Tested & Compared
36) F7 Bios Tested & Compared

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With Hybrid Silentpipe Mounted

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GA-EP45-EXTREME (rev. 1.0)
Intel® P45 + ICH10R Chipset



I have included a three way comparison with P35/X48/P45 to illustrate the differences between the chipsets.

Immediately, we can see that the P45 is similar to the P35 in many ways, although there are a few key changes.

P45 supports up to a massive 16GB of memory officially, whereas the X48 and P35 support 8GB each.
DDr3 However is limited to 8GB.

Curiously, Intel don't list any support for their own Extreme processors, something which I suspect is an error in their literature. There appear to be more errors in the table of supported FSB/memory configurations too, once I find out the correct details, I will update this part.

Surprisingly, there is no official support for 1600FSB CPUs, just like the P35. Although this board does support it.

PCI-E 2 is limited to either a single 16x slot, or dual 8x slots.

Another error in the table appears to show that the ICH10R has less features than the ICH9R - I will find out more on this and update as needed.



1. Revolution energy saving design with DES Advanced featuring hardware based Dynamic 6-Gear switching
2. Supports 45nm Intel® Core™ 2 multi-core processors with FSB 1600 MHz
3. Deal channel DDR2 1200 for remarkable system performance
4. Advanced power phase design with virtual 12 power phases to provides highly efficient operation for 45nm CPU
5. Embedded 2 power phases for NB chipset and 2 phases for memory power to excel at power efficiency
6. 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphic interface plus PCI-E x4 with CrossFireX ™ support for ultimate graphics performance
7. Hardware Overvoltage Control IC Provides more voltage control options on CPU, North bridge and memory
8. All Copper Heat pipe/Heat sink connecting NB, SB, and MOSFET and extra Hybrid Silent-Pipe design provides 30% cooler thermal performance
9. Professed onboard Debug LED and OV-Alert LED, OC-Alert LED, TMP-Alert LED allows user to easily catch on to PC status
10. 2 Gigabit Ethernet LAN with Teaming functionality
11. Supports Dolby Home Theater® audio to create a stunning surround sound listening experience.
12. DualBIOS solution gives a multiple security to the system
13. Power/reset/Clr CMOS onboard button for easily operation on th workbench
14. Maximum CPU keep out zone for extreme CPU cooling
15. Blu-ray playback outputs supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio

(Note) This motherboard is designed with VRD11.1 power phase, and cannot be compatible with VRD10 designed CPU. Please refer to "CPU Support List" for details.

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Specifications
CPU

1. Support for an Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor/ Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor/Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor/ Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core processor/Intel® Celeron® processor in the LGA 775 package
(Note) This motherboard is designed with VRD11.1 power phase, and cannot be compatible with VRD10 designed CPU. Please refer to "CPU Support List" for details.
2. L2 cache varies with CPU

Front Side Bus

1. 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB

Chipset

1. North Bridge: Intel® P45 Express Chipset
2. South Bridge: Intel® ICH10R

Memory

1. 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
2. Dual channel memory architecture
3. Support for DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 MHz memory modules
(Refer to Memory support list for more information)

Audio

1. Realtek ALC889A codec
2. High Definition Audio
3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
4. Support for Dolby Home Theater
5. Support for S/PDIF In/Out
6. Support for CD In

LAN

1. 4 x Realtek 8111C chips (10/100/1000 Mbit)
2. Support for Teaming

Expansion Slots

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2. 1 x PCI Express x8 slot (The PCIEx16 and PCIEx8 slots support ATI CrossFireX technology and conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
3. 1 x PCI Express x4 slots
4. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
5. 3 x PCI slots

Storage Interface South Bridge:

1. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

iTE IT8213 chip:

1. 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices

iTE IT8720 chip:

1. 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive

IEEE 1394a

1. T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
2. Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (via the IEEE 1394a brackets connected to the internal IEEE 1394a headers)

USB

1. Integrated in the South Bridge
2. Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

Internal I/O Connectors

1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
3. 1 x floppy disk drive connector
4. 1 x IDE connector
5. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
6. 1 x CPU fan header
7. 2 x system fan headers
8. 1 x power fan header
9. 1 x front panel header
10. 1 x front panel audio header
11. 1 x CD In connector
12. 1 x S/PDIF In header
13. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
14. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
15. 3 x IEEE 1394a headers
16. 1 x serial port header
17. 1 x chassis intrusion header
18. 1 x power LED header
19. 1 x power switch
20. 1 x reset switch

Back Panel Connectors

1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
2. 1 x PS/2 mouse port
3. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
4. 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
5. 1 x clearing CMOS switch
6. 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
7. 2 x RJ-45 ports
8. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

I/O Controller

1. iTE IT8720 chip

H/W Monitoring

1. System voltage detection
2. CPU/System temperature detection
3. CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
4. CPU overheating warning
5. CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
6. CPU/System fan speed control

BIOS

1. 2 x 8 Mbit flash
2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
3. Support for DualBIOS™
4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b

Unique Features

1. Support for @BIOS
2. Support for Q-Flash
3. Support for Virtual Dual BIOS
4. Support for Download Center
5. Support for Xpress Install
6. Support for Xpress Recovery2
7. Support for EasyTune
8. Support for Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced
9. Support for Time Repair
10. Support for Q-Share

Bundle Software

1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version)

Operating System

1. Support for Microsoft/ Windows/ Vista/XP

Form Factor

1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

Remark

1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors' website or 3rd party website.
2. Due to most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME. If some vendors still has Win9X/ME drivers available, we will publish on website.



* The specification and pictures are subject to change without notice.
* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.

* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.

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I'll be testing in 2 phaases:-
1) Barebones on Air.
and
2) Water
Common Components :-
*CPU: E8200 & E8500
*Ram: Crucial Ballistix 8500Mhz DDR2

1) Air
*Coolers XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 plus Thermalright Inferno FX-10 Heatsink
*Graphics Card Gigabyte 8500 GT

2) Water
*CPU Block D-tek Fuzion
*Chipset Hope to add the provided block to my loop.
*Graphics Water cooled BFG GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb

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PCI/PCI-E Slots


PWM


CPU


Memory


Southbridge

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New Features
Gained onboard Power and Reset Switches, plus a Post Code LED Display


Small but nice touch Header sockets now have an internal label.


The Rear panel now sports a Clesr Cmos Button


Rear Panel


Cmos Jumper (left) & Case Power Led Connector

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Think the Northbridge heatsink looks the business
It's solid & well finished., including the option to add water cooling.





Hybrid Silentpipe mounts to right hand side. The heatpipes from it are recessed into the grooves.
A sachet of thermal paste is included.

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Hybrid SilentPipe
And now for something completely different
Unique tio the Extreme models is this Hybrid Cooler, which supplements the heatpipes and water cooling block (if used).

Pack


Front CPU Side


Baclside


Hybrid Block


Mounted to Northbridge


Mounted PCI-E Side

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Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME Bios
The most significant change in the Bios is the overclocking section - Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) this is radically changed with many more options than than X38 and X48 boards.

Full Screen Logo

Main Menu



As in previous versions there are keyboard short cuts from the main menu to useful options :-

[F8] - Q-Flash Just stick the new bios file on a usb drive or a fat HD Partition and use this painless option to safely update bios.


Bios Profiles [F11] - Save Settings [F12] - Load Settings


cmos-profiles.jpg