Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME Living Review

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Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME Living Review
If you rate it please :-

I was disappointed by the DFI UT X48-T3RS due to it's inability to run a FSB >500, the Gigabyte GA X48T DQ6 though having a much better performance, had relatively limited bios options, so the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME looked tempting.
Having had chance to get my hands on the DDR2 version Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME I decided to invest in this board myself. I had planned to be starting this review much earlier but my 2GB CellShock Blue DDR3 PC3-15000 1866MHz (8-8-8-16) died and a set of CSX 2GB Kit DDR3-2000 DIABLO which looked a decent £ were either dead, or according to the supplier, incompatible on arrival

Useful Links
# Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME (rev. 1.0) - Official Website
# Bios Template
# Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME Living Review - The DDR2 Version of this Board
# Post Error Codes
# EasyTune6
# Backplate Obstruction
# Gigabyte Announce Memboost
# Watch those Auto Voltages!!

Index
1) The Extreme Box
2) The Motherboard first impressions
3) The Motherboard more detail
4) Various Motherboard shots
5) Northbridge Cooler (As DDR2 Ver.)
6) Hybrid Silent Pipe (As DDR2 Ver.)
7) Accessories
Bios
8) Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 1of3 - Clock Chip Control
9) Clock Chip Control -Advanced Clock control Sub Menu
10) Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 2of3 - Dram Performance Control
11) Dram Performance Control - Advanced Timing Control Sub Menu - Additional Driving Settings
12) Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 3of3 - Mother Board Voltage Control
13) Bios - Other Settings (1of2)
14) Bios - Other Settings (2of2)
Benching
15) X48 - P45 Bench Comparison
16) Components
17) F4B - New Features CPUreference voltages (GTLref)
E8600
18) 4,250 8.5x500 @3.33D 1,667 6-6-6-12
19) 4,163 7.5x555@3.33D 1,850 7-7-7-21
20) 4,312 7.5 @3.33D 1,917 7-7-7-21
21) 4,500 9x500@3.33D 1,666 6-6-6-12
22) 4,520 8x565@3.33D 1,883 7-7-7-21
23) 4,388 7.5x585@3.33D 1,950Mhz 7-7-7-21
24) 4,440 8x555@3.33D 1,850 7-7-7-20
25) 4,600 8x575@3.33D 1,917Mhz 7-7-7-21

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This is without doubt the biggest motherboard box I've ever had. the depth seems to be about 1.5 times that of others, my supplier had to use a bigger shipping carton


Sorry not exactly double size , couldn't help a bit of showing off
As usual front flap opens to reveal more of the board and some blurb on the mobo:-

Sorry about the above shot , caught the shadow of wife's MG42 tripod , she's getting a bit fed up with people using our parking spaces


You can see why the box is so deep with the hybrid cooler packed on top of the motherboard.
The inner box is a nice shiny black box holding the mobo

The Mobo is in a plastic blisterpack tray. the hybrid cooler is in it's own blister pack Here's the mobo. :-

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I must admit I was originally inclined to only doing a limited series of pics on the DDR3 version of this board but there are a surprising number of differences between this and the DDR2 board in circuitry and capacitor layout etc., to warrant separate picture sets.

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More Motherboard Shots
PCI-E Slots

CPU Socket

Memory Slots

Southbridge & Sata ports

Rear Panel

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Northbridge

More North Bridge Shots
CPU Area - Clean & roomy, continuing tradition from X38 & X48 DQ6's


VTT & CPU Voltage area


Sata ports with dual bios chips above.

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Accessories
Same as the DDR2 variant and very similar to the X48 & X38 DQ6 boards.

• 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

E-Sata brackets

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reserved

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reserved

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Official Bios F3 adds DDR3 Driving settings, bringing the Bios in line with the DDR2 EP45-Extreme.
This is part of the Memboost Programme
The Advanced Timing Control Section is enhanced :-
Additional Sub Menus

Timing Settings are as before but get their own section

The new Drivings Section :-

Now the bad news, for F3 Bios at least, unlike the DDR2 Extreme which has these profiles

F3 profiles are bare

Pull Down Levels [Auto] & +8~-7


Pull Up Levels [Auto] & +8~-7

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Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME
Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker(MIT) 1of3

Clock Chip Control


Robust Graphics Booster
Optimises performance of the graphics chip and memory.
Options are: Auto (default), Fast, Turbo.
Recommended: Turbo worked fine on X38 & X48 as well.
CPU Clock Ratio - Select CPU Multiplier
Fine CPU Clock Ratio - Select CPU 0.5 Multiplier if 45nm CPU (Wolfdale or Yorkfield)
CPU Frequency - Information display CPU Speed (CPU Clock Ratio + Fine CPU Clock Ratio) x CPU Host Frequency(FSB)
Clock Chip Control
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control
Default = DIsabled Enable to manually adjust CPU Host Frequency(FSB) below.
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) - Set FSB

PCI Express Frequency (Mhz)
Set the PCIe clock frequency. Range is from 90 MHz to150 MHz. Default = Auto =100 MHz.
C.I.A.2
Nowt to do with Central Intelligence Agency
CPU Intelligent Accelerator 2 (C.I.A.2) is designed to automatically adjust CPU computing power
to maximize system performance. C.I.A.2 allows your system bus to be changed dynamically
based on CPU loading through the use of 5 preset states.
Note: System stability varies, depending on your system hardware components.
Disabled Disables the use of C.I.A.2. (Default)
Cruise Increases CPU frequency by 5% or 7% depending on CPU loading.
Sports Increases CPU frequency by 7% or 9% depending on CPU loading.
Racing Increases CPU frequency by 9% or 11% depending on CPU loading.
Turbo Increases CPU frequency by 15% or 17% depending on CPU loading.
Full Thrust Increases CPU frequency by 17% or 19% depending on CPU loading
Default = Disabled

Advanced Clock control Sub Menu