Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME (Intel P45) - The Full Review

Overclocking & Test Setup

Overclocking

• FSB Settings: 100 - 1200MHz
• MCH Frequency Strap: Auto, 200/266/333/400MHz
• PCIe Settings: 90MHz to 150MHz
• CPU Voltage Settings: 0.5V to 2.3V (in variable steps of 0.00625V and 0.02)
• Memory Voltage Settings: 1.5V to 2.5V (in 0.02V steps)
• MCH Core Voltage Settings: 0.8V - 1.8V (in 0.02V steps, variable)
• ICH I/O Voltage Settings: 1.0V to 2.3V (in 0.10V steps)
• CPU Clock Drive: 700, 800, 900, 1000mV
• PCIe Clock Drive: 700, 800, 900, 1000mV
• CPU Clock Skew: 0 - 750ps (in steps of 50ps)
• MCH Clock Skew: 0 - 750ps (in steps of 50ps)
• Multiplier Selection: Yes, 6 - 16 (unlocked CPUs only)

Gigabyte has a pretty decent BIOS (F2) for this EXTREME board, though nowadays, most top tier manufacturers have very comprehensive BIOS options for their motherboards, particularly if they intend to appeal to enthusiasts like this Intel P45 board. Besides the options listed above, there are also some of Gigabyte's own BIOS tools to enable automatic overclocking for certain components like the CPU (CPU Intelligent Accelerator 2), the graphics chip (Robust Graphics Booster) and memory while it also supports XMP memory profiles. Others like its DualBIOS option ensures that a safety net for your BIOS settings while the Q-Flash utility helps enthusiasts to update their BIOS with minimal hassle at the BIOS level.

When it came to overclocking, we could easily hit 400MHz FSB with almost no tweaks, though we had to adjust the voltages for higher numbers. The overall overclocking experience was as usual a simple and smooth affair as it has been for the last few generations of Gigabyte boards. Eventually we hit a stable operating wall at 480MHz. Not the highest we've seen for this class of boards, but still pretty decent. The board was unable to load Windows XP when pushed any higher. We're sure there is greater allowance for those with the patience to tweak the many settings for voltages and timings on this board. In fact Gigabyte has a couple of beta BIOS for those who want to go further down this path.

Test Setup

Since we had previously reviewed a P45 board in the form of the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe, that was the first board we'll compare the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME directly with. We also threw in a number of different chipsets, like the P35 based MSI Diamond and the X38 based ASUS P5E3 Deluxe to gauge how it compares to these more mature chipsets. To benchmark these boards, the following hardware configuration will be used:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor (3.00GHz)
• 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 @ 7-7-20 CAS 7.0
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
• MSI GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB - with ForceWare 162.18 drivers
• Intel INF 9.0.0.1007 and AHCI 8.0.0.1039 driver set (ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe and Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME)
• Intel INF 8.3.1.1013 and AHCI 7.5.0.1017 driver set (other older boards)
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks will be used to determine the performance of the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME:-

• BAPco SYSmark 2004 (with Patch 2)
• Futuremark PCMark05 (ver 120)
• SPECviewperf 9.0
• AquaMark3