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

By Vincent Chang - 15 Jul 2008

Conclusion

Conclusion

When Gigabyte launched its full range of Intel P45 motherboards at Computex 2008, we were dazzled by the number of models available. Obviously, within that comprehensive list, the company has a high-end version targeted at the 'extreme' overclocking enthusiasts. While the P45 chipset itself is one of the cooler chipsets from Intel thanks to its 65nm manufacturing origins, motherboard vendors have gone all out to produce elaborate cooling systems that appeal to a small niche of users. Hence, there are boards from DFI and Foxconn, which either have giant heatsink towers or liquid cooling copper blocks.

It's pricey but considering the amount of copper, it may justify the cost. However, one must ask if you really require the extra cooling on a P45 board. Strictly for overclocking and liquid cooling enthusiasts.

With the Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME, the manufacturer has the best of both worlds, with a full copper block for liquid cooling together with an additional wall of radiating fins that takes up an expansion slot. Additionally, overclocking enthusiasts should be delighted with the extensive BIOS options on the EXTREME, along with the various LED indicators that have been added. Existing features like DualBIOS, XpressRecovery 2 and Q-Flash are all useful for enthusiasts.

Since our overclocking ventures turned out tame by comparison what the board was actually catered for, we can't say firsthand about the thorough effectiveness of this cooling system but just going by the weight and the design principles, it is a considerable addition. As it is now, at default clocks, the temperatures of the heatsinks on this board were in the 30 - 35 degrees Celsius range, with the higher temperatures recorded on the heat pipes. It compares favorably against ASUS' P5Q3 Deluxe, which uses a relatively simple heatsink for the North and Southbridge chips.

In fact, we were more interested in the performance of Gigabyte's new Dynamic Energy Saver technology, which is now an 'Advanced' version, along with its much touted dynamic multi-gear phase switching technology. While we had no way to accurately test if the gear switch is as smooth and energy efficient as Gigabyte claims, we did try to replicate a real-world situation using SYSmark 2004 and found out the average power consumption of the Gigabyte board. The end result showed that even without DES Advanced, the Gigabyte board was already doing quite well compared to the ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe, though they were more or less tied once the respective energy saving technologies from both sides were implemented.

In terms of overall performance however, this Gigabyte did not stand out from the other boards compared and was actually one of the slower ones. However, this being an early sample running on the first retail BIOS revision, we think there's probably room for further improvement and the differences were not sufficient to raise any alarms (yet).

For all the bells and whistle, you can expect this Gigabyte board to be one of the more expensive components you can get for a system. Presently, online retailers have it at around US$250, which is a good 30 to 40 dollars more than ASUS' P5Q3 Deluxe, which is not exactly a slouch feature-wise. By contrast, Gigabyte's own mainstream P45 boards like its DS3 series are around US$110 - 119. However, other recent enthusiast boards like Foxconn's X48 based Blackops will set you back by US$349 at least so that should put this pricey Gigabyte board into perspective. We certainly won't recommend it to the casual user or even the typical enthusiast. As for those who can fulfill the overclocking potential of this board, we're sure you have been eying the GA-EP45T-EXTREME for a while now and nothing we say about its value and price will stop you from trying it out.

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