Gigabyte EP45-DS3R P45 Motherboard Review

BIOS Rundown

The BIOS section is one of the areas in a motherboard review that many enthusiasts skip forward to. As we all know, a motherboard BIOS is what can make or break a board’s performance for overclocking and stability in general. Users look for available BIOS options, maximum settings available, and ease of use - that is what do auto settings get you. First we will take a run through Gigabyte’s BIOS and briefly explain some settings, and then take a closer look at the overclockability of the board in the overclocking section.

The EP45-DS3R features a DualBIOS solution, giving multiple security layers to the system. DualBIOS is a Gigabyte specific technology that automatically recovers BIOS data when the main BIOS has crashed or fails. This is done through 2 physical BIOS ROMs integrated onboard which provides quick recovery from BIOS damage or failure due to viruses, unstable overclock settings, or improper BIOS updating. To enter the BIOS initially, the delete key is used when the POST screen comes up.


We will start in the BIOS section where overclockers will spend 99% of their time: the MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) screen. This is where you will find all of the settings needed to overclock your EP45-DS3R. There are three sections and some more sub sections in the M.I.T. screen so let’s start at the top of the screen with the Clock Chip Control section and CPU Clock Ratio. Directly at the top of the M.I.T screen you find the CPU Clock Ratio setting. This is essentially the multiplier for the system and below this the board shows the speed the CPU will be running at as you change FSB and/or multi. Moving into Clock Chip Control, is the CPU Host Frequency, or FSB. This is what users will adjust to overclock the CPU and memory. Going into the Advanced Clock Control screen, CPU and PCI-E Clock Drive settings are found as well as CPU and MCH Skew settings. These are useful for achieving that extra bit of FSB for extreme overclockers - novice users can leave these at the default settings.


Moving to the DRAM Performance Control Section, we find FSB straps, XMP settings, memory dividers, and memory timings. The MCH Frequency Latch is basically the chipset strap setting which allows you to choose from four straps ranging from 200Mhz to 400Mhz. These settings in turn change the dividers available under DRAM Timing Selectable according to which strap is used.


The System Memory Multiplier screen is shown above. These are the dividers for the memory and after you select one it is shown in lighter text what the memory speed will be. This is quite useful if a user is not sure of the mechanics of the setting since it shows which speed the divider corresponds to. Next up we have the Advanced Timing Control subscreen. Subtimings available include tRRD, tWTR, tWR, tRFC, tRTP, and CMD rate.


At the bottom of the Advanced Timing Control screen are additional subtimings and drive strength settings. Under Channel A (and B) Timing Settings the infamous tRD setting is found. This is also known as Performance Level on some boards and is one of the most important memory subtimings. DIMM clock Skews will also be useful to the advanced memory tweaker. For the driving strength settings, Gigabyte provides Drive Strength Profiles ranging from 667Mhz RAM to an overclock of 1333Mhz. This really comes in handy for memory stability.


Moving down the main M.I.T. page, we come to all of the voltage settings an enthusiast would need to achieve the optimal overclock. Vcore, Northbridge, PLL, RAM, and GTL voltages are all tweakable to the degree you could kill most components in your system. As an example to this, take a look at the maximum Vcore available: 2.3v!!! Since most Intel CPUs are speced for a max of about 1.4v, Hardware Canucks insists readers do not use anywhere close to the maximum available voltages for any of these settings.


Next up we have CPU Termination and CPU PLL voltages. CPU Termination voltage is also known as VTT. It is recommended to keep this setting at about 1.35v at the most for a 45nm CPU as VTT is the setting that could kill your expensive CPU quicker than any other. Gigabyte provides a maximum of 1.6v for VTT and 2.81v for PLL.


In short, the CPU Reference Voltage configures the CPU VTT voltage using reference levels that the CPU uses when determining if a data or address signal is high or low. These voltages and are usually specified as a percentage of VTT, but in this case actual voltages are used so some calculations must be made. The main CPU Reference Voltage ratios are 0.63x, 0.61x, 0.59x, and 0.57x. Next we have MCH core, also known as Northbridge voltage. Gigabyte provides a maximum of 2.00v for Northbridge, but it is recommended to keep this at or below 1.5v to prolong the life of your components.


One more voltage to go over is DRAM voltage. Most DDR2 memory is specified (and warrantied) to run at maximum 2.1v; however over 3v is available in the BIOS. Even in extreme overclocking situations where Micron D9 high voltage RAM is used, users seldom surpass 2.5-2.6v and this is just for short benchmarking sessions.

That is all for voltages, but there is one more screen of importance in the EP45-DS3R BIOS, the PC Health Status screen. Here we have hardware monitoring for the board with Vcore, Vdimm, PSU rail voltages, CPU and system temperatures, and four fan speeds. This is also where users can set up safety measures in case of a loose heatsink or failed fan.

All in all, it seems that just about the only thing missing from the BIOS is Load Line Calibration, which is available in Gigabyte’s higher end boards. Other than that, an enthusiast or hardcore overclocker should be thrilled with the options available in the BIOS and the DualBIOS is just icing on the cake. On the same note however; a novice user could quickly kill just about any component in their system setting voltages without knowing the consequences. Hardware Canucks recommends a lot of background reading and overclocking experience in general to know what is safe before increasing voltages and trying for that extreme overclock.