Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme Motherboard Review

Installation

As odd as it may seem, we will be wrapping up this review with a quick look at how some components fit into or onto this GA-EP45T-Extreme motherboard. We have received a couple of emails as of late asking if we could add this to the motherboard reviews since it was lacking in the past. Apparently our readers want to know if they are going to be fighting to get video cards and CPU coolers mounted, so we couldn't be happier to accommodate. You will just have to mind the dust covering pretty much all of the components in use in the photos below. What can I say, my office is dusty.

The first order of business is going to be those two prongs sticking up in the first photo. They are close to the CPU socket and we have our beliefs that some CPU heat sinks will come into contact with them whether you have water tubing connected or not. Clearly the Thermalright Ultra-120 fits without a problem in the front to back orientation, but it might be a tight fit to try and connect tubing to those barbs.

Swinging around to the other side we can see that the heat sink with a fan mounted has no problem clearing the rest of the heat pipe maze up here. Twisting the heat sink 45 degrees to an up and down configuration shows that while you can have memory in the front slots with this large heatsink, it is a tight fit. Anything fatter either from the modules or the heat sink would eliminate DIMM slot A1 from being useable in this orientation.

Speaking of DIMM slots, we noticed that the lower DIMM tabs that secure the memory in place was a bit of a tight fit up against the back of the long HD3870X2 video card. There is, however, just enough room to open the tabs and remove or install the memory without the card getting in the way. The length of the HD3870X2 again comes into play near the SATA connectors but as we can see, clears the 90 degree connectors with enough room for a piece of paper to slide in-between. Unfortunately two of the vertical SATA connectors are all but useless with a dual slot card like this in place. I am sure Gigabyte has a reason for only going with two 90 degree connectors, we just aren't sure what it could be.

The last of the installation photos involves the Hybrid-Silent Pipe attachment. With it installed, the top PCI-E 1X slot is gone and the top PCI slot becomes a whole lot cozier. In fact, with the Swiftech MC14 heat sinks placed on the backside memory of the video card, that slot is all but useless anyway. With the stock back plate of the HD3870X2 in place that slot would be ready for action, hotter than a garbage bag suit in the desert, but ready to work none the less.