Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme Motherboard Review

Package & Accessories

Being a premium motherboard, Gigabyte has pulled out all the stops and made sure they offered a premium package...right down to the premium size of the package.

Front to back, Gigabyte has gone with a camouflage theme with this board and followed it up with bullets and bullet holes. This theme is obviously targeted toward the first person shooter crowd and these days, that seems to be everyone buying or building a computer. Aside from the fancy 'paint job', Gigabyte has gone over the top in presenting the features and specifications of this board. We've said it before and will say it again, despite the amount of internet sales, there are still a lot of people that simply go to their local shop and buy a motherboard based on the box...or at the very least, use the information on the box to help make their decision.

For these customers, Gigabyte has done a great job ensuring they know exactly what the GA-EP45T-Extreme has to offer. They have even included a handle on top to help you carry it home, and with a box this big and heavy loaded with goodies; it is actually helpful. Opening the front flap we are greeted with yet more information about the motherboard and we also get a pretty good look at the hardware inside.

We just had to give you a close up of the rear panel of this package, I mean, how Gigabyte was able to jam this much information on the package is beyond me. That poor design intern that got the archive file of logos, and images and was told to make it all fit, we feel for you here at HWC...we really do. The other thing this large package offers is protection. There is the outer sleeve, or box that contains all the graphics, and then there is the actual box that we see in the second photo above. The black cardboard box is quite sturdy and provides a very secure environment for the motherboard inside, which is then encased in a plastic shell.

As we just mentioned, the motherboard comes not in an ESD safe bag, but in a plastic clam-shell like package. In the second photo, we can see that this may not have been a bad decision. The one edge of the plastic shell has been all but destroyed and ripped right off. With no signs of any damage to the black box in the area of the damage, we were a bit puzzled as to how this happened. The plastic shell doesn't really have room to move but at some point the package must have taken a pretty good drop that forced the plastic shell to flex and break. Either way, the board is in perfect shape so the package has done its job, and it appears UPS made the package really work to get the board here in one piece.

The accessories that come with the GA-EP45T-Extreme is a pretty standard package but there are a couple things worth pointing out. The SATA cables Gigabyte uses are the best you will find with any motherboard. They actually clip in place and are very securely attached to the hardware. The other thing worth mentioning is the PCI expansion bracket in the top right hand corner. This actually provides not only eSATA ports at the rear of the machine, but also a 4-pin molex power connection. Included are a 4-pin molex to 5-pin SATA power cable and an eSATA to SATA cable allowing us to connect a hard drive externally without the use of additional hardware. It may not be useful to some but for those that image drives for other systems, it is a nice addition. Here is a complete list of the accessory package:

• 1 x Floppy Cable
• 1 x IDE Cable
• 4 x SATA Cables
• Dual Firewire PCI Expansion Bracket
• Dual eSATA PCI Expansion Bracket
• Manual & Software CD + Installation Guide
• 1 x Hybrid Silent-Pipe Module Kit
• Rear I/O Panel

Near the bottom of the list we saw the Hybrid Silent-Pipe Module listed. The above two images show exactly what that is from a couple of angles. Essentially it is yet more heat pipes that we can attach to the existing heat pipe mess and it is suppose to help with chipset cooling. In theory the idea is great and if you have room in the case, then why not. But as we will see in the next section, there may not be too much benefit from adding this to the chipset heat sink. Regardless of whether it helps cool the system or not, it is definitely a well made piece of hardware and looks very nice.