Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme Motherboard Review

BIOS Rundown

Our swim through the blue ocean is going to show us just how a BIOS should be setup. Aside from the fact that the PG Down button doesn't scroll down a page, Gigabyte has done an excellent job with this BIOS layout.

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First off, the splash screen carries over for the package with the camouflage theme, but this is the last time we saw it as that gets turned off instantly with our systems. Any real geek needs to see how POST is coming along. The main BIOS selection screen starts the party in a great direction. The M.I.T. section is the first option and default for the selection cursor. This is the home for all of the overclocking and finally someone realized it should be the default selection so there is no time wasted getting to adjusting settings. Everything else lays out nicely as well. Along the bottom, we can see that Q-Flash, and BIOS saving/loading are only a keystroke away as well.

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As Axle Rose has said many a time, "welcome to the jungle...". This is where all the action happens and man it is nice to see it all in one section and easily found. Again, with such a long list, I would kill for the Page Down key to actually page down and not just cycle through selection options. Every section is clearly labeled and we have clock control up top. The sub menu Advanced Clock Control provides us with access to CPU Clock Drive, PCI Express Clock Drive, CPU CLock Skew, and MCH Clock Skew. We left this screen shot out so that is why we have listed the options. The DRAM Performance Control section houses our strap selection as well as memory ratio options which are highlighted to the right. The way Gigabyte labels the ratios is a bit confusing, but once understood makes for easy identification of which ratios we have available to which chipset strap. The "key" is listed on the right side of the screen identifying that each ratio has a letter at the end signifying which strap it is associated with it.

The second screenshot is of the Advanced Timing Control screen for memory. The memory timing options are minimal but we have full control over the all important tRFC. Improperly low tRFC has lead to some memory compatibilities so it is important to have access to it from the BIOS. We also have full tRD control (AKA Performance Level) which is a nice touch. The screenshot shown is of the F3C BIOS that isn't available on the Gigabyte web site yet and the DIMM Clock Skew Control isn't in previous versions.

Going back to the first screenshot, we find ourselves looking at all of the voltage options in a nice neat little section at the bottom. The most important feature is the ability to key directly in what voltage you want, no need to cycle through the entire list. We have access to all the important voltages and as the chart below outlines, plenty of voltage at our finger tips.

Like we said, there is definitely enough voltage available for most anyone's needs. Of course, being available for selection and actually providing it are two different things. That will be investigated in the Voltage Regulation section a little later on. Let's move on with a quick look at the rest of this excellently planned out BIOS.

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The Standard CMOS and Advanced BIOS Features are pretty straight forward and cover all the basics that one would expect from these sections. We like how Gigabyte has managed to keep the BIOS selections clean looking yet fully featured. There aren't a bunch of sub-menus which is the main reason for the clean looking sections and a big plus in our opinion.

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These next two sections, again, are very straight forward in their layout and well labeled for ease of configuration. As one would expect, all integrated hardware can be turned off from the BIOS and there is even a unique feature we have yet to see anywhere else. The SMART LAN options near the bottom of the first screenshot above is a unique feature that, when enabled, gives the motherboard the ability to decide on whether or not to shut down the port for power savings if it detects no cable attached. Of course, we could just manually turn off the port but for those that are setting up a system for someone else or constantly changing network ports, this is a nice touch. Anything these days to save a watt here or there seems to be all the rage.

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The first real disappointment of the BIOS is found here in the PC Health Status section where there is a distinct lack of voltage and temperatures being reported. This means that we also won't have voltage or temperatures to poll when in Windows, except for the very slim few shown here. For a premium board, we want to see vDIMM, vMCH, and vSB at the very least being reported in the BIOS. As for temperatures, it is nice to see the MCH temperature being listed but we are unsure whether this is an on-die temperature sensor or simply a surface mounted one near the MCH. Based on the temperature at stock, we will guess surface mount but without being able to supply an MCH load, we can't be sure. The second screenshot above is of the Load/Save CMOS Setting feature that is accessible via the F11 and F12 keys. We have the ability to save BIOS settings and label them which is a very nice feature. We quickly tested the feature and it saves every setting, much like the DFI BIOS saving feature that overclockers have come to love. Good job on implementing this Gigabyte, it can save a good bit of time when dancing back and forth through settings.

This last screenshot is of the Q-Flash utility that is accessed via the F8 key. It is very straight forward and quite simple to get a BIOS quickly flashed. We did some flashing to and from BIOS files through Q-Flash using a USB thumb drive and not once had a problem. Being built right into the BIOS eliminates the step of creating a boot disk and makes it as simple as dropping the BIOS file on a thumb drive and rebooting to the BIOS. Yet another very nice feature well implemented into the GA-EP45T-Extreme BIOS.

Overall we are very pleased with what Gigabyte has done here on the GA-EP45T-Extreme and aside from the lack of a Page Down key or an abundance of temperatures and voltage readings, this is a very nice BIOS. Even with this being the first Gigabyte board I have personally dealt with, becoming familiar and comfortable with the BIOS took no more than a couple minutes. Great job Gigabyte.