Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme Motherboard Review

Test Setup & Software

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45T-Extreme (obviously)
• Processor: Intel C2D E8400
• Processor Cooling: Thermalright Ultra-120
• Memory: Corsair Dominator 2x1GB PC3-14400 // Mushkin Ascent 2x2GB PC3-12800
• Power Supply: Ultra XPro 750W
• Video Card: HIS HD3870X2 1GB
• Additional Fans: 120mm AD1212MS-A73GL 2050RPM/80.5CFM
• Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache
• OS: Windows Vista SP1 (with all updates)

You will notice a pair of kits of memory listed above. Basically we will be doing testing of memory XMP profiles on both a 2x1GB kit and 2x2GB kit in our library. This has been a hot topic as of late in the forums so XMP profile testing will become a standard for motherboards that support XMP profiles. However, for all the benchmarks, the same kit will be used which will depend on the overall overclock of the system.

The other item that obviously has to be discussed is the fact that we are doing the testing with the stock cooling and the additional Hybrid Silent-Pipe Module. We decided there was no real point to even going with water cooling on the chipset apparatus because of the in-efficient design of the heat sink. The additional attachment likely won't be helping much either because of the same heat sink design flaws, but we figured since it was included, we should at least put it to use. Let's now get started on the excellent software package that Gigabyte includes with the GA-EP45T-Extreme.

EasyTune6

The software section will have two parts, EasyTune6 & DES Advanced. First up is EasyTune6 and quite simply put, this is one of the better manufacturer supplied motherboard tuning software’s we have come across. From the images above and below, we can see it is very simple and easy to understand. There are tabs along the top for the various functions the software performs. There is no elaborate graphic interface that does nothing but confuse us, and the software actually works. Not once during the entire time of testing did the software cause a blue screen or system freeze when adjusting settings...and that is rare for manufacturer supplied software in our experience. The first tab simply provides us with the information about our system, in the image above we are running the XMP profile of our testing Dominator memory. The Memory tab is just like the CPU except it provides SPD information about the memory installed in the system, very much like CPU-Z does. The Tuner tab is where all the adjustments occur. In Easy mode, we can simply adjust FSB, but in Advanced mode we have a few more options available, some of which require a reboot like CPU multiplier. We also get the voltage adjustments to open up when in Advanced mode.

The on the fly voltage adjustment is a nice feature and Gigabyte has given us access to all of the voltages that are available in the BIOS. Again, usually software that provides us with this much control is so buggy that it is un-usable, but the EasyTune6 software is rock solid and we found ourselves using it quite a bit for quick adjustments while already in Windows. We also used EasyTune6 exclusively for adjusting FSB while in Windows because it worked so well.

The one major disappointment is the HW Monitor tab. We are only provided with voltage readings for the CPU, vDIMM, and for whatever reason, the +5v line. In addition to this, we also only get CPU and System temperature readings. In the BIOS we did have NB and MB temp readings and don't understand why they weren't available to us in Windows. We ran into this with the ASUS P5E3-Premium, a lack of voltage and temperature readings on a premium motherboard. If Gigabyte wants this board to be considered top of the line for enthusiasts, you have to provide us with more system feedback than this.

The last of the tabs is labeled SMART and we have to argue with the name. We don't fully understand what C.I.A.2 really is because anytime we tried to use it, the system became unusable, usually locking up or failing any stability testing. Even when selecting the various "levels" from the BIOS after loading the system defaults, none of the options would do anything but prevent Windows from loading and if Windows did load, any kind of system stress would freeze the system. We assume this is some sort of automatic overclocking software but we couldn't really get any use out of it.

We will now take a look at the second portion of the software section and focus on the DES Advanced software...if it ever finishes downloading.

DES Advanced

As hinted to just a second ago, downloading software from the Gigabyte web site was immediately reminiscent of trying the same from ASUS...horrible. Companies that provide hardware to so many people like ASUS and Gigabyte have absolutely no excuse for such terrible bandwidth. We have to admit, the Gigabyte site is more than quick when browsing un-like ASUS, but when we tried to download the software from the American server, the 10KB/s we were receiving at is unacceptable. Cycling through the servers, we found the Europe (Russia) server to be acceptable increasing the download speed to 130KB/s, but that is still pretty sad when compared to ATI, NVIDIA, or others. Now, let's have a look and see what this DES Advanced is all about.

After first installing the Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) software, we are greeted with a powered down control panel. This means all DES functions are turned off and disabled. Only when we click on the large DES logo to the right does the panel come to life and power saving begin.

The software is pretty straight forward; we have our power savings meter in the top portion providing us with information about how much power we have saved. We can see the meter total that we can easily reset and the total amount based on the first installation of DES. Just below is the graphic that tells us how many phases of the PWM are actually running. In the image above, all 12 phases are running strong. Below that are the Dynamic Voltage and Dynamic Frequency gauges. With CE1 and the other power saving features of today’s Intel processors, these features aren't really needed as the board already drops CPU frequency and vCORE at idle states.

In this last photo, we can see the CPU throttling and the power phases drop down to only 4 in use. We also have the LEDs on the board that show us how many phases are in use. These LEDs can be turned on and off through the control panel with the little green light to the right under the main DES on/off switch.

Being a bit skeptical about how this whole DES worked, we figured an little test was in order. We reset the BIOS defaults, loaded the Dominator XMP profile, and went into Windows. This means all of the Intel energy saving features were already enabled which any and all motherboards should be able to offer. We then let the system idle for 1 hour and measured the KW/h of energy used through our UPM EM100 power meter. We repeated the same procedure for 1 hour of Prime 95 Blend load. We then installed the DES software and set it for maximum CPU voltage saving and turned the Dynamic Frequency on and repeated the tests, here are the results:

As skeptical as we were, the DES software had a marked improvement in power consumption versus no DES software running. Keep in mind, this is only over a 1 hour period of time so multiplied over a longer period, the power savings would start to add up. Obviously the power savings at idle are extremely small and after a half hour wasn't even noticeable, but under load, the power consumption of the system was quite obvious with the DES enabled system using between 150w~160w. Before DES was installed, the system never used less than 166W under load climbing to 173w at a maximum. This power savings is all in the CPU power consumption which would utilize the multi-phase technology Gigabyte has implemented in this motherboard. Sure it isn't going to save you a thousand dollars a year off your power bill, but for an invisible software that runs at a hardware level once being set up...it sure doesn't hurt.