Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 Motherboard Review

Package & Accessories

Now that we have examined some of this motherboard’s abundant features, let’s take a quick peek at the package and accessories.


Here we have the very shiny and very appealing Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 box. The box is not only shiny, but it has some crazy rainbow translucent effect to it, very cool. It will definitely be the standout product no matter what shelf it lies on. By the way, although you can tell by the photos, this is no ordinary sized motherboard box. It measures 13.5 inches tall, 11 inches wide, and a full 5 inches deep, which is nearly twice as thick as most other motherboard boxes. Does this mean it's filled with goodies? Let's keep looking…


The back of the box has an insane quantity of information, in fact the whole packaging has been utilized as an in-depth billboard for listing and describing this motherboard's impressive list of features. In particular, Dynamic Energy Saver gets a very large chunk of box real-estate, which is not surprising since it is Gigabyte's most highly-touted new feature.


Here is the plain windowed box that is revealed once you pull the inner packaging out of its shiny exterior covering. Foregoing the venerable anti-static bag, the EP45-DQ6 itself is battle-clad in a protective plastic enclosure, so you definitely don’t have to worry about this motherboard getting damaged while in transit.


Last, but certainly not least, is the very respectable accessories bundle. Let’s break down the list of items:

• 1 x Floppy Cable
• 1 x IDE Cable
• 4 x SATA Cables
• Dual Firewire PCI Expansion Bracket
• 2 x Dual eSATA PCI Expansion Bracket (with accompanying eSATA cables)
• Manual & Software CD + Installation Guide
• Rear I/O Panel
• Gigabyte Sticker
• Dolby Home Theatre Sticker
• Dynamic Energy Saver Sticker

All the cables that Gigabyte has bundled with the EP45-DQ6 are of great quality with really sturdy connectors. In particular, the SATA cables have a clip that ensures that they remain securely fastened to your hardware. The three additional PCI brackets are a welcome addition, and further boost this motherboard's already impressive connectivity options. The eSATA brackets come with a very handy external molex connection, which could be used to power external radiator fans for a water cooling system.