Gigabyte EP45-Extreme Motherboard Review

[RobRich]

The Gigabyte EP-45 Extreme motherboard uses the new Intel P45 chipset, which is considered a “mainstream” chipset by Intel. How will this chipset compare to the wildly popular X48 chipset? Will the overclocking be better on the P45 chipset? Paired up with the Northbridge heatsink, will there be anything that can stop the Gigabyte EP-45 Extreme motherboard?

Source: Overclockers Club

[Wasted]

It's making me want to get a loan

Shame about the SATA ports location. Really would think if you buy that board your going to have a card that covers those slots. No point in them being there..

[nemowolf]

Making the same point as I did in the previous thread. The SATA ports are in the same spot and appear as unlikely to cause problems as the other P45 mobo. They even had the forsight to put the SATA on a stack to make sure that the cabling go out from the mobo instead of up into a potential long board GPU.

[Wasted]

Well in the reviwers summation he said they where an issue, got to admit i didn't look that closely at the pictures, i was too busy being in awe of the north bridge heatsink

[Wasted]

Had a closer look, assuming the GPU slot is the blue one the length wouldn't effect the first 2 SATA as they've been angled to point away from the slot, very cool idea. I can see if you where using a card that effectivley takes up two slots in width it would obscure the next pair of SATA ports down.. ..or that's what it looks like to me.

It's clearer in this photo http://pics.computerbase.de/2/1/4/6/6/2.jpg

[nemowolf]

Originally Posted by Wasted

Had a closer look, assuming the GPU slot is the blue one the length wouldn't effect the first 2 SATA as they've been angled to point away from the slot, very cool idea. I can see if you where using a card that effectivley takes up two slots in width it would obscure the next pair of SATA ports down.. ..or that's what it looks like to me.

It's clearer in this photo http://pics.computerbase.de/2/1/4/6/6/2.jpg

That I will totally agree with. Double depth cards are a pain in general, since mobo manufacturers can't count on everyone having one for their design its not bad. I can't think of too many people who run six HD's though, so losing two and only having access to four wouldnt be bad. This does make me wonder if changing the design to have all six ports be stacked like the first two would be more expensive or not. They potentially should have thought of that. Could be revolutionary!!!

[Wasted]

Originally Posted by nemowolf

That I will totally agree with. Double depth cards are a pain in general, since mobo manufacturers can't count on everyone having one for their design its not bad. I can't think of too many people who run six HD's though, so losing two and only having access to four wouldnt be bad. This does make me wonder if changing the design to have all six ports be stacked like the first two would be more expensive or not. They potentially should have thought of that. Could be revolutionary!!!

In general or for most of us 6 HD's is total overkill but if your spending uber top of the line Mainboards like this you're probably saving a bit for 4 raptors for RAID 1 on your system and games drive and 2 more for your backup and storage not to mention £400 on your GPU with aftermarket cooler that will take up 2 slots

It is a top place to put your SATA and pointing them all the way, probably straight at 2 of your HD's and cable tucked away between then run up the back at the side to pick up the rest.

Can't see the component being much more expensive all your doing is turning the pins that link to the board 90 degrees and a bit of sxtra plastic to cover them. Still if their only 1 pence more expensive, i doubt they'll be on many bottom of the line boards

It such an obvious oversight it makes me wonder if they missed anything else more important..