Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] When a new high-end chipset launches, it usually results in much fanfare around the enthusiast communities. The last big chipset launch for Intel has been P35 and G33, which happened back in May. Although it brought a fair amount to the table over P965, there was one common thing that I kept overhearing, "Wait for X38." or, "P35 is nice, but X38 is what I really want to see." Personally, I've been quite pleased with all of the P35 motherboards we've taken a look at, so what makes X38 so desirable? It could be a few things, primarily the fact that X38 is designed with Intel's upcoming 45nm processors in mind. P35 launched in a similar manner. It had support for 1333FSB out of the box, but we didn't actually see a 1333FSB processor launch until July. Although X38 boards have already been available in some e-tailers, especially overseas, today marks the official launch, so boards should begin popping up on your favorite e-tailer soon. Though the new chipset is built with 45nm in mind, all current processors will work as well. You can upgrade your board now, then pick up a 45nm CPU when they are released next month. That said, X38 brings a lot more to the table than P35 did. First and foremost, these boards make the introduction of PCI Express 2.0. Though not ground-breaking, PCI-E 2.0 offers twice the bandwidth capabilities over PCI-E 1.0, which might prove of benefit to graphic card manufacturers later on, but not right now. To make it clear, current-gen products will not operate faster just because they are used in a PCI-E 2.0 slot. The next big PCI-E move will be with 3.0, as we found out a few weeks ago. We can't forget the fact that if you are using dual graphic cards, both PCI-E 16x slots operate at full speeds. Not 8x 8x, not 8x 4x, but 16x 16x. Dual GPU with the purpose of better gaming is still only possible with AMD's ATI cards. Fans of nVIDIA will have to wait until Skulltrail before having the ability to pair the two together. Other notable X38 features include Turbo Memory and Extreme Memory Profiles, although the latter will be seen only on DDR3 motherboards, so we will not be experimenting with that here today. Plans are already in the works to have "potential solutions" that officially support DDR3-2133 speeds, so if there were doubts that this was an enthusiast chipset, are they gone now? That's all we need to touch on X38 in this article, as most everything else relevant to the new chipset is not relevant with this motherboard, eg: DDR3. If you are interested in learning more about the memory and specifically the Extreme Memory Profiles, you should read our interview with Intel's Chris Cox, which we posted on Monday. When it comes to X38, there's only one thing you should know. It was developed with enthusiasts in mind, so it should be the killer chipset on the market. Closer Look Gigabyte prides themselves on quality, and with all of their products we've taken a look at so far, we have no reason to believe that their R&D department doesn't kick ass. Well, except those who decide that the motherboards should use 90% of the entire spectrum of colors. But that gripe aside, their products have proven to be well-built, feature-packed and most importantly, stable. If there is one area you can always count on Gigabyte for, it's creative packaging. I've yet to take a look at a Gigabyte product and not just stare at the colorful and clean designs. Of course, you should never judge a book by its cover, but if that were the case here, then this motherboard should blow our socks off. Besides the motherboard, included is a manual, driver CD, installation guide, I/O panel, S-ATA cables, IDE/Floppy cables and two sets of eSATA cables. These can be installed in a free slot and enable you to hook up to four different eSATA devices. Being a high-end enthusiast board, the bundle seems to be lacking. Everything that should be included is, but throwing in a free game or something would be nice. It could be that Gigabyte simply finds their feature-set so incredible, that bundling extra items might take away from the boards greatness. We'll see shortly if that's a valid argument. A look at the board itself, and it's features, is up next. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look] As mentioned on the last page, Gigabyte takes pride in their products and it shows. Their motherboards are usually well designed, feature-packed and stable. The X38-DQ6 has no reason to be different, so we hope that's reflected in our testing. Before we jump into a look at the board itself, we'll quickly cover a few of the features that makes the board unique. You might have noticed that the term "Ultra Durable 2" has been thrown around a lot on the packaging, and no this does not mean the board will bounce or work under water. Instead, it refers to the fact that the boards equipped with high-quality components that will work well under pressure. First up are Ferrite Core Chokes, which are comprised of iron oxide and various other materials that Gigabyte claims holds energy longer than common chokes at higher frequencies and in effect, produces a reduced energy loss and lower EMI interference. Though this might not be a problem for most, the new chokes are also designed to resist rust better than conventional chokes. Ultra Durable 2 continues with lower RDS(on) MOSFETs, which are designed specifically to produce lower switching resistance which will allow faster current charging and discharging. Again, this design change helps overall temperature of the MOSFETs and potentially other nearby components. Lastly, the Japanese-made All Lower ESR solid capacitors contain a solid organic polymer, which adds enough "durability" to last up to 18x longer than electrolytic capacitors. Though many people might not particularly care about what MOSFET designs are used or which compounds are used for the chokes, it's good to know that the board is developed with high-quality in mind, along with longer life. These should all add up to provide a better overclocking experience as well. The "Q6" in the products title refers to 6 Quad, which in turn refers to Quad BIOS, Quad Cooling, Quad eSATA 2, Quad Triple Phase, Quad-Core Optimized and Quad DDR2 slots. In general, all of the features included are designed to increase the functionality of the board. The Quad-BIOS is an extra safeguard for you, in case your BIOS goes the way of the dodo during overclocking. The board itself includes two identical copies of the BIOS, while the hard-drive and CD-Rom will also contain a copy, in case you need to reflash it to get back up and running. I've never had to use this feature, so I can't comment on it's ease of use, but it's a nice piece of protection to have. If you are interested in all of the other features that I didn't touch on, you can head over to Gigabyte's product page, though we covered all of the important ones here. With that said, let's move right into a look at the board itself. Closer Look at the X38-DQ6 As expected, the X38-DQ6 is a colorful affair, but there are no immediate complaints with regards to the layout or other design decisions. There are a total of five fan connectors, including the one for the CPU. All were conveniently located during installation, a huge plus since I required all of them except one. As is quickly becoming the theme of other motherboards, the X38-DQ6 is completely silent, with use of one large connected heatsink that covers the Southbridge, Northbridge and also the PWM. They look sharp, and get the job done. There are a total of eight S-ATA ports on-board. The two purple ones are used for RAID 0 or RAID 1, or a single device if that's what you prefer. Included are three PCI-E 1x slots, dual PCI-E 16x slots and also two old-school PCI slots. In this picture, you can also see the modest southbridge heatsink. Red and yellow DIMM slots adorn the top right-hand corner of the board. There's a 4-Pin connector on-board which is used to supply extra power to your graphics cards. If you are using two high-end cards, it would be wise to make use of this. Around the CPU socket are all of the high-quality components that make this an Ultra Durable 2 board, as well as the northbridge and PWM heatsink. The 8-Pin motherboard connector, I found, was in an inconvenient location, so it might be a good idea to plug that cable in before mounting the board into the case, since you will have more room to move. Lastly, the back panel connectors are as follows: PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse, Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF connectors, Firewire 1394a, 8x USB 2.0, dual LAN, 7.1 audio ports. With our look at the board out of the way, we can check out the in-depth BIOS that's been equipped for your overclocking pleasure. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=The BIOS] As you would expect from a high-end motherboard, the BIOS that Gigabyte ships with this board caters to enthusiasts, with numerous overclocking-related options available. As with all Gigabyte boards, you need to hit CTRL + F1 in order to access some of the more hardcore options, none of which I personally understand or felt the need to touch. Instead of describing the entire BIOS, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. If you are curious about voltage and overclocking options, I'll explain those better below. If you are an enthusiast overclocker, you should be in heaven when you enter the BIOS on this board. There are far more options available here than I would personally touch, and options you will likely never touch. I don't see a need to fine-tune that much, but you might disagree. Here are the complete voltage options for the major components: CPU Voltage: 0.50000V - 1.59375V (Increments of 0.00625V), 1.60000V - 2.35000V (Increments of 0.05V) DDR2 Voltage: 1.80V - 3.35V. FSB Voltage: +0.05V - +0.35V. GMCH Voltage: +0.025V - +0.375V. It goes without saying, Gigabyte gives far more voltage control than is necessary...

Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6

Page 592 –

Rob Williams