14 DAY TRIAL // High-end P45 motherboard enthusiasts are now able to view the new Gigabyte Extreme releases on the producer's website. The motherboards appear in DDR3 and DDR3 models, with some new interesting chipset cooling features which allow overclocking enthusiasts enhance their experience. Both GA-EP45-EXTREME, the DDR2 model, and GA-EP45T-EXTREME, the DDR3 model, support the latest multi-core and 45nm processors up to 1600MHz front-side-bus.
Hybrid Silent-Pipe, a large vertical heatsink, is featured by both Gigabyte Extreme boards. A pair of heatpipes is connected to the Hybrid Silent-Pipe, at one end, and to the P45 chipset heatsink, at the other, and they are meant to boost the cooling performance of the chipset. The cool air is drawn from outside the case by the heatsink through the use of natural convection.
An attachement for a watercooling kit is also featured by both motherboards. The kit can be easily installed in order to provide even better cooling of the chipset. The Hybrid Silent-Pipe can be removed in this case. The rest of the motherboard is cooled by a rather fancy set of heatpipes, along with a small heatsink which goes out through the I/O shield and helps dissipating some more heat out of the system.
Gigabyte's virtual 12-phase power regulation is also present on the motherboards, along with the two phase power regulation for the memory and chipset. The company claims that the hardware over Voltage control ICs that the motherboards feature provides even more overclocking enhancements. Gigabyte's DES power saving feature has been also added to these Extreme motherboards.
The Gigabyte GA-EP45-EXTREME and GA-EP45T-EXTREME come with three x16 PCIe slots each, two of them working in x8 mode, while the third only in x4 mode. The boards also feature a single x1 PCIe slot and three PCI slots. The rear panel has two PS/2 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet connectors, a clear CMOS button and 7.1-channel audio with optical and coaxial S/PDIF out. Besides these, there are six onboard SATA ports, three FireWire headers, two headers for four additional USB 2.0 ports, a debug LED and power and reset buttons.
The prices for the motherboards will start somewhere at $360, depending on where they are purchased from. Although the boards seem to come for a lot of money, they are not close to some of Asus' R.O.G. Models.
More information on these DDR2 and DDR3 Extreme motherboards models can be found on Gigabyte's website.
