Well, we all love new technology otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading the articles featured on easily the web’s most enjoyable site. And with that I was given the dubious task of testing out one of the first Duo Core motherboards on the market, the Gigabyte GS-945P-S3.
First and foremost, this review is a long time coming, why? Because, I had to buy a CPU and memory just to test the darn thing. But once I did, I finally got up and running quite quickly. I purchased a Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 and 1 gig of appropriate memory. I then placed this equipment into my favoritest (and my wifes) case, the Antec P180b.
But the board itself is quite affordable for any level of computer builder. Gigabyte has provided us a board that has big time functions but not a big time price. A newer series board with all the bells and whistles for a new operating system (Vista), a host of easy to use BIOS menus and some other extras that you don’t find in more expensive boards. Yes, the GA-945P-S3 is a value at the price.
Introduction
GIGABYTE 945P-S3 (rev.3.3) motherboard presents a high performance platform with outstanding GIGABYTE proprietary tuning utilities for DIY and power users. This motherboard features the Intel 945P Express chipset that enables unprecedented levels of performance together with excellent overall system functionality and stability. The 945P-S3 (rev.3.3) delivers a comprehensive set of tuning utilities for performance optimizing. Additionally, the all solid capacitor design of 945P-S3 (rev.3.3) enhances overall system durability and stability for the desktop platform.
| Windows Vista Premium Logo Certified Windows Vista Premium promises to deliver a streamlined computing experience designed to fundamentally change how users view, find and organize their digital information. With P965/G965/946/945 solutions all enabling support for Vista Premium, GIGABYTE offers a fresh and unique desktop experience that will be more informative, intuitive and completely new. |
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| Speed The Speed compliant motherboards of GIGABYTE S-series provide intelligent over-clocking and over-voltage software settings through both hardware and software design… |
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| Smart The Smart featured motherboards of GIGABYTE S-series provide GIGABYTE proprietary innovative software such as Download Center, @BIOS, Q-Flash, Xpress Install, Boot menu, and Smart Fan. BIOS and driver management now becomes much easier and user friendly through GIGABYTE Smart features!… |
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| Safe Safe is the key feature of GIGABYTE S-series motherboards with the following elements: Excellent hardware design reinforced BIOS protection through GIGABYTE Virtual Dual BIOS Technology and GIGABYTE BIOS Setting Recovery Technology. Unique system software such as Xpress Recovery 2, PC Health Monitor, HDD S.M.A.R.T., and C.O.M. further strengthen the stability and reliability of your PC!… |
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| Intel Next-Generation Core™2 Duo Processor Leading the silicon process technology from 90nm to 65nm, the Intel new-generation CPU transistors deliver more energy-efficient performance than anyone. Based on the Intel’s next generation Micro Architecture, the Intel Core ™2 Duo processor with two cores and shared L2 caches provides the best capability-per-watt solutions. The cutting-edge processor the significant performance boosts and better energy efficient platform. |
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| Intel® 945P Express Chipset The new Intel® 945P Express chipset delivers significant performance gains with variety of new generation architectures including the latest dual core processor, dual-channel DDR2 main memory, PCI-Express interface, Intel® Matrix Storage technology for improving storage reliability and performance. |
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| Solid Capacitor for CPU VRM Stable system operation depends upon the quality of CPU VRM (voltage regulator module). GIGABYTE adopts Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors for CPU VRM to ensure a longer lifespan for systems in daily operation and boost system stability under extreme conditions. CPU VRM with Solid Capacitors featuring better electronic conductivity, excellent heat resistance enhances system durability even operating in high temperature environment. |
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| 64bit Ready with Intel® EM64T Enter the new 64-bit computing era through Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology. 64 bit operating system allows twice the amount of data access compare to 32-bit OS, thus enhances system productivity and memory responsiveness. It is also backward compatible to legacy 32bit mode or runs at 64bit compatible mode. |
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| SATA 3Gb/s storage interface SATA 3Gb/s is the latest generation of Serial ATA interface speed that doubles bus bandwidth from 1.5Gb/s to 3Gb/s. SATA 3Gb/s facilitates bandwidth aggregation for multiple devices, enabling max through put as well as, higher cache through put performance in single drive configurations. |
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| Gigabit LAN connectivity The Gigabit network interface delivers a high speed LAN connection with data transfer rate up to 1000Mb/s, providing new generation connectivity for the broadband era. Gigabit LAN is ideally for seamless internet connection such as streaming audio and video contents. |
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| Intel High Definition Audio Intel® High Definition Audio enables premium digital sound in the PC for an immersive surround sound experience. In addition, Intel HD Audio delivers multiple audio channels in your PC so you can listen to two different streams simultaneously in two separate rooms. |
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| RoHS compliant As a member of the global community to look after the environment, Gigabyte complies with the European Union’s Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive which limits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and other hazardous substances in electronic products.. From components and material selection to production processes, make up of accessories, packaging/color boxes etc; GIGABYTE has carefully examined and designed this product to be 100% RoHS compliant. GIGABYTE will continue to develop RoHS compliant PC components and commit valuable resources to promoting and advancing RoHS directive goals and objectives. |
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The MB itself is definately one of the bigger boards I have ever dealt with, everything is laid out so it is easy to identify and install, even if some things aren’t in the most convenient place.
The board is a solid design meant to take on some heavy cards and fans. I liked the weight and feel to it, some other boards I have dealt with recently do not have the meat on them like this one does, and rto me that’s a plus.
Not to mention you can find this MB for around $80-$90 dollars. A pretty good deal considering the overclocking that this board can take.
Inside the box is a quick-install guide, a paper manual, driver CD, I/O backplate, two orangy-yellow SATA cables, a standard ATA ribbon cable and floppy ribbon cable.
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The GA-945P-S3 motherboard has a pretty good layout for a mid-range product. It has 3 PCI slots, which are all positioned at the bottom of the board. This placement is similar to when board manufactueres began phasing out the ISA bus: the “old” connections go at the bottom. Following this philosophy, the oft-unused floppy connector is underneath the last PCI connector. Not many manufacturers have fully embraced PCI-express cards, so it would have been nice if another PCI slot were included. These slots will easily be taken up by a sound card, WiFi card, leaving only one slot for additional upgrade. The PCIe slots will go unused, making your case looking rather “bottom heavy”.
The black 1x PCI-e slots are used as “spacers” around the powder-blue PCI-e 16X slot, apparently to accomodate the hefty heatsinks on many of today’s powerful graphics cards. Even if a graphics card takes up two slots, you stil have two PCI-e 1x slots available (one above and one below your video card).
Near the bottom of the board are four SATA jacks (identified by neon orange color) and a standard parallel ATA connector (in red plastic). Many DVD drives today still use a parallel connector, so it would have been nice if the standard ATA connector were placed somewhere other than the bottom of the board (athough those with inverted cases like Lian Li’s V1000 will love having it near the top).
The bottom corner of the board is also where all of the pin headers and USB connectors are located. Thankfully, the pin headers are color coded so you can easily see if you’ve plugged them without having to find a flashlight. The audio headers are neatly tucked away, which is fine because you’ll probably not use the limited onboard audio.
The Clear CMOS jumper only has two pins, which means you’ll probably have to find a jumper connector if you actually need it. I keep a spare jumper on only one pin, but this is a loose connection and the jumper pin can fall off.
The northbridge has a funky-looking gold-colored heatsink, which is curved to look like flames (not the best choice for a heatsink if you ask me). There is no active cooling present on this heatsink, so any residual airflow from a large heatsink (like Zalman’s CNPS-9800) will be welcome. This chip gets rather hot even running at stock speeds, so overclocking isn’t recommended until you give the northbridge some additional cooling.
The DDR2 slots are color-coded in yellow and bright red, so you can easily distinguish each memory channel. The banks are slightly staggered, which isn’t a big deal but does look odd.
The socket 775 mechanism is located above the northbridge, and dominates the area. Surrounding the socket is the 4-pin motherboard power connector and several tall capacitors. Even though the capacitors are slightly taller than normal, any modern heatsink should be able to clear them.
The rear of the motherboard has your standard fare: four USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit LAN connector (with orange activity and green link light), a parallel connector, serial port connector, PS2 keyboard and mouse connector, and a minimalist 3-port standard audio. Gigabyte clearly could have put more connectors here, as there is some obvious blank space.
This system was tested with an Intel E6600 processor, 2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2-667, 2GB of A-Data DDR2-800 memory, and an XFX 7800 GTX video card.
Although the 945P uses slower DDR2-667 memory, it can still keep up with newer Intel chipsets with DDR2-800 RAM.
Overclocking
The 945 chipset does not feature CPU multiplier settings, which will introduce the CPU as the limiting factor when overclocking. You pretty much have to use a “brute force” method when overclocking, by increasing the CPU and memory voltage as you increase the front side bus. You should have good overclockable memory, and if you use DDR2-800 then you should be able to run the FSB up to that speed (if your CPU can handle it, which most Core 2 processors will).
The E6600 has a 9x multiplier, and we were able to overclock it from 2.4Ghz to 3.5Ghz very quickly without tweaking memory timings when using DDR2-800. All we did was increase the voltage and front side bus. The stability of the system is greatly influenced by active cooling on the northbridge.
On my first attempt I was able to get this board to overclock at a steady and ready 2.5Ghz. No stability issues and the thing has been running smooth since I did so (about 2 weeks now). I believe I could go higher and if you believe what you read, then some folks out there are clocking in at 2.9Ghz using the E6400.
I would be apprehensive if that was the case, I’m not sure an E6400 with this mb would be as steady. You really do take your own life in your hands when overclocking (hehe). In fact the overclocking option in the BIOS were some of the easiest to use that I have ever dealt with. Right out of the box this motherboard was ready willing and able to boost things up a bit. Heck the board even has an auto reset function for overclocking without the need to crack it open and reset it yourself.
This motherboard is also Vista ready, for those of you who have made the jump to Microsoft’s new OS. Otherwise, XP works just as well. This system was tested using the XP operating system, just an FYI. So all in all, I am really pretty happy with how this mb has worked out, there are some minor design issues, and the working with the memory may provide some problems for end users out there, but it is a solid piece of machinery.
The overclocking options are somewhat limited, but you can still push this older chipset pretty far. The GA-945P-S3 is a solid motherboard for anyone building a system with an Allendale or Celeron chip (who has some spare DDR2-667 laying around).
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