Gigabyte EP45-UD3P

[Rob Williams]

Looking to build a new machine on a budget? Then look no further than choosing Gigabyte's EP45-UD3P as your choice for motherboard. It may not offer a lot in the area of bling, but it includes a solid design, lots of connectivity options (including 8 USB and S-ATA), fantastic overclocking potential and best of all, it comes in at an average price of $115.

You can read the full review here and discuss it here!

[ohgee]

The Gigabyte memory support specs for this motherboard state;
4x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets, and FSB of 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz.

This mobo has a P45 chipset which can support DDR3. Does mean that Gigabyte is limiting this MB to DDR2, so that DDR3 memory and the FSB of 1600/1333 cannot be used?

Clarification will certainly be appreciated. Thank you.

[Rob Williams]

For P45, board vendors had a choice between DDR2 and DDR3... for this particular board, Gigabyte chose DDR3. If you really want the latter, they offer other boards with that support. You can't release a decent board with both, because the DIMM slots are different. You can't plug DDR3 into a DDR2 slot, and vice versa.

Regardless of the DDR2 you have, you can still use a 1600FSB CPU.

[Kougar]

Um, the EP45-UD3P is DDR2. But everything else Rob said is correct, P45 supports both memory formats and each board design can choose one of them, but not both. This board will only support DDR2 memory.

The FSB allowed depends on the processor used, but almost any CPU can reach 400FSB (1600FSB effective) with overclocking as well.

[Rob Williams]

Whoops. Thanks for the clarification... I meant DDR2.

[ohgee]

Rob & Cougar, thanks for responding.

Let me explain what I want to do:

1. I want to use the following:
E8600 CPU
GeForce GTX 285 Video card
2 x 2 GB Memory
2. Is there an advantage to use this EP45-UD3P MB if it is limited to DDR2 (1066 MHz) top frequency? I do know, of course, that a P45 will make full use of the 4GB memory, but I don't think that's reason enough to go to a P45.
3. I think I would be just as satisfied if I went to a P35, such as the ASUS P5K Pro or the Gigabyte GA-EP35, if I can still find them.
4. I will not overclock, nor go to a 64-bit OS and applications, nor will I be doubling on the graphics card.
5. I know that at this stage, a P35 is old hat. I am looking to build an above-average system, something just a step below a gamer.
6. Given all of the above I would appreciate your opinion on each of the items above, and will certainly welcome any suggestions that you may have for a motherboard. I am open to consider a P45 system if you feel that's the way to go.

Thanks again, guys.

[Kougar]

From the sound of it whichever system you could get cheaper would best suit your needs. The catch is while P35 is outdated, you can get P45 boards cheaper. So it really makes no sense to get P35 anymore.

Memory speeds are not that important, memory timings can have a larger impact. Any kit of CAS 4 DDR2-800 RAM would be just as good as CAS 5 DDR2-1067 memory, not to mention cheaper.

[BlindMonk]

Hrm.... Wish I'd waited a tad longer for something like this. Rushed into my current setup mid last year thanks to problems with my previous board and a desire to have something decent in time for QuakeCon. :S

[ohgee]

Cougar, in view of what you wrote, I'm considering the following:
Crucial Ballistix 2x2GB DDR2-800, CL 4, 4-4-4-12
Mushkin 2x2GB DDR2-800, CL 4, 4-4-4-12

Rob, that was a great review of the GA-EP45-UD3P. One question,
whats the difference between rev. 1.0 & 1.1 of this MB?

[Kougar]

Either of those kits looks good. The newer Ballistix uses a lower voltage than the original stuff, so it should work fine on Gigabyte boards.

[ohgee]

Kougar,

I read in the customer review of the Crucial DDR2- 800 must be overclocked in order to achieve CL 4, 4-4-4-12 timing. Is this so?

I am going to post all of the components for my new build under the 'Hardware' forum. I would appreciate any comments you may have.

Thank you.

[Rob Williams]

It's not "overclocking" if you are setting the RAM to settings that are noted on the packaging. The way the internal specifications (SPDs) on the memory works is that there is a failsafe, so usually the default timings are more loose than what they actually should be. So on that kit, the BIOS might set it to 5-5-5. You'll just have to go in and manually set them to 4-4-4 (CAS-tRCD-tRP). The 12 would be the tRAS, and it could be adjusted as well, though the performance gain from that is minimal.