Hardware Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/08/20/gigabyte-ga-ep34-ds3r/1

The DS3R legend is back, and we take the latest budget "energy efficient" P45 from Gigabyte to the cleaners, to see if its whites are whiter than white.

 

Page 1 para 4 - 'They come in now less than six varieties' - unless you're a brummie, it's no.

Skimmed the rest when I saw it had only 6 sata ports

 

only?

It's a DS3R - if you want more you have to pay more, so check out the DS5.

 

Also America now works in pounds sterling now apparently. (Price as reviewed is in £)

 

Aye, I know - this board isn't for me as I require 8 sata ports. Also, I don't understand why a floppy port is included when QFlash is dead easy to use.

 

Windows XP SATA drivers.

EC - Didn't you hear? The colonies will heed to the might of the glorious British Empire! Independence shall be revoked /stands and salutes picture of the queen while drinking tea while wearing a Union Jack flat cap.

 

come on! Windows XP sata drivers?! You are joking right... right?

 

No, people still use XP and people still want to use RAID.

 

windows xp does not allow to select a drive letter during installation when it comes to raid drivers, which means you must have a floppy drive for it. (exception: integrate them with nlite in the cd, but that requires that you have a working pc with windows on it somewhere).

 

I wonder if anyone's thought of launching a 'Not XP' edition mobo, which omits a floppy port?

 

Were the multi GPU benchmarks with CF 3850's or 4850's?

 

It's not a graphics review, it's a motherboard review - we picked a pair of cards and kept them consistent

 

So which pair of cards were used?

 

doesnt matter does it? if one motherboard is better than the others with a 3870 then it'll no doubt be better with a 4870 too

 

For XP raid you need a stiffy or if you have a USB stiffy you can use that, but a stiffy is required for Raid configuration during setup.

 

Why complain that something IS included... I always tought you need to complain when something ISN'T included yet you need it...

Guess there are always people who complain...

 

Its a simple question given that I couldn't see which ones were used in the review.

Also given that there was alot of debate around whether the lack of twin x16 lanes were an issue when running the 48XX range (tweaktowns review showed a large different although how accurate it is I won't question) I was curious to know whether it was say CF 48XX shown in this review (if it was then it shows that the tweaktown review is questionable)

 

Yep HD 3870. I started testing P45s before the HD 4000 series was announced.

Test Setup Page

I wasn't aware it should make a difference, but I'll check.

 

Segway? That's a scooter.

Try 'segue'

 

Sshh, it's a subliminal message!