Hardware Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/11/21/gigabyte-ga-ep45-ud3r/1

Gigabyte has primed its GA-EP45-UD3R Ultra Durable 3 motherboard for some hefty overclocking and claims serious DDR2 memory performance. Naturally curiosity got the better of us so we had to check it out!

 

Nice informative review and nice to see another gigabyte board performing pretty well. I have a bit of a soft spot for gigabyte. I really don't need a board to be an extreme overclocker or have crossfire/sli, I mainly want a board that will give me a modest overclock, performs 100% stable 24/7 and doesn't nom nom nom all my electricity. Obviously most of all it needs to be affordable, which is why I will be aiming for gigabyte boards for at least the foreseeable future.

 

a shame about the 500FSB barrier, was hoping to run e8400 with 8 multiplier on this board
maybe a bios update will resolve?

 

Check other reviews - if they do it maybe they do something I don't know, but honestly I doubt it - the DS3R never hit 500FSB either and the P45 has been around for ~6 months now.

 

There is a large thread on these boards at XS, I've seen several go over 500FSB. I myself have not been able to, but I got the EP45-UD3R and loved it so much, it replaced my Asus Maximus Formula and I have another one on the way to replace my IP35 Pro in my other rig. These are fantastic boards at an incredible price. Anyone looking to get a new C2D motherboard, I can't think of a better board right now.

BTW: The GA-EP45-UD3P has dual LAN and an extra PCI-E x16 slot. I actually have THAT board on order and got it for $119 USD Shipped from newegg using a $10 off promo code.

 

If they ditch the fdd/ide and move the sata to the sides. It would have been a winner.

 

It absolutely will not happen on P45 or any mid-range product for at least the next .. 3 years.

 

It seems to me that many reviews leave out durability tests. Not about overclocking, or performance, but rather what happens when your kid grabs the board and drops it prior to insertion into the case, or when the case manufacturer provides the wrong standoffs and you have to rip the screws out of the board with pliers?

This happened recently and have scratches and cracks in two seperate places around the screw holes. It appears that I even crossed over the circuitry and exposed the copper underneath. It booted first time no problem and hasn't had a single issue. This MoBo is a beast. Not only does it do all the stuff outlined in this review, but it can sustain physical damage and continue to fucntion.

 

having had all sorts of boards from asus, abit, biostar and others i can honestly say that my P31-DS3L is the most stable mobo i have ever personally experienced and i'll certainly be going for gigabyte next time round

 

Thanks for this review - I wasnt expecting it so soon. Ill be doing a bit more reading first but I think this fits my bill. Thanks again!

 

huh my brother needs a new board maybe I will get him to upgrade to this so I can mess around with it lol.

 

my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P board uses those red slots just fine. the only difference between my board and this one is that I mine has an additional PCI-E slot for crossfire.

 

I have to agree with you. My EP45 DS5 is the most trouble free motherboard I've had and I for one would not hesitate to buy Gigabyte again.

Looks like another nice, if un-necessary release from Gigabyte.

 

New DDR2 Speed records broken with Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

DDR2 1696 (848MHz) !!!

I really love this board. Although I'm not breaking records, I am running 2 x 2GB G.Skill Pi Black @ DDR2 900 4-4-4-12 w/ 2.0v. I'm also running them in the red DIMM slots. In this review, you had bad luck with the red DIMMs, but I think it was just that...bad luck.

 

That's sick and I love the pics too

 

Who needs stinking DDR3 ram

 

To get some perspective here, "2oz copper" is just 0.07mm thick, a bit thinner than 60g paper. Much improved current handling for sure, but don't expect to spot the difference from the 0.035mm usual stuff visually where most of the board thickness is poxy resin, not copper.

 

PCB layer

Hello,
Actually the GA-EP45-UD3R is a 4 layer PCB motherboard, not 6 layers like the GA-EP45-DQ6.

 

Oh why oh why did I buy a 780i mobo and SLI, when I could have had this cheap OC beast and some cheap x-fire Seems like a really good board, especially at that price.

 

Thank You! I've made an addendum to the article.