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Configuration CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 5400+/Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition MB: GIGABYTE MA790GP DS4H DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF VGA: GAINWARD HD4850 + MSI 4850 CrossFire HD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB POWER: POWER:Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP/JETART Nano Diamond/Lubic GIGABYTE exclusive software EASYTUNE 5 PRO iCOOL @BIOS AMD OverDriver Utility AMD exclusive OS software has detail system info and user can adjust the voltage and clock through this software. Built-in GPU HD3300, shared 256MB GPU Default 700Mhz DDR3 1333/system memory DDR2 1066 GPU OC 1063Mhz DDR3 1333/system memory DDR2 1066 3DMARK2005 Default OC

BIOS Boot screen Setup main manual Voltage menu SonthBridge Volt Control +0.1V~+0.3V SidePort Mem Volt Control +0.1V~+0.3V NorthBridge Volt Control -0.200V~+0.200V(gap at 0.025V) DDR2 Voltage Control +0.05~+0.55V CPU NB VID Control -0.600~+0.600V(gap at 0.025V) CPU Voltage Control -0.600~+0.600V Press Ctrl+F1 will show the OC item: Advanced Clock Calibration. 790GX provides new items to enhance Phenom OC limitation. DDR2 parameters Advanced BIOS Te built-in GPU HD3300 related items are here. SidePort: use built-in Memory, this MB has DDR3 128MB UMA: shared with system main memory UMA mode can select different capacity SidePort DDR3 128MB can choose the speed. PC Health Status

Currently, the most hot topic in AMD platform is the new mid-end chipset 790GX+SB750. 790GX built-in HD3300 GPU which is more performance than HD3200 in 780G. I believe this chipset combines with AMD dual/triple/quad core CPU can bring the higher C/P value. Unlike 790FX has the advantage of CorssFire X16+X16, 790GX is positioned in mid-end. It only supports X8+X8 CrossFire. However, the new SB750 and GUP HD3300, 790GX is still a great choice for end users. This time I get is GIGABYTE MA790GP DS4H. After 790GX launched, 3 tier one manufacturers all announced their 790GX products. The price is around 160USD. As the price gap is small, the components, spec. and OC ability are the key factors. Package Accessory GIGABYTE MA790GP DS4H Left-Lower Corner 2 X PCI-E X16(CorssFiieX works as X8+X8) 3 X PCI-E X1 2 X PCI 1 X Floppy LAN Chip Realtek 8111C, Audio Realtek ALC889A, 7.1cahnnels support HD Audio Right-Lower Corner 6 X SATAII(SB750) 1 X LPT Dual BIOS Right-Upper Corner 4 X DIMM DDRII, support 533/667/800, and 1066 Phenom 1 X IDE 24PIN power in Left-Upper Corner 4+1 phase PWM for CPU which supports 140W Phenom CPU IO Interface 4 X USB 2.0 1 X 1394 1 X S/PDIF fiber output HD3300 has 3 output interfaces : D-SUB/DVI/HDMI MA790GP DS4H heatpipe thermal module

Age Of Empires 1600X1200 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz The performance of R4670 in Age Of Empires is more excellent than the previous 3800 series. Need For Speed Pro Street 1600X1200 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz Crysis Benchmark Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz As long as do not open the maximum effect, the above four games can be run in 1600 x 1200 resolution. ATI has already made a great improvement in the performance for the entry-level graphics card. The current core can only be transferred to the highest 778MHz. The core of 4670 is too new to support the overclocking options of other related software. I believed that 4670 can have a better overclocking performance while supporting the software in the future. Temperature Default 750/1000Mhz The room temperature is about 27 degrees. Default 750/1000MHz. Standby Mode After running 3DMark2005, the maximum moment temperature is 51 degrees. The radiator comes with the copper material and greater cooling area. The fan operates without any noise. Coupled with the low-temperature 4670 GPU, the overall temperature has met the user’s satisfaction. Power Consumption E8400 3997Mhz/DFI X48/MSI 4670 The overall power consumption in standby mode is 114W. Running 3DMark2005 The maximum power consumption is 187W. The majority of state is 165~175W. The power consumption of 4670 is not high during standby mode or full-speed operation. The low power consumption and low temperature of 4670 are good for saving energy. At present we can see the price of each 4670 is about 90 to 95 US dollars, which is higher than ATI’s official retail price of 79 US dollars. Maybe because of the recently launched product, it is likely to have similar prices with the 3650/3850. ATI should raised the price slightly while unveils 4670. I do hope 4670 can be quickly reduced to the original price as soon as possible. By the way, 3850 comes with the high C/P value is also the best choice. ATI has more rival low-end product line than the other venders. The 3D performance of ATI 4670 is excellent, especially in the temperature and electricity consumption. There is some news these days that the price of NVIDIA 95/96 had cut down while ATI was launching its 4670 product. We can see that the price of the ATI product line is attracting more attention in the market. A few months ago, the introduction of 4850/4870 had forced NVIDIA GTX360/280 to cut down its price less than a month after its launching. Each level of ATI 4800 series products had caused NVIDIA to adjust their price repeatedly. I do not want to see NVIDIA having all the advantages in the market like in the past two years. The prices of graphics card are controlled by one supplier only. Most consumers would like to see the competition and comparison among the manufacturers. I hope NVIDIA can launch more competitive products in the future and ATI will continue to maintain the strength in its future products.

CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 MB: DFI LANPARTY DK X48-T2RSB PLUS DRAM: CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-6400C4 VGA: MSI R4760 2D512/D3 HD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB POWER: Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP/JETART Nano Diamond/Lubic CPU: 555X7.5=>3997Mhz DRAM: 1066 CL5 5-5-18 2T GPU MSI 4670 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz 3DMARK2003 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz 3DMARK2005 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz 3DMARK2006 Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz The 3DMark performance of only 90 US dollars graphics card is not excellent than the higher price 3850 series. Strictly speaking, the price of 3850 series is lower compared to the last generation product. The 3DMark performance of the new 4670 series is fairly good. Running Games COMPANY OF HEROES Resolution 1600 X1200 Details Rating: Custom settings for the highest quality Default 750/1000Mhz OC 778/1125Mhz ATI graphics card was tested to run Company of Heroes, while testing, there were hundreds of pages on the screen. But the largest number of pages is about 60 in the result pages. I do not know what to change in the settings. Therefore, we use the minimum screen update rate be the effective reference value.

ATI finally released its latest 4800 entry-level product - code-named 4670/4650. Though the middle-level version of 4850 was unveiled first, its price and performance are still acceptable in the market. Last month, ATI launched its high-end version of 4870X2. Once again, it has regained the throne of the highest performing single graphics card. ATI also unveils its new generation entry-level graphics card in September. This time we tested the graphics card is MSI R4760-2D512/D3, its market price is about 90 US dollars. Product packaging Very compact, the packaging should be more attractive for this market price segment. Accessories included MSI R4760-2D512/D3 graphics card MSI R4760-2D512/D3 does not need an external power supply. The brand of the non-solid capacitor is Sanyo. Supports CrossFireX Dual DVI output design is more useful to me. hynix GDDR3 512MB MSI R4670-2D512/D3 utilizes the solid radiator with copper at the bottom.

Power consumption This is the power consumption of the whole system. It shows the difference of the electric consumption of the graphics cards 3DMARK2006 is the test platform. The power consumption of 4850 CrossFire is about 260~360W. The power consumption of 4870 CrossFire is about 325~429W. The maximum power consumption of 4870X2 is 449W. 4850 CrossFire has the lowest power consumption in this test. The power consumption of 4870CF and 4870X2 are almost the same. The power consumption of 4870X2 is only higher about 5% than 4870 CF. I suggest that the 100~150W PSU which is higher than the test is more stable and the minimum use of 550~600W PSU is better. Of course, if you want to use the 1000W PSU, then you can use the 4870X2 CrossFire. The performance of the ATI 4800 series is good, especially in terms of price and performance. Despite using the 55 nm processor, the only drawback of 4800 series is the temperature which is not good than the previous products. In the test, the 4850 CF has a good performance with high C/P value. Although the C/P value of 4870 is lower, but compared to NVIDIA’s product line, the C/P value is fairly good coupled with GDDR5. The price of 4870X2 is about 600 U.S. dollars at this stage which is lower than 4870 CF. If user only have the none-CrossFire motherboard, 4870X2 is a good solution. The ATI 4800 product line has gained very good result in the market. Currently, ATI is around 100 to 150 US dollars. It mainly relies on its 3850/3870 product line. If the 48X0 series can be launched to reinforce 70 to 150 dollars in the product line, the ATI product line in the year 2008 will satisfy the consumer’s demand and will be more favorable. Hope I can finish several testing as below before term begins… The overclocking champion of MicroATX -DFI LANParty JR P45-T2RS The enthusiast motherboard support AMD CPU & SLI - FOXCONN DESTROYER The latest & powerful UMA platform from AMD - GIGABYTE MA790GP-DS4H Lubic, Japan-style DIY cool stuff – assembling the system case or testing stand on demand Thanks for your viewing

For the actual game clock please refer to the following pages. Settings: Resolution 1600 X1200 Details of levels: the highest The others are default. 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 More games are responding to real graphics card performance. Although the “Need For Speed Carbon” has been launched for a while. I can still do a comparison based on the previous test article of NVIDIA® 8800 series. The 4850 CF is the reference point. The 4850 has a lead of 10% and 4870X2 by 30%. The big winner of this test was 4870X2. Crysis Benchmark 1920X1200 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 In the Crysis performance, the 4870X2 has beaten the 4870CF. But the two have a better performance compared to 4850CF. Although the gaming performance of 4850CF is not good than 4870CF, but the C/P value is higher the others. Temperature Environment temperature at room is about 29 to 32 degree. 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 The radiator size and the texture of 4800 series are good. But the performance of the temperature is barely satisfactory. The temperature is about 78 to 82 degrees which is similar to the previous test of ATI/NVIDIA high-end graphics card. But most consumers always prefer the lower temperature of the new technology and new 55 nm process GPU.

Test Platform CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8300 MB: GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DIN VGA: MSI R4870X2-T2D2G-OC HD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB POWER: Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP/JETART Nano Diamond/Lubic VGA clock were default 4850 625/900Mhz 4870 750/900Mhz 4870X2 780/900Mhz 3DMARK2003 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 3DMARK2005 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 3DMARK2006 4850 CrossFire 4870 CrossFire 4870X2 4870CF/4870X2 has better performance than 4850CF in 3DMARK 2003/2006 test. But in the 3DMARK 2005 test, the gap between the three is not too much. In the 3DMARK test, ATI 4800 series basically has a very high performance for the graphics cards.

ATI has considered 2008 a very successful year. In the first half year, the 4800 series is a middle-level product line which comes with the 55nm process GPU and cost around 220 US dollars. While, the 4870 series is a high-end product line with a price of 330 US dollars and it’s the first to use GDDR5, giving its competitors a head blow. The 500 US dollars NVIDIA® GTX260 and the 650 US dollars NVIDIA® GTX280 were originally intended to replace the 8800/9800 GTX market, but they were defeated by the ATI lower price and higher performance 4870/4850. It was too late for NVIDIA® to cut the prices of 260GTX and 289GTX last month. ATI is the first to launch the 4800 Series X2 version of VGA in August and wants to be the only one with 3D performance. MSI, on the other hand, is the first to launch the 4870X2 2G GDDR5 version. The packaging in high-end products is often a big volume. MSI representative pictorial in this series is not good look. I hope that there will be a more attractive product design in the future. Bundled Accessories Accessories are simple and practical. Aside from bundled games, graphics card has generally no accessories that can be included. Instead of buying the graphics card for the free game, I hope that lowering the price of the graphics card is more practical. MSI R4870-T2D2G-OC The physical appearance of MSI R4870-TD2G-OC is longer than the 4850/480 series graphics card. It has the same of length as NVIDIA’s 260GTX/280GTX series graphics cards. 4870X2 needs an 8-pin plus a 6-pin power supply. I suggest that you use a 550~600W or above PSU for safety reason. The rear side of 4870X2 It has a similar plastic case design of 260GTX/280GTX for protection. The rear side of 4870X2 casing is made of steel. IO Ports The DVI ports are located around the middle for TV/HDTV output port. ATI special cooling design In order for 4870X2 to have a full test, we also joined the 4850/4870 comparison test. The representative of the second group is Gigabyte HD4870 CrossFire. The representative for the third group is HD4850 + MSI 4850 CrossFire.

Still remember LGA 775 architecture is long life product line in Intel products. After P4 transited to LGA775 about one year, Intel C2D processors become the best selling series and make the LGA775 is hot selling. Recall my memory, it’s been over 2 years that C2D and LGA775 are announced. As per Intel behavior, it’s time to change to the new architecture. Early this year, there are many rumors about LGA1366 chipset and processor. Finally, we could see more detail now. This time I got is GIGABYTE latest product GA-X58-EXTREME. EXTREME is GIGABYTE new series for Overclockers since P45. GIGABYTE GA-X58-EXTREME Left-Down corner 2 X PCIE X16 2 X PCIE X8 2 X PCIE X4 1 X PCI As usual, Intel X series chipset can support ATI CrossFire. This time we also heard X58 might support nVIDIA SLI technology. In the future, we may can see X58 motherboard integrated both GPU features. Right-Down corner 6 X SATAII(ICH10R) 1 X IDE EXTREME series have Power/Reset and Debug LED Right-Up corner 6 X DIMM DDR3, not same as old Intel 4xDIMM design. In X58, it can support 6x DIMM DRAM slots Left-Up corner Even personally I think 4 phase PWM is enough for LGA 775. This time GIGABYTE uses 6 phase PWM, but not 12 phase with LGA 775. Does that mean LGA1366 is more power saving? IO Interface 8 X USB 2.0 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF 1 X 1394 Silver button is Clear COMS GA-X58-EXTREME high texture thermal module Intel next generation LGA 1366 socket X58 spec might be changed as final released, ex: 10 SATAII, and more LAN ports, etc. Just wait for the released version. Even thought I don’t like to change CPU, but LGA has been in the market for 3 years. If LGA1366 can bring more technologies, higher performance and multi-core/channel system, I am looking forward to it

CPU Quad core Q8200 R0, the latest stepping Reach two Super PI 32M stable at 500Mhz Although we could not reach four of Super PI 32M during our tests, perhaps it is reachable by few more touches, however our test result already showed the remarkable quality compared with other P45 products currently exist in the retail market. Dual core E8400 C0 606.7Mhz SP2004 over 15 minutes 616.3Mhz single Super PI 32M Roughly around 620~625Mhzcould enter operating system and completed CPUZ verification. Utilize SetFSB to reach ultimate performance. Air cooling dual channel 636MHz CPUZ verification completed Stability is the major concern during our tests, exteme overlcok just to show you how well this product is capable of. Basically, according to our test results, dual core CPU is capable of reaching 606Mhz, and quad core CPU could reach 500Mhz with two of PI 32M completed on this DFI DK P45. Both stability and performance are important factors to consider while overclock CPU. DFI LANPARTY DK P45 Strength 1. 100% Japanese brand solid capacitor, powered by 4 phase didgital PWM module, provides stable power source for overclock usage as well as high input efficiency to match the energy saving concept for everyday computing activities. 2. ABS technology is easy to use for users who are no so familiar to overclock, adopt ABS profiles from other experienced overclockers seems to be a handy short cut for those beginners. 3. DFI exclusive design to avoid system reboot after overclocked can pro-long hard disk life-spam. 4. Outstanding performance on dual core and quad core CPU, and good 5. The prices come in very affordable range, US$160 for none-Plus edition, and US$180 for Plus edition. Drawback 1. The visibility of DFI products are low in retail market, DFI need work harder to bring up more attention on retail market. 2. motherboard 3.3V/12V voltage are slightly lower, and also do not have mechanism to prevent CPU Voltage drop. Performance ?????????? Components ?????????? Physical Appearance ?????????? Cost and performance ?????????? This time, DFI LANPARTY DK P45 launched slightly slower than other motherboard vendors, and price could be lower than market expectation. Since there is no major differences between P35 and P45 specification, most of consumers are hesitate to make their final decision of what should be picked. However most of P45 products capable of reaching dual core 600MHz and qual core 500MHz are high-end products. It is not easy to find a well designed and highly overclockable P45 products, price around US$150 ~180. Except two models from BIOSTAR, this DFI LANPARTY DK P45 is highly recommended with surperb overclock capability at very affordable price. The good overclock performance, good quality components, and exclusive design to prevent system reboot, easy to use ABS user interface, all of those excellent features make this DFI LANPARTY DK P45 a must have item, and not to forget it is priced between USD$160-180. LANPARTY JR P45-T2R - The first attempt on OC Micro-ATX products for DFI. We heard it will release soon, named as JR P45, we are hoping this upcoming product will be as good as this DK P45 on our review.

Second step will show users current CPU status, press Reloaded or Upgrade to next step A pop-up windows with BACKUP and RELOAD options will appear right after WIN RELOADED is selected. BACKUP interface During system boot up, ABS will utilize the setting stored on CMOS reloaded, and follow the sequence from bank 4,3,2,1 to find a bootable setting and stay with first bootable bank. Apart from saving your own setting, there are wilder usage for adopting other’ overclock profiles. Allow users to share some stable or high performance overclock profiles through Internet to other overclockers. DFI also provides some overclock profile samples on their official website, such as E7300/Q660/E8400’s overclok profiles on LP DK P45-T2RS product webpage. VGA GAINWARD HD4850 + MSI R4850-T2D512 CrossFire tests CPU: 476X7=>3332.7Mhz DRAM: DDRII 952 CL5 5-5-15 VGA: 625/993Mhz 3DMARK2003 3DMARK2005 3DMARK2006 2008 popular game - Crysis ATI Radeon HD4850 is deserved to be the best value middle range graphics card. Well Graphical performance after Crossfire, 3Dmark and Crysis have outstanding performance, however the only drawback will be temperature slightly higer. DRAM performance Use high cost efficiency DRAM module “CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8500C5D” DDRII 1179 CL5 5-5-15 dual Super PI 32M stable None-Micron D9 memory modules could also reach DDRII 1180 on DFI DK P45-T2RS. DDRII 1212 CL5 5-8-18, the bandwidth reaches 10884MB/s, quite close to DDR3 performance. DFI DK P45 default setting are pretty tight, increase DRAM clock and test bandwidth DRAM timing, loosen up tRP to 7 or 8 could overclock higher. This DDRII DRAM modules could not enter operating system if overclock higher than 1190MHz. However it could reach DDRII 1212 on DFI DK P45. Hard to believe none-Micro D9 DDRII modules could performe so well like this.

This part, just select Auto will do. Voltage setting menu CPU VID Special Add +12.5mV~787.5mV DRAM Voltage 1.789~3.280V SB Core/CPU PLL Voltage 1.555~2.15V NB COre Voltage 1.1825~1.9700V CPU VTT Voltage 1.10~1.60V Setting might slightly vary according different characteristic on each CPU Personally, 0.63/0.67/0.58 and 0.61/0.61/0.58 are two set of settings used oftenly. DRAM speed PC Health Status The above settings are some reference overclock setting, those settings were done by E8400 C0 overclock higher than 600MHz. Most of P45 products need to set NB/VTT Voltage to 1.45V~1.6V for better performance. DFI DK P45 just need NB/VTT set to 1.34V ~ 1.45V to reach the same level of performance. Test Environment: CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400/Quad Q8200 MB: DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS PLUS DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF/TWIN2X2048-8500C5D VGA: GAINWARD HD4850 + MSI R4850-T2D512 CorssFire HD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB POWER: Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP/JETART Nano Diamond Drivers and Utility programs New revision of hardware monitoring program Alone with their P45 products ,DFI also launched their latest designed automatic overclock technology, called “ABS”, short for “Auto Boost System”. Select your motherboard model name and press confirm to next step. ADVANCED

Full screen boot up logo emphasizes the newly developed Auto boost system. As it showed on the boot up logo, press F1 right after boot up will activate ABS feature BIOS Main setting menu Some users are not familiar with DFI BIOS setting options The BIOS setting menu is separated to two modes, standard mode and advanced mode. Easy Mode Advance Mode will allow experienced users to utilize more setting options Overclock duo core CPU, CPU Clock0 Skew is suggested to set to 100ps Shutdown after AC loss option will prevent system reboot several times after overclock. ( This issue is caused by Intel South bridge design) All of P965/P35/X38/X48/P45 platform come with this annoying characteristic, however DFI exclusive design can eliminate this annoying symptom. CPU Feature DRAM Timing To overclock non-performance DRAM modules, tRP and Read Delay are few settings can be tried first. None-performance DRAM modules could try to vary tRP or ReadDelay value to increase DRAM clock. None-Micro D9 modules could go up to 1150 ~ 1200. First three are key elements for DRAM overclocking, normally these two set of setting 0/0/2 or 3/3/1 could have good result.

May 2008, Intel launched their new chipset solution, P45 + ICH10R This June, many motherboard vendors launched their new P45 products just like P965 and P35 in the last two years. DFI, well known on high-end overclock motherboard market, as we were told, DFI will release 3 of P45 models to retail market this year to please their loyal overclockers and gamers. This review, we will primarily focus on these two, DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS and DK P45-T2RS PLUS, retail price expected to be lower than most of high-end overclockable P45 products in the retail market. LANPARTY JR P45-T2R - This is DFI’s first attempt on OC Micro-ATX products, will also be released soon. DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS and DK P45-T2RS PLUS are almost identical, except Plus edition comes with extra 2 SATAII ports. DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS product, color printed carton. Each new released Dark series product comes with new package design. Motherboard accessories also includes CrossFire bridge DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS motherboard Motherboard lower-left corner 2 PCI-E x16 slots (support PCI-E link width x8- x8 CrossFire) 2 PCI-E x1 2 PCI 1 FLOPPY connector Network controller Marvell 88E8053 Audio chips Realtek ALC885, Support 8.1 channels and HD technology, and also come with DFI exclusive Tantalum capacitors. Motherboard lower-right corner 6X SATAII(ICH10R) South bridge ICH10R Support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5 PLUS will come with extra two SATA II ports Built-in Power/Reset switches and LED debug lights Motherboard upper-right corner 1X IDE(JMicron JMB368) 4X DIMM DDRII support 667/800/1066(DDRII 1200 can be reached, however it will depend the quality of users’ DRAM modules) Motherboard upper-left corner Equipped with 5 phase digital PWM module and 12 MOSFET, capable of handling dual core or quad core 45/65nm CPUs. IO connectors 6X USB 2.0 1X Gigabit LAN Optical S/PDIF-out/RCA S/PDIF-out RED JUMP is for Clear CMOS feature DK P45 is equipped with black heat-pipe solution

Running at 9800GTX CPU 460.5X9=>3914Mhz DARM DDR3 1842 CL7 7-7-20 1T VGA 675/2200 3DMARK2003 3DMARK2005 3DMARK2006 Conclusion Advantages: 1. Supreme spec and various overclocking accessories. 2. Supports PCI-E 2.0, CorssFireX, X16+X16+X4 3. 8-Phase digital PWM, eSATA, onboard power button and debug LEDs 4. Rich overclocking options in BIOS and a wide voltage range 5. Outstanding extreme overclocking performance running on Core2Duo FSB Disadvantages: 1. Most X48 based motherboards are priced high at between 310 to 370USD. BLACKOPS sells at 350 USD, a price still higher than other highend motherboards even with its abundant accessories. 2. The availability of BLACKOPS is relatively lower than other MB makers. 3. The DDR3 overclockability can be improved. Performance ?????????? Materials ?????????? Board layout ?????????? Cost-performance ?????????? BlackOps is the first motherboard we see with most complete accessories for overclockers. It is evident to tell FOXCONN’s ambition and effort in building a gaming brand. In the gaming test, we found X38 and X48 have better capability on their X16+X16 Crossfire support than X8+X8 on P35 and P45. This gives X48 more advantage on running high-demanding games. FOXCONN Blackops really sets a new bar on motherboard design and innovation, including the performance, overvall board design and a complete and luxury accessories. These inevitably make Blackops’ pricing higher than others, since X48 based motherboards are set at extreme highend segment. If Foxconn could cut down some of the accessories, and lower the retail price, they can satisfy a lot more users with tighter budget.

Image of the application install page The overclocking utility, AEGIS panel, comes with BLACKOPS (X48) have been upgraded to a newer & stronger version than what we saw in Mars (P35). FSB or voltage can be tuned in AEGIS panel Also monitoring voltage and temperature More functions FOX LiveUpdate BIOS update utility. Intel Core 2 Duo processor, E8600, runs stable at 556MHz SP2004 Comparing to other X48 based motherboards, BlackOps out-performs at running over 550Mhz FSB and stay stable. We also saw a lot of people working BlackOps to 570~590MHz at CPUZ. Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, QX9650, runs stable at 460Mhz Super PI 32M The performance at quad core is above average comparing to P35. FOXCONN BLACKOPS uses a different voltage design which cause a lower voltage value in CPUZ. FOXCONN’s own utility shows the correct CPU voltage for reference. Hopefully we will see a future version to fix the CPUZ issue. Overclocking at DDR3 2 DDR3 1800 CL7 7-7-20 1.99V System runs stable with dual SP2004 2GB loaded Memory bandwidth testing It runs stable at DDR3 1800 CL7. Unfortunately the BIOS we have can’t push it to DDR3 2000. Hopefully we’ll see it soon with a newer BIOS.

CPU Feature Detail DRAM Configuration A lot of options are available to fine-tune all kinds of DDR3 Voltage post screen Voltage configuration is one of the strength of FOXCONN BLACKOPS. It offers wide rage of voltage control with many tweaking options. CPU Voltage Multiplier x1.000~1.525 CPU Voltage Setting 0.8250~1.60000V CPU PLL Voltage Setting 1.395696~2.446852V CPU VTT Voltage Setting 1.200~1.725V NB Voltage Setting 1.156V~2.395V OC Gear offers 7 setting savings PC Health Status It monitors both voltage and speed. PC Health Status Quantum BIOS offers so many options for tweaking, it’s hardly to find anything missing or not detail enough. This picture shows the settings of quad-core CPU overclocking. Boot-up screen can be changed to your own in the application provided. But it only supports 256 colors. Testing Platform CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8500/Quad QX9650 MB: FOXCONN BLACKOPS DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DIN VGA: GAINWARD BLISS 9800GTX 512MB HD: WD6400AAKS POWER: Corsair HX620W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP

Rear I/O 2 eSATA ports provided by JMB363 6 USB 2.0 ports 2 Gigabit LAN ports BLACKOPS 4 in 1 Quantum Cooler 1. Water Cooling 2. the usual passive air cooling 3. Active air cooling with the additional fan in the accessories 4. Extreme cooling with dry ice or LN2 And an additional testing tray gives a better thermal solution Here’s the boot-up screen as shown on the package FOXCONN also offers an application to change the boot-up screen on your own BIOS post screen Quantum BIOS overlocking setup screen DDR3 ratio When the CPU clock and memory speed at 1:4 ratio, there are 4 optimized pre-set ratio. On the right side, there’s also the setting suggestion.

After a couple of years of entering branded Motherboard market, FOXCONN has started a gaming product line Quantum Force from the P35 chipset based MARS featuring overclocking, performance and gaming in 2007. Lately we see another Quantum Force “BlackOps”, a X48 chipset based motherboard, launched. BlackOps is a bit behind on schedule comparing to other manufacturers’ X48 motherboards, but we’ll find out if it’s worth waiting now. The package is as huge as 45 x 13 x 29 cm with rich accessories. No surprisingly, the package design is targeted at gamers. Here’s the manual, quick guide, I/O panel, FOXCONN “Quantum Force” shield sticker and the IDE cable. SATA cables, USB rear bracket, and screws 7.1 channel audio capability SONAR Audio card based on Realtek ALC885 chipset And an additional 12cm fan for Chassis to releasing system temperature Here’s FOXCONN BLOCKOPS In this part of the board A total of 3 PCIe x16 slots support ATI CrossFireX technology. When all of them are running, it operates at x16+x16+x4. 3 PCI slots. It uses Broadcom 5786/5788 Gigabit LAN chipset. In this part of the board 6 SATAII provided by ICH9R southbridge and support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 LEDs to show system message and the Power/Reset/Clear CMOS button Dual BIOS design, and an the blue jumper can reset the board easily In this part of the board there are connectors include: 24 pin power supply connector 1 IDE connector 1 Floppy connector 4 DDR3 DIMMs support 800/1066/1333/1600 MHz In this part of the board It supports 45/65nm Quad/Duo processors 8 phase PWM design

Q8200 for Quad Core OC 500Mhz 4 X Super PI 32M 530Mhz Super PI 1M In Quad Core CPU, it can run stable in 500Mhz and passed 1M at 530Mhz. It proves the P45T EXTREME is in very high standard for both dual core and quad core system. The Energy Saving Software from GIGABYTE-DYNAMIC ENERGY SAVER Later called DES. DES needs C1E to operate. DES disable, 2700Mhz shows 15.51W DES Enable, 2700Mhz shows 13.46W(4-phase) DES Panel provide lots of info, usage duration, power saving watts and CPU current power consumption. DES Disable,4050Mhz shows 80.07W(12-phase) DES Enable,4050Mhz shows 45.81W(8-phase) 80.07-45.81=34.86W, the full speed power saving by DES display. But this is the software come with the product. I have to double check it. This time I use Seasonic Power Angle as the tool. All equipments are the same. DES Disable,4050Mhz system shows 339W(12-phase) DES Enable,4050Mhz system shows 292W(6-phase) The all system saving is 339-292=47W. It’s 35W more than the DES displayed. DES is a good prediction software. GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME Strength 1.100% Japan made solid capacitors. Full LED display under system operation. ATI CorssFireX supported 2. Rich applications in OS. They are all powerful function and exquisite interface. 3. BIOS provides wide voltage range and the options are never seen before in GIGABYTE products 4. Dual Core/Quad Core CPU OC are excellent. It let CPU has 20~50Mhz possibility 5. High cost 100% cooper thermal modules. It is hard to see in the other brands boards 6. Debug LED, Power/Reset/Clear CMOS buttons 7.6+6-phase dynamic power saving with Intel latest VRD11.1 PWM design. It combines very well with own DES software for lower power consumption Weakness 1. The cables are too less. The cables are enough but should be more for hi-end products 2. DRAM voltage is higher than other brands. Also hope the future BIOS can support over DDR3-2000. 3. Clear CMOS battery is under the cooper pipe. Not easy to use. Performance ?????????? Components ?????????? Outlook ?????????? C/P ?????????? GIGABYTE EXTREME series is really for Enthusiasts. For the scoring system, I am always very strict for it. This is the 1st product I ever score 10 stars. It is because GIGABYTE really puts a lot of effort in components. 7 stars in C/P, because 330USD price is too high even with very great OC and components. The hi-end board C/P is always very low. It’s coming with DDR3, so I minus 1 star from 8 to 7. I’ve been testing many P45 boards, the good OC board should run stable at dual core 600Mhz and quad core 500Mhz. DRAM must reach DDR2 1200 and DDR3 1800 CL7. The 9 stars are scored by this standard. I still have to mention, I hope P45T EXTREME DDR3 OC ability can be improved by future fine tuning BIOS to reach 2000. No matter what product range, 330USD is still also very high C/P value with GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME. Mid-end P45 has Biostar which are between 130~160 USD and hi-end OC P45 has GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME. If you cannot find any points to upgrade from P35 to P45, you can wait and see for awhile. However, for personal view, the P45 runs stable at 600MHz is improved quite much than P35 in OC capability. GIGABYTE launched P45T EXTREME(DDR3) and P45 EXTREME(DDR2) make the more choices for Enthusiast market. Windwithme reviews all take much time and effort. Normally, it takes1 to 3 weeks to complete the article. If you think my review is good for product info and buying guide, please reply my post. Your reply push me go forward. Thanks….

DRAM Uses CORSAIR Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DIN, supports XMP Enable XMP in BIOS, it runs 450x6,DDR3 1700 CL7 7-7-20 2.1V automatically. Passed SP2004 Blending XP CORSAIR Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DIN official spec is DDR3 1800 CL7 2.0V. GIGABYTE has more improvement room here. DDR3 1933 CL7 6-5-20 EVEREST bandwidth The DRAM voltage and frequency after OC are mid-high standard. However, there is still more3% to 5% room to improve. P45 combo with ICH10R. I use the best stuff to see the capability of the new ICH SAMSUNG 64GB SSD SLC, market price is 700 USD. Also heard the price drops to 580 USD last week. EVEREST Tune This SAMSUNG 64GB SSD SLC is much faster than the MLC version, the Read/Write life cycle is also 10 times more. The transfer performance is really amazing. It takes less than 20 minutes to install the Windows XP. It is also very fast to enter the XP. ICH10R has its own advantage, because this SSD only reach 100Mb/s in ICH7. ICH10 is really improved a lot in performance. CPU Intel C2D E8400 for dual core I believe 99% think the stable frequency after OC is the performance standard. 615Mhz SP2004 Dual Super PI 32M This is almost the best OC capability in the all P45 boards. Running stable in 610~620Mhz is really amazing. Coming more for dual core CPU extreme OC 644Mhz Super PI 1M Mostly 646~649Mhz also can enter to OS and get CPUZ certified. Many users use software OC to get the higher frequency for CPUZ Cert This is my first try for software OC. Air Cooling Dual Channel 659Mhz CPUZ Certified Using software can pull in the frequency for more 10~15Mhz to make the extreme OC be greater. However, in this condition, you cannot run any software. If I don’t mention it, the results are all from BIOS adjustment.)

Also provides VGA OC by software C.I.A. 2 and Smart Fan Voltage, Temperature and FAN speed info EasyTune6 integrated all necessary features and info into one software. It is very convenient. MB also has LED to display the DRAM voltage and PWN loading status. Just mention, this time I also use JETART Nano Diamond thermal pad to replace Y-500 VGA Using Gigabyte HD4870 DDR5 512MB CorssFire which is the hottest VGA combo at the moment. Default Colck 750/1100Mhz 3DMARK2003 3DMARK2005 3DMARK2006 2008 most popular game - Crysis Now, the highest C/P values VGA are 4850 and 4870 for sure. GIGABYTE HD4870 DDR5 512MB CorssFire is really fast, especially in Crysis it has very high pages ratio even in 1920x1200

CPU/DRAM ratio meets all frequency CPU Advanced CPU options CPU Clock Skew can adjust by 50~150ps to reach higher frequency Advanced DRAM options also provide rich parameters PC Health Status System Configuration CPU: INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400/Quad Q8200 MB: GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DIN VGA: Gigabyte HD4870 DDR5 512MB CorssFire HD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB POWER: Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp VP/JETART Nano Diamond GIGABYTE also bundle many Windows applications. The main one is EasyTune6 CPU info DDR3 info These 2 parts are similar to CPUZ. It is not as detail as CPUZ, but the info is enough. Frequency and Voltage can adjust in this software.