PCSTATS     
[X]   Directory of
Guides & Reviews

Beginners Guides
Motherboards by Brand
Weekly Newsletter
Archived Newsletters

Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Gigabyte's high-end GA-X48-DS5 motherboard is, as you might have guessed, based on the Intel X48 Express and ICH9R chipsets. It's core logic offers up 32 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth which makes this platform great for running a pair of Crossfire'd ATI videocards at full tilt.
 86% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Gigabyte Jan 28 2009   J. Apong  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5

Intel X48 Express - Performance Tuned?

The Intel X48 Express chipset is designed for the latest generation of multicore 45nm Socket 775 Intel processors. It officially supports Front Side Bus speeds at high as 1600MHz (800/1066/1333MHz inclusive), although the Intel X38 could (unoffically) manage this when overclocked.

The Intel X48 Express is paired with Intel's ICH9 series of Southbridge chipset. The Southbridge chipset used with the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 motherboard in this review is the ICH9R model, so the board supports RAID via Intel's Matrix storage technology.

With the Intel X48 Express chipset, memory support expands to DDR3-1600(XMP) care of Intel's Extreme Memory Profiles. Intel XMP is set of pre-defined memory SPD profiles that allow standard DDR3 memory to be overclocked via the BIOS automatically by selecting the appropriate profile, or via a tuning utility in Windows.

The Intel X48 Express supports DDR3-800/1066/1333/1600 (XMP) memory in a dual channel configuration, up to a maximum of 8GB of unbuffered ECC/non ECC. However, to run memory modules at 1600MHz XMP only one pair of DIMMs may be installed. If two memory modules per channel are installed, the Intel X48 will accommodate DDR3-1333/1067/800 modes only.

The Intel X48 Express chipset is the second Intel northbridge to come with a heatspreader. This allows the X48 Express to use a smaller heatsink and still keep the northbridge chipset cool. Here's a quick look at how the new X48 Express stacks up to the P35 Express and X38 chipsets. Apart from the speed increases, inclusion of PCI Express 2.0 and the focus on DDR3 memory alone, there are just a few extra ports.

Intel x48, X38, P35, 975, 965 Series Chipset Feature Breakdown
Intel X48 Express Intel X38 Express Intel 975X Express Intel P35 Express Express Intel P965 Express
CPU LGA775 Core 2 Quad LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo LGA775 Core 2 Duo
Front Side Bus (FSB) 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz 1333/1066/800 MHz 1066/800 MHz 1333/1066/800 MHz 1066/800/533 MHz
Intel XMP Memory Yes Yes No No No
Dual Channel Memory Support DDR3 1600 (XMP)
/1333/1066/800
DDR2 1066/800/667
DDR3 1333(unofficial)/1066/800
DDR2 800/667/533 DDR2 1066/800/667
DDR3 1333(unofficial)/1066/800
DDR2 800/667/533
Maximum Memory Capacity 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB
Integrated Graphics - - - - -
PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 2 2 1 1
PCI Express x1 6 4 4 6 4
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SATA/IDE HDD 6/0 6/0 4/1 6/0 6/0
SATA Speed 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s 3Gb/s
RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH7R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH9R) 0, 1, 5, 10 (with ICH8R)
Hard Drive NCQ Yes Yes - Yes Yes
USB 2.0 Ports 12 12 8 12 8
PCI Masters 6 6 6 6 6
Audio High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia) High Definition Audio (Azalia)

The ICH9R supports six 3GB/s Serial ATA II channels (which support RAID modes 0, 1, 5 and 10) as well a 7.1 channel Intel Azalia high definition audio, 12 USB 2.0 ports in total (split between headers and the I/O slot), six PCI Express x1 lanes, and an integrated Intel Gigabit MAC that runs through the PCI Express bus specific to this chipset.

Noticeably lacking from the chipset is parallel IDE support. In this case, Gigabyte includes its own IDE controller. Without this there would be no way to hook up a DVD-ROM or similar legacy IDE optical drive. Luckily most manufacturers are installing IDE controllers onto the motherboards so you can use older drives. In addition to providing IDE support, the Gigabyte storage controller also adds another two Serial ATA ports, which can also be run in RAID 0, 1 or JBOD.

Next, PCSTATS examines the highlights of the Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 motherboard itself.

< Previous Page © 2023 PCSTATS.com Next Page >

 

Contents of Article: Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5
 Pg 1.  Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver - Energy Efficiency
 Pg 3.  — Intel X48 Express - Performance Tuned?
 Pg 4.  Motherboard Highlights Photo Gallery
 Pg 5.  Overclocking with Gigabyte
 Pg 6.  Motherboard Benchmarks: 3DMark06, Quake 4, FEAR
 Pg 7.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SYSmark 2007 Preview
 Pg 8.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra: Processor
 Pg 9.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra: Memory
 Pg 10.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage
 Pg 11.  Gigabyte's take on the Intel X48

 
Hardware Sections 


 
PCSTATS Network Features Information About Us Contact
FrostyTech
PCSTATS Newsletter
Tech Glossary
Technology WebSite Listings
News Archives
(Review RSS Feed)
Site Map
PCstats Wallpaper
About Us
Privacy Policy
Advertise on PCSTATS

How's Our Driving?
© Copyright 1999-2023 www.pcstats.com All rights reserved. Privacy policy and Terms of Use.