Intel's P45 Express is the companies latest mainstream-performance chipset, replacing
the P35 Express. The two chipsets are very similar, with
the only real difference from a feature standpoint being the inclusion of the
PCI Express 2.0 spec and pairing with the ICH10 series southbridge. The Intel
X48 Express officially supports FSB 1600MHz processors, but many Intel P45
boards do too (check the mobo specs to be certain). In most other respects the
feature lists of P45 and P35 chipsets are identical. Intel's 4-series chipset
family includes the P45, G45, P43 and G43 Express.
|
The Intel P45 Express
Northbridge chipset.
|
The Intel
P45 Express supports Intel socket 775 processors with a Front Side Bus of
800/1066/1333/1600MHz, and incorporates a memory controller that accomodates up to 8GB of
DDR3 1333 MHz or DDR2 1066 MHz speed memory (depending on what the motherboard manufacturer
implements). It has sufficient PCI Express lanes to accommodate a single videocard
with 16GB/s bandwidth, or two videocards running in Crossfire with 8GB/s
bandwidth each. PCI Express 2.0 compliant graphics cards are supported natively
in either configuration.
There continue to be six PCI Express lanes
associated with the ICH10/R Southbridge. Between the Intel P45 Express Express
Northbridge and ICH10/R Southbridge is a dedicated 2GB/s Direct Media Interface
(DMI).
The Intel ICH10R Southbridge chipset supports
six 3GB/s Serial ATA II channels (RAID modes 0, 1, 5 and 10) as well a
7.1 channel Intel high definition audio, 12 USB 2.0 ports, six PCI Express x1
lanes, and an integrated Intel GigABIT MAC that runs through the PCI Express
bus.
| Intel Chipset Feature
Breakdown |
|
Intel P45 Express Express |
Intel P35 Express
|
| CPU |
LGA775 Core 2 Duo/Quad |
LGA775 Core 2 Duo/Quad |
| Front Side Bus (FSB) |
1600/1333/1066/800 MHz |
1333/1066/800 MHz |
| Intel Fast Memory Access |
Yes |
Yes |
| Dual Channel Memory Support |
DDR2 1066/800/667
DDR3
1333/1066/800 |
DDR2 1066/800/667
DDR3
1333(unofficial)/1066/800 |
| Maximum Memory Capacity |
8GB |
8GB |
| Integrated Graphics |
- |
- |
|
PCI Express x16 |
PCI Express 2.0 1x16, or 2x8 |
PCI Express 1x16 |
|
PCI Express x1 |
6 |
6 |
| Intel Matrix Storage Technology |
RAID 0,1,5,10 |
RAID 0,1,5,10 |
|
SATA/IDE HDD |
6/0 |
6/0 |
|
SATA Speed |
3Gb/s |
3Gb/s |
|
Southbridge |
ICH10/R |
ICH9/R |
| USB 2.0 Ports |
12 |
12 |
| PCI Masters |
4 |
4 |
| Audio |
High Definition Audio |
High Definition Audio |
 |
|
| | |
Parallel IDE has been dropped completely, so
motherboard makers rely upon a stand alone IDE controller. Without this there
would be no way to hook up a legacy DVD-ROM or HDD. Now that we covered all of that,
it's time for some overclocking action!
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