Gigabyte EX58-Extreme Motherboard

Introduction

Part One (Socio-economic ramblings)

When writing a new motherboard review your initial thoughts tend to focus on the quality of the components, the layout, the bios, and later on, package design and the bundled contents. However, when the Gigabyte GA- EX58 Extreme landed in the lab, one of the first thoughts that sprung to mind was timing.
It is also likely that Intel and its partners have also been somewhat preoccupied with this matter. Let me expand upon this. Whenever a new product is launched you can expect that various departments will get together, and plan to launch at the most advantageous time. Holiday periods are a usual favorite, or even the launch of a competitor’s product, especially when you know your offering will out perform the competition. Unfortunately, Intel hasn’t had to worry about the competition for quite some time. AMD’ processors haven’t been poor, Intel have merely produced a better product. As a result there has only been one choice, and that was Intel. Hopefully AMD’s Deneb processor will offer stiffer opposition.

I imagine where Intel and its partners have lost sleep, is in the main due to the unexpected economic downturn. Intel would have known it would have been a difficult task to sell the new i7 processor on the back of the Core 2 Duo /Quad. The Core 2 has been a great success, and it’s likely to be a great performer for some time to come. There is no new software or hardware on the horizon that is likely to bring the Core 2 Duo to its knees. In fact the i7 is unlikely to be fully utilized for at least 12 months. Yes it may have a more efficient memory controller, and it will outperform the Core 2, but it’s highly unlikely to hasten the Core 2 Duo’s march into the processor graveyard. It’s not just me who is a little underwhelmed by the arrival of the i7. Looking around the net I don’t see a great deal of excitement and chatter, which is not usually the case when a new technology has been released.

Most consumers recognize that buying at launch will get you the latest technology, and that this will at times come at the cost of temperamental setups, which require bios updates, and visits to various forums to identify incompatible hardware. Then there is the high price of the hardware. In the case of the i7 you not only have a new CPU, you also have a new chipset which requires a new motherboard, and the more expensive DDR3 RAM. Intel X58 motherboards are retailing for around £250-£300. Though to be fair to Intel the i7 920 (2.66Ghz) is reasonably priced when you consider the initial costs of the Core 2 Duo/Quad.

You would be hard pressed to imagine a worse scenario than the current financial crises Intel are faced with today. It was already going to be difficult to launch a high octane promotional campaign on the back of the success of the Core 2 Duo/Quad, but to drag out the dancing silver lab men in a big hurrah seems somewhat crass considering the economic malaise we find ourselves in.
I imagine Intel would have originally gone all guns blazing for the razzmatazz and ticker tape, but they are now faced with the option of appearing out of touch with the concerns of the common people. They could simply allowing the launch to go by with a reluctant shrug and half a smile and a tag line, “oh by the way you might like this, but if you are worried about your mortgage and making ends meet, your existing PC is probably going to be fine for the next 12 months.” A post modern ironic ad campaign with a sprinkling of reverse psychology it may well be, but it’s hardly going to set the world alight and spread confidence around the world of IT. And boy does the world need a little good news at the moment.

So having veered off into the realms of socio-economics, and my attempt to place the launch of the i7 CPU and X58 chipset in some sort of context, I will get on with the review. After all, that’s why you came to www.cpu3d.com

Part Two (The techie stuff)

Right from the off the packaging clearly conveys to the consumer a number of enhancements that will hopefully provide both performance and stability. In addition to the Hybrid Silent Pipe 2 cooling, and Ultra Durable™ 3 technology, Gigabyte claims that the combination of high quality Japanese capacitors and an extra layer of copper within the PCB, will result in higher stable overclocks.

Gigabyte also makes a point of espousing the energy saving virtues of the GA-EX58 Extreme and its 6 Gear Power Phase Switching. Theoretically this will allow the consumer to have more refined control over power usage, and thus reduce electricity costs, when all that is required is a little surfing or word processing.
However, the big selling point about the GA-EX58 is that it supports the new i7 CPU. Nehalem departs from its predecessor, in that instead of cobbling two duo core processors together, which was the solution for the Core 2 Quad (Kentsfield/Yorkfield), all four cores are on the same piece of silicon. The i7 is fabricated using 45nm technology. These approaches ought to lead to better thermal dynamics and lower voltages.

Intel has gone the route of AMD by incorporating an onboard memory controller. We say goodbye to Front Side Bus and hello to Intel® QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). Intel claims that QPI allows quicker access and shorter points between the processor and dedicated onboard memory. One processor can also borrow another’s unused memory when required. Click here if you wish to find out more about QuickPath Architecture.
In addition, we see a return of hyper threading, which means that the i7 is capable of running 8 separate processing threads. Firing up the Performance Tab in Task Manager reveals the potential for some serious folding. And another thing, Intel are also proud of the chips 8mb of Smart Cache.


The GA-EX58 supports the i7 processor, which requires the new LGA 1366 socket. So please don’t try and force your existing CPU into the GA-EX58. We also see the Intel® X58 Express chipset and its support for DDR3 tri Channel memory and 2 PCI-E x16 Gen 2.0 slots and 1 PCI-E x8 slot, which Gigabyte claims will allow you to install 3 way ATI CrossFireX™ and 3 way NVIDIA SLI™.

Gigabyte are hoping that the combination of high quality hardware and a flexible bios will allow the end user to push the performance envelope to the extreme. We have already seen how well the Asus P6T Deluxe (X58) motherboard did in allowing the i7 920 to be clocked to 4Ghz on air! Can the Gigabyte match or exceed this? OK, before we look at the benchmarks lets look at the specifications and features.