• Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R: Energy Efficient Mobo

    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R: Energy Efficient Mobo

    Jayesh Limaye, Jun 04, 2009 1858 hrs IST

    Gigabyte promises lower power consumption with a two-ounce copper PCB

    Supports 1600 MHz 45 nm Intel processors and PCIe 2.0, excellent overclocking support, power saving DES Advanced, good components, eSATA/SATA brackets, 2 Ounce copper PCB

    Expensive, no additional brackets for additional ports

    Expert Rating :
    Rating
    mail share

Expert Review

  Previous   next

 


Layout and Features



The GA-EP45-UD3R has a full ATX form factor and you therefore need a full size cabinet to accommodate it. As is the fashion these days, and due to the higher amount of heat dissipated by chipsets, this motherboard has a stylish blue large heat sinks to cool things off. The layout is good and appears well thought out to enable ease of installation of different peripherals and PC components.



Due to the lack of onboard graphics, you have to install a PCIe graphics card, thus rendering at least one PCIe x1 slot useless. The two PCI slots are useful to install add-in cards such as sound card and TV Tuner. The Southbridge is cooled passively by a small copper heat sink. There are two case fan connectors (in addition to the CPU fan connector) to let you connect case cooling fans.



The motherboard has a blue Northbridge heat sink with a silent pipe cooling design that extends at right angles around the CPU, covering the power MOSFETs. This is a good decision by Gigabyte because these power MOSFETs dissipate heat and the cooling will go a long way into extending their life.


 


Gigabyte advertises Ultra Durable 3 on the motherboard with a prominent sticker, what this means in reality is that the motherboard sports lower RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite Core chokes and lower ESR solid capacitor to reduce the overall power consumption, lower the heating and extend the longevity of the motherboard. Installing a large heat sink on the CPU is not a problem as there is enough free space around. There is even a smaller heat sink to cool the additional power circuitry.



One other (minor) problem with the Northbridge heat sink is that it obstructs the first PCIe x1 slot. Though there are not many cards that can use this slot, some soundcards are available such as the ASUS Xonar and can extend as far as the heat sink.

Follow Techtree on Twitter

  Previous   next

Do you agree with this Review?
YesNo

Up

5

Down

1

Related Links
Gigabyte's Intel Based Motherboard
Gigabyte Intros First AM3 DDR3 Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P [Review]
Tag keywords
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R review motherboard Gigabyte two-ounce copper PCB P45-based motherboard



Discussion Board
(1) Comments
Amit Kumar
,DALMIANAGAR, on Jan 26, 2010 06:25 PM
I am Amit Kumar and I am interested Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R. But my budget is just 6.5K. I am saving little more so that i could get it as soon as possible. I would like to know more about this board. And the best DX11 Graphics from Nvidia to complement this board. Trancend AXE 1200+ CL5 DDR2 Ram is compatible with it.?? I got nvidia GeForce 8400GS PCI-E 6x card is it still capable to attached with this card.
Report abuse

Opinion Poll