Gigabyte G45 motherboard out

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:43 am

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128353

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:06 pm

Just beware the x4 only PCIe expansion slot if you were considering adding discrete graphics.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:16 pm

PCIE x4???? That's what you get when you pay $140?

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:52 pm

I really hope nVidia doesn't leave the chipset business... Intel chipset prices are high enough as it is!

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:58 am

With G45 you get low power consumption, hardware accelerated video decoding, and good gpu performance (for integrated graphics) (massive improvement on integrated chipsets for intel), while working with intel processors (advantage over AMD 780G). Well worth the price and the wait IMO.
I posted the Gigabyte because it is the first decent board out.
The intel micro-atx and mini-itx boards look better to my eyes but are not yet out.

AussieHusky · Post by **AussieHusky** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 6:23 am

Im assuming its PCI-E 2.0, Meaning that an x8 slot is the equivilant to an x16 slot, And if you go to the product page they list all the graphics cards it is compatiable with, which is a very big selection.

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:46 am

"while working with intel processors "

that is the only advantage I can see. And compared to the AMD 5400BE now at Newegg I don't know if that is as much of an advantage to me in regards to price/performance.
I would wait for the 790GX.
IMHO, YMMV

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:09 pm

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/news/news ... -us0000223

I hope you don't consider this as thread hijack as we are basically talking about HDTV motherboards, but you gotta check this out.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 12:28 pm

I wouldn't touch Foxconn with a 10-foot pole though..
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 25/1150218

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:54 pm

AussieHusky wrote:Im assuming its PCI-E 2.0, Meaning that an x8 slot is the equivilant to an x16 slot, And if you go to the product page they list all the graphics cards it is compatiable with, which is a very big selection.

I wouldn't assume given that their other boards specs state if the slots conform to PCIe 2.0 standard i.e.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mothe ... 750SLI-DS4

The Asus G45 board clearly states it has a full PCIe 2.0 x16 slot.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:12 pm

Greg F. wrote:"while working with intel processors "
that is the only advantage I can see. And compared to the AMD 5400BE now at Newegg I don't know if that is as much of an advantage to me in regards to price/performance.
I would wait for the 790GX.
IMHO, YMMV

I don't think the 5400BE will give a low-power system. People who on an extremely tight budget (extremly since a G45 motherboard plus E5400/E7200 processor is hardly an expensive combination) or who don't care about performance beyond hd video functionality may want to consider 780G/790G plus a low-end preferably undervolted processor.
See http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=751&p=7. To get the E7200 level of performance you need a considerably higher-power AMD processor.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:34 pm

croddie wrote: I don't think the 5400BE will give a low-power system. People who on an extremely tight budget (extremly since a G45 motherboard plus E5400/E7200 processor is hardly an expensive combination) or who don't care about performance beyond hd video functionality may want to consider 780G/790G plus a low-end preferably undervolted processor.
See http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=751&p=7. To get the E7200 level of performance you need a considerably higher-power AMD processor.

Um...a $140 G45 board, vs a $90 780G? That's hardly an inexpensive difference to people on a budget. Sure, you need an AMD cpu that has a higher power draw to match any of the Core 2's, but so what? if they compete on price, and you get approximately similar performance for the same price, so what?

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:15 pm

I was assuming that power consumption is a major concern since this is a forum for silent computers.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:50 am

croddie wrote:I was assuming that power consumption is a major concern since this is a forum for silent computers.

The AMD consumed 17W more at load? I know we pinch watts here, but 17W at load, the cooling requirement isn't going to turn a quiet computer into a noise machine.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:32 am

17W is more than "pinching watts", not that this number is particularly relevant. The E7200 consumes 20W at load, E5400 presumably less.
Low-power processors allow fewer/slower fans, inc psu fan, make passive cooling easier, and make using external psus like the picopsu easier.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:44 am

croddie wrote:17W is more than "pinching watts", not that this number is particularly relevant. The E7200 consumes 20W at load, E5400 presumably less.
Low-power processors allow fewer/slower fans, inc psu fan, make passive cooling easier, and make using external psus like the picopsu easier.

If I was on a budget, 17W wouldn't stop me, that's all I'm saying. My CPU uses almost 60W fully loaded, and I can easily passively cool it. Low power is great, but it doesn't justify spending $140 on a motherboard.

Monkeh16 · Post by **Monkeh16** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:59 am

Lawrence Lee wrote:I really hope nVidia doesn't leave the chipset business... Intel chipset prices are high enough as it is!

I hope they do. Their chipsets aren't exactly brilliant. Only recently have they semi-uncrippled their USB support.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 12:21 pm

So, this board has a PCIE 2.0 x4 slot, basically equivalent to an x8 PCIE 1.1 slot? Wouldn't high end video cards see a performance hit here?

yuu · Post by **yuu** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:36 pm

it is bottlenecked by the DMI(Pcie4x 1.0) between NB/SB and shares bandwidth with everithing else.

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:54 pm

croddie wrote:17W is more than "pinching watts", not that this number is particularly relevant. The E7200 consumes 20W at load, E5400 presumably less.
Low-power processors allow fewer/slower fans, inc psu fan, make passive cooling easier, and make using external psus like the picopsu easier.

My Biostar 8200 uses a cpu fan that turns at less than 600rpm and a Scythe slipstream that turns at about 800. Other than the psu that's it. It's all pretty quiet. I don't think I would want a cpu to run totally passive. I have done it in my Abit, but I feel better with a low rpm fan.
The $90 AMD 5400BE should OC 25% if needed and do it quietly with balanced power. With the 790G I don't think that OC is even needed for HD.
I am just saying that I think the Intel E's are great precessors, but I prefer Nvidia or AMD integrated video until I know more about the G45.
Where I live, PacNW USA, we have some of the cheapest electricity in the world.

line · Post by **line** » Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:43 am

So, this board has a PCIE 2.0 x4 slot

The slot is routed through the ICH10R southbridge so it supports only PCI-E 1.1 mode. It is also bottlenecked by the chipset interconnect, as yuu said above.

rozia · Post by **rozia** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:58 am

Is this board a good choice for low-power HTPC / file server? What about these alternatives:
- ASUS P5Q-EM?
- Intel DG45ID?

I plan on using an underclocked E8400/E8500 + 4GB RAM +3x WD Green Power 750GB drives on RAID5.

line · Post by **line** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 12:26 pm

rozia, welcome to SPCR.

From a power consumption standpoint, all three boards should be equal. Anand and Gary have covered them in detail here:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3417

Their favorite is the P5Q-EM.

If you can hold off a few days I suggest you to wait for the Nvidia MCP7A launch on the 15th. The upcoming boards based on that chipset could end up cheaper, more powerful and more efficient than the G45 boards. See this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=50090

rozia · Post by **rozia** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:16 pm

Thanks for informative answer.

I will wait for NVidia chipset to see how it compares, although I have to admit I have a strong affinity for Intel products.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:23 am

rozia wrote:Thanks for informative answer.

I will wait for NVidia chipset to see how it compares, although I have to admit I have a strong affinity for Intel products.

The lowest power G45 board is the DG45FC. See the SPCR review; very impressive power consumption. As an HTPC you should be aware that G45 does not currently support standard directx video acceleration; it supports a modifed version only available to certain commercial software companies, so if you don't plan to use one of the main commercial video players you should bear that in mind.

Gigabyte G45 motherboard out

Gigabyte G45 motherboard out

no x16 PCIe

790GX is OUT!