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First Look: Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6

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Nature 11th September 2007, 06:47 Quote
Is pciE backwards compatible?

And I've yet to see a board with a built in steamer for milky latte's...
Mankz 11th September 2007, 08:08 Quote
That looks like one hell of a sweet board..
yakyb 11th September 2007, 09:04 Quote
i'd like to see crossfire performance on this please considering its full 16x16x lanes as opposed to the 16x4x of the p35 or 8x8x on the blitz formula a comparison between them would be very useful thanks
Tim S 11th September 2007, 09:05 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by yakyb
i'd like to see crossfire performance on this please considering its full 16x16x lanes as opposed to the 16x4x of the p35 or 8x8x on the blitz formula a comparison between them would be very useful thanks

We'll be looking at that when the chipset officially launches later this month. ;)
wuyanxu 11th September 2007, 09:10 Quote
Quote:
but the retail boards are working as expected and should be shipping very soon.
so within 1 or 2 weeks?

how is the temperature for this board? is this heat sink sufficient enough for X38 provided almost all other manufactures are putting half of a junk yard on theirs
cosmic 11th September 2007, 09:10 Quote
Very nice article and a good board although I am surprised that it is only the 2 X 16 slots that are PCIe 2 Is this a limitation of the Intel ICH9R Southbridge ?
naokaji 11th September 2007, 09:31 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuyanxu
so within 1 or 2 weeks?

how is the temperature for this board? is this heat sink sufficient enough for X38 provided almost all other manufactures are putting half of a junk yard on theirs

it doesnt run hot at all... atleast if logic applies.. my gigabyte p35 ds3r (and the p35 uses more power under load than the x38) "survives" without any chunky heatsink / heatpipe stuff.
Woodstock 11th September 2007, 09:37 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuyanxu
so within 1 or 2 weeks?

how is the temperature for this board? is this heat sink sufficient enough for X38 provided almost all other manufactures are putting half of a junk yard on theirs

check the last page of the review :p
Mother-Goose 11th September 2007, 09:39 Quote
To me the most important thing to look at here is how the DDR3 seems to have limited the performance increase rather than the chipset, so, as we see DDR3 evolve to the supper low latency stuff we have for DDR2, we should see a BIG jump in performance.

At least, that is what it looks like to me from those results, what do you lot think?

Very impressive board, and 8 (count'em) USB ports on the back? Cheesecake. I love it.
Woodstock 11th September 2007, 09:42 Quote
hmm, is it still a limit of "10" usb ports for x38 *looks at laptops pitiful 4 ports
Mother-Goose 11th September 2007, 10:55 Quote
woodstock, 12 usb for X38 according to the review.
Paradigm Shifter 11th September 2007, 11:00 Quote
I can't say that I have any major gripes about the layout... which is nice. Would be good to see those SATA connectors at 90* on the edge, though. :( And that many USB ports on the back... :D
cosmic 11th September 2007, 11:15 Quote
Having thought about this board a bit more, I have to say its not a very imaginative implementation

The 32 PCIe 2.0 lines give you the performance of 64 standard PCIe 1.0 lines. So Gigabyte could have taken the opportunity to give you 4 slots @ X8 of PCIe 2.0 each with the same capacity as X16 slots we are used too. Not sure anyone actually manges to max out those X16 slots so should not be a problem. Even 2 X12 slots and 2 X4 would be good for RAID implementation.

Need to think about this a bit more, all we are really seeing is a reworked P965 implementation without thought going into why people need all the power as 2 X32 PCIe 1.0 slots.
wuyanxu 11th September 2007, 11:44 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodstock
check the last page of the review :p
im just asking why has Gigabyte used so little cooling compared to Asus or Biostar (the external MOSFET cooler) for X38.
naokaji 11th September 2007, 11:46 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuyanxu
im just asking why has Gigabyte used so little cooling compared to Asus or Biostar (the external MOSFET cooler) for X38.

because there is absolutly no need for more... even whats on the gigabyte is overkill....
chrisb2e9 11th September 2007, 14:39 Quote
12 usb? has anyone ever actually needed that many? how many stupid usb devices like a cup warmer do you need to plug in?
naokaji 11th September 2007, 14:45 Quote
1. Keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Mp3 player
4. Digital camera
5. External HDD
6. Webcam
7. Printer
8. Additional Game cotroller (game pad and the likes)
9. Scanner
10. Cardreader
11. external tv tuner
12. spare to plug in your usb stick...

so.. if you belong into the category of lazy persons it would indeed be possible to use them all...
Renoir 11th September 2007, 15:05 Quote
Quote:
The Realtek ALC889A is an exclusive audio codec created for Gigabyte that contains the HDCP crypto-ROM required to allow Blu-ray or HD DVD to decode and play back the full range of HD audio including LPCM (Loss-less PCM). A standard audio codec such as ALC888 or 883 will not able to do this since they don’t have HDCP which leaves it only able to generate CD quality sound.
Interesting. According to this thread on avsforum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=892863 powerdvd downsamples any audio above 16/48 so whether the realtek codec supports hd audio or nor is irrelevant. Besides what has HDCP got to do with the transfer of audio from the app (powerdvd) to the sound card driver/DACs? HDCP is for use over HDMI/DVI. AIUI realtek having hdcp crypto rom would only be useful if they supported digital audio out via hdmi and even then the hdmi specs require that video be present if audio is to be used over hdmi. Suffice it to say I don't understand this part of the article and would be interested to know more.
Sprogz 11th September 2007, 15:37 Quote
I was a little concerned by the statement about CrazyCool restricting the use of certain CPU coolers. Given the size of almost ALL third-party CPU coolers and the fact that many of them require underside brackets to take the strain how are we suppose to air cool the CPU?

I was after this mobo when it's released and already have the Coolink Silentator (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821) CPU cooler waiting in the wings for when the mobo arrives but it now looks like it might not fit this mobo as I'm pretty sure it has an underside mobo bracket.
wuyanxu 11th September 2007, 17:24 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sprogz

I was after this mobo when it's released and already have the Coolink Silentator (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-000-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=821) CPU cooler waiting in the wings for when the mobo arrives but it now looks like it might not fit this mobo as I'm pretty sure it has an underside mobo bracket.

exact same position. i've already bought a pretty Zalman 9500 cooler, but it needs back-plate :( should have bought a Arctic Cooler pro 7

lucky, i have also bought a Tt Extreme Sprite 2, i was going to buy a 680i motherboard. so i can use screws from that on the stock northbridge HS. (and waste a perfectly good NB cooler :'( )
Sparrowhawk 11th September 2007, 18:24 Quote
"Unfortunately though, there is no on-board clear CMOS button so you have to delve into the depths of your dark case in the middle of your board to short some pins."

I find using an old power switch and it's associated header with a little modding can work well for this. You just have to route the wires somewhere unobtrusive?
Kipman725 11th September 2007, 18:33 Quote
"owever they need a greater drive current as they have a lower gate capacitance " other way round... higher gate capacitance results in needing higher drive currents. Think about it greater capacitance means more charge has to be transfered in the same period of time and thus the curents are greater. For fast switching aplications they can be pretty big!

I'm building a PWM ADC at the moment and it took me a while to find mosfets with low enough gate capacitance to be used for the logic ttl level shifting. (ended up using low current mosfet which is completly different to the usual high power ones but has nice low gate capacitance (40pF) but high RDS (25ohm) and low maximum current (8A instantanius peak, 0.35A continious). Some high power mosfets have gate capacitances as high as 2uF!
Sparrowhawk 11th September 2007, 18:50 Quote
Quick question for Tim... Perhaps it is because I have a headcold, but my spacial thinking just isn't up to snuff today. I can't tell from the pics why a cooler backplate can't fit. (Can one be modded to fit? )
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodstock
hmm, is it still a limit of "10" usb ports for x38 *looks at laptops pitiful 4 ports

Well, you could always do what this guy did... http://www.ultramobilegeek.com/2007/08/adding-internal-usb-and-internal.html
Woodstock 11th September 2007, 21:07 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuyanxu
im just asking why has Gigabyte used so little cooling compared to Asus or Biostar (the external MOSFET cooler) for X38.

sorry mis read what you meant
Jodiuh 11th September 2007, 21:22 Quote
Did I really read about the board's inability to accommodate the Tuniqs and Thermalrights of the world? Who the hell uses the plastic pins on a nice board like this? Thou shalt not V the board w/ that bs contraption!
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