Upcoming Gigabyte Features in P45 Boards

[[XC] gomeler]

During Gigabyte’s Spring Break they presented a slideshow to us, highlighting upcoming technologies in their P45 launch. P45 really will be a remarkable chipset but not due to the actual chipset performance itself but the features that come with it. Gigabyte has a slew of features that’ll be a part of their P45 series boards, some pertinent to overclockers and some to the average consumer. What I find most impressive about this entire slideshow though is the focus Gigabyte has turned towards the enthuasiast sector.

If the slideshow above doesn’t work, feel free to visit the Flickr photoset. Below I’ve listed a few of the notable features along with precisely what they mean to the user. Gigabyte seems to have really turned it’s attention towards the enthuasiast sector which is great news, hopefully this will yield even better boards. Most importantly though, Gigabyte has openly admitted its lacking of BIOS options and has moved to fix this inadequacy. I think in about two weeks I should have a board to play with just to showcase what P45 will be capable of providing to the community. It may seem I’m hyping up this launch but honestly the difference between P35 and P45 was enough to make my heart skip a few beats. This is no simple X38 to X48 launch, this is similar to P965 to P35.

* Ultra Durable 2 - higher quality components for lower PWM temps and higher efficiencies
* Ultra TPM - onboard encryption support for file security
* Gigabyte Smart Backup - hardware RAID for driver-less RAID support
* Overvoltage Control - finer voltage adjustment options, 20mV minimum steps
* Memory Tweaking - Strap AND Divider options separated, plenty of sub-timings to tweak
* Onboard Diagnostic LED - when an overclock fails, an LED near the failed component lights
* 4 Gigabit Ethernet Ports - perfect for LAN server support, network ganging and CPU load balancing
* Dolby Home Theater - everyone needs sweet jams

Source: Gomeler.com - Upcoming Gigabyte P45 Technologies and Features


There is a Flickr slideshow in the original article with all the features, click-through to check it out. P45 should be quite interesting, I don't know what I anticipate more, the chispset or the accompanying features. Check out the slides as the list is brief.

[Warboy]

Why do you need four gigabit ports???

[naokaji]

sounds good, I hope the boards will live up to expectations, the following part almost violates the no pr0n rule:

Strap AND Divider options separated, plenty of sub-timings to tweak

[[XC] gomeler]

Why do you need four gigabit ports???

I actually wouldn't mind 4 gigabit ports, hello smoothwall router. Otherwise it'd be rather nice for a large LAN server. Have it driving 4 large switches and the computer acting as a central server and file host. For the average consumer though.. why not?

[Richard Dower]

Gigabyte Smart Backup - hardware RAID for driver-less RAID support

This is clearly based around the Silicion Image SiI5723 chipset...and the same as what Asus are doing with there P45 board, overall it looks promising and there is enough changes to the PCB to make me want to buy.

What the hell is Ultra TPM?....is there an onboard chip or just some bios based password protection?

[Richard Dower]

2048bit Infineon TPM chip onboard?

[[XC] gomeler]

2048bit Infineon TPM chip onboard?

[Richard Dower]

I was wondering why GB removed the TPM header from the mobo, and what the hell the "Clear TPM" thing was about. It's the same as clearing/shorting the bios...so it's hardware based with an onboard chip + bios based and also USB flash drive based....cool.

I guess GB will be updating Q-Flash then as well.

[Richard Dower]

You'd think since the EP45-DQ6 is the highest end they would change the heatpipe layout to reflect this, make it different/better then the lower end models.

[[XC] gomeler]

You'd think since the EP45-DQ6 is the highest end they would change the heatpipe layout to reflect this, make it different/better then the lower end models.

Well a few things confuse me. What you've mentioned along with the PCB layouts between the DS4/5 and the DQ6. While P45 is limited on PCIe lanes, I feel the DQ6 should have 3 PCIe slots while the DS4/5 should have 2 PCIe lanes however this is all reversed I think with all 3 slots populated the board goes to 8x/8x/4x but not positive, might be 8x/4x/1x? either way a tri-fire able board is a necessary part of the lineup, as silly as that may seem.

[Richard Dower]

The IDT chip is either adding additional lanes or changing the speed of the lanes, One 16x electrical slot + an 8x eletrcial slot, two 4x slots...the IDT chip is supposed to convert a 16x slot into two 8x, and also converting down to 4x times two?, i'm confused by the whole PCi-E lanes myself and if the IDT chip is *adding* additonal lanes or just altering the speed of whats available, i'd say the latter.

[Swatrecon_]

That diagnostic LED sounds pretty sweet.

[largon]

I wonder how long it will take until Gigabyte revises the appearance of their motherboards...
I personally don't care about colors - I had a GB 965P-DS4 while back - but I'm pretty sure lots of people are put back by the kindgarden color scheme found on Gigabyte boards.

[Richard Dower]

GB should move to socketed bios chips

[[XC] gomeler]

GB should move to socketed bios chips

Meh, I've never heard of anyone corrupting both BIOS chips. The backup BIOS is never touched, so while it does suck when it recovers to an older BIOS if you've flashed, it's nice that it is always available for a clean backup.

[Neuuubeh]

I dont see something uber new and exciting myself, but I do looove how people "title" their features..

* Ultra Durable 2 - higher quality components for lower PWM temps and higher efficiencies
* Ultra TPM - onboard encryption support for file security

maybe on the p55 boards its gonna be Mega? or hyper? :P

Also, what have finer 20mV voltage steps to do with "Overvoltage control". Guess Im reading it wrong..
thought overvoltage control would be some "Ultra" regulator preventing spikes..

Still, doesnt look bad

[[XC] gomeler]

I dont see something uber new and exciting myself, but I do looove how people "title" their features..

* Ultra Durable 2 - higher quality components for lower PWM temps and higher efficiencies
* Ultra TPM - onboard encryption support for file security

maybe on the p55 boards its gonna be Mega? or hyper? :P

Also, what have finer 20mV voltage steps to do with "Overvoltage control". Guess Im reading it wrong..
thought overvoltage control would be some "Ultra" regulator preventing spikes..

Still, doesnt look bad

Heh, I just copied the labels directly from the slides as it was meant to be a summary of the slides. Asian marketing can be pretty funny though, look no further than Asus ROG board titles

[Neuuubeh]

Heh, I just copied the labels directly from the slides as it was meant to be a summary of the slides. Asian marketing can be pretty funny though, look no further than Asus ROG board titles

Indeed . It gets even funnier when you see some Korean posters for say a Warcraft 3 (guess they still play it there?) match - looks exactly the same as Mortal Kombat 2 screenies looked like 15 years ago

I didnt want it to come off as a critique to your log

PS on that topic, how does "network ganging" sound to ya Isnt it called teaming? or is that something else

[Polizei]

Onboard Diagnostic LED - when an overclock fails, an LED near the failed component lights

I like...

[[XC] NetburstXE]

I love the dual BIOS. I've killed multiple boards with bad BIOS flashes.

[[XC] gomeler]

Indeed . It gets even funnier when you see some Korean posters for say a Warcraft 3 (guess they still play it there?) match - looks exactly the same as Mortal Kombat 2 screenies looked like 15 years ago

I didnt want it to come off as a critique to your log

PS on that topic, how does "network ganging" sound to ya Isnt it called teaming? or is that something else

Doh! I couldn't remember the term, teaming or ganging, I thought ganging was the right guess. Those Gigabit ports will be ganging on up some people while in a teaming function

[itznfb]

4 ethernet ports is good for:
network teaming
network load balancing
network zoning
subnetting
dedicated ports for vmware
up/down

soo many reason to have 4 ports

[YukonTrooper]

Hopefully they can keep it up. Gigabyte has been on a roll for a few years with good products.