Gigabyte DES X48T-DQ6 Motherboard Review

Established in 1986 as a research and development company, Gigabyte employs 8500 people around the world, and over the last 22 years has morphed into a company that makes motherboards and graphics processors. To reach a wider audience Gigabyte expanded their product line to include notebook desktop PC’s, digital home appliances, network servers, communications, mobile handheld devices, and even power supplies. This expansion ensures that Gigabyte is integrated into every facet of digital life at the home front and the workplace. With so much going on, its no wonder that Gigabyte claims that they have motherboards in 1 out of every 10 PC’s in the world.

Today we check out Gigabyte's newest enthusiast motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6. INTEL's X48 chipset is the much anticipated follow up to the X38 chipset, which in turn was the much anticipated follow up to INTEL's hugely successful P35 chipset. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or industry insider to know that many in the enthusiast community are less than thrilled about the "marginal" improvements during the progression of chipsets, especially considering the prices that some of these motherboards are going for (well in excess of $300). Looking to give users a bit more bang for their buck, Gigabyte boasts Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) technology in their new X48 offering.

PRODUCT	Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard
CPU SUPPORT	INTEL LGA775 Intel Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, Pentium 4, Celeron Processors 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB Supports HT Technology Supports Intel 45nm processors
CHIPSET	Northbridge: INTEL X48 Southbridge: INTEL ICH9R
MEMORY	Dual-Channel DDR3 memory architecture Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets support up to 8GB DDR3 1900 (OC)/1600/1333/1066/800 MHz
EXPANSION SLOTS	Two PCI Express x16 slot (Supports Crossfire) Three PCI-E x1 slots (share with the PCI-E x16 #2 slot) Two PCI 2.0 slots
STORAGE	ICH9R Southbridge: Six SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 GIGABYTE SATA2: One IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices Two SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATAIIA, GSATAIIB) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD iTE IT8718: One floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
AUDIO	Realtek ALC889A codec
LAN	Realtek 8111C chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
REAR I/O PANEL	One PS/2 keyboard port One PS/2 mouse port One coaxial S/PDIF Out connector One optical S/PDIF Out connector Eight USB 2.0/1.1 ports Two IEEE 1394a ports Two RJ-45 port Six audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
INTERNAL I/O HEADERS	One floppy disk drive connector One IDE connector Six SATA 3Gb/s connectors One CPU fan header Two system fan headers One power fan header One North Bridge fan header One CD In connector One S/PDIF In header One S/PDIF Out header Two USB 2.0/1.1 headers One IEEE 1394a header One parallel port header One serial port header One power LED header One chassis intrusion header
SYSTEM BIOS	Supports QuadBIOS Two 8 Mbit flash ROM Use of licensed AWARD BIOS PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 1.0b.
FORM FACTOR	ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
WARRANTY	3 yr Warranty
CURRENT PRICING	Current Price

Bundle

A fairly basic board considering the DQ6 moniker, which is Gigabyte's Ultra enthusiast offering. Aside from the manual, quick install guide, and driver/software disk, you'll get a pair of PCI slot based e-SATA adapters, and that's about it.