Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 Review

Board Features

If you are looking to get a high performance board that is great for overclocking, the Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 should be on your short list of boards to look at. This is one of the most stable boards for use in overclocking, and with the huge array of features, options, and connections, it will be an excellent base for your system.

The GA-EX38T-DQ6 supports all the latest Intel processors including Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme and Pentium. Using the Intel LGA 775 Chipset, the board supports front side bus speeds up to 1600MHz. The northbridge uses the Intel X38 Chipset, while the southbridge uses the Intel ICH8R Chipset. For memory, you will need the latest specification, DDR3, with support for up to DDR3 1900.

Onboard the Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 you get all of the following:

• 4 DIMM slots with support for up to 8GB memory
• Dual PCI-e 2.0 slots, both at x16 speeds
• Three PCI-e x1 slots
• Two PCI slots
• One IDE connection
• Eight SATA connections
• RAID support for SATA 0, 1, 5, and 10
• Realtek ALC889A 8 channel sound
• One Floppy drive connection

On the back of this board are a multitude of connections, with everything you could ask for and then some:

• PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports
• 8 USB ports
• Optical S/PDIF port
• Coaxial S/PDIF port
• 6 Audio port
• Dual IEEE 1394a ports
• 4 onboard USB ports for front panel connections
• Dual RJ-45 Network ports

The Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 heat pipe design does a great job of cooling the north and south bridges, as well as the mosfets. The board uses traditional case orientation, and gets its power through a 24 pin connection on the front of the board, and an 8 pin ATX12V near the rear edge. This setup allows for much better cable management and helps to keep the case much neater.

The same goes for the placement of the SATA and case connections, all along the bottom of the board. The placement of the PCI-e 2.0 x16 slots was also very well thought out. With today's graphics cards reaching 12 inches in length, it can be hard to find a motherboard that can handle these lengths without blocking portions of the board. The Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 achieves this. The only issue you may run into is that the DIMM latches are accessible, but harder to get to with a longer graphics card. Aside from that, running 2 long graphics cards in CrossFire SLI will not block any part of the motherboard that you will need access to.

Included with the board are a wide array of cables and breakout plates. You will get:

• 1 ATA and 1 Floppy cable
• 4 SATA cables
• 2 eSATA breakout plates for up to 4 external SATA drives
• 2 external 4 pin to SATA power adapters
• Driver DVD and instruction manual
• Back panel plate

Overclocking

This is another area that this board really stands out. The BIOS on this board was designed for enthusiasts and really stands out against the competition. It features:

FSB Frequency Options	100-700 MHz in 1MHz increments
DRAM Frequency Options	FSB Clock: 1.0, 1.2, 1.25, 1.33, 1.5, 1.6, 1.66, 2.0
PCIe Clock Options	90-150MHz in 1MHz increments
CPU VCore	0.50-1.60 - 2.35 volts
CPU FSB Voltage Options	1.20 - 1.55 in 0.05 increments
Northbridge Options	1.25 - 1.625 in 0.15 volt increments
DRAM Voltage	1.80 - 3.35 in .05 volt increments
CAS Latency Ranges	tCAS: 3-7, tRCD: 1-15, tRP: 1-15, tRAS: 1-31

Conclusion

The overclocking potential of this board make it a great choice for enthusiasts. The Gigabyte GA-EX38T-DQ6 is targeted at the gaming community, and its price tag shows that. This board is not what you would want in an office computer. It will perform quite well, but would be overkill. The GA-EX38T-DQ6 outperforms the older P35 chipset, but not by much. This is one thing you will want to take into consideration when buying a board. It does however support DDR3 memory, which gives it a leg up over the P35 boards. Overall, if you are looking to build a computer or upgrade your current one, this is definitely a board to consider.

Pros:

• Very stable board for overclocking.
• Support for high end processors.
• Huge array of connections and port.
• Support for DDR3 memory.

Cons:

• High price.
• Outperforms P35 chipset, but not by much.