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Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
A Closer Look:
The GA-EP45-DS3R is a full ATX board with the P45 North Bridge and ICH10R South Bridge chipsets. It supports the latest 45nm Penryn Intel chips along with a 1600MHz FSB. The dual PCI express x16 slots (one running at x16, the other at x8) means you will be able to run 2 ATI cards in CrossFireX if you so choose.
Some of our more observant readers may have notice that the actual motherboard says it supports 1200MHz DDR2 while the spec sheet on a prior page says it supports 1333MHz DDR2. This was not a typo. As of the F9 BIOS revision (there is now a F10 as of writing, to resolve some stability issues), this motherboard now supports 1200MHz DDR2 RAM and the ability to overclock it to 1333MHz. This is a nice touch that helps get more features out of the product without any additional cost; and everyone likes more for their money.
Capacitors:
One of the nice features of this motherboard that people may take for granted is that all of the capacitors are solid state. Many technicians that work in computer repair shops know that one of the main causes of motherboard failure is leaky electrolytic capacitors. Solid state capacitors help to eliminate this problem and greatly increase the life span of the motherboard. In the pictures of the motherboard the solid state capacitors are the purple things sticking up.
Double the Bandwith, Double the Fun:
Dual gigabit ports are not uncommon in newer mainstream motherboards. In the server motherboard space, this in the norm. While some mainstream motherboards may have dual gigabit ports, they don't offer a feature called "Link Aggregation," and this is where the GA-EP45-DS3R shines. Link Aggregation allows you to combine the bandwith of the two ethernet ports and treat them as a single connection. This is especially useful for setting up a budget file server or a home theater PC.
Too Close For Comfort:
One thing that I didn't really care for about this motherboard is the placement of the DIMM slots in relation to the PCI Express slot.
The way everything is oriented, you have to remove the top graphics card in order to swap out any of the RAM. This is just poor design layout, and shouldn't affect any hardware operability.
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