Gigabyte 8IXEP i845E Review (1)
Overclocker 20 May 2002

In this competitive world, manufacturers need to be innovative and package their product to secure a share of the pie. Gigabyte is no different from the rest. Being one of the top tier manufacturers in Taiwan, Gigabyte has noticed the growing trend of overclocking and the need to integrate functionalities onto their mainboards. 

Gigabyte 8IXEP is one of the new products launched. Packaged in the newly designed reflective surface colour box, it catches the attention of potential consumers. On top of that, Gigabyte also included many new features onto this new baby. Some of the new features includes new overclocking features with a full range of FSB from 100 to 355Mhz at 1Mhz stepping, a new EasyTune 4. Other than that, it also supports 3 Firewire ports, USB2.0 etc. Promise ATA-133 RAID is also available for users who wish to set it up as a local disk server. Dual BIOS, Q-flash and @BIOS are readily available for easy updating of BIOS.

Well, with such a good feature set, 8IEXP will probably be one of the boards you should look miss. In the next few pages, we will take a look at the gallery followed by benchmarks.

GA-8IEXP Intel®845E AGPset
PROCESSOR
	Socket 478 for Intel® Micro FC-PGA2 Pentium® 4 processor in 478 pin package
	400/533 MHz FSB
	CPU multiplier: 8, 9...24 setting from BIOS
	CPU Host Frequency (MHz): 100~355 setting from BIOS
	CPU Vcore: 1.1V to 1.85V 30 scales setting by BIOS
CHIPSET
	Intel® 845E Chipset consists of Intel® Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and the Intel® I/O Controller Hub 2 (ICH2)
	USB 2.0, Promise ATA133 w/ RAID chip and Realtek LAN PHY
	Creative CT5880 5.1-channel audio chip
	ITE I/O chip and Winbond Smart @I/O chip
MEMORY(DDR)
	3 x 184-pin DDR DIMMs support up to 2GB of DDR 200/266 memory
	Supports 64 bits data interface, 2.5V DIMM DRAM and ECC DIMM
	DDR frequence overclock setting from BIOS (based on Host/DRAM clock ratio)
	DDR over-voltage setting (2.5V~2.8V) from BIOS
SLOT
	1 x AGP 4X slot (1.5V only) and AGP 2.0 compliant Read first!!
	AGP over-voltage setting 1.5V~1.8V from BIOS
	6 x PCI slots support 33MHz and PCI 2.2 compliant
	1 x CNR (Communication Network Riser) slot
I/O
	IDE1,IDE2 provide IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO mode 3,4 and Bus Master (Ultra DMA33/ATA66/ATA100) operation mode
	IDE 3,IDE4 provide RAID 0 or 1 with ATA133/100 Bus Master operation mode
	1 x FDD, 2 x COM, 1 x LPT, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse on board
	1 x Joystick, 1 x Line-in, 1 x Line-out and 1 x MIC on board
	4 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 1.1 by cable and 2 x USB 1.1 on board
	IrDA TX / RX header, RJ45 LAN port and case open function
	Memory Stick, Security Digital and Smart Card header
POWER
	ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
	Power-on by LAN, RTC, Modem and switch
	Power-off by Windows® 95/98/Me/2000/NT/XP shut down and switch
	Supports USB device wake up
FORM FACTOR
	ATX form factor, 4 layers PCB (30.6 x 24.4 cm)
H/W MONITORING
	CPU/System fan revolution detect; CPU fan control
	System voltage detect
	CPU overheat warning
BIOS
	Supports Multi-language BIOS, DualBIOS™ , @BIOS™ and Q-Flash utility
	FWH(Firm Ware Hub) BIOS with enhanced ACPI feature for PC98/Win98/Me/Win2000/XP compliance, Green, PnP, DMI, INT13 (>8.4GB) and Anti-Virus functions
	IDE#1~#2, SCSI, LS120, ZIP and CD-ROM bootable
	Auto-detect and report system health status
OTHER FEATURES
	Suspend-To-RAM (STR); Supports Wake-On-LAN (WOL)
	Supports Internal / External Modem Ring On
	Includes 3 fan power connectors
	Poly fuse for keyboard over-current protection
DRIVER
	Gigabyte Windows Utility Manager
	Intel® LDCM® utility, Intel® IAA driver
	CT5880 audio driver; Promise ATA133/RAID driver, USB 2.0 driver

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