ECS P45T-A Intel P45 Chipset Motherboard Review

Features and Specifications

CPU   LGA775 socket for latest Intel® Yorkfield/ Wolfdale/ Conroe/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo/ Pentium Dual Core/ Celeron Dual Core/ Celeron 4xx processor   FSB 1333/1066/800 MHz   CHIPSET   Intel® Eaglelake P45 & ICH10R   North Bridge: Intel® Eaglelake P45   South Bridge: Intel® ICH10R   MEMORY   Dual-channel DDR2 memory architecture   4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 16GB   Support DDR2 800/667 DDR2 SDRAM   EXPANSION SLOT   2 x PCI Express x16 slots   When using two VGA cards, the bandwidth is @8 badnwidth; when using one VGA card, the bandwodth is @16.   2 x PCI Express x1 slots   2 x PCI slots   STORAGE   Support by Intel® ICH10R    6 x Serial ATAII 3.0Gb/s devices   (Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 ICH10R)   Support by JMB 361   1 x IDE channel support 2 Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices    1 x eSATA   AUDIO   Realtek ALC883 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio codec   LAN   Gigabit LAN, Atheros L1 PCIe GigaLAN controller   REAR PANEL I/O   1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors   6 x USB ports   1 x RJ45 LAN connector   1 x Audio port   1 x Serial port (COM1)   1 x Externel SATA connector   INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS   CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors   1 x IDE connector   1 x FDD connector   1 x Speaker header   1 x SPDIF out header   6 x Serial ATA connectors   1 x Front panel switch/LED header   1 x Front panel audio header   1 x CD in header   3 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 6 USB ports   1 x Power button/1 x Reset button   SYSTEM BIOS   AMI BIOS with 8Mb SPI Flash ROM   Supports Plug and Play, STR/STD, Hardware monitor, PCI interrupt selection, ACPI & DMI, CPU FSB adjustment (increase of 1MHz)   Audio, LAN, can be disabled in BIOS   F11 hot key for boot up devices option   CPU voltage adjustable   Memory voltage adjustable   Support over-clocking   FORM FACTOR   ATX Size, 305mm*244mm Core 2 Quad The new Core2 Quad processor combines two dual-core chips in a single package that plugs into a single chip socket. It enables even more multitasking with greater performance. Bring users experience system .performance featuring faster speed. Intel® Core2 Extreme With the Core2 processor family, the extreme version gets a higher clock speed, larger caches and a faster FSB. The high-end processor features the latest arsenal of performance-rich technologies. FSB1333 Supports the latest 1333MHz front side bus Intel®Processor Dual Channel DDR2 800 Doubles the bandwidth of your system memory up to 12.8GB/s and pumps up the system performance. eSATA The signal quality and the Max cable length is 2x longer than the conventional one. It also supports external HDD hot plug and keyed connector end for fool-proof. RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 Supports RAID 0(Striped disk array), RAID 1(Mirroring disk array), RAID 5(Block Interleaved Distributed Parity), RAID 10 (A Stripe of Mirrors). Provides users the performance and protection. SATAII 3.0Gb/s Doubles the transfer speed of SATA, running at speed up to 3.0Gb/s, and fully compatible with the soon-to-be-released SATA HDD, CD-ROM and other cutting-edge devices with NCQ function support. Gigabit LAN Delivers transfer speed ten times faster than conventional 10/ 100 Ethernet connections, supporting a high transfer rate up to Gigabit/s. Gigabit LAN is the networking standards for the future and is ideal for handing large amount of data such as video, audio, and voice. 8 Channel High Definition Audio Integrated 8-channel HD Audio CODEC delivering advanced multi-channel audio and bringing you the experience of home theater-quality sound. PCI EXPRESS 2.0 The exceptionally increased interconnect bit rate from 2.5GT/s up to 5.0GT/s would effectively eliminates the bottle neck of the system performance and brings the most terrific computing experience from the present to the future. M.I.B Motherboard Intelligent BIOS, integrated all the overclocking functions into one page. It provides the most intelligent and convenient way to adjust the clock/ voltage settings of CPU and memory. Users can easily get the extra performance with this innovative utility Certified For Windows Vista The latest generation Microsoft O.S., delivers better personal productivity and digital entertainment on your PC through its improved reliability, security, and performance. ATI CrossFire X The technology not only combines multi-GPU and motherboard power that soars into a new dimension of graphics capability, but also delivers the highest image quality and screen resolutions, even with the most demanding 3D titles.

Once again the feature list is pretty standard fare for a P45 based product. The only discrepancy that stands out is that most P45 based motherboards support at least FSB1600MHz/ DDR2 1066 speeds, the P45T-A only lists support for FSB1333/DDR2 800 speeds respectively. We will explore in the testing section, if any performance deviance can be detected, from the slightly handicapped stock memory bandwidth.