Intel 845E Motherboard Roundup - August 2002

Gigabyte 8IEXP

When engineering the 8IEXP, Gigabyte really hit the nail on the head. Let's start shall we…

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First up, Gigabyte includes both USB 2.0 and 1394a (FireWire) support, which is always a good combination if you're into external devices like camcorders and digital cameras. There's also all the FireWire and USB 2.0 ports you could ever want.

Mistakenly perhaps, Gigabyte decided to go with the Promise PDC20276 RAID controller. Yes, this is the same controller we have complained about in the past due to the fact that it has a fixed stripe size of 32K. This RAID controller supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays.

Gigabyte decided to skip the 845E's integrated LAN and sound capabilities and go instead with Intel 82562ET LAN and Creative SoundBlaster CT5880 sound.

Another nice feature the 8IEXP brings to the table is a Dual BIOS, where one BIOS acts as a backup to the other, primary BIOS. This is certainly a nice feature to have in case you flash your primary BIOS incorrectly.

The 8IEXP is one of the most flexible 845E overclocking boards available on the market today. Gigabyte has included their very own patented overclocking utility, named EasyTune 4. Using EasyTune 4, you're able to do linear, asynch, or divider adjustments of memory, FSB, AGP, and PCI devices. Voltages for Vcore, Vdimm, and AGP are all adjustable in Windows through EasyTune 4. For more information on EasyTune 4, visit Gigabyte's website.

In addition to all of this, you can adjust your AGP/PCI buses in 1MHz intervals anywhere from 33MHz/66MHz to 50MHz/100MHz in the BIOS, and thankfully there's an AGP/PCI lock which should be thrilling for all those overclockers out there. In addition, you can adjust your FSB all the way up to a staggering 355MHz through the BIOS.

The 8IEXP also comes with a bunch of nice extras as well, including a 3-port FireWire header and a 4-port USB 2.0 header.

The general layout of the 8IEXP isn't bad either. It would be ideal if the 20-pin ATX connector were vertically situated over the top right-hand side of the DIMM slots, but so far the ABIT IT7 has been the only board of the bunch to accomplish this feat. Gigabyte is almost able to get the 20-pin ATX connector positioned high enough, but not quite Besides the ATX connector, everything else is laid out cleanly and simply. We like the fact that Gigabyte decided to add a retention hook to the AGP slot (a good feature for OEMs and System Integrators that must ship boxes or if you simply travel a lot).

Stressing the 8IEXP

Under stock speeds and SPD settings, we were able to complete all Prime95 torture tests after approximately 24 hours of testing. Turning on the aggressive timings in the BIOS (2, 2, 2, 5) couldn't stop the 8IEXP from completing its tasks. As usual, we filled all 3 banks with DDR266 memory and watched to see if any issues would crop up. Luckily enough, nothing sporadic occurred, the 8IEXP passed every stess test we threw at it.

The Gigabyte 8IEXP goes for about $135 in the U.S. depending on your location.