Introduction

Gigabyte was one of the first two computer hardware companies that I was aware of, along with Kingston memory. More than a decade before I decided to build my own rig, I had seen Gigabyte's name associated with motherboards. They have been around since 1986, the dawn of the era of the PC.

Which is why I was rather surprised that Gigabyte really wasn't a preferred board when I joined the enthusiast-builder world during the Socket A era. A few companies emerged as the preferred brand for the overclocker, and Gigabyte wasn't one of them. But they really jumped ahead when they produced among the very first enthusiast Socket 939 boards, and are now one of the two top upper-end motherboard producers on pretty much everyone's list in the Intel Core 2 world.

Today I will be looking at my first Gigabyte motherboard, the X48T-DQ6. This board is presently Gigabyte's flagship motherboard. It sports a ton of features, natively supports DDR3-1900 memory and 1600FSB, along with CrossfireX, and looks sharp to boot. Will the Gigabyte board end my current love affair with motherboards by a four-letter word? Read on to see.

Specifications

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Extreme processor
Intel Core 2 Quad processor
Intel Core 2 Duo processor
Intel Pentium processor Extreme Edition
Intel Pentium D processor
Intel Pentium 4 processor Extreme Edition
Intel Pentium 4 processor
Intel Celeron processor in the LGA 775 package
- Supports 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB

Chipset:
- North Bridge: Intelr X48 Chipset
- South Bridge: Intelr ICH9R

Memory:
- 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 8 GB of system memory
- Dual channel memory architecture
- Support for DDR3 1900/1600/1333/1066/800/667MHz, ECC, non ECC memory modules.

Audio:
- Realtek ALC889A codec High Definition Audio
- 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
- DTS (dts NEO:PC)
- S/PDIF In/Out

LAN: Realtek 8111C chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Expansion Slots:
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots
- 3 x PCI Express x1 slots (the second PCI-E x 16 slot also doubles as an x1 slot)
- 2 x PCI slots

Storage InterfaceSouth Bridge:
- 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4, SATAII5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
- 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATAIIA, GSATAIIB) supporting 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD

iTE IT8718 chip: 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting 1 floppy disk drive

IEEE 1394:
- T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
- Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394 bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394 header)

USB:
- Integrated in the South Bridge
- Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

Back Panel Connectors:
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
- 1 x PS/2 mouse port
- 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
- 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
- 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 2 x IEEE 1394a ports
- 2 x RJ-45 port
- 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

I/O Controller: iTE IT8718 chip

H/W Monitoring:
- System voltage detection
- CPU/System temperature detection
- CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
- CPU overheating warning
- CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
- CPU fan speed control

BIOS:
- Supports QuadBIOS
- 2 x 8 Mbit flash ROM
- Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
- PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b.

Unique Features:
- Dynamic Energy Saver
- @BIOS
- Download Center
- Q-Flash
- EasyTune
- Xpress Install
- Xpress Recovery2

Form Factor: ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm