Motherboard Features
One of the best features of this motherboard is the onboard Bigfoot Networks E2100 processor. Most gamers I know play games online, and if they are lagging, they are dead! The E2100 is a dedicated NPU (networking processing unit), so the CPU is not doing any of the network processing. It comes with its own software that has some great features.
As far as performance goes, I did play a few games and the framerates were a little better and the games seemed to run smoother. If you want a full breakdown of what the E2100 can do check out our review of the standalone card.
I’m sure many of you are used to the Realtek HD audio on your motherboards. This motherboard has the Creative 20K2 processor, which is very powerful. Here are some screenshots of the included software.
The front panel that is included has a quick boost button. Do you remember the Turbo buttons on the old 486 machines? This is sort of the same thing. Our Core i7-965 runs at 3.2 GHz at stock speeds. If you press the Turbo button in while the system is running, it is instantly overclocked to 3.36 GHz, no need to restart or anything. All it did really is change the bus speed from 133 MHz t0 140 MHz.
If you are new to overclocking Gigabyte includes their EasyTune6 software. It has a quick boost feature that has pre-set overclocking profiles that you just select, restart your computer and your system is overclocked. It also allows you to tune pretty much anything else like you would in the BIOS.
