GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Reviewed By: on 12/26/2008

Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Excellent board, new tech. An audio tech. from Native Instruments told me the Intel X48 will allow both PC and Mac OS configurations simultaneously, using separate hard drives depending on which you boot to. Haven't verified that though. I love Gigabyte's layout on their boards, and their excellent manual.

Cons: I bought recommended 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC 1066 RAM chips for the board with the Intel Core 2 Quad (Q6660) CPU (running WinXP SP3), but the system was not stable. I added some spare 2GB of Corsair DD2 800 RAM and the system runs in Flex memory, but is very stable. I plan to match the OCZ with some faster Corsair RAM and see if it improves speed performance. I'd probably fault the OCZ RAM for the problem, but can't be sure.

Other Thoughts: Newegg is one of the most professional looking, and ran retail websites I've ever used. Kudos Newegg.

This was my second complete build (I've done many PC upgrades though). I wanted some 'crunch' power for heavy audio processing using lots of VST plug-ins in 32 Bit/44.1kHz audio. Number of tracks in my DAW software is only limited by CPU power, so the Quad is a must, and stability is everything. So far, this setup is pulling it off fine. I trashed my previous Gigbyte MBO and Intel Core 2 Duo chip by not having enough cooling fans. Need good cooling with this setup.

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Completely awesome

Reviewed By: Eric on 12/13/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Very easy. Worked great out of the box. Stable.
Works as advertised! What more could I want for piece of mind?

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: E8500 C2D 3.16GHz CPU
Palit ATI Radeon 4850
LG BD/HD-DVD combo drive
Antec Earthwatts 430
GSkill PC2 6400 2x2GB
Vista Premium 64-bit
Thermaltake HTPC case

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CPU compatibility

Reviewed By: on 12/4/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: less than 1 day

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Fast with tons of expansion and onboard options

Cons: Although it may say it supports a certain CPU, it might not out of the box. I used an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz and the system wouldn't give any beep codes nor would it POST. it simply turned itself on and off over and over and over again. The reason being that gigabyte ships it with the f1 bios but you need the f2 bios to run a core 2 quad. So make sure you have an older cpu that the mobo will run in f1 so that you can access the bios and reflash it to f2.

Other Thoughts: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN OLDER CPU SO YOU CAN REFLASH TO F2 IF NECESSARY! ONE EGG OFF BECAUSE OF THAT FACT WHICH GIGABYTE MAKES VERY DIFFICULT TO DISCOVER!

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