PCB Design and Functionality
Frankly speaking, we review chapter devoted to peculiarities of the new Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mainboard could have been left empty. And it would have been absolutely fair to the board as well as to the reader. Since GA-X48T-DQ6 is practically identical to previously released Gigabyte solutions in terms of features as well as specifications, it doesn’t have any unique features to boast. Although there are a few not quite unique features that are still worth discussing here, so we will dwell on them in this part of our review. However, if you are very well familiar with Gigabyte mainboards on Intel X38 chipset, you can actually skip this section and move on to the next one.
First of all, I would like to say that Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 is designed for dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM that can ensure better performance these days, especially during overclocking. This is the default memory type for Intel X48, but some manufacturers, including Gigabyte, also offer similar solutions with DDR2 DIMM slots, since this chipset, just like its predecessors boasts a universal memory controller. The set of supported dividers for memory frequency is also standard on GA-X48T-DQ6. So this mainboard, just like other mainboards on Intel’s “third series chipsets”, cannot clock the memory at any frequency that is more than twice as high as the FSB frequency. That is why the promised support of DDR3-1900 SDRAM that is posted on the mainboard box as well as Gigabyte’s company web-site is simply a marketing trick. In reality, this memory frequency can be achieved only if you overclock the FSB to 475MHz.
Since Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 is positioned as a top of the line solution, it features two fully-functional PCI Express x16 slots compliant with 2.0 specification. These slots allow installing two graphics cards combined into a single Crossfire configuration. I would like to specifically point out that the graphics slots have been very conveniently located on the PCB. There is a significant gap between them, which will be enough for any cooling system. The remaining PCI and PCI Express x1 expansion slots will never be fully blocked in this case.
The chipset cooling system called Silent Pipe uses heatpipes and is designed according to pretty common contemporary schematics. One heatpipe connects a small heatsink on top of the chipset South Bridge with the heatsink on the chipset North Bridge. Another two heatpipes originate from the North Bridge heatsink and lead to the heatsink on processor voltage regulator MOSFET. However, some transistors from the CPU voltage regulator circuitry located above the LGA775 socket didn’t get under the Silent Pipe cooling system and are topped with individual miniature heatsink. However, you shouldn’t worry about it because they do not warm up that much during work. Moreover, the heatsink on the main MOSFET serves mainly not to cool down the processor voltage regulator, but to dissipate the heat generated by the chipset North Bridge and transferred from it via heatpipes.
Although the above described cooling system seems to be a pretty ordinary one, it is extremely efficient. The primary reason for that is the use of solid copper for heatpipes and heatsinks. They also paid special attention to ensuring proper contact between the heatsinks and the chips: they are all attached with spring screws. And finally, Gigabyte engineers ensured proper heat dissipation at the bottom of the PCB by placing a low-profile aluminum Crazy Cool heatsink plate right beneath the hot mainboard components.
However, as we have already pointed out in our previous articles, this heatsink may prevent you from installing some processor coolers properly, that is why you may need to remove it. It is great that Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 allows doing it without any problems at all.
To implement some of the features the developers used a number of additional controllers. The mainboard is equipped with an IEEE1394 controller from Texas Instruments; two Realtek RTL8111B Gigabit network controllers that can work in Teaming mode; an additional Gigabyte SATA2 Serial ATA RAID controller supporting two additional ATA_300 and one PATA-133 ports. As a result, Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 allows connecting very diverse additional devices. However, despite quite numerous connectors and chips on the mainboard PCB, it doesn’t cause any trouble during system assembly.
I believe that pretty much the only serious inconvenience is the fact that Clear CMOS contacts are located between the PCI Express x16 slots, right next to the battery. It will be really hard to reach them inside an assembled system with both graphics cards installed. Luckily, contemporary BIOS versions do not require frequent use of Clear CMOS, so this drawback is very unlikely to spoil the overall positive impression from Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 mainboard. Especially, since all other connectors and pin-connectors have been arranged in a very smart manner: mostly along the lower edge of the PCB. You can see two connectors for four USB 2.0 ports, a connector for IEEE1394 port and even the connectors for COM and LPT that are close to oblivion these days. In the corner you can see six Serial ATA connectors, four provides by the ICH9R South Bridge and the remaining two, of different color, by the Gigabyte SATA2 additional onboard controller. The same controller is responsible for the PATA connector located nearby that has been conveniently turned parallel to the board. Another pair of SATA ports implemented via the chipset South Bridge is placed a little higher.
GA-X48T-DQ6 also supports FDD: the FDD pin-connector can be found to the right of the DIMM slots.
There is quite a lot of free room around the processor socket. Most super-coolers fit onto this mainboard easily. There are only two cases when you may encounter problems during cooler installation: if you are using memory modules of non-standard height or if the power supply panel of your system case is very close to the top edge of the mainboard PCB. The thing is that LGA775 socket on GA-X48T-DQ6 has been moved relatively close to DIMM slots and to the upper PCB edge, so please, keep this in mind.
The mainboard back panel also leaves a highly favorable impression. It bears a very diverse set of ports and connectors. There are eight USB 2.0 ports, two different IEEE1394 ports, two Gigabit network ports, PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, optical and coaxial SPDIF outs and six analogue audio-jacks.
By the way, the integrated sound on GA-X48T-DQ6 uses an eight-channel Realtek ALC889A codec with the specified signal-to-noise ratio of 106dBA. I would like to point out that this codec supports DTS Connect technology that delivers multi-channel digital sound stream via digital audio-outs on the mainboard if there is an external compatible receiver available.
