Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Motherboard Review - Page 7

Benchmark Analysis

We already knew that the Intel X48 was a very powerful chipset, and potentially the fastest platform for the Intel Core 2-based processors. But even so, there are some tweaking and improvements that can be made on the reference design, and it seems that Gigabyte has squeezed out some extra performance from their X48T-DQ6 motherboard. Granted, the benchmark scores are never going to show a huge performance gap when the rest of the components are unchanged, but the across-the-board wins by the Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 certainly get our recommendation for a high-end X48 motherboard.

Value

The retail price of the Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 sits at just under $250, which compares well against other name brand X48 motherboards. There are some lower-priced models from DFI and ASRock, but when you get into the ASUS, MSI, and Intel range for a similarly-configured motherboard, it's right around $250, or even more. Other high-end Intel X48 motherboards include the MSI X48C Platinum ($245), Intel DX48BT2 ($250), DFI LANPARTY LT X48-T3RS ($250), MSI X48 Platinum ($280), and ASUS Rampage Formula ($290).

* Please note that these prices were taken at the time of review and are not meant to reflect long-term trends.

Conclusion

The Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 is designed to be a high-end, performance motherboard based on the flagship Intel X48 Express chipset, and that's pretty well what you get. The feature set is excellent, the overall board design is very good and performance is right at the top of the scale. The BIOS and overclocking features work as advertised, stability has been rock solid, and Gigabyte's energy saving DES option is a nice extra. There are a few niggles, like the lack of a default eSATA port, but it's certainly not enough to detract from the overall package.

Pros:

• Excellent Performance
• Nice Overclocking BIOS
• Good Layout
• Rock-Solid Stability

Cons:

• No eSATA on Back Panel
• No Top-Mounted USB for Mouse/Keyboard

Ratings: