The IGP Chronicles Part 1: Intel's G45 & Motherboard Roundup
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Gary Key on September 24, 2008 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Intel DG45FC
We looked forward to the arrival of this motherboard with great anticipation. It is not every day we have the latest IG chipset available in a mini-ITX form factor. We heard rumors of this board at CES last January and were actually surprised to see it on the roadmap in April and even more surprised that Intel built this board. As such, we will take an in-depth look at it and supporting components such as cases and power supplies shortly.
For the time being Intel has done a remarkable job shoe horning the G45 into this particular form factor. The DG45FC offers an excellent feature set that includes Intel’s 82567LF PCIe Gigabit Ethernet controller, RAID 0,1,5,10 support from the ICH10R, IR capabilities, and HD audio from the IDT 92HD73E featuring Dolby Home Theater certification. Considering the cost of most mini-ITX boards, the street price of $129.99 is astounding.
We like the layout of the board. It features a three-phase power delivery system that worked well with our selection of dual core processors. Quad Core processors are not supported but considering the processing power available in an E8600 for instance, it should not matter for most users considering this form factor. Like the DG45ID, this board is legacy free. There are four SATA ports located on the board and an eSATA port on the IO panel that also contains six USB 2.0, LAN port, and the HDMI/DVI output ports. There are two headers on the board for an additional four USB 2.0 ports, one PCIe x1 slot, and two DIMM slots that support up to 4GB of memory at DDR2-667/800 speeds.
Actual operation of the board was similar to the DG45ID. The BIOS (version 079) is the same one offered on that board and as such all of the comments we discussed in the DG45ID overview holds true for this board. We are still searching for the perfect case to install this board in to be honest.
We utilized an Apex M-100 for initial testing. This case does not offer the best ventilation so our current thermal numbers are skewed to some degree. It also requires the use of a low profile CPU fan/heatsink like the ones shipping with the E7200/E5200 processors. Installing the retail fan/heatsink is a bit tricky but it works. The lack of a heatsink on the ICH10R resulted in temperatures hitting the 65C~70C range in this case. Airflow was partially blocked by the hard drive so the MCH ran upwards of 80C with the E7200 at 42C. We did not encounter any stability problems but would like to see reduced temperatures for 24/7 operation. We will be looking at other case and thermal solutions shortly.
Pros/Cons
We really want to like this board; in fact, we do to a certain extent and it excites us from an HTPC viewpoint. It carries all of the baggage of the DG45ID board with it due to the BIOS design and hardware compatibility problems. Like all of the G45 boards, it is also saddled with drivers and ISV support that is still lacking although improving with each release. We think Intel should have included a small heatsink on the ICH10R although proper case airflow is still a requirement for keeping the MCH and ICH at tolerable levels.
Changes we would make would include the ability to manipulate processor voltages, a more robust fan control system since this becomes extremely important in a mini-ITX design, a thermal solution for the ICH10R, and figuring out a way to include IEEE 1394a support would have put icing on the cake. Overall, the price and performance for a mini-ITX platform is just incredible. If Intel can straighten out some of the BIOS, driver, hardware, and BD playback compatibility problems, this board would be our choice for a HTPC or SOHO solution in the current market space.
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Olyros - Sunday, February 8, 2009 - link
I noticed there's a mention in the article about searching for the perfect mini-itx case. The Nexus Psile case that I'm using for my Intel "DG45FC"-based computer is perfect for it I think. Especially if you are after stylish and quiet computers.Here are a couple of links for you to check it out if you want:
www.psile.com
http://www.3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4...">http://www.3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4...
lubama - Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - link
Quote from "Intel's G45 Motherboard round up"However, at various times after the system has gone to sleep it will wake back up without intervention for a few seconds and then shuts down. Sometimes this a few minutes after entering sleep mode, other times it occurred an hour or so later. The board requires a full power cycle to come back to life and does not always resume to Vista, instead we receive the error that Vista has been incurred an error after entering the OS."
Have you found a solution to this problem, seems like you are the only person, other than me, who is catching this issue. I have posted in numerous DG45ID forums and this exact issue is non-existent and haven't received any answers.
IntelUser2000 - Sunday, October 12, 2008 - link
Anand, G965/G35/GM965 has 8 EUs(Execution Units), but each of the EUs contain 2 cores, meaning it has 16 cores. Each cores can also process 2 threads, meaning it has a maximum of 32 thread capability. From that, its not comparable to Nvidia, nor ATI so Intel have their own performance metric.For G45, I assume its 10 EUs, 20 cores. Intel papers mention 50 threads.
puddnhead - Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - link
I second (thrid? fourth? fifth? 9th?) the call for the part 2 (what it's pretty obvious everyone is more interested in anyway, not this article).I wonder if you coudl at least give us an ETA of not the article itself? You know, if it's this week, this month, or ??? Thta doesn't seem too much to ask, I'm surprised you don't give that from the start.
computerfarmer - Friday, October 3, 2008 - link
Looking forward to part_2.I hope they are sooner than the promised reviews from these articles.
AMD SB750 arrives on the Foxconn A79A-S...
Date: July 21st, 2008
Author: Gary Key
http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=47...">http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=47...
AMD's SB750: Enabling Higher Phenom Overclocks?
Date: July 23rd, 2008
Topic: CPU & Chipset
Manufacturer: AMD
Author: Gary Key
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
AMD 790GX - The Introduction
Date: August 6th, 2008
Topic: CPU & Chipset
Manufacturer: AMD
Author: Gary Key
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
computerfarmer - Friday, October 3, 2008 - link
When is PART_2 coming out?duploxxx - Friday, October 3, 2008 - link
Lots of talk of bringing a great roundup of chipsets...already for a few weeks now.Where does anand start? at the least interesting and the most garbage chipset for several years now.
lets hope your global review is as good as people expect it to be.
you started off already a bit better then you did in recent gpu reviews, you actually took a cpu that was rather common to be used, although a e7200 or Q8200 would be a much better fit for this kind of boards.
whosthere - Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - link
I didn't see any specifics on the Game Settings. Could you please post them...Thanks
dutchroll - Monday, September 29, 2008 - link
Yeah I was thinking much the same thing about the "fanboi" comments.Can they spell "hypocrite"? It really betrays your allegiance when you rant at Intel then go all wobbly and weak at the knees while mentioning AMD. AT are damned if they do, damned if they don't as far as reviewing either brand's offerings. They've already stated how good the 780G was. They've stated what bugs are in the G45. So what the heck is the problem?
piesquared - Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - link
The problem is, they promised a SB750 review 2 months ago. The problem is they promised a DFI LP JR. review 1 month ago. The problem is they go well out of there way to avoid any comparison of Intel's ITD, and AMD's IGP. So what if they obscure and bury a line inside an Intel article that gives credit to AMD hardware. They fail to give credit where credit is due, and it is glaringly obvious. And it's even more obvious when this article pops up suddently when Intel has a new driver. They were waiting on Intel's promises of a new driver that would improve performance, and show it's hardware in a better light. Doesn't matter if you crap in a plastic or paper bag, it's still a bag of shit though. I'll make a wager that none of the upcomming "promised" reviews will have any side by side comparisons of Intel's IDT, to any other IGP. Unless of course AT stalls long enough to allow Intle more time to produce yet another driver.....