Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Review

ccokeman - February 19, 2008
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Testing:

The Gigabyte X48-DQ6 will be put through our benchmarking suite to see what kind of performance the motherboard delivers. The OverclockersClub series of benchmarks include both system tests and gaming benchmarks to verify the performance of this product. I will be comparing the performance of the X48-DQ6 against both the Abit IX38 Quad GT, the Asus Maximus Formula and the Foxconn MARS. The tests will compare performance against one P35 and two X38 chipsets to see whether the X48 is just a better binned X38 after all. Testing will be a direct comparison of our stock speed benchmarking; all clock speeds and memory timings will be as close as possible to offer a fair comparison on each of the boards. All motherboard and video card settings were left at setup defaults, again to eliminate any variables.

Testing Setup:

Processor: Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad 266x9
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6
Memory: Mushkin HP2 6400 2x2GB 5-4-4-12
Video Card(s): Asus 8800 GT 512
Power Supply: Mushkin 650watt Modular Power supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 320GB SATA
Opticals: NEC DV5700
O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Comparison Motherboards:

Comparison Motherboard 1: Asus Maximus Formula
Comparison Motherboard 2: Abit IX38 Quad GT
Comparison Motherboard 2: Foxconn MARS

Overclocking:

Overclocked settings:

Processor: Intel Q6600 475 x 8
Sytem Memory: Mushkin HP2 6400 5-5-4-12

After getting used to the intricacies of the Gigabyte BIOS again, I was able to start clocking up the test CPU. 400 frontside bus came easily. 450 needed some work on the memory subtimings and additional voltage to the northbridge. Above 460 the X48 got a little picky on which timings were adjusted. The final numbers I was able to achieve with the Q6600 were 485 x 7 as the highest frontside bus speed with 475 x 8 as the top clock speed at 3.8 GHz