Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6

[Quiksilver]

Er... um... yeah... I really needed these... not...

 

[Drsignguy]

So which one could I use to hook into my 256 slot router?

 

[Blazer7]

That's easy, use teaming on all 4 LAN ports and use them all. That's gonna set you back what, 4 ports ?

the Realtek Gigabit controllers as well as the new software stack now supports teaming functionality across all these ports which enables four discreet connections to act as a singe massive connection with four times the bandwidth

The Mother of Boards: Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Preview

 

[rstove02]

Your router can not withstand networking of that magnitude.

 

[VirtualLarry]

10 sata ports? Does anyone know what southbridge they are using, and how many are native ports and how many are jmicron ports?

 

[chriskwarren]

Your answer is here:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/ar...php?id=2559&cid=6&pg=2


6 are ICHR10, 2 are Jmicron and 2 are Silicon Image

 

[Absolution75]

anyone notice the obserd amount of either firmware or extra usb headers at the bottum of the board?

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Absolution75
anyone notice the obserd amount of either firmware or extra usb headers at the bottum of the board?

Nothing new there, this board has about the same features as the GA-N680SLI-DQ6. The differences between these boards aside from the chipset are minor.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I can't wait to see someone complain there aren't enough USB ports with this board

 

[Blazer7]

or LAN ports or SATA ports or......

 

[VirtualLarry]

Dammit. Gigabyte omitted the two Jmicron SATA ports on the P45-DS4 too. Is 8 SATA ports too much to ask from Gigabyte, without having to break the bank and order one of their DQ6 models?

 

[Blazer7]

I don?t think they omitted anything. The DQ6 is GB?s top of the line and thus you should expect the DS4 to fall behind in features (and price).

If you want a GB P45 mobo with more than 6 SATA and don?t wanna pay for the DQ6 you can always go for the DS5.

 

[RallyMaster]

There's...a lot of things going on on that there board...and I thought my 939 boards are complicated.

 

[rhansme]

The GA-EP45-DS5 will come out in August and it will only have 2 nic ports and it will have the 10 Sata ports like the DQ6 with Hardware Raid available. It is available in Europe now, but when I questioned Gigabyte they said it will not become available in the US until August. I am waiting to see it and some more reviews before going to the next chipset. I am very happy with my X38-DQ6 and E8400. I just have a tough time sitting pat.... I like messing with new hardware.

 

[Cogman]

Why do people need 2 Ethernet ports? It just boggles my mind, unless you are like a server administrator or maybe you use your computer as the home firewall. But what good does 4 ports do you? surely nobody has 4 networks simultaneously running in their house (thats just dumb)

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Cogman
Why do people need 2 Ethernet ports? It just boggles my mind, unless you are like a server administrator or maybe you use your computer as the home firewall.

The answer here is Teaming. You can use 2 ports as 1 to effectively double your bandwidth.

But what good does 4 ports do you? surely nobody has 4 networks simultaneously running in their house (thats just dumb)

The EP45-DQ6 supports teaming across all 4 ports and besides teaming there're other uses for LAN ports. You can use Cross UTP cables to connect directly to other PCs without the use of a switch and you can also assign LAN ports to Virtual Machines. So no, it's not dumb. There're people out there that will actually use this.

 

[OptimisTech]

Originally posted by: Blazer7

Originally posted by: Cogman
Why do people need 2 Ethernet ports? It just boggles my mind, unless you are like a server administrator or maybe you use your computer as the home firewall.

The answer here is Teaming. You can use 2 ports as 1 to effectively double your bandwidth.

Yes, but only if it's supported by the board drivers AND the router, a rarity in home routers unless I missed something. (Which I often do...) A more probable use would be for redundancy, but since most of these dual-NICs operate from a single chip, I think it's rare that you would lose one without losing both.

I have never understood the dual NIC thing since they started showing up a few years ago. Other then on servers, I just can't imagine a scenario in which a home user would see any real-world benefit from it. Now they're up to 4?!?!?! I would guess that 75-95% of people who use these plug into a 4-5 port of the shelf router. How many of those ports am I supposed to give up to one machine, and who on earth will I be exchanging data with at 4G?

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: OptimisTech

Yes, but only if it's supported by the board drivers AND the router, a rarity in home routers unless I missed something. (Which I often do...) A more probable use would be for redundancy, but since most of these dual-NICs operate from a single chip, I think it's rare that you would lose one without losing both.

I have never understood the dual NIC thing since they started showing up a few years ago. Other then on servers, I just can't imagine a scenario in which a home user would see any real-world benefit from it. Now they're up to 4?!?!?! I would guess that 75-95% of people who use these plug into a 4-5 port of the shelf router. How many of those ports am I supposed to give up to one machine, and who on earth will I be exchanging data with at 4G?

There is driver support for this but you are right on the rarity of said routers. Still there're some people that will use teaming across 2 ports. AFAIK all ports on the EP45-DQ6 come from separate NICs so there's no problem with loosing 2 ports if a NIC goes bad. This is good because if someone uses teaming across 2 ports and looses 1 he can always use one of the other ports.

I don't believe that there is anyone out there that needs teaming across all 4 ports but as I've mentioned above there're other uses for LAN ports like in VMs. There're also those that may want to turn their rigs into home servers and don't wanna spent on a switch and also those that do feel more secure knowing that they have the extra ports that they can use if those they use go bad.

I agree that 4 ports are kinda overkill for most but for some it may just be what they've been looking for.

*** Edit ***

I forgot to mention that having many LAN ports is great for LAN parties and this I believe is the major reason why GB put so many on this board. Still this is an extreme feature on an extreme board. Some will hate it for the extra cost and some will love it just for being extreme.