Mobo pr0n

We are finally seeing Gigabyte’s EP-45-Extreme show up in large quantity in North American retail. Is that northbridge water/air cooler in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Still, I bet if you lift that heat sinks you will find underneath nothing more than crapy white silicon thermal compound.
I always lift my mobo heat sinks

It is a northbridge water/air cooler in my pocket.

Excessive, much?

More like Gigabyte-EPeen-45....

i'm happy to see you!


seems like massive overkill to me

I wish MOBO manufacturers would just sell the us the boards with no cooling at all. I am getting tired of all the junk they bolt on these days that sux.

I agree mullet. It's all looks and no function, just sell it bare so we can slap the good stuff on.

you notice all the waste of space and pain in the ass all those usb headers and stuff are... they gotta make it alot easier.. especial with the stupid cases with 20 tiny usb wires that you have to connect

thats alot of heatsinks

That mobo heatsink looks cool (pun intended) and I look forward to read how Kyle and crew thinks about the performance of this board.

Sweet.... it has 'Deal Channel' RAM!

Originally Posted by HardDrugsUser

Still, I bet if you lift that heat sinks you will find underneath nothing more than crapy white silicon thermal compound.
I always lift my mobo heat sinks

Don't they typically use epoxy/thermal adhesive so you can't remove it?

Originally Posted by SamuraiInBlack

Don't they typically use epoxy/thermal adhesive so you can't remove it?

Nah, just plain dumb silicone.
The silicone actually glues the heat sink to the components, but with a very little force it comes off and ArcticSilver can be applied.

I wonder if they're trying to make up for something else with that massive heatsink.

Have tested the mobo, fsb clocking, not impressed..
cooling CERTANLY works. but well, how much more do we pay for the cooling ?. the bios worked at taht one, unlike my ma790fx-dq6 which BLOWS ass..

anywayz, thats a good mobo there, layout.. seen better, bios, Fairly good, stabilty, OFC!

Why have a slot you cannot use? It makes the already goofy looking cooling system seem llike an afterthought. Take the cooler away and the mobo design looks a bit old.

Originally Posted by Melons

Why have a slot you cannot use? It makes the already goofy looking cooling system seem llike an afterthought. Take the cooler away and the mobo design looks a bit old.

There aren't actually any slots blocked by the cooler; they're moved down. Still seems like a complete waste to me though. A good board is made by the components it uses, not the size of its heatsinks.

Originally Posted by DeathFromBelow

I wonder if they're trying to make up for something else with that massive heatsink.

I believe that is Gigabyte's homage to Minas Tirith

Needs 1 less PCI slot and 1 more PCIE slot.