We measured lower PCB temperature, but the improvement is not as substantial as Gigabyte says. The performance per watt score we achieved was also in line with the regular motherboard. The average power requirements during a SYSmark 2007 Preview run and during idle were in line with the other motherboards, but slightly higher than on a Gigabyte EP45-DS3R, which is a comparable motherboard without the Ultra Durable 3 feature.
Using the efficient Core 2 Duo E7200, we found that the new EP45-UD3P introduces slight power savings when the DES feature is enabled, but the power savings were minor: 1.7% at peak load, 2.25% at idle compared to DES switched off, but Intel SpeedStep switched on. We used a Core 2 Duo E7200 as well as a Core 2 Extreme QX6850 for testing. Last but not least there is even a floppy controller on the motherboard to allow installing a 3.5” FDD. Gigabyte’s two additional SATA/300 ports are provided by a dedicated storage controller, which also provides an UltraATA/133 channel for two legacy storage devices. The audio solution is HD compliant, and is based on a Realtek ALC889A codec with optical and coaxial digital outputs. The board comes with a reasonable amount of voltage regulators: there are six MOSFET components, equaling six phases that the DES feature is capable of switching on and off according to processor power requirements. According to Gigabyte, the thickness of the ground and power layers increased from 35 µm to 70 µm due to the greater amount of copper. Ultra Durable 3 is also available on at least one X58 motherboard for the Core i7 processor and Socket LGA-1366. We’re not sure that it makes sense to offer so many motherboards that often differ just by nuances, but there are models for DDR2, DDR3, for enthusiasts, for mainstream systems and even for low-budget users. Gigabyte currently has nine different P45 motherboards that all incorporate the Ultra Durable 3 technology for Socket LGA775. Gigabyte claims that the Ultra Durable 3 technology introduces power savings while reducing motherboard operating temperature.
We received an EP45-UD3P motherboard from Gigabyte to perform our testing and decided to compare it with several other P45 chipset motherboards that went though our test lab in an effort to analyze their power-saving mechanisms.