GA-8I945P Pro Features & Specifications

     The GA-8I945P Pro will support the latest in Socket-T (LGA775) Intel Pentium Processors with Front Side Bus speeds of: 533 / 800 / 1066. This includes the Pentium D dual-core. As already stated, the Northbridge chipset if the Intel 945P and the Southbridge is the ICH7R with Intel Storage Matrix Technology. The ICH7R will support up to four Serial ATA drives in a RAID 0/1/5 configuration. There are four 240-pin DDR2 memory slots that allow up to 4GB of installed memory. Dual Channel mode is supported with enhanced expansion via the Intel Flex Memory Technology which allows memory modules of different size to be installed while maintaining Dual-Channel Operation.

    Though the chipset supports two IDE channels, Gigabyte has opted to only feature the Primary channel (RED) on the motherboard as well as the single floppy. Gigabyte's own GigaRAID controller has been fitted on the motherboard which provides two additional IDE connectors which can be configured in RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 or JBoD RAID arrays. If you need more devices then the GigaRAID can be switched to act as standard IDE ports as well. All in all, it would be possible to hang 10 storage devices from this motherboard.

     The 8I945P Pro has the typical assortment of PCI Express expansion slots; a single PCI-E x16 and a pair of PCI-E x1. To say the least, PCI Express has been met with heavy controversy. The discussions are nearly identical to the same arguments that took place when the AGP architecture replaced PCI. Topics like "A new motherboard will require the purchase of a new video card" and ".....video cards based on PCI Express have next to no gain over their AGP counterparts because the card itself is no different". Whether you're for or against PCI-Express, one thing is for sure: it's here to stay. And with the new round of SLI and Crossfire chipsets, the PCI-Express stranglehold will only get tighter.