The Intel 945 chipset is not new to everybody. But with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the manufacturers did a total reinvention for the 945 Express boards.
Today high-end of the hardware industry tilts more on the side of the Intel Core 2 Duo. Of course people still look for something that don't cost much and yet provide as much functionality as it can afford to and the Gigabyte GA-945GM-S2 motherboard is built around the newly Core 2 Duo compatible Intel 945G Express northbridge and ICH7 southbridge chipsets. Amd as they say it slike hitting two birds with one stone, affordability with the high technology of the Intel Core 2 duo. The microATX board accommodates a maximum of 4GB of DDR2 400/533/667 memory in a dual channel configuration. The GA-945GM-S2 supports all existing Socket 775 processors on a 1066MHz, 800MHz or 533MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), including the Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4/D/XE and Celeron CPU. PCSTATS on the other hand never loses its touch when it comes to review and even went as far as testing the GA-945GM-S2 motherboard with a nice and shiny 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor.
To cut some of the list short, the GA-945GM-S2's hardware, it was found to have an integrated Realteck 8111B Gigabit network card, Intel Azalia High Definition 7.1-channel audio codec (surround sound cable required, not included), four USB2.0 jacks, four 3GB/s SATA connections and of course the onboard Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (a.k.a. GMA950) videocard at the rear I/O. There may not be a lot of room for expansion but atleast most of the important things are covered, leaving just a few bits of this and that behind the list. The Gigabyte GA-945GM-S2 has a PCI Express x16 slot for a stand alone videocard, one PCI Express x1 slot for high bandwidth devices and two 32-bit PCI slots for legacy hardware.
Four 3GB/s SATA channels and a single IDE channel (up to two Ultra DMA100/66 devices) encompass all the storage possibilities of the GA-945GM-S2 motherboard. RAID is not supported in any form. There's a floppy connector if you still use those little 1.44MB slabs of plastic.
At a a retail price of $115 CDN ($100 US/£55 GBP), it is indeed a great multi-purpose platform with which to build an inexpensive Intel Core 2 Duo-based computer from. Instead of fans, both the Intel 945G Express and Intel ICH7 chipsets comes with passive cooled heatsinks making it peacefully quiet and more durable in the long run. The GA-945GM-S2 is generally easy to access. with such common SOPs to follow such as; If a PCI Express x16 videocard is installed, it will need to removed before the DD2 memory can be inserted. The GA-945GM-S2 comes with a 24-pin ATX power (20-pin compatible) and 4-pin auxiliary 12V
power connector. It's best to use a power supply with a minimum 300W rating.
power connector. It's best to use a power supply with a minimum 300W rating.
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