Page 4 - Features - an insight
Gigabyte's marketing department probably came up with the name as the mainboards includes C.I.A. (CPU Intelligent Accelerator) Technology; C.I.A (CPU Intelligent Accelerator) is designed to detect CPU load during software program executing, and automatically adjust CPU computing power to enhance overall system performance. During loading high CPU resources consumption tasks, such as video and audio encoding programs or playing 3D games, the CPU requires more CPU computing power; when C.I.A is enabled, it will detect the current CPU load and accelerate the CPU computing performance, thus allow programs to execute faster and hopefully smoother. On the other hand, when the programs are terminated, the CPU will return back to its initial status. Don't expect miracles though, as I was only able to notice a 2% difference here and there. Gigabyte's marketing department also came up with this name: M.I.B. (Memory Intelligent Booster) Technology you figured it was Men in Black right :) M.I.B (Memory Intelligent Booster) technology is specially designed to maximize memory performance and boost memory bandwidth a few % by optimizing data transmission among CPU, north bridge chipset and memory. We'll explain this bit in the overclocking section.
Another really nifty feature is a Intel PRO/1000 CT Network Connection, 1000Mbit/s LAN connectivity, you can achieve Gigabit performance through Communication Streaming Architecture (CSA) and enable ASF 2.0-based secure remote management with the Intel PRO/1000 CT Network Connection, now if I only had a Gigabit Switch ...
All new mainboards are equipped with a Serial ATA Interface and so is the GA-8IPE1000 Pro2-W. Serial ATA is the latest ATA specification that provides scalable performance at up to 150MB/s data transfer rate, theoretically Serial ATA is faster than current Parallel ATA. In overclocked conditions at this moment of time you'll loose stability though.
6-channel Audio - Good quality 6-channel AC'97 audio with S/P-DIF function is also available on this mainboard as there is an integrated Realtek ALC650 AC'97 audio CODEC chip, enabling 6-channel audio while watching movies or gaming). The mainboard has integrated sound through the 6-Channel AC97 Audio via the Realtek 6ch controller,an 18-bit, full duplex AC'97 2.2 compatible stereo audio CODEC designed for PC multimedia systems. In all honestly, not bad at all. Sound was peachy fine and in games we heard no problems. It fully supports EAX, of course it's no Audigy 2 though.
What's also good to see is a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection, brought to you by Texas Instrument. A really fast interface which enhances PC connectivity for consumer electronics A/V appliances, storage peripherals and portable devices. Yes indeed, you figured that the DV card you bought was special ? think again .. it's just a firewire connection with editing software. Something that is quite an interesting technology is Xpress3Series Software - The Xpress3 series software includes 3 software features, 1) Xpress Install for easier driver installation 2) Xpress BIOS Rescue for restoring BIOS back to its original stage if the BIOS is crashed, 3) Xpress Recovery a revolutionary software feature that backup or restore system files through BIOS function.
