Zap's Mini Review: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L

[Zap]

Zap's Mini Review: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L

INTRODUCTION

The Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L is a budget motherboard for socket LGA 775 based on the Intel G41 chipset for all Core 2 family of processors. The G41 chipset is the spiritual successor of the G31 chipset and brings with it greater memory support of 8GB versus 4GB in the older chipset, plus the ability to use DDR3 as a manufacturing option.

I purchased mine from Tiger Direct. As of today (12/26/09) Newegg has it for $59.99 with free shipping, eWiz/SuberBiiz has it for 64.99 with free shipping (plus 5% Bing cashback) and Tiger Direct has it for $59.99 (free shipping on orders over $100, 12.8% Bing cashback).

ONE OF THREE

There are three different Gigabyte G41 chipset motherboards on the market, so I will try to explain the differences. The three boards are:

GA-G41M-ES2L – motherboard that I tested

GA-G41MT-ES2L – maybe same as tested, except uses DDR3 (4GB max instead of 8GB for DDR2 versions, a chipset limitation)

GA-G41M-ES2H – PCI Express x16 slot is electrically x4 lanes, has onboard DVI and HDMI, 3x PCI slots but no PCIe x1 slot

I’ve bolded the differences in model number and listed the main features. Basically the GA-G41M-ES2H is the board you want if you are only going to be using onboard graphics and likely would NEVER upgrade your graphics. Otherwise you would want one of the other boards. I got the one I tested because I already have DDR2 RAM, but if buying new RAM I would likely choose the GA-G41MT-ES2L because of the DDR3 support since DDR2 and DDR3 are near price parity and most budget setups don’t need over 4GB RAM. Unfortunately I do not have the GA-G41MT-ES2L to test so do not know if the other features (such as excellent BIOS) are retained.

SPECIFICATIONS

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L
Intel G41 chipset with ICH7
Supports socket LGA 775 Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Celeron, Pentium 4
Supports FSB 800/1066/1333
Two DDR2 slots for dual channel operation, 8GB max
one PCI Express x16**, one PCI Express x1, two PCI slots
four SATA 3Gb/s and one EIDE (two drives), plus one FDD
Realtek ALC888B HD audio
Realtek RTL8111DL gigabit Ethernet
Intel GMA X4500 onboard graphics with VGA output
Micro ATX form factor

**Newegg incorrectly lists this as having a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot. The G41 chipset only supports PCI Express 1.1.

BIOS

This is the most enthusiast-friendly BIOS I've ever seen in a budget micro ATX board. Some of the settings border on ridiculous.

FSB 100-1200MHz in 1MHz increments
PCI Express Auto/90-150MHz in 1MHz increments
CPU Vcore Auto/Normal/0.50000v-1.60000v in 0.00625v increments
DRAM Voltage Auto/Normal/1.800-2.300 in 0.10v increments
CPU Termination Auto/Normal, 1.050-1.500 in 0.05-0.10v increments
CPU Reference Voltage (the options seemed to change and go up as I overclocked higher)

Memory multipliers
200MHz FSB auto/2.66/3.33/4.00
266MHz** FSB auto/2.00/2.50/3.00
333MHz** FSB auto/1.60/2.00/2.40
At stock FSB the corresponding memory clocks would be 533/667/800MHz.

CPU multiplier 6-12.5x in 0.5x increments (except missing 6.5x)

Use the keystroke CTRL-F1 to "unlock" some of the more advanced BIOS settings such as memory latencies beyond the normal set.

**CPUs with these FSB were not tested, but I list these because other Gigabyte motherboards behaved in this manner.

TEST CONFIGURATION

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L motherboard
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200
Thermalright MST-9775LE heatsink
NMB-MAT 92x25mm fan
OCZ DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15 1.8v
BFG GTS 250 1GB graphics card
BFG LS-550 power supply
Samsung F1 1TB

IMPRESSIONS

Gigabyte crammed a lot of motherboard into a small space. This board is barely bigger than Flex ATX!

There are two fan headers, a 4 pin for CPU and a spare 3 pin. The PCI Express x16 slot is the second down from the Northbridge, making RAM easy to change with a video card installed. The capacitors for the CPU VRM are solid. The 24 pin and 4 pin power plugs are in the proper locations on the edges of the board.

There were some layout oddities. The spare 3 pin is at the bottom center of the board (when mounted in a normal tower case). This is a strange location because it is not ideal for either the rear exhaust fan nor the front intake fan. The front audio headers are just below the audio ports at the I/O shield area. This means the cable has to stretch over the motherboard. Admittedly most motherboards have the headers in this retarded location.

The chipset heatsink is very low profile. During my testing it did not get very hot but I used a downward-blowing CPU heatsink which provided ancillary cooling. If a “tower” style CPU heatsink is utilized, you will need to pay attention to the chipset temperature.

The PCI Express x16 slot has a “reversed” clip. What I mean by this is that most clips are accessible from between the card and the RAM slots. This one is BELOW the card. The reason for this is because there are two capacitors between the end of the PCI Express x16 slot and the RAM slots that would interfere with a more normal clip. There is a problem with this reversed layout, however. The clip would be underneath the graphics card fansink, which can be a big problem when mounted inside of a case with a dual-slot graphics card installed.

Speaking of dual-slot graphics cards, you will lose at least one of the four SATA ports.

OVERCLOCKING

The BIOS makes overclocking easy by reporting expected CPU and memory speeds depending on the FSB and multipliers you select. This is something I wish all overclockable boards had.

With so many BIOS settings, the board should be a decent overclocker, and it does not disappoint. I only tested with a 200MHz FSB CPU so the highest FSB I got was around 340MHz. This is in line with other boards using low FSB CPUs. Typically when using a higher FSB CPU, not only are the memory multipliers lowered, the motherboard runs on relaxed timings as well, resulting in much higher FSB. This is in theory as I did not test this board with a higher FSB CPU, but the Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L that I tested previously hit a LOT higher under those conditions, and many other boards I’ve tested exhibited the same behavior.

Testing in 10MHz FSB increments and with boosted voltages (including CPU VCORE to 1.400v) and relaxed memory timings the maximum FSB I was able to POST with was 340MHz. 350MHz FSB resulted in no POST. CPU multiplier was tested from 6x to 12.5x and the results were the same. This means it POSTed at 4.25GHz. I would expect final overclocks to be in the near 4GHz range.

EDIT: (12/27/09) I decided to test with an E7300 and I'm glad I did. The board would still not POST at 350MHz FSB with a higher FSB CPU. Thus, while it is still great for overclocking a 200MHz FSB CPU like the E5200 that I originally tested with, I'm afraid it isn't sufficient for overclocking a higher stock FSB chip.

EDIT: (1/2/10) I tried an E8200 CPU in the board to see if defaulting at 1333MHz FSB would get the board to open up, but alas it still won't POST at 350MHz. I even tried lowering multiplier and raising FSB really high in case it was a FSB "hole" but nope, just no POST.

UNDERCLOCKING

Those paying attention to the BIOS settings I outlined above may have noticed that there are settings allowing undervolting and underclocking.

To get this out of the way, underclocking using the FSB simply does not work. Selecting any FSB speed below the detected speed of your chip will cause a no POST situation. Unlike with the older GA-G31M-S2L board, this newer board was unable to do a POST recovery most of the time, requiring a CMOS clearing. This is a shame because the BIOS allows for speeds as low as 100MHz FSB to be selected. This would mean a CPU speed of 600MHz with the minimum 6x multiplier. Alas, that is not to be had.

I'm happy to report that the CPU undervolting does work, so you still can underclock to 6x multiplier with reduced voltages.

EDIT: CONCLUSIONS

Enough overclocking to satisfy most budget overclockers with 800MHz FSB CPUs, some underclocking potential for those wanting to make an energy efficient home server. The major layout drawbacks are that one to two SATA ports will be covered if you use a dual slot video card, plus a few other minor layout issues. If you can live with that plus a possible FSB cap of 340MHz, then this board is as good a choice as any other, and better than most micro ATX boards in its price range.

The Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L is Zap Approved *with reservations*

EDIT: PICTURES

This is the test setup.

Here is a closeup of the graphics card area with card not installed, but held over the slot. The horizontal red line shows where the card would cover the SATA port and border on the second one. Some cards might have even thicker fansinks since this card doesn't get as close to the next slot as others I've seen. Thus, a second SATA port might be in danger of being partially covered. The red rectangle outlines the PCIe slot clip area. You can see the two capacitors that necessitates the "reverse" clip lever. You can also see how far the card will cover the clip lever. Indeed even some single-slot cards such as older 8800 GT with the original full coverage fansink will cover the clip lever to some extent. I was able to get the card out pretty easily but I can see that it would be a chore once installed in a case with the graphics card less than two inches from the bottom. It is possible to use a thin slotted screwdriver from the other side right next to the capacitors by coming in at an angle and pressing on the clip itself instead of the lever, but that might be tricky. One possible solution is to just break the clip off before installing a card. This might be okay for a computer that never gets moved, but the card might pop out during transportation plus I don't know if warranty would be voided.

LINKS

(don’t forget Bing cashback when shopping)

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at Newegg

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at eWiz/SuperBiiz

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at Tiger Direct/Circuit City/CompUSA

Zap’s Mini Review: Foxconn G45M-S (mentioned above)

Zap’s Mini Review: Asus P5QPL-AM (another board I reviewed with same chipset)

Zap’s Mini Review: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (older chipset version of reviewed board)

Intel® G41 Express chipset

Stickied.

AnandTech Moderator
lopri​

 

[lopri]

Nicely done. Though I have some reservation on this board. I think it is best to plan ahead prior to build on this board. Adding stuff later or upgrading parts could be difficult.

P.S. Looking forward to the DFI board review.

 

[21stHermit]

LINKS

(don’t forget Bing cashback when shopping)

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at Newegg

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at eWiz/SuperBiiz

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L at Tiger Direct/Circuit City/CompUSA

Zap’s Mini Review: Foxconn G45M-S (mentioned above)

Zap’s Mini Review: Asus P5QPL-AM (another board I reviewed with same chipset)

Zap’s Mini Review: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L (older chipset version of reviewed board)

Intel® G41 Express chipset

Links hang for me. Why do you use dynamitedata.com? An inline pic of the MB would be a nice add. Thanks for the effort.

 

[Zap]

Adding stuff later or upgrading parts could be difficult.

P.S. Looking forward to the DFI board review.

Yeah, definately might be troublesome upgrading down the line. I'm going to try it though... maybe even later today, installing it into my Antec NSK3480 (temporary) LAN rig.

Guess I'll do a mini-review of that DFI board as well.

Links hang for me. Why do you use dynamitedata.com? An inline pic of the MB would be a nice add. Thanks for the effort.

You're welcome!

I'll add some pics - damn I should have "reserved" a second post. I'll just edit this post and add them here.

I'm not the one adding dynamitedata. It is a referral link that Anandtech Forums automagically adds in. You can test this out by posting a link to Newegg. After you post, you can see that the link changes. Heck, you can preview your post and it will be changed for you. Personally I've also had occasional issues with it, where it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I don't necessarily like it, but we're guests here and we have to follow house rules. Besides, these forums are free for us to use and things like referral links helps pay for the hosting and stuff.

 

[21stHermit]

I'm not the one adding dynamitedata. It is a referral link that Anandtech Forums automagically adds in. You can test this out by posting a link to Newegg. After you post, you can see that the link changes. Heck, you can preview your post and it will be changed for you. Personally I've also had occasional issues with it, where it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I don't necessarily like it, but we're guests here and we have to follow house rules. Besides, these forums are free for us to use and things like referral links helps pay for the hosting and stuff.

Here's a Newegg item number, today's Shell Shocker, which I added to test your dynamitedata comment. Whatever happens I agree, we're guests.
Thanks
Item#:N82E16814150450

I don't understand but you're correct automagically. My guess it's a way for the site to generate referral revenue. Damm trick if I say so myself. No wonder their have been so many site maintenance shutdowns, non-trival.

 

[tcsenter]

I’ve bolded the differences in model number and listed the main features. Basically the GA-G41M-ES2H is the board you want if you are only going to be using onboard graphics and likely would NEVER upgrade your graphics.

Actually, the purpose of the ES2H using x4 lanes from the ICH rather than the native PEG slot in the GMCH is to support the use of a PCI-E graphics card concurrently with the IGP. Otherwise, adding a graphics card would disable some functionality from the IGP. Its one of the features Gigabyte has been doing with some previous Intel chipsets as well.

 

[Zap]

Stickied.

AnandTech Moderator
lopri​

Thanks, lopri!

Actually, the purpose of the ES2H using x4 lanes from the ICH rather than the native PEG slot in the GMCH is to support the use of a PCI-E graphics card concurrently with the IGP. Otherwise, adding a graphics card would disable some functionality from the IGP. Its one of the features Gigabyte has been doing with some previous Intel chipsets as well.

Thank you for this explanation. I thought it was to support the extra outputs, kind of like those PCIe DVI output cards for older Intel IGP. I guess this is to allow for multiple monitor setups?

I've added pictures to the OP and some more overclocking information. While this board did really well with an 800MHz FSB CPU, going up to a 1066MHz FSB CPU didn't allow the FSB to be pushed any harder. I was still unable to POST at 350MHz FSB.

 

[Zap]

Another edit. Tried an E8200 CPU in there and it still won't go up in FSB. There ya have it. Great cheap overclocking board for low FSB/high multiplier chips, but forget it with high FSB chips.

 

[saxin]

Thanks for this review, I find it very helpfull.

Thinking about this M/B coupled with E5300 as headless crunching server (CFD codes)
maybe u can write a few words about the on board GPU performance, issues, under extreme overclocking - near 4Ghz with the E5200 u have ?

thanks in advance.

 

[lopri]

It's beyond me why mobo manufacturers can't get simple things like PEG retention mechanism right. My 790X board has the things backwards.



I'd think having the push button for the top PEG and the latch for the bottome one is more logical. Am I right?

On the board Zap reviewed as well - As Zap noted, they could have flipped the latch the other way around and it'd be easier to access it.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Only 2x DIMMs? What a shame...

Anyway, I wonder why sites like AT won't review more of these budget boards instead of those overpriced "premium" mobos that most people even won't touch.

 

[Zap]

Only 2x DIMMs? What a shame...

Anyway, I wonder why sites like AT won't review more of these budget boards instead of those overpriced "premium" mobos that most people even won't touch.

AFAIK all the G31 and G41 chipset boards have only 2 DIMM slots. That might be a chipset limitation by Intel (can only support 4 ranks?).

Hmmm, Anandtech is looking for writers... maybe I can propose budget board reviews...

 

[Intelkid]

This has gotten me to think more about the board. I've read through the manual and other sites with reviews. Your testing had me questioning about getting a setup with this:

Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L, 2GB DDR2 800MHz, E6300 Dual-Core 2.8

Seeing that E5200 worked well, I'm assuming that E5300 & E5400 would too - They all have 800 FSB.

E6300 & E6500 both have 1066 FSB. I suppose the same thing applies to these two chips not being able to overclock much. When you tested E7300, how much were you able to increase, and did 333MHz work well?

I was thinking of another GA-EP43T-UD3L with it's capability for 1600 FSB. Maybe better results would come from that?

 

[Zap]

E6300 & E6500 both have 1066 FSB. I suppose the same thing applies to these two chips not being able to overclock much. When you tested E7300, how much were you able to increase, and did 333MHz work well?

With all the chips I've tested, using 10MHz increments, I was able to POST at 340MHz FSB but not 350MHz FSB. I've tested using E5200, E7300 and E8200. I even tried lowering multiplier to 6x and testing at 400MHz in case there was a FSB "hole" that some boards have, but no POST.

If you were looking at the E6300 for overclocking, I would just suggest the slower E5200 because the E6300 doesn't have a cache advantage. If you really want a faster FSB CPU and high overclocks, consider a different board. Otherwise E5200 and this board is a monster combo.

 

[tcsenter]

AFAIK all the G31 and G41 chipset boards have only 2 DIMM slots. That might be a chipset limitation by Intel (can only support 4 ranks?).

Well, they're supposed to have only two DIMM slots. ASUS and others have produced G31 and G41 boards with four slots, which necessitate single-rank modules when populating all four.

 

[Kenmitch]

Testing in 10MHz FSB increments and with boosted voltages (including CPU VCORE to 1.400v) and relaxed memory timings the maximum FSB I was able to POST with was 340MHz. 350MHz FSB resulted in no POST. CPU multiplier was tested from 6x to 12.5x and the results were the same. This means it POSTed at 4.25GHz. I would expect final overclocks to be in the near 4GHz range.

Hmm....This statement makes me wonder what my e5200 is capable of.

I tested my e5200 with the GA-G41M-ES2L and the highest fsb I could post and stabalize was 340fsb which was 4.25ghz. My board would not post above 343fsb.

I figured the chip crapped out as that's a massive overclock....Now I'm wandering if it was the board or the chip.

Not sure if it would be worth throwing the e5200 in my P5Q Deluxe with H20 and maybe double check the e5200 again....Hmm

Anybody know what the theoretical max speed of a e5200 would be....I know it varies from chip to chip but I'm pretty sure I got a very, very good one

 

[n7]

The 200 FSB chips cannot generally get higher than the 350 FSB range.

My E5300 does not POST over 350 FSB on my P5Q Deluxe, FWIW, & i could stably run quads on that board over 450 FSB, nevermind duals.
Kinda doubt you'd have much different luck there, but who knows.

 

[Zap]

A quick search yielded this page showing 6GHz. Note that many different sites have their own "world record" lists so this one is not the only one. Also, note that most of the people who listed their cooling... used LN2.

 

[n7]

A quick search yielded this page showing 6GHz. Note that many different sites have their own "world record" lists so this one is not the only one. Also, note that most of the people who listed their cooling... used LN2.

I'm actually not sure how the pros get around the FSB wall; i'd assume mods of some kind, because for those of us not modifying things, you'll find over 400 is extremely rare.
I think you've spoken of pin-mods before, so you know much more of this than i do.

Sorry i've taken this off topic a bit; i'm referring to the CPUs not your board specifically.

 

[Zap]

Part of the problem is that the motherboard's FSB strap is wrong for really high FSB, and the memory multipliers push the RAM up too high. Some BIOSes will actually allow you to manually specify the FSB strap, but otherwise you will have to do a "BSEL mod" to tell the motherboard that you have a higher FSB CPU than you really have.

 

[StrangerGuy]

With all the chips I've tested, using 10MHz increments, I was able to POST at 340MHz FSB but not 350MHz FSB. I've tested using E5200, E7300 and E8200. I even tried lowering multiplier to 6x and testing at 400MHz in case there was a FSB "hole" that some boards have, but no POST.

If you were looking at the E6300 for overclocking, I would just suggest the slower E5200 because the E6300 doesn't have a cache advantage. If you really want a faster FSB CPU and high overclocks, consider a different board. Otherwise E5200 and this board is a monster combo.

Really sucks even for a budget board not to hit 400MHz FSB isn't it? Considering that my 3.5 year old GA-965P-DS3 antique easily booted @ 433 FSB with stock voltage and I have been running @ 400MHz since I had the board...I would have expected every single LGA775 board now to hit 400MHz guaranteed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The 200 FSB chips cannot generally get higher than the 350 FSB range.

That seems true for the 45nm budget dual-cores, for some reason, but it wasn't true with the 65nm budget dual-cores. My E2140s are fine at 400Mhz (410 even) FSB.

 

[Ozzy8031]

Hello, and sorry for posting on this somewhat old thread but, im having some trouble undervolting my Q6600... It seems to report a sucessfull undervolt when i check the BIOS but, as soon as I boot the OS up (using 7 x64) it reports the default 1.28v... I tried reformatting, AND using Ubuntu to check to see if windows was a problem, but both reported the default voltage... Any ideas?

By the way, for the measurements I use AIDA64 in windows and lm_sensors in Ubuntu

 

[Zap]

Possibly the board doesn't support undervolting with 65nm chips, or whatever BIOS version you are using. Have you tried enabling EIST? It should underclock/undervolt itself. After some more testing, seems as if EIST does about as good a job as manual settings, plus allows CPU to ramp up when needed.

 

[Ozzy8031]

Possibly the board doesn't support undervolting with 65nm chips, or whatever BIOS version you are using. Have you tried enabling EIST? It should underclock/undervolt itself. After some more testing, seems as if EIST does about as good a job as manual settings, plus allows CPU to ramp up when needed.

The problem is, is DOES undervolt with Easytune but for some reason it doesnt on startup (with ET), even worse, the undervolt somehow worked before i installed "easy energy saver" so i suspect this software can write the bios maybe? and eist is a good undervolt but not enough... i used to run this Q6600 @ 1.04v/2.4Ghz stable, and silent/low power operation is a goal

I just tried disabling EIST and other power management features, but it wont work anyway... I just noticed that, no matter how i clear the cmos there are persistent "profiles" stored in the bios... Any way to "reset" them?


EDIT: Just tested an underclock then an overclock in FSB and it worked very well (apparently this board CAN use smaller-than-default FSB clocks for 65nm chips), but i wasnt able to increase the voltage nor reduce it... What still bugs me is that i see reports of people doing it, AND i was able to before... Does that mean i have a faulty board? If so, i MAY have some warranty time left... Or maybe i just screwed some setting up?

Another quick question: I dont seem to detect my NB temp sensor reading in Windows, but *apparently*, i do in linux (a ~45 Celsius reading)... is that right?

EDIT2: Just checked: This board is rev 1.0 and latest BIOS (F9)