Article: Intel® Desktop Board D945GTP Review (Mature for Business Segment)
VI. Overclocking
While I doubt that there will be overclocking on the business PC, I still ventured into this just to show the capability of this motherboard. As such, overclocking non-Extreme-Series or non Enthusiast-type Intel®-based motherboard is somewhat of a pain. But nevertheless, that didn't stop me from finding ways to squeeze performance out of this board. Overclocking this board transports me back in the days, where you need to be really very careful of the minute details every step of the way. Still, it will overclock just as ok with any other board if anyone will find the trick to doing it. I manage to hit a stable 250FSB.
With that said, I will never recommend this board if you plan to overclock. While it can be done, the system will revert back to stock settings once the system is fully turned off. There's also a high probability of corrupting the SATA hard disk, and if this is intended to be used on business or media encoding, the risk may offset the benefit of overclock.
VII. Closing Thoughts
This board is a definite winner in the business segment, be it small or large. While I haven't tested its other features such as Trusted Platform Module and Active Management, it does live up on its other capabilities.
SATA RAID0 is very fast, and I never have problems setting up my Operating System on a freshly created RAID configuration during the initial creation at the BIOS. Hard Disk access is very much acceptable at this rate, almost trying to hit the speed of solid-state storage devices.
Audio is nothing to brag about, but it is acceptable. It offers just enough features to be used as a simple audio entertainment system.
Rock stable operation, and utmost compatibility with processor is very high. The whole system just works with any CPU I plug it in available for mainstream system.
LAN access is top notch, and I never hard problems transferring large chunks of files. I have not tested the Gigabit capability since I don't have a Gigabit switch, but I am able to squeeze 85Mbps during file transfer connecting to a 10/100Mbps hub. I'll try to get a Gigabit switch next time.
When it comes to peripherals support, this motherboard doesn't come short. With Firewired and USB connectivity, I don't see why this board should leave any business user wanting.
When used as a gaming machine, aside from audio, this motherboard is capable of running along with the top dog video cards. I never encountered hang ups or any kind of bogging down playing Warcraft III TFT and other 3D games.
All in all, this is a great board.
