CeBIT 2008 - Previewing The Trends

Gigabyte With Green IT - The Dynamic Energy Save Feature

Gigabyte is focusing on Green IT at this year's CeBIT, introducing a new technology for its motherboards that is meant to reduce power consumption.

Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver

The "Dynamic Energy Saver" feature consists of an intelligent circuit for the voltage regulators that are responsible for the CPU's power supply.

The controller chips determine the amount of power required by the CPU and automatically switch themselves off when less current is needed. While this technology isn't exactly new and other companies offer boards with similar functionality, Gigabyte takes this design a step further. For example, the GA-X448-DQ6 is a motherboard with a 12-phase power design which can turn off 4, 6, 8, 10 or all 12 phases dynamically, as needed. This is meant to reduce the power consumption of the phase regulators by 70%, resulting in an efficiency increase of 20%.

Boards with the Dynamic Energy Saver feature comes with two highlights. The first is that the boards sport 12 LEDs that signal the activity of the CPUs dynamic current power supply.

Gigabyte Dynamic Tool

Using a tool, the DES functionality can be switched in and off from within Windows. The second highlight is that this tool can also monitor the CPU's current power consumption in Watts and count usage in Watt hours. Additionally, it can display the number of voltage regulation modules that are currently active and gives the user a choice of three dynamic DES modes.

According to Gigabyte, the Dynamic Energy Saver functionality only costs 0.5% performance. A full nine new motherboards using the X48, X38 and P35 chipsets are equipped with the new energy saving feature:

X48-Models

• GA-X48T-DQ6
• GA-X48-DQ6
• GA-X48-DS5

P35-Models

• GA-P35-DS4 (rev. 2.1)
• GA-P35C-DS3R (rev. 2.1)
• GA-P35-DS3P (rev. 2.1)
• GA-P35-DS3R (rev. 2.1)
• GA-P35-DS3 (rev. 2.1)

X38-Model

• GA-EX38-DS4

Gigabyte EP35-DS4

Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R

Gigabyte EP35-DS3

Halle 21, Stand C07