Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Review
by Ian Cutress on December 26, 2011 4:37 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- X79
- Sandy Bridge E
Board Features
As mentioned previously, the abundance of SATA 6 Gbps ports is nice to see, especially in comparison to the competition. We have a high end Realtek codec, and Intel NIC as well. Gigabyte still insist on putting a Trusted Platform Module on their boards, but as I learned in a previous Gigabyte review, this is because Gigabyte have had positive feedback from customers who use this functionality. We are missing though some onboard power/reset/clear CMOS buttons which would make testing and error checking easier on all fronts.
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA2011 |
| CPU Support | Intel Second Generation Core i7 Sandy Bridge E |
| Chipset | Intel X79 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100.0 MHz |
| Core Voltage | Default, 0.8 V to 1.735 V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 12x to 59x |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.1 V to 2.1 V |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1N to 3N |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Quad Channel Support for DDR3, 800-3200 MHz |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe Gen 3 x16 2 x PCIe Gen 3 x8 2 x PCIe x1 2 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 x SATA 3 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 x SATA 6 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1 |
| Onboard |
4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH) 6 x SATA 6 Gbps (2 PCH, 4 Controller) 5 x Fan Headers 1 x 4-pin Molex CFX/SLI Power Connector 1 x HDMI_SPDIF Header 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header 3 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x Serial Port Header 1 x Trusted Platform Module Header |
| Onboard LAN | Intel Gigabit 82579V |
| Onboard Audio |
Realtek ALC898 7.1 Ch HD, Supports Dolby Home Theater |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header 4 x SYS Headers |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Mouse Port 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out Port 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out Port 8 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.0 2 x eSATA 6 Gbps 1 x Gigabit Ethernet Audio Jacks |
| BIOS Version | F5 |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years from date of manufacture |
In The Box
IO Shield
Manual
Driver CD
4 x SATA Cables
Long SLI Cable
Long CFX Cable
3-way SLI Bridge
4-way SLI Bridge
Gigabyte typically are not all encompassing with their box contents - previous boards I have reviewed tend to have the bare minimum (IO shield, manual, CD, 2 SATA cables, perhaps more). In this case, we have more cables, and an array of SLI connectors for the multi-GPU enthusiast. Perhaps this is more what Gigabyte are aiming with the UD3?
Software
Gigabyte software over the past 12 months has not changed much - we still have EasyTune6 with basic OC functionality and a limited series of fan controls (when compared to their main competitors that can set dual ramping); Smart6 with various BIOS functionality, QuickBoost, QuickBoot, Timelock and SmartRecovery2; and @BIOS for updating the BIOS. Rather than go through them again, I will direct you to our previous reviews [1,2].
What is new though, is 3DPower. In essence, it is a very basic utility that allows a user to adjust the power delivery to the PWM on the board for power saving or on-the-fly overclocking. The software is a bit slow and unresponsive, and the majority of consumers will not understand what the options mean. However, it is there if a user wants it.
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MadMan007 - Monday, December 26, 2011 - link
There are other ways to implement fan control than PWM though, namely voltage control which works with any fan even 2-pin ones with no RPM sensor plus all the 3-pin aftermarket fans. Even if all it did was allow for altrered voltage, or simple software with manual profiles (ie: 'quiet' at a certain voltage' and 'high performance' at another voltage) it would be a big step up from no fan control. Of course that probably costs about $1 in additional parts so god forbid many motherboards have that.In the end it just means having to stick with a real manual fan control but it would be nice to see on motherboards.
gevorg - Wednesday, December 28, 2011 - link
True but not all mobo manufacturers are as cheap as Gigabyte in this regard. Basic P67/Z68 mobos from Intel and Asus/ASRock have case fan controls and some even by PWM.Andrea deluxe - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
http://www.techpowerup.com/157543/Gigabyte-Recalli...Andrea deluxe - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Wk4QWHjpcBrandenburgh Man - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
It's silly to criticize Gigabyte's Multi-Threaded 3D Particle Movement score when the difference between Gigabyte's score of 898.96 and the highest score of 914.36 is less than 2 percent. In the real world, anything less than a 10 percent performance difference is unnoticeable by the user. Typically you have to get 20 to 25 percent better performance before it becomes meaningful to you, and 33 percent or better before you start getting excited about it.wifiwolf - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
If you mean motherboard performance benchmarks are by far less meaningful i agree.That's because this is the less significant part in your system performance-wise, which means 2% difference overall is enough to say it's too much for an high-end.
cactusdog - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
Gigabyte has recalled this board because of a too weak VRM that alows mosfets to explode when overclocking,UD3/ UD5, A1 Assassin all RECALLED by Gigabyte
rumblpak - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
Shouldn't you note that they've all been recalled? Gigabyte announced a worldwide recall of all of their X79 boards.surt - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
Who is buying an x79 and only getting 4 memory slots anyway? That's just crazy. If you want this platform at all, you surely want the large amount of memory it can support. If for nothing else, you can run a nice ramdisk and get things running 10x faster than the best SSD you can buy.Brandenburgh Man - Tuesday, December 27, 2011 - link
I thoroughly agree. SSDs are great for fast boot times and fast program loads, but when you really need *superfast* access to data, nothing beats a RAM drive.Although 4GB DDR3 sticks are dirt cheap right now, four memory slots only comes to 16GB. A six-core hyper-threaded Sandy Bridge E chip would quickly exhaust that if you're a power user who does a lot of video editing or transcoding while simultaneously running other programs. Even if you can afford the currently very expensive 8GB DDR3 sticks, 32GB isn't anything to brag about for a workstation class computer. Better to get a mobo with 8 slots and populate it with 32GB now, then upgrade to 64GB a year or so later when 8GB sticks becine more affordable. Then you'd have the best of both worlds, a huge RAM-disk for incredibly fast I/O, with enough system RAM left over to keep the CPU from being starved.
A few years ago Jerry Pournelle said we were entering the age of computational plenty. I like to say we're entering the age of desktop supercomputing. The future looks very bright indeed.