Intel’s new X79 Express Chipset has been
out for a while and every enthusiast has probably already bought the
latest motherboards for their new builds or are planning to in the near
future. We have review a few of the high-end motherboards from Gigabyte,
ASUS, and Intel. However, now its time for the lower-end motherboards
that is more for the consumer level. It’s mainly for the computer geeks
who want to get their hands on the new chipset but don’t want to go
broke doing it. Gigabyte has solution for many consumers who want a
budget friendly X79 motherboard with their Gigabyte X79-UD3 motherboard.
It won’t have as many features for overclocking like the UD7 but it
will definitely keep us with the X79 bandwagon.
For people that don’t know anything
about the new chipset or what it has to offer, I’ll be going into full
detail on what the chipset has to offer. Main improvements with this new
chipset include Performance Overclocking, PCIe based Uplink to
processor, Up to 8PCIe lanes from PCH, and up to 14 SATA connections (10
ports at 6 Gb/s and/or 8 ports supporting SATA and SAS). Intel has also
included Quad Channel DDR3 memory and an overclock memory speed of up
to 2666MHz. As I have mentioned before in previous reviews “Quad
Channel” is really just 4 Dual Channels Memory sticks, so don’t’ get
pulled into the marketing scheme.
Also, a new feature that comes with this
new chipset is Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology. This is geared towards
the increased allowable SATA ports so that your system can run in RAID
0/1/5/10. And with the addition of true SATA 6Gb/s ports, you can
experience all the amazing speeds from your SSDs. The Marvell
controllers on your X58 motherboards are capped and will definitely be a
good bit slower than the speeds that will be seen with these SATA 6Gb/s
ports. Now that we have taken a good look at the specs of these new
features of the X79 chipset, let’s see what comes inside Gigabyte
X79-UD3 motherboard.
- Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 Motherboard
- Gigabyte Motherboard Driver Disk
- User’s Manual
- Quick Installation Guide
- Four SATA cables
- I/O Shield (Color Coded)
- 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s Cables
- 1 x 2-Way SLI Bridge Connector
- 1 x 3-Way SLI Bridge Connector
- 1 x 4-Way SLI Bridge Connector
- 1 x 2-Way CrossFireX Bridge Connector
Mainboard Features
Even though this is Gigabyte’s lower end
motherboard for the X79 chipset, they still have included many great
features on this board. It has a black a grey color scheme that I really
dig and will go with most cases. There are 4 DDR3 Quad Channel Memory, 2
on each side of the processor. As you can see the plate for the
processor is certainly huge and there is a lot of room given as well for
after-market coolers. The DDR3 Quad Channel memory as I have mentioned
before is just a marketing term which really means 4 Dual Channel memory
sticks. And again we can see with this board, the memory slot is
disturbingly close to the first PCI-E 3.0 slot. I know the spacing will
not be good especially when you are trying to remove your memory and
have to push the pins outward.
As you can see on the motherboard, they
feature 8 SATA ports which vary with different speeds and uses. Of the 8
SATA connectors: 4 black ports are the SATA 3Gb/s ports, 2 grey ports
are the Marvell SATA 6Gb/s ports, and 2 white ports are true SATA 6Gb/s
ports. And we all know the Marvell SATA ports aren’t really true 6Gb/s
ports so if you are going to use an SSD drive, make sure to use the 2
white SATA ports for this motherboard.
There are 4 PCI-E 3.0 slots, 2 PCI-E 1x
slots and a PCI 8x slot. They have also adding multiple options for SLI
with 2-Way, 3-Way, and 4-Way capabilities. You can also have 2-Way
CrossFireX as well. This is a really great option since most enthusiasts
and even computer hobbyists use SLI or CrossFire in their PC builds
nowadays. And there are also nice big heatsinks for the northbridge and
southbridge of the motherboard.
And lastly the rear I/O which comes
fully loaded with many ports that any computer geek would appreciate.
You have 8 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 power E-SATA powers, Audio
Ports, and SPDIF port.
EasyTune 6 is Gigabyte’s software that
allows you to overclock your computer straight from the desktop. No need
to go through the bios if you want to change it on the fly and test
benchmarks or increase your performance for other uses. However, I know
most of us computer geeks will probably just overclock the old school
way. I am worried about EasyTune 6 as well as there are many
forums/people that say it doesn’t install or that its really buggy. It
worked for us and we were able to overclock and get better performance.
If it doesn’t work for you don’t stress out, just read some tutorials on
how to overclock the usual way.
Q-Share
Q-Share is another neat software that
Gigabyte has included with this motherboard that allows you conveniently
share data between computers under the same network. It’s very simple
to install and easy to use. Once installed and launched, you are able to
right click a folder and enable data sharing or disable data sharing
between specific folders.
Smart 6
Smart 6 is designed with even more user
friendliness since people overclocking your computer using the BIOS it
seems is becoming a lost art. More and more companies are creating their
own software like this one that allow even a rookie computer enthusiast
to overclock his computer with easy. The SMART QuickBoost allows you to
do one touch overclocking by clicking Faster, Turbo, or Twin Turbo. No
messing with voltages or multipliers. This software does it for you.
There are other options as well such as SMART QuickBoot, SMART
Recovery2, SMART TimeLock, SMART Recorder, and SMART DualBios.
3D Dual UEFI BIOS
As almost every competitor out there,
Gigabyte also has their very own 3D Dual UEFI BIOS that allows you to
use the mouse in the bios and easily click and edit options. You are not
restricted to the keyboard anymore and the interface looks really nice.
I like that there is a big picture of the motherboard on the front and
that you can click on various areas of the motherboard and interact with
it. Once you click on lower task bar menu, you will navigated towards
the more common BIOS screen with System info, BIOS Features,
Peripherals, Power Management, M.I.T., and Save/Exit.
The 3D Dual UEFI BIOS looks really great
and is definitely a great start to creating custom BIOS interfaces.
However, the mouse feels a bit laggy while moving through the screen and
sometimes you really have to click on an option in order for the
computer to register it and open it up. The information is presented
very clearly and it’s easy to increase your BCLK, CPU Clock Ratio, your
voltages and many more.
3D Power / 3-Way Digital Engine
The 3D Power which is in the Power
Management option is something I am definitely intrigued about and will
help the high-end enthusiast. It allows for amazing voltage control and
precise voltage response techniques should your computer experiences
issues. There are options like Vcore Protection, CPU Vtt Protection, IMC
Voltage Protection, DDR Voltage Protection, and also Loadline
Calibrations. This may be an option that many users will probably
disregard since they might not understand it but it’s really great tool
if you are going to overclock your computer and keep the motherboard for
longer periods of time. With these Voltage protection modifiers your
computer will be safe and keep it running longer too.
Here comes the part where we put aside
the great features and different improvements of the board and focus
only on the performance of the board. Ultimately, the performance of the
board will be a big factor for most of us when we decide in upgrading
from our old X58 motherboards. The question is, is it worth your money
to invest in this motherboard? If you put the new X79 chipset to the top
tier X58 motherboards, you’ll see that the X79 motherboards perform
much better. And there are many features that the UD3 offers which make
it a competitive amongst its competitors
We ran all of our benchmarks with the
latest updates and we put it to the test against our Gigabyte G1
Assassin X58 motherboard with 6 gigs of DDR3 1600 MHz ram and an Intel
i7 980x processor at stock settings. For graphics we used the XFX HD
6950 with 1 gig of memory. We used a wide range of benchmarks such as 3D
Mark, PCMark, Cinebench, Sisoft Sandra, and x264 to totally stress the
system out and see what it can do. I was quite impressed with the
results that we got and they definitely blew the X58 motherboard out of
the water.
We can see by the scores below which one
is the clear winner. You will always have computer enthusiasts that
will want the latest tech right when it comes out and pay a butt load
for it. For most of us that are choosy with what we buy and when we buy
it, we will take a little more time in doing our homework of the
product. The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard will be more on the
mid-level with a price tag of around $250 dollars which is probably the
right price range for most people that are going to build a whole new PC
around this new motherboard. For other people that are thinking of just
buying the motherboard to upgrade from your old X58 board, that’s
really up to you if you really want the latest chipset early. As you can
see the X58 board didn’t do that badly so your X58 motherboards are
probably still good for another few months/years.
We’ve seen many different tiers of
motherboards here at Motherboards.org from the very entry level
motherboard like the ECS motherboard up to the very high end like the
Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 and ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboards. They vary in
features and price ranges as well which will either help or hinder in
your decision in buying these new motherboards. The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3
motherboard is more for the mid-level enthusiast because it offers many
features and allows for some overclocking as well. The UD7 motherboard
is made for the extreme user and high end overclockers, however the UD3
will be the right niche for people building new PC with the X79 chipset.
The 3D UEFI BIOS and the extra exclusive
software that allows you to overclock with ease no matter what level of
computer enthusiast you are is definitely a great addition to this
motherboard.
The 3D UEFI BIOS I think still needs some work since the
mouse movement felt a bit stiff and the buttons weren’t being recognized
fast enough. However, I really like the interface and it’s definitely a
great start for Gigabyte’s 3D UEFI BIOS. And the exclusive features
such as Easy Tune 6, Q Share, and Smart 6 are really great tools for
rookie to high end overclockers. And the performance of this motherboard
is definitely better than the X58 chipset and fairs well against the
other X79 motherboards as well. I think this motherboard is a great
board that comes with great features and with a price of $250 dollars.
