Review: Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5

Posted on 6 May 2012

Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5.

This time direct from Gigabyte’s hand comes what is literally a very nice motherboard, both in size and performance. We are talking about the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 , a small E-ATX motherboard with lots of love to give. While the Intel x79 chipset has been around for a while now on the market, it is never too late to prove its potential and characteristics that make this platform the best of the best on the market. On to the specifications.
CPU: Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors in the LGA2011 package
Memory: Intel® X79 Express Chipset
Memory: 8 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
* 4 channel memory architecture
* Support for DDR3 2400/2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
* Support for non-ECC memory modules
* Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
Audio: Realtek ALC898 codec
* High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
* Support for Dolby® Home Theater
* Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN: 1 x Intel GbE LAN (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Expansion Slots: 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)
* 1 x PCI Express x16 3.0 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
* 1 x PCI slot
Multi-Graphics Technology:* Support for 3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFireX™ / NVIDIA SLI technology.

Price: $299.99

This motherboard supports the new 3D technology Digital Power 3-WayGigabyte engine, which enables the delivery of a stable energy flow to the CPU and memory regardless of the load. And this is not all, but also for the VTT and the VSA settings and to perform real-time monitoring. It also incorporates the new 3D Power Utility apart Voltage Control, incorporates control stages of power and to control the frequencyPWM controller. In addition to 3D BIOS, UEFI BIOS comes with Dual, 8 Slots of Quadchannel memory architecture, PCI Express 3.0 support, 3-wayCrossFireX ™ and 3-way SLI ™, Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi card and Ultra Durable ™ 3 design, make plate foolproof.

Overclock.
The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD5 is a delicacy to overclock. It has a comprehensive BIOS and has no major problems to reach 4.8GHz fully stable 3Dbenchs, the problem is with the Cooler. My dear Noctua NH-D14 (one of thesolutions TOP of the market) was just too small to overclock this CPU. We could configure the memories to frequencies of 2133MHz 9-11-9-28@1.65v from the factory (who would have thought that a few years ago you could reach 2133MHz on 16GB of RAM).

Final Word.
Not much to say when a product is clearly the crème de la crème.
A robust board, ideal for heavy duty use requiring large computing power, large amounts of RAM and Multi-GPU solutions. This board makes sure everything will work and better than the rest. A comprehensive BIOS, intuitive and easy to use. It’s a pretty heavy board very well built, quality feel nice just having it on the hand. Is a product both for the enthusiast who seeks to break overclocking records, and for thearchitect working doing renders large or for the gamer who wants acomputer that will last for years.
The bundle of the board and is very complete as well and included are the classic: Sata cable, manuals, Bridges SLI / Crossfire and something noteworthy, a PCI-E 1x Bluetooth and WiFi 2 in 1 . What more could you want?