Gigabyte X58A-UD7 running review

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12-06-2009, 06:45 PM
punx223

Gigabyte X58A-UD7 running review
Gigabyte X58A-UD7

As of recent I have been working with Gigabytes newest USB 3.0 and Sata 3.0 capable board. Much like my recent review of the P55A-UD6, except this time It is the X58 chipset, and as most know that is a very popular chipset with excellent overclocking potential.

You will see a few phases of this review, This is the first, the Overlook as you will. Testing and more input will come later as testing is completed.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A1.jpg

Here is the front of the box and the first thing you see with it on the shelf. Gigabyte has went out of their way to ensure you not only see the box on the shelf, but it literally jumps off the shelf into your arms, as it is the best looking packaging I have seen. Not only many sparkles and a lot of flash and color to it, but it also puts all of the information in plain sight.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A2.jpg

Heres what you see when you open it. You get a very good look at the board, so you dont have to unbox it to see what you are getting.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A3.jpg

Here is what you get on the inside of the open flap. A lot more information at your disposal that gives you all of the key marketing and selling points for the board. Here you will see everything that makes this board different than the rest out there. And there is a lot!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A4.jpg

Here is the rear of the package. Yet again even more information about the board and the many technologies implemented within it. All the way from 3 3 3 to the Smart6 technology to the 24 phase CPU pwm.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A5.jpg

Unboxing you come across the small white box containing the accessories. In here you see what has become the normal fare for the gigabyte lineup. It includes the SLI bridge, SLI hold down Bracket, a couple pairs of sata cables, and the small mix of manuals included.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A6.jpg

And here is a nice look at the board as a whole. Here you will see the general layout of the slots, cooler configuration and where everything fits.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A7.jpg

Here you get a good look at the lower section of the board specifically, here is where you have the usb headers, 1394 header, floppy and pata headers. Not to mention also your front panel control headers.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A8.jpg

Here you see the rear IO panel connections.
Here you have:
- Both PS2 mouse and keyboard connections.
- Clear Cmos button
- SPDIF coaxial and optical audio
- 8 USB ports, 2 of which are USB 3.0 capable
- Two 1394 firewire ports one standard, one mini
- 2 Lan ports which support Smart Dual lan (will be explained later)
- Full standard audio connections
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/A9.jpg

Here you see the visual difference between the standard USB 2.0 and the USB 3.0 capable (blue) ports You will see the extra 5 pads that allow the extra bandwidth over the standard USB 2.0 transfer rate.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B1.jpg

Here are the actual physical difference with the extra 5 connections per USB port which like stated before are what allow the significantly higher transfer rate. You will see the green which is the same between both, then the red which is the extra connections.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B2.jpg

Here is a good look at the slot layout. As you will see, the two X16 slots are far enough apart to fit full dual slot cards together in SLI or crossfire configurations. This board does also have as you see two physical X8 slots which can be used for a 4 card X8 setup, but I will have to say that with the slot spacing you would need cards with single slot coolers to fit 4 of them.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B3.jpg

Here you will see the add on silent pipe cooler fitted in place, not quite mounted, but put in place for representation purposes at this time. You see that the cooler has a large surface area, and adds to the cooling capacity of the already very stout looking cooler. It will utilize standard case airflow to help via heatpipe to expel extra heat from the cooling system.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B4.jpg

Heres a good look of the CPU socket area along with the silentpipe cooler in place on the northbridge section of the cooler. Here you will see the 24 chokes that makes up the cpu 24 phase PWM.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B5.jpg

Here is a very good view of the rear with the additional cooler attached.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B6.jpg

One of the many great features of this motherboard. A debug post LED, It assists with posting issues if any, along with telling you the present state of post you are in. Or can assist you with figuring out why it is not posting.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B7.jpg

Here is the sata port layout, all are laying down or forward facing ports. Very good for clearing full length Graphics cards, just be sure you are looking at the drive cages as they can sometimes have issues with connectivity if the drive in the bay is too close or interfering.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B8.jpg

Here is one of my favorites and It has been on a few boards, The monstrous southbridge cooler. You will see that the southbridge does not get very warm but any heat it does put out should be quickly removed by this large chunk of cooler.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...58A-UD7/B9.jpg

And yet I do not know if this is my favirite feature but its close. Integrated waterblocks into the northbridge I have always liked the idea of. The only issue is you are stuck with one size of tubing. If there was one flaw with the layout or knit I could pick it would be that in future boards I would like to see a threaded waterblock with interchangeable nozzles so if you (like many) run 1/2” ID tubing in your water loop you will not be required to run reducers in order to use the block.

More review and testing to come
12-06-2009, 06:49 PM
punx223

Reserved for testing
12-06-2009, 06:50 PM
punx223

reserved for testing
12-06-2009, 07:20 PM
freaksavior

from initial thoughts, would it be worth upgrading from the ud5?
12-06-2009, 07:46 PM
punx223

Quote:

Originally Posted by freaksavior

from initial thoughts, would it be worth upgrading from the ud5?

The addition of sata 3 and USB3 alone makes it worth it to me... let alone the better chipset cooling. i also have a UD5 and the chipset cooling is excellent, but also this board is very solid, has more cpu power phases which should help with stability under heavy overclock.

Initial impressions this is a much cooler looking and looks to be a excellent board. but i never go for first impressions, and upon looking at voltage options and bios will help my decision.

as I said though the usb and sata 3.0 spec ports sell me to begin with. as these devices are just starting to trickle in and i believe especially the USB thumb drives will be truely awesome. :up:
12-06-2009, 08:24 PM
pr@$r1g

^^^ as of that it is having the same functionality as of ud5 , pcie ports are also not arranged properly(its a waste) , more phases doesn't help OCing , usb3.0 & sata3 are shared with pcie x16.
& last of it UD5 is the best of X58 .......
12-06-2009, 08:37 PM
punx223

Quote:

Originally Posted by pr@$r1g

^^^ as of that it is having the same functionality as of ud5 , pcie ports are also not arranged properly(its a waste) , more phases doesn't help OCing , usb3.0 & sata3 are shared with pcie x16.
& last of it UD5 is the best of X58 .......

The board layout is very similar to the UD5. The slot layout unless you have single slot cooled cards, will not be able to run 4 cards. then again there are not many boards that can run 4 cards so that kinda negates the dispute.

as for the more power phases not helping overclocking.... I have both boards so I can easily test this one.... I have a UD5 and the UD7, so i guess I can give a lil more insight then speculation on this one.

I will even test the same chip in both boards, and same ram. :up:

i can understand you defending the board (ud5) as it is the one you currently have, and is a great board. But anything can be improved, and if there is something better with this board, I will show it ;)
12-06-2009, 11:14 PM
Russian

Very nice shannon! I look forward to seeing some overclocking results. I might get one of these boards as well and maybe we can compare notes! :P
12-06-2009, 11:23 PM
punx223

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russian

Very nice shannon! I look forward to seeing some overclocking results. I might get one of these boards as well and maybe we can compare notes! :P

i look forward to that..... you need to come down for a benching session we can burn thru some dice
12-07-2009, 12:44 AM
Russian

Quote:

Originally Posted by punx223

i look forward to that..... you need to come down for a benching session we can burn thru some dice

Most def. Lets try to get something done during my winter break. ;)
12-07-2009, 01:23 AM
pr@$r1g

Im looking forward to see to of the boards compared head to head :up:
12-07-2009, 01:30 AM
TheGreenFoX

Is it Rev 0.1 or 1.0 ? The box looks retail, but the start button look like the rev 0.1 P55-UD6? (just want to know if they changed the start button)
12-07-2009, 04:35 AM
nyeah

there's already a thread discussing this board, but it's always worth to read the review, waiting for results here.
12-07-2009, 09:12 AM
freaksavior

Quote:

Originally Posted by punx223

The addition of sata 3 and USB3 alone makes it worth it to me... let alone the better chipset cooling. i also have a UD5 and the chipset cooling is excellent, but also this board is very solid, has more cpu power phases which should help with stability under heavy overclock.

Initial impressions this is a much cooler looking and looks to be a excellent board. but i never go for first impressions, and upon looking at voltage options and bios will help my decision.

as I said though the usb and sata 3.0 spec ports sell me to begin with. as these devices are just starting to trickle in and i believe especially the USB thumb drives will be truely awesome. :up:

USB3 does entice me to want to purchase this board.
12-07-2009, 01:20 PM
ChaosAD

Is the NB waterblock copper? Any info on this?
12-07-2009, 06:29 PM
Russian

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChaosAD

Is the NB waterblock copper? Any info on this?

From what i have been told by shanoob himself, yes.
12-07-2009, 07:38 PM
punx223

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russian

From what i have been told by shanoob himself, yes.

Thank you so much russian.... :rofl:

not sure if i can get a good pic down the small opening but i see copper. so I would say yes, I will ask them to be sure but from what i see it is copper
12-07-2009, 11:48 PM
cirthix

the NB WB contacts THROUGH the fins so it's probably useless.

I've got good results from the cpu regulator on an early version of this board :).
12-09-2009, 06:17 AM
Katanai

I've got this board yesterday. Just managed to put the system together and install Windows. Now I'm stuck at work and all I can think about is testing the new setup. :hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer: Arghhh, my head is gonna explode. Just two more hours though...
12-09-2009, 06:41 AM
nossy23

Is it possible to install the silent pipe cooler together with Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler you think?
12-09-2009, 07:11 AM
1nvisible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgxbdSJaefQ
12-09-2009, 09:41 AM
SamHughe

Thank you for the very detailed review. Awesome! :up:
12-09-2009, 11:33 AM
MaJ0r

I have one question - Do need ud7 hardmod for overclocking more than 222 bclk and 103 PCI-E as EX58Extreme(UD5, etc)?
12-09-2009, 01:22 PM
DavyBoy

From what the guys in the UD7 thread in the Intel section have said, the hardmod isn't needed on these boards.

That's the only thing that I dont like about the UD5, I'm hopeless with a soldering iron, so I wouldn't dare attempt the mod myself!!
12-09-2009, 06:49 PM
march09

GA-X58A-UD7 & Megahalems?

Wonder does the Megahalems Air Cooler fit on the UD7 in the Horizontal position, fan facing upwards?

Or does NB waterblock's hose barb interfere with heat sink & fan making it not possible.
12-09-2009, 06:53 PM
cirthix

i can confirm that a megahalem mounted such that the fan is blowing up (in a normal-oriented atx case) and pushing air through the heatsink will fit, but not wtih overly thick (38mm) fans. a normal 1" thick fan will fit properly.
12-09-2009, 06:58 PM
HuffPCair

So if you do not water cool you are stuck with a waterblock on the NB??
12-09-2009, 08:30 PM
Mungri

Quote:

Originally Posted by HuffPCair

So if you do not water cool you are stuck with a waterblock on the NB??

No, that big cooling card thing plugs into it.

One question I have - with the cooling block installed, can the second PCI-E 1x slot fit a Creative Titanium sized card?
12-10-2009, 06:56 AM
Katanai

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhavv

No, that big cooling card thing plugs into it.

One question I have - with the cooling block installed, can the second PCI-E 1x slot fit a Creative Titanium sized card?

Sadly no, with the heatpipe installed you can not fit :banana::banana::banana::banana: in those PCIE 1x slots.

:(

They could have done better than that, I don't see why a northbridge sink should block two slots.
And I really don't know why it doesn't have a bit that fits in that top PCIE x1 slot if its sitting on top of it.
That would have made mounting it on a table 10 times easier...

You can fit that card in the lowest PCIE slot though, if you don't plan on going SLI or Crossfire...
12-10-2009, 10:44 PM
punx223

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katanai

Sadly no, with the heatpipe installed you can not fit :banana::banana::banana::banana: in those PCIE 1x slots.

:(

They could have done better than that, I don't see why a northbridge sink should block two slots.
And I really don't know why it doesn't have a bit that fits in that top PCIE x1 slot if its sitting on top of it.
That would have made mounting it on a table 10 times easier...

You can fit that card in the lowest PCIE slot though, if you don't plan on going SLI or Crossfire...

yeah with the supplemental air cooler installed it blocks access to the 1x slots.

but this is one helluva beefy cooling solution, i think im gonna test it first without the supplemental cooler attached as im betting it will still stay plenty cool.
12-15-2009, 11:18 PM
fritzman

Subscribed! Gotta get me one of these.

Looking forward to more guys.
12-16-2009, 03:21 PM
Guppster

I am building a computer with Gigabyte X58A-UD7.
I want to know whats the best power supply to use.
I am useing thermaltake SwordM (VD500LBNA)
12-16-2009, 04:17 PM
Katanai

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guppster

I am building a computer with Gigabyte X58A-UD7.
I want to know whats the best power supply to use.
I am useing thermaltake SwordM (VD500LBNA)

I have a Corsair HX750. Two of my colleagues also got it after I purchased it. It's the best power supply out there imo. If you don't need a modular one the TX750 is also good...
12-21-2009, 11:44 AM
Solid Snake

Wow thanks for your review man
12-21-2009, 12:10 PM
thegamer36

I am really considering this board. What size are the nozzles on the NB waterblock? Are they removable and can they be replaced with compression fittings?

Thanks.
12-21-2009, 01:34 PM
fritzman

My UD7 should arrive today... sadly, I have to wait a few more days for the IFX-14 to arrive, but at least I can drool over it until then!

Keep any settings/hints coming... really appreciate what you've done so far.
12-22-2009, 01:06 AM
FeRaL

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegamer36

I am really considering this board. What size are the nozzles on the NB waterblock? Are they removable and can they be replaced with compression fittings?

Thanks.

3/8" and they are not removable. Your best bet would be to get an acrylic sheet and make your own top.
12-24-2009, 01:38 AM
gup133

Hi mates!
If I use waterblock on chipset Have I use heatsink too (I have an I7 920@4400 at 1,30 - 211x21)? do you think 200-210 of bclk can be reached using only wb and not the heatsink?

Thank you all.:)
12-27-2009, 11:32 AM
lowfat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katanai

Sadly no, with the heatpipe installed you can not fit :banana::banana::banana::banana: in those PCIE 1x slots.

:(

They could have done better than that, I don't see why a northbridge sink should block two slots.
And I really don't know why it doesn't have a bit that fits in that top PCIE x1 slot if its sitting on top of it.
That would have made mounting it on a table 10 times easier...

You can fit that card in the lowest PCIE slot though, if you don't plan on going SLI or Crossfire...

Ya the HSF is pretty poorly designed that is for sure. I am thinking about taking the NB heatsink assembly off of my dead EX58-UD5. That way I can at least use one of the PCIe slots. The top slot is about 99% useless no matter on the cooling though. The only card that I've ever seen been able to fit there is a x1 PCIe eSATA card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gup133

Hi mates!
If I use waterblock on chipset Have I use heatsink too (I have an I7 920@4400 at 1,30 - 211x21)? do you think 200-210 of bclk can be reached using only wb and not the heatsink?

Thank you all.:)

Easy.
12-28-2009, 06:17 AM
Katanai

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowfat

Ya the HSF is pretty poorly designed that is for sure. I am thinking about taking the NB heatsink assembly off of my dead EX58-UD5. That way I can at least use one of the PCIe slots. The top slot is about 99% useless no matter on the cooling though. The only card that I've ever seen been able to fit there is a x1 PCIe eSATA card.

Maybe this would fit:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/image...AA_400x400.jpg

It's one of our wireless cards.

Still I didn't buy this board for slot placement. I could see it's poor from the start. I wanted something really easy to watercool and in a month or two I think I will be able to see if it's just that...
12-28-2009, 07:25 AM
nossy23

I'm planning to get this MB, but stilll have the following question:

- I'm not going to use watercooling, and I will be using the Noctua NH-D14 cpu cooler on a i7 920. I know with this cooler one can also not use the extra passive cooling on the MB because it won't fit together with the Noctua.

--> Is it still realistic to aim for 4 Ghz without watercooling and no extra Silent Pipe installed?
12-28-2009, 10:39 AM
fritzman

Quote:

Originally Posted by nossy23

I'm planning to get this MB, but stilll have the following question:

- I'm not going to use watercooling, and I will be using the Noctua NH-D14 cpu cooler on a i7 920. I know with this cooler one can also not use the extra passive cooling on the MB because it won't fit together with the Noctua.

--> Is it still realistic to aim for 4 Ghz without watercooling and no extra Silent Pipe installed?

I don't think you're going to have any problem... 4.0Ghz is not a huge overclock for the 920, and as such, you should not be needing to play with much board voltage at all... mainly just the cpu. I would say as long as you have good air movement through your case, you should be just fine.
01-03-2010, 05:23 AM
dricks

Hi,
I bought an UD7 two weeks ago to complete a i7 975 configuration.

So, here are my thought after two weeks : this motherboard is really :banana::banana::banana::banana:ed up. Yup.
Explanations...
Full test config :
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
CPU I7 975
Cooler : Noctua NH-U12P-SE2
RAM : CORSAIR C7 1600Mhz (3x2GB)
Power : Seasonic X-750 Gold
Graphics : 2x 8800GTX (SLI)
Sound : Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI (but.....)

1/ Impressions :
Looks solid at first look. Nice colors, and sounds promising looking at its features.
I bought this MB instead of any other high price X58 (almost every high priced ones are around 300€) because it had 2 E-SATA. Glad to see them on the back.

2/ Positionning :
I'm using an air cooling solution, so a very bad point for it are the 2 PCIEx 1x which aren't usable because they are on the way of the chipset's heavy passive cooler.
Moreover, the usable PCIEx 16x ports for dual slot SLI cards are port 1 and 3, which makes the PCI port unusable. My Audigy ZS had to stay away :(

Only one PCIex 16x port is left after installing the cards, which is a lot less than my previous motherboard (an Asus Striker Extreme), on which i was able to install the sound card and still had a free PCIEx 1x available.

3/ BIOS Setup
As a lucky owner of an I7 975 EE, my first action was to look in the bios in order to fix the multiplier i want.
Yeah, but the BIOS won't let me go over x26 (base clock is x25 on the 975)
x26?! WTF?
I turn OFF turbo boost technology and put x26. The Turbo Boost went ON again by himself. WTF?
I turn it OFF again, and the multiplier back to x25 by himself.
WTF...?

After a few try, i gave up on this.
Time to test those ESATA ports.

I have two external drive, and on my previous rig they were at a solid 50MB/s each on those ports, so i had high expectations on those ones.
Disappointment.
It took me at least 15 minutes only to get them recognized. Cold plug, hot plug, nothing seems to work. Sometimes, one of the two was shows up, but not the other.
I luckily managed to have them both (how? don't know) and then boot up.
I had to transfer almost 500GB of data from the first Drive to the Other.
I launched the copy, and watched TV.

Two hours later, i went on the PC to see how it goes... The copy was hanging, still saying 'Copy in progress', but no progression left. I stopped it, but the HDD LED were still active.
Decided to reboot, but on reboot, the LED were still on?
WTF??!
Had to unplug the power cable to stop that.

Back to windows, all the files were on the disk, but 2 out of 3 were corrupted, while they were still fine on the source external drive.
So i decided to gave up on the ESATA, and used both USB instead.
Bye bye 50MB/s
And USB gave me an average 18MB/s

This time, the copy finished right but took a hell of a time (18MB/s for 500GB, takes a looooooong time... :( )
The JMicron controller in charge for ESATA has a bad reputation for good reasons as it seems.

So, to sum up : buggy BIOS, instable Jmicron controller, bad PCI ports positionning.
That's the most expensive card i ever bought (the striker extreme was at 240€ when i bought it, this one is at 300€) and also the worse ever.

I saw that F3 Beta bios are available, but i will wait for a final version to upgrade.
But still, i'm very very very disappointed on this one. Perhaps Gigabyte should put less functionnality but at a higher quality level.
01-07-2010, 05:33 AM
flopper

took several months for the ud5 board to get good bios.
early adopters might get a lot of issues.
01-21-2010, 08:32 AM
Supershanks

Great review punx223:up:

Quote:

Originally Posted by flopper

took several months for the ud5 board to get good bios.
early adopters might get a lot of issues.

Bios has been good on this from day1, even with shipping bios.

Just got a few updates to mine

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 Living Review:

1) Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 - The naked truth
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk/revie...D7/IMG_2928.jp

2) Voltage Measuring Points
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk/revie...IMG_2307-a.jpg

3) 4.4Ghz 21x210 Ram x8 1,680Mhz 7-7-7-19
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk/revie...s/21x210@8.png
01-24-2010, 11:10 AM
fritzman

Hey thanks for those Clunk links... they have full BIOS settings for a good range of bclks from around 3.8 up... awesome for us guys on air!
02-06-2010, 04:57 PM
Zayras

Quote:

Originally Posted by nossy23

- I'm not going to use watercooling, and I will be using the Noctua NH-D14 cpu cooler on a i7 920. I know with this cooler one can also not use the extra passive cooling on the MB because it won't fit together with the Noctua.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fritzman

I don't think you're going to have any problem... 4.0Ghz is not a huge overclock for the 920, and as such, you should not be needing to play with much board voltage at all... mainly just the cpu. I would say as long as you have good air movement through your case, you should be just fine.

So does the NH-D14 really not fit in with the gigantic heatsink? I'm really considering this or the UD5, but if it doesn't fit then is there any reason (other than higher power phase) to go for the UD7?

BTW does your IFX fit with the passive heatsink fritzman? If so how tight is the spacing?

Thanks guys, but I ended up answering my own question, it does fit. For anyone worried about clearance issues it will fit horizontally, but not vertically. See this vid to see what I mean and just how much space you'll have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWlVcVcYT3g