Gigabyte X58A-UD3R mini review

EDIT: SATA 3 RESULTS

I just bought my new Gigabyte X58A UD3R, which is a much better than the old UD3R, it has full 6 DDR 3 slots, more PCI-E slots and offers USB and a fully functional and bootable SATA 3 controller. Perhaps at the moment it's the best features/price motherboard on the market.

Some Specification

CPU : Intel® Socket 1366 Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition/Core™ i7 Processor Supports Intel® Dynamic Speed Technology, Supports new generation Intel 32nm 6-core processors
Chipset : Intel® X58 /ICH10R
Memory : 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3-2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory, Triple channel memory architecture * Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Expansion Slots :
1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)
2. 2 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2)
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
4. 1 x PCI slot

Full specifications on Gigabyte webpage

Packaging
one 3xSLI connector, one 2xSLI connector, 4 Sata cables, 1 IDE cable, Driver CD with several programs for energy saving and overclocking and some manuals

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6666.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6668.jpg

Board layout

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...erview_2oz.jpg

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6669.jpg
Nickel plated socket, phases and heatpipes. Nice touch thou it won't be even noticed after installing the components.

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6672.jpg
8 Phase CPU power

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6677.jpg
3 Phase memory power

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6674.jpg
1. ICH10R 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
2. Marvell 9128 chip: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
3. GIGABYTE SATA2 chip : 1 x IDE ; 2 x SATA 3Gb/s

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6676.jpg
NEC chip: Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel

Back panel
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...8a-ud3r_bi.jpg
Besides the standard features it offers USB3, eSATA and Clear CMOS

Cooling
The heat sinks are not the high-end cooling solution seen on the more expensive motherboards, but you can improve the cooling very easy, by removing the blue plates gigabyte and ultra durable 3.
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6684.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6685.jpg

NOTE! Be very careful while removing the blue plates! Use a flat plastic object, stick it between the cooler and the blue plate and pull it slowly. Save the plates with the original white thermal pad for warranty.

BIOS

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6714.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6716.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6717.jpg
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6718.jpg

UD3R offers simple and easy to use BIOS, it might lack some features, but it's more than enough for the average user.
And most important you have a Dual BIOS, that means if you mess up the firs one it will be restored from the second chip.
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...dualbios-1.jpg

Test Setup

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...7/IMG_6683.jpg

Gigabyte X58A UD3R BIOS F4
Core i7 920 D0 @ 4 GHz 1.184V
Thermalright IFX-14
3x2 GB OCZ Reper 1866 @ 1910 MHz 9-9-9-28
Ati 5770
Ageia PhysX
2x500 GB Samsung F3 RAID0
Cooler Master Stacker
Windows 7 64bit Home Premium



Tests

EVEREST ULTIMATE 5.0
PRIME 95
FryBench
3dmark06
Borderlands Setup
HD Tune (does not work accurate with Marvell SATA3)




EVEREST memory benchmark

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...achemem1-1.png
@4 GHz

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...cachemem42.png
@4.2 GHz

Prime 95 and other system stability tests. I wasn't able to run PRIME 95 long enough, because of the faulty LLC settings, which are Standart, Level1 and Level2. If you set anything besides Level2 you won't get very far. When I set 1.18125 in BIOS, I get 1.162 idle and 1.184 load in Windows. When I set 1.18750, again 1.162 idle, but 1.184 up to 1.200 load. I hope that with the next BIOS those problems will be fixed. Even with those problems you'll be able to overclock your CPU at about 4 GHz (depends of the CPU itself).

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...apImage2-4.jpg

EDIT: After further testing, I noticed that when I set the voltages above 1.200, they are much more accurate.

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...v87/42126V.jpg

Fry Render My result was 4 minutes 59 seconds, which is the same as the result from my old Rampage II Gene.

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...3dmark0644.jpg

EDIT:
MARVELL 9128 vs. INTEL ICH10R
Here are the NON interesting results, since hd tune and other hdd benchmarking software wasn't working properly, I used Borderlands setup. During the installation it shows the lapsed time, time left and MB/s. The game itself is almost 7GB

2xSamsung F3 500GB

RAID 0____MB/s____total time

Intel______60______~2m. 10s.

Marvel____60______~2m. 10s.

The reason for the previous results was that i used different stripe sizes. I'm very sorry for the confusion.

On my old WD 640 black single mode the game was installed for more than 7 minutes.

What about 4.6 GHz ? :eleph:

CPU-Z Validation

http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...cachemem46.png


Conclusion

Gigabyte made a very good motherboard, featuring the latest technology USB3, SATA3 with excellent build quality. It has the same PCB as the bigger ones X58A UD5 and UD7, very good slot distribution and despite the lack of huge chipset cooler and water block it offers a descend cooling. It's very easy to install, you can put almost every big air cooler on the market, up to 3 Nvidia or Ati graphic cards. The BIOS is very easy to update and change settings and OC. There are also a lot of windows utilities for energy saving, overclocking and BIOS updates.

PROS:
+Packaging
+Board Layout
+Dual BIOS
+OC
+Price
+USB3
+Bootable SATA3
+ClrCMOS on back panel

CONS:
-Over/Undervolt issues
-Lack of Power/Reset buttons on the PCB


BANG FOR THE BUCK
Editor Award

New test results soon.

Nice pictures! Waiting for the OC results! :up:

Definitely nice pictures, this mbo was my first choice, but I end up purchasing UD7 cause I was too impatient for this one to become available in my local stores.
I noticed you removed Gigabyte rooftop on that heatsink. Nice! :D

Highest BCLK so far?

~Bex

Is it bootable from the marvel controller??

screwtech02 It is indeed bootable, you just need to install the drivers provided in the driver CD, even after installing Windows. Tonight I'll post pictures from the BIOS and the Marvell configurator.

Wow, huge difference in setup times! Nothing else was running while benching that? Could you please rerun those tests? I'm skeptical there could really be such a huge difference. AFAIK, those HDDs you used don't support SATA3, so the SATA3 controller shouldn't be any faster than the SATA2 controller. Also, did you enable write-back cache in Intel Storage Matrix on the raid0 array on the ICH10R? Could also significantly improve performance. Great review, thanks! :up:

I love this board :up:

I just finished 3dmark06 CPU tests @ 4.4GHz
http://i701.photobucket.com/albums/w...3dmark0644.jpg

I tried frybench and other test but due to the limited air cooling I wasn't able to finish any other tests.

Nice results. My UD3R should be here tomorrow, replacing an X58-UD4P. Did you add any additional cooling to the chipset? How hot is is getting do you think? I too find the HD results you got with the Marvell controller puzzling. It shouldn't be that much(if any) faster that the ICH. I am going to be testing out 2x30GB vertexes. Curious to see how the onboard controllers handle the SSDs compared to the Adaptec 3085. Nice results thanks for sharing!

Just got this board to replace x58 ud5 which had leaky capacitors.

So do you guys connect your SSD's to the Sata 3gbs(southbridge) or sata 6gbs(marvel) controller? After reading a few crap reviews of the marvel controller i just put my intel G2 160gb ssd on the sata 3 sounthbridge controller.....

Thoughts?

This board looks luxury :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by allygash

Just got this board to replace x58 ud5 which had leaky capacitors.

So do you guys connect your SSD's to the Sata 3gbs(southbridge) or sata 6gbs(marvel) controller? After reading a few crap reviews of the marvel controller i just put my intel G2 160gb ssd on the sata 3 sounthbridge controller.....

Thoughts?

---

I had consistently better performance on the marvell controller with 2x30GB Vertex SSDs. I am currently running them in raid attached to an adaptec 3085 which offers better performance still.

Ok i'll give it a go thanx 4 that.

I´m getting mine tomorrow to replace a faulty Flaming Blade, which was my second Flaming Blade. I´m moving back to Gigabyte :)

i still dont get why Gigabyte doesnt put Power/Reset buttons on the PCB on every model:down:...would it be that expensive:(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AAbenson

i still dont get why Gigabyte doesnt put Power/Reset buttons on the PCB on every model:down:...would it be that expensive:(

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Just make your own on/off button that you can use to all boards =)

I have been thinking about this board for a future upgrade and this review helped me decide. Thanks alot for your hard work mecho_gruh!

have you found max bclk with this board yet?

hi can u share me the Bios setting 4, 4600mhz and 4400 , i have i930 and i cant geht stable 4.4 or 4.5 only superpi stable , but not 4 benches :confused:

Great review, looks like a really nice board for the money. Nice to see that the 6gb/s sata can help normal Hd data rate transfer. Thankyou

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BATISTA

hi can u share me the Bios setting 4, 4600mhz and 4400 , i have i930 and i cant geht stable 4.4 or 4.5 only superpi stable , but not 4 benches :confused:

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What cooling are you using? :) Might be too much heatdump for full stability

I'm about to buy this mobo, can you guys answer me one question..
If I have two video cards in CrossFireX and I plug in an 6gb/s SSD,
into the 6gb/s SATA port would my 2nd video card go from 16x to 8x?

Thanks in advance for answering

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by f1p3

I'm about to buy this mobo, can you guys answer me one question..
If I have two video cards in CrossFireX and I plug in an 6gb/s SSD,
into the 6gb/s SATA port would my 2nd video card go from 16x to 8x?

Thanks in advance for answering

---

Having somthing plugged into the 6gb/s sata controler shoulndt affect the pci-e slots... They only drop when all 3/4 are populated I do believe...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by screwtech02

Having somthing plugged into the 6gb/s sata controler shoulndt affect the pci-e slots... They only drop when all 3/4 are populated I do believe...

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Thanks for the info, I wanted to know cuz my other option the
ASUS P6X58D Premium
Did had that little problem, that actually sucks!

Nice mobo and review. I'm still happy with my 2 Gigabytes.
The Intel model is the EP45 -UD3L.

what is the bios setting for 4.6 ghz please ```?

21x219 = 4600
j

i mean the voltage setting , i play now with dice but i cant go higher than 4.6ghz

w3520
4gb geil evoone 2133

higher BCLK please...i love this mobo but a need see up 230 BCLK

It sounds like just worthy it!

Hi guys, sorry for the long absence. I wasn't able to test above 220 every time I set value above it just went too hot for stability testing.
I also reran the previous test with sata 2 and sata 3 controlers. Unfortunately the results are almost the same for the equivalent sizes 32,64 and 128 KB.

giga makes great stuff but the baby blue and white color scheme drives me crazy