Gigabyte's P67A-UD4 Sandy Bridge Motherboard Preview

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4822/anner.jpg
Gigabyte's P67A-UD4 Sandy Bridge Motherboard
Early next January these boards and the rest of the new line will be released, most likely at CES.
http://img574.imageshack.us/img574/9450/cesq.jpg

I recieved today a sample from Gigabyte to run through it's paces and give it a good testing.

So let's start of with the unboxing of this new board.
The front and back of the package.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9056/img1883z.jpg

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/7725/img1884uy.jpg


Opening the box we find the usual assortment of parts & manuals.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/6246/img1889e.jpg
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5...g1890ek.th.jpghttp://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8048/img1891j.th.jpghttp://img813.imageshack.us/img813/2189/img1892.th.jpg

Included in the bundle is:
Motherboard
Driver CD
User manual
Quick installation guide
Four SATA cables
I/O shield
2-way SLI connector

Gigabyte's P67A-UD4 Features
Industry’s leading 12 phase power design for maximum power delivery.
Onboard SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps to deliver impeccable data transfer speeds.

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 3 design with 2x Copper PCB to provide the stability, reliability and longevity essential to meet the power needs of high-end processors and other components running today’s most demanding applications and games.

Unique GIGABYTE 3x USB Power design with On/Off Charge USB ports to offer faster battery charging for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices.
New Matte Black color PCB offering a stylish new outlook that blends itself to decoration and case mods.

CrossFireX™ and Nvidia® SLI™ support for ultimate graphics performance
GIGABYTE patented DualBIOS™ technology delivering the highest level of failure protection.

Motherboard Pictures
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9506/p67aud4resize.jpg

For additional pictures please go >Here<


Now about heat sinks.
It would have been nice if Intel had decided to not come up with a new heat sink mounting hole pattern but it's not the case. How ever heat sinks like the Mega Shadow and a little fugging around will fit as you can see by these photos. The bad news is others that have a more rigid mounting system will not, like Corsairs H70 which I tried to fit, but it would not. So for the most part I think we will need to wait for adapter kits.

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/1716/img1923l.th.jpghttp://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4513/img1926f.th.jpg
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3...g1927nr.th.jpghttp://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2...g1928ey.th.jpg

And as you can see here there is plenty of space to mount two fans on the Mega Shadow.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8571/img1931v.jpg

Some addition pictures of the test setup.
You can also see that there is plenty of space between a graphic card and the heat sink for added sound cards if wanted.
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3591/img1932b.th.jpghttp://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4082/img1933h.th.jpg
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/9427/img1934pf.th.jpghttp://img715.imageshack.us/img715/6226/img1935t.th.jpg
http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/8325/img1936f.th.jpg

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4632/p67aud4.jpg

Special thanks to Gigabyte for sending this sample ! :)

WTF is with the position of those ram slots. :down:

I wonder how funny it will look if that "Ati Crossfire X" logo(below pci-e slot) change to you know what.

I like the box art.

Using push/pull looks like your gonna lose out on 2x dimm slots, Thanks for the post havent seen the UD4 as of now :)

the cooling on the mobo is so..minimal.. just one heatsink & a rather obscure one at that! (oh ok, & the mosfets blahblahblah)

& yeah, the ram slots need to be pushed away from the cpu a lil maybe

perfect cooling, just the way I like it.

The RAM slots are no different than many motherboards. When you go to two fans on these large heat sinks this often happens. You can drop the second fan for max load out, or get larger capacity DIM's.

Either way I don't think dropping the second fan will make a super lot of difference.

Yeah looks like I have those DIM's in incorrect.
I have been running to many AMD setups lately LOL :)

They go Slots 1,2,3,4
If 2 sticks are used they go in Slot 1,3 or 2,4

It's running now in 3,4 tho LOL

Any idea on launch prices?

Double post...sorry

Here is the weird thing about the P67A-UD4: all its memory sockets are black. If you have two memory modules, you will have to install the first module in the first memory socket and the second module in the third socket in order to enable dual-channel architecture. Since all sockets are black, users may think that they can install memory modules in any two sockets, which is not the case. This is a serious mistake coming from a tier 1 manufacturer. Hardwaresecrets:)

Price for P67A-UD4 170-180€ in EU...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buckeye

Yeah looks like I have those DIM's in incorrect.
I have been running to many AMD setups lately LOL :)

They go Slots 1,2,3,4
If 2 sticks are used they go in Slot 1,3 or 2,4

It's running now in 3,4 tho LOL

---

did they fit? it looks very tight :/

NO FUN FOR RAM Overclocker ???? Only max 2133Mhz @ BCLK100Mhz

BCLK Suck!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jurc_podgurc

Here is the weird thing about the P67A-UD4: all its memory sockets are black. If you have two memory modules, you will have to install the first module in the first memory socket and the second module in the third socket in order to enable dual-channel architecture. Since all sockets are black, users may think that they can install memory modules in any two sockets, which is not the case.

---

for most of history the slots were the same color. it doesn't matter because you can install memory wherever you want and the real world performance doesn't change.

you have been tricked by marketing designed to sell you more low density memory sticks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tiro_uspsss

the cooling on the mobo is so..minimal..

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think it matters? no. ALL fancy cooling is just for looks. it is like a magazine cover they are trying to sell more product to anyone they can trick.

have a look at a much better, much higher power motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813182174

p67 probably doesn't need two thimbles of aluminum for its heatsinks.

Nice review and as usual GB has a good looking board..:up:

Marketing slide info for your enjoyment.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6730/slide1qb.th.jpghttp://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5249/slide2wj.th.jpghttp://img713.imageshack.us/img713/3945/slide3n.th.jpghttp://img709.imageshack.us/img709/412/slide4ci.th.jpg


http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7812/slide5t.th.jpghttp://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5433/slide6z.th.jpghttp://img140.imageshack.us/img140/759/slide7ej.th.jpghttp://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5913/slide8qc.th.jpg


http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5685/slide9w.th.jpghttp://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6838/slide10p.th.jpghttp://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7...ide11rf.th.jpghttp://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3677/slide12x.th.jpg

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4594/slide13x.th.jpghttp://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7844/slide14o.th.jpghttp://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2690/slide15x.th.jpghttp://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9826/slide16t.th.jpg


http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/8233/slide17s.th.jpghttp://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1276/slide18.th.jpghttp://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7611/slide19f.th.jpghttp://img690.imageshack.us/img690/1307/slide20h.th.jpg


http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4435/slide21o.th.jpghttp://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7497/slide22yo.th.jpghttp://img805.imageshack.us/img805/9617/slide23p.th.jpghttp://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7058/slide24e.th.jpg

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2903/slide25jc.th.jpghttp://img718.imageshack.us/img718/7199/slide26m.th.jpghttp://img573.imageshack.us/img573/5060/slide27.th.jpghttp://img24.imageshack.us/img24/268/slide28r.th.jpg


http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7306/slide29j.th.jpghttp://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8756/slide30.th.jpghttp://img51.imageshack.us/img51/9461/slide31x.th.jpghttp://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9885/slide32f.th.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1049/slide33k.th.jpghttp://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2048/slide34.th.jpghttp://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2500/slide35.th.jpghttp://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9563/slide36.th.jpg

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/844/slide37.th.jpghttp://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3128/slide38f.th.jpghttp://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7114/slide39.th.jpghttp://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6574/slide40o.th.jpg

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1797/slide41e.th.jpghttp://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1259/slide42m.th.jpghttp://img715.imageshack.us/img715/181/slide43q.th.jpghttp://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8066/slide44l.th.jpg

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1322/slide45.th.jpghttp://img706.imageshack.us/img706/2980/slide46k.th.jpghttp://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2702/slide47y.th.jpghttp://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7299/slide48.th.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/492/slide49.th.jpghttp://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4906/slide50o.th.jpghttp://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3182/slide51c.th.jpghttp://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1087/slide52m.th.jpg


http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3600/slide53.th.jpghttp://img213.imageshack.us/img213/4064/slide54.th.jpghttp://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9691/slide55.th.jpghttp://img805.imageshack.us/img805/2461/slide56.th.jpg

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5386/slide57l.th.jpghttp://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7596/slide58.th.jpghttp://img94.imageshack.us/img94/2207/slide59t.th.jpghttp://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5434/slide60.th.jpg

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3521/slide61.th.jpghttp://img843.imageshack.us/img843/8834/slide62.th.jpghttp://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6097/slide63.th.jpghttp://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6381/slide64t.th.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/6716/slide65.th.jpghttp://img585.imageshack.us/img585/3091/slide66.th.jpghttp://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6276/slide67.th.jpg

Not sure how I missed this... Lots of slides, some good info here. Thanks, my friend, and well done! :up:
Nice looking board, by the way. Not as good as UD7, seems to pack a lot of tech goodies being a budget board. Good colour scheme, too. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zalbard

Not sure how I missed this... Lots of slides, some good info here. Thanks, my friend, and well done! :up:
Nice looking board, by the way. Not as good as UD7, seems to pack a lot of tech goodies being a budget board. Good colour scheme, too. :)

---

You didn't miss this Zal buddy. I just put it up :)

Driver Mosfer.... MSI have been using DrMOS for years. Good morning dear Gigabyte.:rolleyes:

The other "new" feature is the Gigabyte Auto Dual Power Switching which is the copy of MSI's Active Phase Switching.:clap:

So, are these Gigabyte's innovations?:down:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oliverda

Driver Mosfer.... MSI have been using DrMOS for years. Good morning dear Gigabyte.:rolleyes:

The other "new" feature is the Gigabyte Auto Dual Power Switching which is the copy of MSI's Active Phase Switching.:clap:

So, are these Gigabyte's innovations?:down:

---

Wrong Gigabyte has been using DrMOS for many many years, and they use a better brand than MSI, they do not post this publicly. Driver Mosfets are on all of their x58 boards, and have been on many other boards. MSI just advertises it, Gigabyte does not.

Active phase switching has been around the same period of time, gigabyte uses better components, and MSI(1+MHz switching)MOSFET equal to 4 mosfets of other companies???? Gigabyte's outputs teh same power but uses 8-24 phases, MSi uses 8 or 6 some small number. Gigabyte advertises in a different way.

Gigabyte has two types of phase switching, MSi is not innovator.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sin0822

Wrong Gigabyte has been using DrMOS for many many years, and they use a better brand than MSI, they do not post this publicly. Driver Mosfets are on all of their x58 boards, and have been on many other boards. MSI just advertises it, Gigabyte does not.

---

Orly? Which was Gigabyte's fist DrMOS equipped mobo?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sin0822

Active phase switching has been around the same period of time, gigabyte uses better components, and MSI(1+MHz switching)MOSFET equal to 4 mosfets of other companies???? Gigabyte's outputs teh same power but uses 8-24 phases, MSi uses 8 or 6 some small number. Gigabyte advertises in a different way.

Gigabyte has two types of phase switching, MSi is not innovator.

---

Similar question. Which was Gigabyte's fist active phase switching supported mobo? And please tell me about that "better components" and that 24 phases (marketing) PWM. I'm all ears...I mean eyes.:)

The count on the Driver MOSFETs, I am unsure of which was their first, but all X58 board have Driver Mosfets which is DrMOS. It has to do with the output on the driver MOSFETs. Gigabyte uses a seperate iTE chip for phase gearing and switching. What were the first MSI boards? DrMOS was used instead of old fashioned highside and lowside mosfets with a separate driver.
The PWM is just the controller for the phases, the VRm is the phase design, so the MOSFETs are part of the VRM, not PWM. Rensas is what MSI uses on their newest board, Gigabyte Vishay made MOSFETs output the same amperage, and on top of that you can actually go and multiply single MOSFET output by number of MOSFETs. MSIs 6 phase +1 is one MOSFET per channel, Gigabyte uses 4 MOSFETs per channel, but each of gigabyte's mosfets are equal to MSI's in output, so in reality if MSi can multiply their phases by 4 than gigabyte can too.

That is all I am going to say, FYI gigabyte makes their own boards as well, which almost no OEMs do anymore. Foxconn and ECS are their makers now, You want more info read my review ont he X58A-UD5 or P67A-UD7 skip to VRM design on both boards, you will learn a lot.

buckeye

checkout the thermalright archon....do you think it will let ram fit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sin0822

The count on the Driver MOSFETs, I am unsure of which was their first, but all X58 board have Driver Mosfets which is DrMOS. It has to do with the output on the driver MOSFETs. Gigabyte uses a seperate iTE chip for phase gearing and switching. What were the first MSI boards? DrMOS was used instead of old fashioned highside and lowside mosfets with a separate driver.

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Sorry but you're wrong.

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/r...cket-Naked.jpg

UD7

I can't see DrMOS on the above X58 mobo. If I'm not mistaken then the first and only (so far) Gigabyte mobo which uses DrMOS is the UD9.

"Having said that, Unlocked Power is not solely about phases. Gigabyte have replaced their traditional motherboard power design and are now using more modern integrated Driver-MOSFET chips, which differ from standard MOSFETs in that they feature a 3-in-1 design with the Driver IC, top MOSFET, and bottom MOSFET all in one package. Among other things these new MOSFETs have faster transient response, provide more stable the power to the CPU, and more efficient."

source

MSI uses DrMOS (and APS) since the mid of 2008. MSI's first DrMOS equipped mobo was the P45 Diamond. Check this short presentation.;)

Here is the data sheet for the Vishay power phases used on X58 boards, seriously read my review http://www.vishay.com/docs/49993/vmn_pt01.pdf Read the number on top of the chips next to the chokes, they will read what this data sheet says.

Guess I take your tone wrong man, but I'm done crapping on poor old Bill's thread. Prolly should have pm'd ya instead. ;) Maybe a mod can move/delete these post to keep Bill's thread positive?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chuchnit

I know Gigabyte is giving you samples to preview/review and whatnot, but really dude, tone it down some. If not, raju, lardy, or some other EE is gonna come on this forum and ruin your cred....

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Its just the endless tech jargon put together in a somewhat incoherent fashion that is boggling:
Stuff like MOSFETs that refine voltage and reduce ripple -> that doesnt even make sense, that is a function of a capacitor
or 'Ripple controller'

i never ever said MOSFETs reduce ripple. I said yes they refine voltage from 12-5v to 1.1-1.9v.

I am not bought by anything, I have reviews over at TPU and I don't praise any company that I do not like.

FYI I used to buy ASUS boards, and I bought 2 ASUS X58 boards, I just liked Gigabyte later, I am not on their payroll, like other people I know who are on ASUS or EVGA payrol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chuchnit

poor old Bill

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Well I may be older than some, younger than others, but there is still a fire burning in this old bill :) :rofl:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chuchnit

Guess I take your tone wrong man, but I'm done crapping on poor old Bill's thread. Prolly should have pm'd ya instead. ;) Maybe a mod can move/delete these post to keep Bill's thread positive?

---

Done..
My 2 cents, Bill took some excellent pics and showed what he could to us.
What more can anyone ask of the guy?

i think he did a great job, and went through all that effort of uploading Gigabyte's slides! :) lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buckeye

Well I may be older than some, younger than others, but there is still a fire burning in this old bill :) :rofl:

---

You are only as old as you think you are. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Movieman

Done..
My 2 cents, Bill took some excellent pics and showed what he could to us.
What more can anyone ask of the guy?

---

Umm can we ask him to post up some results when NDA is lifted?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sin0822

i think he did a great job, and went through all that effort of uploading Gigabyte's slides! :) lol

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Yes he did and it was nice to see the info.
Thats what we're here for, to learn.
Asus, MSI and anyone else is welcome to do the same.:D
In their own thread of course..;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chuchnit

You are only as old as you think you are. :)



Umm can we ask him to post up some results when NDA is lifted?

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Of course we can. Would love to myself and I don't have the GB board..
Wish I did but they don't love me I guess..:rofl:

I have media slides for all the other boards also, but I figured I would give the others a chance to post theres up if they wanted.

I would have to sort through a lot of slides to find the things that are different for each board as much of it is the same.

thanks for the slide buck!

Thank you for such an in depth review / preview of this motherboard along with the excellent photos. Great job! I think this will be my next mobo...either this one or the UD5 but I suspect I won't be able to get the UD5 for under $200! Any rumors on price USD?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OCX600RR

Thank you for such an in depth review / preview of this motherboard along with the excellent photos. Great job! I think this will be my next mobo...either this one or the UD5 but I suspect I won't be able to get the UD5 for under $200! Any rumors on price USD?

---

Google Gigabyte P67 UD5 and one of the first in the list has it in stock for$231.00

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Movieman

Google Gigabyte P67 UD5 and one of the first in the list has it in stock for$231.00

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Right; though I doubt that's the price we'll see on Newegg once they are officially released. (I hope anyway!) I don't need one right this second :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OCX600RR

Right; though I doubt that's the price we'll see on Newegg once they are officially released. (I hope anyway!) I don't need one right this second :D

---

I'm hoping these are early, inflated prices too. My wallet is empty enough as it is now.

I hear ya ^^ I'm hoping UD4 will be around $160!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OCX600RR

I hear ya ^^ I'm hoping UD4 will be around $160!

---

first price in italy 167€

UD7 should cost more then UD5 by a nice margin bc of the NF200.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andrea deluxe

first price in italy 167€

---

Damn, quite pricy... Should go down in price in January, though.

http://www.diit.cz/clanek/ga-p67a-ud...do=rating-rate

http://detail.zol.com.cn/picture_ind...9655_554.shtml

$341 UD7 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$270 UD5 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$317 UD4?? - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$138 - UD3 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte

No idea if these are the retail prices but this is what you find on their site as of today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aver

$341 UD7 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$270 UD5 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$317 UD4?? - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$138 - UD3 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte

No idea if these are the retail prices but this is what you find on their site as of today.

---

WTF.....

in italy:

ud7 299€
ud5 250€
ud4 160€

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aver

$341 UD7 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$270 UD5 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$317 UD4?? - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte
$138 - UD3 - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=111128...cture=Gigabyte

No idea if these are the retail prices but this is what you find on their site as of today.

---

Can't be correct, maybe just place holders.
They have the UD4 costing more than a UD5 by $47

Gigabyte P67A-UD4 Testing

The board that I had a chance to test and run through its paces from the new line of motherboards from Gigabyte was the P67A-UD4. this motherboard has a nice amount of features and a very good motherboard for overclocking.

As usual for a Gigabyte board when you open the box you find a very nice, well done and package with everything you need.

These new black PCB motherboards look very, very nice !

You can find the full released spec's over at Gigabytes website located here.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=3648#ov

The CPU I had to test this with was the 2500K which has 4 cores and no hyper threading.

My very first impressions of overclocking this setup was it had great headroom on clocks with low power usage and the ability to do all this with a good after market air cooler. I used a Prolimatech Mega Shadow with one fan for all my tests.

To begin my testing my goal was to find what my max stable overclock would be, something I could throw everything at and not cause issues.

So lets start off by taking a look at the BIOS screens to see what we have to work with.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/543/img2006v.th.jpghttp://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4910/img2007m.th.jpghttp://img526.imageshack.us/img526/80/img2008x.th.jpg
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/223/img2009wo.th.jpghttp://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9315/img2010h.th.jpghttp://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9633/img2011b.th.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3374/img2012n.th.jpghttp://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9571/img2013e.th.jpghttp://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4230/img2014ue.th.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3981/img2017w.th.jpghttp://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4087/img2015j.th.jpghttp://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1...g2016nq.th.jpg
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3861/img2018j.th.jpghttp://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5593/img2019a.th.jpg
I started out with finding my max overclock which when I first started was 4.8ghz, but with a later BIOS update that was increased to 5.4ghz. I then started working that to find stability issues and ended up at a 5.1ghz overclock. This was set in the BIOS at x51 multi and 100 bclck.

CPUz does not show these numbers correctly at this time for some reason.

As we look around we see what different CPU's are clocking at and with what vcores the 2500K that I had seemed to like vcore more than what I see others are using.

RAM speed and timings seemed to be another issue for me. This might have been the kit I using that just did not want to play nice at high speeds on this board but I am sure that with updated BIOS this will be better. The kit I used really did not want to run stable at higher than 1600mhz. I could boot into windows at 1867mhz & 2134mhz and do different things, but some benches would freeze or crash so I went with what was 100% stable for me which was 1600mhz. I could do things like change command rate to 2T and it would be more stable, but the effect of that on benches was rather bad so I tried to find what worked best here and 1600mhz and 1T was it for me.

Another issue I had was mounting heat sinks. The Mega Shadow mounted fine, but the Corsair H70 I have just doesn't line up with the mounting holes and the back plate at all. I am not sure why as it appears that it uses the same pattern as the P55 socket. It's possible that it's my back plate for the H70, I don't know. I did mount the H70 with out the back plate and temps were a little better than the Mega Shadow.

My setup was as follows:
CPU: 2500K
Gigabyte P67a-UD4
Memory: Corsair 2x 2gig sticks, 2000mhz 8-8-8-24 CMG6GX3M3A2000C8
32GB MTRON PRO SSD
Prolimatech Mega Shadow with one fan
Graphics Card: 280gtx
OS: Win 7 64bit stock install

As you can see by my Graphics Card I am some what limited in GPU testing with games and benches. But you know it still does perform pretty well for a older GPU. It's pretty hard for me to keep up with all the latest graphics cards so I tend to be some what behind in those :)

Finding my max stable OC with these settings.
CPU: x51 multi & 100 bclck
vcore: was 1.600 which is a some what higher than others, but my CPU seemed to like this so all was good.

Lets start off with CPU benches.
Increased RAM speed would help these benches.
I could have run each bench at what ever max speed/RAM setting I could find for each one, but did all on one setting/screen to show stability.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5...ghz1600mhz.jpg

Lets move on to 3DMark Vantage
In all tests that would use Graphics I did overclock the 280gtx to core speed of 725mhz and memory speed of 1200mhz

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/3...2500k51ghz.jpg

Cinebench

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/7...z1600mhzsc.jpg

CrystalMark

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/3...2500k51ghz.jpg

Fritz Chess

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/8...2500k51ghz.jpg

Nuclearus Multi Core

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3...2500k51ghz.jpg

Performance Test

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/9...st2500k51g.jpg

TMPGEnc Video Encode Test
This used a Rage_Fileshack_Quakecon2007 test file which had a file size of 454,111KB.
Encode time was 1 minute 52 seconds

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7...ncodetest5.jpg


Well so much for the boring tests LOL
Some of those I included because I have seen others using those benches so I thought I would do the same so you could compare.

How about some game results

I ran the FFXIV bench at both high and low settings. Again this is using the 280gtx so better graphics cards would result in better scores.

The low rez score

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7...2500k51ghz.jpg

And high rez score

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5...2500k51ghz.jpg

Civilization 5

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7937/civ5.jpg

Civ 5 has two different short cuts for starting the game.
One is Civilization 5
Second is Civilization 5 DX11

I do not have a DX11 graphics card at this time, but I ran it both ways.
This is one of my favorite games atm and I usually run it with the DX11 short cut because it does seem to make it look better. The 280gtx handles this game pretty well also.

There is a benchmark for this game but it dumps results into a text file.

Here are my results:
For the regular Civ 5 short cut I get this result

[72230.359] LateGame Full Render Score , 2304, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,10449
[72230.359] LateGame NoShadow Render Score , 3515, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,6080
[72230.359] LateGame No Render Score , 19991, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,0

For the DX11 short cut I get this

[71897.609] LateGame Full Render Score , 976, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,0
[71897.609] LateGame NoShadow Render Score , 1294, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,0
[71897.609] LateGame No Render Score , 10149, NumDrawCallsPerFrame ,0

The next benches I ran are more real world stuff which had some very good results.

Cyclone xTreme II Chess Benchmark

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/9...2500k51ghz.jpg

Ed Trice's Checkers bench is a single threaded app that really likes pure speed. This one was a very nice surprise and it was the very first setup to break the 3 hour mark. I have run this bench many times with other setups which included extreme cooling like SS Phase and Cascade. Here we have a $75 air cooler and CPU breaking records compared to the other extreme setups. Very nice !

Other results are:
1 Buckeye Intel Core i5-2500K @ 5.1ghz 02:57:05
2 rickss69 Intel Xeon W3580 @ 4.95 GHz 03:12:40
3 rickss69 Intel Xeon W3580 @ 4.91 GHz 03:14:53
4 rickss69 Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield @ 4.60 GHz 03:26:05
5 rickss69 Intel Core 2 Duo e8600 @ 4.85 GHz 03:30:25
6 rickss69 Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield @ 4.50 GHz 03:31:45
7 Kriztoffer Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield @ 4.39 GHz 03:33:44
8 rickss69 Intel Dual-Core i5-670 Clarkdale @ 4.72 GHz 03:34:47
9 Buckeye Intel Quad-Core i7 870 Lynnfield @ 4.62 GHz 03:35:59
10 Buckeye Intel Core i7-975 Extreme @ 4.32 GHz 03:43:18 Premiere
11 Wei Yang Intel Core i7-870 @ 4.44 GHz 03:45:17
12 Buckeye Intel Core i7-870 @ 4.43 GHz 03:46:00
13 Buckeye AMD 965BE C3 Deneb @ 5.00 GHz 03:46:23
14 Buckeye Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield @ 4.0 GHz 03:47:16 Mini i7
15 Buckeye AMD X6 1055T Phenom II @ 4.0 GHz 03:51:02 Mini AMD

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/670...2hours57m5.jpg

Another program that is used is Matlab
This program does very heavy duty math related calculations that can take huge amounts of time. It can also generate graphic results so better graphics cards will generate a much better result.

As you can see by looking at the bar graph that this setup performs pretty darn well. In the professional world where time is money this setup can be a real time/money saver.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5167/matlab51ghz.jpg

I have a USB3.0 Buffalo 1TB drive here that I ran through CrystalDiskMark with these results.
This is with the new Turbo USB 3.0 turned on

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9484/1828.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7...b301tbbuff.jpg

GIGABYTE On/Off Charge technology
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9738/1668e.jpg

http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/185/on-off-charge.htm
This also worked just fine with my Sprint Samsung Epic 4G phone. It charged while the computer was completely turned off.

GIGABYTE Cloud OC:
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/4171/1720b.jpg

GIGABYTE Cloud OC is a free overclocking application that facilitates PC overclocking through any web browsing capable device.
http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/208/cloud-oc.html
This also worked pretty well. After you install the app you will see this screen.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5122/cloudoc1.jpg

In the center box you will see a URL to type into the control machine and then get a web page that has OC controls. It actually works very well. I run several headless servers here at home and use RADMIN to remote into these. With Cloud OC installed I can also change overclocks on these machines.


Turbo functions:
I have also read a great deal about the Turbo functions that this platform provides. There is a large number of settings in the BIOS that allows you to adjust Turbo features. This can be very useful to those who want to run a greener system with all the energy saving features turned on.

Normally when us extreme people overclock we turn all these things off so we run at max speed and not have benches be effected by Turbo kicking in and out.

When I setup the BIOS for my tests I also turned off all these features so it should be running at 5.1ghz on the desktop at all times.

I used Tmonitor to check this and found strange results

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8...ultiscreen.jpg

Tmon is set to show Multiplier changes. I would have expected to see a flat response with Turbo disabled in the BIOS, but instead I see the multi changing as I ran wPrime.

I tested this also on my main rig which is a 975e @ 3.7ghz which also has all these features turned off and see the same thing happening.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1...screen975e.jpg

So I am not sure if Tmon is reporting things correctly.

Power Usage:
I ran some power usage tests to see how the system performed with that. These tests are the total power usage.

Lets take a look at stock settings with Turbo turned on.
Here we see ~85watts at idle sitting on the desktop.
This had a clock speed of 1.6ghz, mutli set at x16
I then fired up wPrime with 1 thread and you can see the power usage go up to ~110watts, multi jumped to 3.5ghz, a multi of x35.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8...powerusage.jpg

This is the results of the 3DMark Vantage run @ 5.1ghz.
Idle power is ~138watts with a max power usage of close to 300watts

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/3...2500k51ghz.jpg

I had this system crunching for many days in a row and it went with out a hitch. I will have to look at how many points this system cranks out.

You can see that this system at 5.1ghz uses ~225watts for crunching. I would think a person setting a rig up just for crunching would not use a 280gtx but rather something that would use less power. So I would expect that total system power would be lowered with a different GPU.

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1...powerusage.jpg

I did setup this system on my SS Phase unit which ran at ~-40c and saw no real improvement on overclocking abilities, in fact it might have made it worse. So with extreme cooling out of the picture, for now and I do expect that later some one will figure out the tricks or tools needed to give these systems a boost in OC ability with extreme cold. But for now it servers no boost to performance.


To summarize:
This platform is a very good and solid, plus it can serve a wide range of needs, from crunching to gaming and professional needs.

Overclocking is not dead with Sandy Bridge, it's just different, perhaps easier which I feel is a good thing as it will bring more people into the overclocking hobby. It is not just a simple button push to get high speeds, it does take a bit of tuning to find the sweet spots.

Equip your motherboard with a good 3rd party air cooler or water cooler like the Corsair H50 & H70 and you are good to go. I never saw my temps go higher than the low 60c's and in this range these cooling methods hold up very well.

The quality of these new Gigabyte boards is what we have come to expect from Gigabyte, that is very good solid boards with lots of features. The BIOS layout is also something that we have come to know very well as it's pretty much just like all Gigabyte BIOS's with easy to navigate and understand layouts.

Thanks for reading :)

Very sweet Buck!! Thanks for that brother. Off to MC now to get the cpu. I cant wait to get this thing crunching. Should be a monster. Lets see some of your crunchn numbers & a bench from boinc too!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [XC] Hicks121

Very sweet Buck!! Thanks for that brother. Off to MC now to get the cpu. I cant wait to get this thing crunching. Should be a monster. Lets see some of your crunchn numbers & a bench from boinc too!!!

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Oh yes Dave had told me about that bench, thanks for reminding me :)

Very nice review, thank you! :up:
You seem to be lucky with your chip, doing 5.1GHz with 'just' 2500K. :yepp:
Quite unusual bench selection, I like it.
Interesting power consumption figures, too. Especially for crunchers. :up:
Any chance to compare some of the results with any other rig of yours?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zalbard

Very nice review, thank you! :up:
You seem to be lucky with your chip, doing 5.1GHz with 'just' 2500K. :yepp:
Quite unusual bench selection, I like it.
Interesting power consumption figures, too. Especially for crunchers. :up:
Any chance to compare some of the results with any other rig of yours?

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Thanks you guys :)

Yes I sat and watched many different posts being put up before I did mine, so much of the same stuff, so I tried to find some different things to post about.

Yes I can add some more comparisons to different setups. Time was running short, trip to CES right in the middle of everything, new BIOS's coming out, plus new builds I am doing here at home. So much to do LOL.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by [XC] Hicks121

Very sweet Buck!! Thanks for that brother. Off to MC now to get the cpu. I cant wait to get this thing crunching. Should be a monster. Lets see some of your crunchn numbers & a bench from boinc too!!!

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Here is the result of the WCG Bench

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/8531/wcgbench.jpg

Wow good numbers low power consumption!

Just a update to this post.

Looking over at my main rig which still had 2x 260gtx's installed on it I decided it was time to get a few new cards.

On my main rig I like to run SLI, plus I have a ARC-1231ML Raid controller installed. I had thought about just getting 1x 580gtx but the price of those are just a bit to much for me at this time, and two of those would be over the top for me as I am not a heavy duty gamer anymore.

But I do like to game still so I was looking at the best bang for the buck I could get.

I have been looking at Gigabyte's Super Overclock 460gtx's for sometime. I really like these cards, they have great performance and the cooling system on them is very good. Plus the price of these cards is very good now.

So two Gigabyte Super Overclocked 460gtx's were ordered and I decided to run them on the P67A-UD4 setup and see what they could do.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/6548/img2067a.jpg

And here they are installed on the P67A-UD4 system I have here.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1347/img2086er.jpg

These are very nice cards and perform really well for a system like this. Even at full fan speed they do not make that much noise. Heat output is not that bad either.

First test is 3DMark Vantage

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3...2500k51ghz.jpg

Next is 3DMark 11

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2...51ghz2x460.jpg

And finally the Heaven bench

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/4...ghz2x460gt.jpg

I am not all that super crazy about the OC_Guru utility, it does work well but the graphics seem a bit cluttered. Maybe some different skins for this would make it easyier on the eyes.

Just with quick testing on air the highest overclock on these cards I was about to get was 950core with out any voltage bumps. This is really enough for gaming and anything higher just adds more heat output if installed in a case.

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/5201/ocguru.jpg

These cards really added a nice boost to the P67A-UD4 system and are a good match for this board and CPU. Newer graphics cards are great but with a 2500K going all out on GPUs might be a better to go with a 2600K and higher end motherboard.

Bill what will one of those cards overclock to stock. I need a new card. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by runmc

Bill what will one of those cards overclock to stock. I need a new card. :(

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I hit 950core very easy with no voltage bump at all.
I am sure they will go over 1,000core with a small bump to voltage.

I wil have to look at the bot to see what others are doing with these with cold added, which I think you are planning on doing Ron :)

Lets see, Gigabyte Super Overclocked 460gtx's running on Cascade... yummy :)

yes yummy :slobber::slobber: I hope your note telling a big one Bill. I ordered two :)

Thanks for posting in Buckeye

I would try 3dmark11 with another vga driver, sub 4k with 460s is not correct

keep pushing it

its a problem with Fermi cards and 3dmark11, driver update will solve it.

Those are the latest drivers off of the Nvidia site.

Is there other ones ?

There is 266.58 from today u can give a spin else try the 263.09

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oliver

There is 266.58 from today u can give a spin else try the 263.09

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Ah ok, thanks Oliver