GA-X58A-UD5 Revision 2.0 the MOST in Depth Review/ Analysis

[sin0822]

USB Sub-System: This board is equipped with so many USB ports I have no idea how anyone could use all of them, but some people have 12 devices never the less. Yes 14, that is how many total USB ports are available on this board, let me tell you how. First off you have the standard USB 2.0 ports, 6 of them to be total are on the back panel, 2 of those more are eSATA/USB ports, meaning the port can take either. Then on the back you have 2 USB3.0 ports powered by NEC D720200F1 chip, which is very common among USB3.0 motherboards. (8 USB ports on back panel)

Everyday new USB 3.0 devices are being released, so you are granted 2 which is more than enough for right now. On the motherboard itself you have 3 USB headers, one of which is an ON/OFF charge port. Each header can support 2 USB ports, bringing the total to 14 ports. The ON/OFF charge internal header is a pretty nifty little sucker, supplying power to USB chargeable devices even when the system is turned off. This new technology is part of the Rev 2.0 boards for the entire line. Also gigabyte has 3x USB power so the USB ports, especially the USB3.0 ports which require more power, are able to power any USB device that can use only USB power. Many new USB HDDs need the extra power to operate, and Gigabyte has done an excellent job of providing that. All 12 of the USB2.0 ports are power by ICH10R, Intel’s Southbridge chip. I should also mention that the NEC controller is on the same PCI-E bus as the Marvell SE9128 SATA6G controller.

IEEE Sub-System: I am also going to toss in the T.I. TSB43AB23, the Texas instruments chip that provides 3x IEEE 1394a ports, one internal and two on the back panel.


Texas instruments is known for their IEEE chips, and its not a bad controller at all, but it seems that now IEEE is dying off and USB is really taking over IEEE’s share of the market.

Audio Sub-System: The Realtek ALC889 is the high definition audio controller. Common for on-board audio, it has 6.1 channel capability as well as S/PDIF In/Out.

This Controller had some issues with DPC issues causing static for the speakers, but that issue was solved with the second bios update.



There is also an on-going issue with Fermi based video cards and sound problems with Realtek on-board sound, but I do not have one of these video cards and I only see complaints once in a while.

Ethernet Sub-System: This board is equipped with Dual RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, 2x Realtek RTL8111E chips power this feature, and provide excellent Ethernet capabilities. Most boards in this price range have this capability, but cheaper boards do not.


Now you might ask, why do you need two Ethernet ports? The answer is teaming and bridging. The console for the Ethernet has the ability to team up the ports so that they can act as one port by combining two connections, so you can theoretically double your download and upload speed on the computer’s side. Let’s say you have one port operating at 100mb/s, you can plug in another connection to your router and have it teamed to 200mb/s, and the connection shows up as a virtual 3rd port. Bridging is a bit different, let’s say you only have one port left on your router, yet 2 computers that need internet, well you can bridge the ports so that one port can connect to the router and the other go to your second computer, sort of like a y-splitter for your Ethernet. Another thing you can do with bridging is control the flow of information over the outbound Ethernet cable, for instance if you are on an intricate intranet network and want to limit certain things.
There is one gripe that we have and that is that Gigabyte did not use a pair of Intel NICs instead of Realtek. Do not get me wrong, Realtek gets the job done, but Intel makes much better Ethernet controllers. The reason you never really see Intel Ethernet ports is because they are a bit more expensive, not many people pay attention other than networkers, and you usually see them on servers. For instance Asus uses Marvell Ethernet, which is kind of like Realtek, aka not Intel.