Ultimate Sandy Bridge OC Guide + P67A-UD7 Performance Review

[sin0822]

GIGABYTE Programs

Gigabyte packages many interesting programs, in my In-Depth preview of the board, I took a look at Smart 6 and its ability to store your passwords in the BIOS and Backup BIOS. Now I am going to take a look at the new EasyTune6 (ET6) and Dynamic Energy Saver 2(DES2).

Easy Tune 6: Now there is not much change from versions of this program for other boards, but the things that have changed are worth noting. First off, easy overclock options, allow you to OC automatically to 4.1ghz.



Quick boost is a very nice option, but as I stated in my OC Guide you can most likley OC to 4.5ghz without having to mess with anything but the cpu multiplier.
If you are going to more Extreme overclocks, this next image might be useful. Here are the OC options for in-windows OC through easytune.



EasyTune6 also has a new layout for temperature and fan monitoring, it draws nice graphs for you for your voltages:



Now moving on, EasyTune also allows you to OC your GPU:


Lastly we have Dynamic Energy Saver. This litte program is powered by the Intersil PWM, and you can see all 24 phases/”engine cylinders” in action if DES2 is turned on. Now you might be wondering why all those lights on the board went off when Windows Loaded, that is because they are all software controlled. This program will allow yout o turn those lights back on, and seeing the phase LEDs work is pretty cool. This board also has ACPI power state LEDs, they can be turned off in BIOS if needed.



DES2 allows you to see how much power your system is drawing, now I don’t know how accurate it is, but I bet it shows CPU power draw pretty well as it is run by the PWM that controls the power output to the CPU.

Conclusion:

I sum performance up into five categories: Performance, Functionality, Overclocking, Value, and Appeal.

I once had a professor back in college, and he gave us a written exam, I aced everything on it I mean aced it. Well when I got my grade back he had given me a 90%, and when I confronted him he gave me such a crazy answer I just accepted it and took my A. He said, "Yes you got everything right, but 100% is for God, 95% is for me, and 90% is for you." What a nut, but I am not too far off, so no 10 point out of 10 for any manufacturer, because in reality, nothing is perfect.

Scale of 1-10, I don’t give 10s.

Performance:
Motherboard and Processor performance is excellent, that is all I have to say. Yes the increase frequency is what makes the processor very good, but also the fact that it operates at those high frequencies at stock is impressive, and the fact that the motherboard can take it there is just great. SLI performance is much better than expected. With two cards this puppy is as fast if not the smallest bit faster than X58 SLI, I believe this is because of the PCI-E controller built into the CPU is much better than that of the X58 IOH. Although it has less PCI-E lanes, it seems to really boast some amazing performance. Even with the latency increase from the NF200 it still matches X58. I would say that SLI performance is equal and that is much better than expected, because P55 SLI was really not equal to X58 SLI performance. Intel’s PCH P67 really has a very nice SATA6GB/s controller that delivers exactly what people want, excellent SATA6GB/s performance. GIGABYTE has worked closely with Marvell, and even peripheral on-chip SATA6G is impressive compared to on-die. In terms of Turbo mode there is absolutely no lag from multiplier to multiplier that people have been complaining about on other boards. With this board you don’t even have to use turbo, and the multiplier apparently stays fixed at what you set. Max stable BLCK I reached was 107.5MHz. Score: 9.9

Functionality:
This board has more connectivity than I have ever seen. It even provides the ability to change SATA internal ports into eSATA, and vice versa. USB 3.0 is all over the place, two internal connectors and many in the back, I have never seen so many SATA ports. Instead of using the LAN connectivity of the PCH P67 GIGABYTE chose to use dual Realtek NICs, so you can team them and use them in parallel or serial. The heatsinks get pretty hot (the NF200 one does) and this is a good thing, as they are actually working. They are also very low profile, and there were no spacing issues. There is however a little spacing issue with RAM problem but it is just a matter of looks, and actually is like that for better performance. Score: 9.7

Overclocking:
This board is just sick, if max BLCK is quality of the board then this board is extremely high quality at 107.5, 107.7 set. I was able to take my D1 stepping 2600K to 5.2 GHz, the only problem was the heat from the processor, and well that is the processors problem, these might be lower TDP at stock, but OCed they really know how to release heat. 5.1 GHz is my 24/7 OC and that is more than enough. At a minimum auto OC of 4.5GHz you will have a really hard time finding any system that OCs that well. I was able to just walk up the multiplier to 5 GHz and the VID slowly increased. This proper implementation of SVID is just AMAZING. On what other system can you auto overclock like that? X58 systems will just over-volt, might even damage your processor too, so only try this on P67 with a K series processor. This board has CPU PLL Overvoltage option which only works for D2 stepping chips, but that is an option every Overclocking board should have. I have to give this board a 9.9 as it took my processor to its limits; I wish I had a D2 stepping so I could go for 5.5 GHz! Score: 9.9

Value:
This board has a pretty hefty Retail price of $329, but if does have an NF200 chip which is what you are really paying for. If you do not plan on SLI there is really not much of a reason to buy this board other than the power phases and features. I feel as if you have dual video cards, and a hefty PSU to power them, then $329 for a board is not that much to pay. Considering this is a mainstream product, that price is a bit high. You are paying for very high quality components; it’s hard to find any board better built. The fact that Gigabyte manufacturers their own boards is a great thing, they are one of the last of a dying breed of motherboard makers. The UD4 costs $199 and the UD5 $269 respectively. Score: 9.5

Appeal:
This board is such a great change from the baby blue color of X58 and previous Gigabyte boards. I really like it, as do many people I know. One thing that is one of my pet peeves is that many black PCB boards look brown up-close, such as my P6X58D-Premium. It’s because of the copper of the traces and PCB that bleed through. With My P67A-UD7 there was none of that. This board is really black, and matches my GTX 570 SLI and Dominator RAM very nicely. I think GIGABYTE actually used an extra layer of black matte PCB to cover up those traces without bleed through. The Gold accents on the new heatsinks is very nice, they really did a great job with the looks of this board. Right now this board doesn’t have a UEFI BIOS, which many users want. But the fact is you don’t really use your BIOS much, it’s not an OS. You use it to Overclock, and the truth is a traditional style BIOS is much better for overclocking in my opinion it easier to use a keyboard. Because of lack of UEFI I have to take of a fraction of a point, but the hardware is there so it will be implemented shortly. I should mention you CAN boot from 3TB+ HDDs.
Score: 9.7

Total Score: 9.75, this board is Excellent in all areas. It doesn’t fail to exceed all my expectations.

Pros:
High Overclock Ability
VRD 12 Certified (Very good SVID implementation)
Excellent SLI performance
Excellent SATA6G and USB3 connectivity
Very stable board
Nice board and heatsink color scheme

Cons:
UEFI not implemented yet (for most of you, I prefer no UEFI as I feel it just isn’t stable enough yet)
No IDE (overclockers like IDE)
PCI-E 1x slot is blocked by NF200 Heatsink

I would like to thank everyone at GIGABYTE for making this review happen!!! Without you guys we wouldn't have this amazing board!

If you have any questions or comments, do feel free to PM me in private if you would like.