Friday, May 27th 2011
Gigabyte Readies 990FXA-UD5 Socket AM3+ Motherboard
Gigabyte's top-tier socket AM3+ motherboard lineup is shaping up in a big way, with a bleeding-edge GA-990FXA-UD7 at the top of the pile. Gigabyte has yet another motherboard to cater to fans of the AM3+ platform, the GA-990FXA-UD5. The UD5 features a more conventional-looking component layout, with the northbridge located where it usually is. You still get the 10-phase VRM from the UD7, the black Ultra Durable 3 PCB, but this board is designed for multi-GPU setups with up to 3 graphics cards: supporting 3-way SLI and CrossFireX.
Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 2.0 x16, of which three (slots 1,3,5) are PCI-Express 2.0 wired to the AMD 990FX northbridge, with electrical configurations of x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8. Slots 2 and 4 are electrical x4, wired to the SB950 southbridge. Other slots include a PCI-E x1, and a legacy PCI. Storage connectivity is similar to that of the UD7, with eight SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, a power-eSATA, and a normal eSATA.
Other connectivity features include 8+2 channel HD audio driven by Realtek's ALC889A CODEC, FireWire, four USB 3.0 ports (two rear, two via header), a single gigabit Ethernet, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Like most new Gigabyte boards, the UD5 features dual-BIOS with EFI-like extensions that let it boot from volumes greater than 2.2 TB in size. The GA-990FXA-UD5 from Gigabyte should target a market sweetspot price in the performance category of motherboards.
Source:
TechConnect Magazine
Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 2.0 x16, of which three (slots 1,3,5) are PCI-Express 2.0 wired to the AMD 990FX northbridge, with electrical configurations of x16/x16/NC or x16/x8/x8. Slots 2 and 4 are electrical x4, wired to the SB950 southbridge. Other slots include a PCI-E x1, and a legacy PCI. Storage connectivity is similar to that of the UD7, with eight SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, a power-eSATA, and a normal eSATA.
27 Comments on Gigabyte Readies 990FXA-UD5 Socket AM3+ Motherboard
The heatsinks are nice too wonder how well they work, tho the new AMD HSF bracket scares me.
here is the link page too so u can read it
www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891#ov
The ud5 890fx board is around $175 in Can-Us money so this could be my next board with some new memory easy upgrade.
BINGO Under Box contents
1x 2 way SLI bridge
1x 3 way SLI bridge
page 6 in the manual......
Also, why the pci-express slots are with different "catchers"?
If it's cheaper and has more or less the same performance this may well be my next motherboard.
The main differences seem to just be a few connectors like coaxial digital audio and a USB3 header.
Are they going to support SLI without bios hacking on this?
x58a-ud7 rev1.0 on this picture here :
if that motherboard had water cooling ready on its northbridge chip I would greatly buy it...
am still looking for one with watercooled northbridge...
I must say that X58a-UD7 is the best motherboard that I have ever had in my entire 10 years of pc building.
the cooling method on the northbridge has entirely helped me alot...
Gigabyte... dont ditch this!
And here is another one...
I even had Asus motherboard X58 and I had to use fans on the northbridge! and that not good NOISY also Brings dust and heats up your GFX card if it is underneath northbridge..
and if my GA x58a-ud7 rev1.0 Dies on me, i would by another same exact one again! I LUV IT TO DEATH
now why do you say watercooling the northbridge is not necessary?
As I (and most of you) will never need more than dual Crossfire/SLI capability, I'm most interested in the UD3. Oddly, the other 990FX board doesn't have any VRM heatsink, and two of the 990FX and 990X are back to the typical Gigabyte color scheme.
Priced appropriately, the UD3 will be well considered. Although, I really wish the second PCIe x16 slot and first PCIe 4x slot were switched, so a dual slot card won't block the PCI slot (my sound card).
Edit: some cool options available in the Gigabyte BIOSes for AM3+ CPUs:As all FX processors have their multipliers unlocked (CPU frequency, memory controller, memory divider), I've been wondering what the 'p' suffix for the high-end 125W model signifies. I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with allowing free adjustment of that CPB ratio.
That will come soon anyway, seems like a good buy to me :)
Look for the SLI icon.