Thursday, June 27th 2013
GIGABYTE Rolls Out 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0, with Updated Feature-Set
GIGABYTE created UEFI-equipped revisions of most of its socket AM3+ motherboards with the advent of FX "Vishera" processors last year, but held back with its flagship motherboard for the platform, the 990FXA-UD7. The company released an updated revision of the motherboard, dubbed 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0, completely skipping "Rev 2.0." While the new board is essentially laid out similar to its predecessor, a lot has changed.
To begin with, its based on GIGABYTE's newer (though not latest) Ultra Durable 4 construction. A 10-phase high-amperage VRM powers the AM3+ socket, which appears to be ready for AMD's FX-9000 series CPUs for overclockers. The CPU VRM uses driver-MOSFETs, although not quite the PowIRStage chippery we find on Ultra Durable 5 motherboards. A thicker, chunkier heatsink is used to cool these driver-MOSFETs and the AMD 990FX northbridge. This cluster of heatsinks is connected to the one that cools the AMD SB950 southbridge over a heat pipe. The AM3+ socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, which support up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2000+ MHz memory.
Expansion slots on the 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0 include four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots wired to the 990FX northbridge (x16/NC/x16/NC or x16/NC/x8/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8); two additional PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical gen 2.0 x4, wired to the southbridge); and a legacy PCI. On the storage connectivity front, you get six SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the southbridge, all assigned as internal ports, two internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports from a Marvell 88SE9172 controller, and a pair of eSATA 6 Gb/s ports from another Marvell 88SE9172. A pair of Etron EJ168 chips give the board a total of four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, two by header.
Other connectivity include 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF (Realtek ALC889 CODEC), a gigabit Ethernet interface (Realtek 8111F), FireWire, PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports. Unlike its predecessor, the 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0 is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS, enhanced by GIGABYTE's dual-UEFI technology, which protects against failed BIOS updates. The new revision should cost the same as its predecessor, around the US $200 mark.
To begin with, its based on GIGABYTE's newer (though not latest) Ultra Durable 4 construction. A 10-phase high-amperage VRM powers the AM3+ socket, which appears to be ready for AMD's FX-9000 series CPUs for overclockers. The CPU VRM uses driver-MOSFETs, although not quite the PowIRStage chippery we find on Ultra Durable 5 motherboards. A thicker, chunkier heatsink is used to cool these driver-MOSFETs and the AMD 990FX northbridge. This cluster of heatsinks is connected to the one that cools the AMD SB950 southbridge over a heat pipe. The AM3+ socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, which support up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2000+ MHz memory.
Other connectivity include 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF (Realtek ALC889 CODEC), a gigabit Ethernet interface (Realtek 8111F), FireWire, PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports. Unlike its predecessor, the 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0 is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS, enhanced by GIGABYTE's dual-UEFI technology, which protects against failed BIOS updates. The new revision should cost the same as its predecessor, around the US $200 mark.
28 Comments on GIGABYTE Rolls Out 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0, with Updated Feature-Set
I very much dislike firewire ports though. =O
For several years Gigabyte's VRM circuits on AMD and Intel enthusiasts mobos have been borderline for serious overclocking use. I informed Giga tech support about this 3+ years ago and they didn't believe me so I proved this to Gigabyte. When they were able to document the overheating and throttling of their VRM circuit, they told me it wasn't a problem because their mobo was only rated for 140w... After enough sources documented the issue in reviews, Gigabyte had no choice but to update their VRM to properly handle OC'ing needs seeing as though they promote their mobo for this activity.
While I do like Gigabyte's Ultra Durable mobos IMO the ~$200 price that Asus and Gigabyte products sell for retail is obscene. Asrock's 990FX Fatlity mobo is comparable and ~$50 less expensive. The Fatality 990FX has been discontinued but the Extreme 9 is an updated version of the Fatality 990FX. It appears to be good and less expensive than the similar Asus and Giga AM3+ mobos.
@Everyone- In the 2nd image, look at the ITE Super IO chip near the Southbridge. I think its burnt! :eek:
now you know.:toast: