Gigabyte X79 UD3 and UD5 Final Design Motherboards Detailed

[btarunr]

Here are pictures of the release-grade revision (1.0) of Gigabyte's socket LGA2011 motherboards in its main linuep, the GA-X79-UD3 and GA-X79-UD5. These are the release-grade 1.0 revisions, that are redesigned for X79 chipset with just six SATA ports (doing away with SAS). With the LGA2011 motherboard lineup, Gigabyte is doing away with the "UD7" model, in its segment there is GA-X79-OC. We saw this coming, because UD7 was meant to be an overclocking motherboard identifier. On the company website, for example, the product page of GA-X58A-UD7 (2.0) shows GA-X58A-OC as a "newer model". The GA-X79-UD3 is poised to be the most affordable LGA2011 motherboard from Gigabyte, while the GA-X79-UD5 offers some premium connectivity and memory expansion features.

The GA-X79-UD3 uses a simple 8+1 phase VRM to power the LGA2011 CPU. The memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per channel. There are four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which two are x16 capable, and all four are x8 capable. There are two PCIe x1, and surprisingly, a legacy PCI slot (uncommon for LGA2011 platform). All six SATA ports from the X79 chipset are assigned as internal ports: two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black). Three Marvell-made SATA 6 Gb/s controllers provide four additional internal ports (gray), and two eSATA 6 Gb/s. There are just four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, and two via internal header. 8+2 channel HD audio, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and one gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of the GA-X79-UD3.



The GA-X79-UD5, on the other hand, uses a different PCB from that of the UD3, with more room for memory expansion thanks to eight DDR3 DIMM slots (two per channel). It uses a beefier CPU VRM, with 14-phases and POSCAP capacitors. Again, the memory is powered by a 4-phase VRM. Unlike the UD3, the GA-X79-UD5 compromises with expansion slots. The UD3 uses all seven expansion slot bays on an ATX case, but the UD5 uses just six. What's more surprising here is that the scapegoat isn't the legacy PCI slot, but a PCI-Express 3.0! This board, unlike the UD3, has just three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, among which two are x16 capable, and all three are x8 capable. Storage connectivity is similar to the UD3, with two SATA 6 Gb/s (white), and four SATA 3 Gb/s (black) from the X79 PCH, four additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports (gray) and two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports from Marvell-made controllers. It has the same number of USB 3.0 ports as the UD3: 2 (rear) and 2 (header). Other connectivity is identical, except that this board also has Firewire.



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[stargazer7]

i wish they'd move away from that all black scheme, i don't like it. psu's, cases... got sick of it. it's overused already. their blue boards looked good actually imo. if they have to use black for marketing, color the caps like Asrock or Asus.

 

[entropy13]

i wish they'd move away from that all black scheme, i don't like it. psu's, cases... got sick of it. it's overused already. their blue boards looked good actually imo. if they have to use black for marketing, color the caps like Asrock or Asus.

Then there's not much differentiation visually besides the brand name, if they follow what others have done. They have the Orange-Black and Green-Black boards anyway, so if you don't Black-Grey, choose those.

 

[stargazer7]

orange is ugly, the Gaming line is full of gimmicks. so no Gigy boards that suit my needs. top it that you still can differentiate even when colors are the same. look at an evga board, then at this. they do look different.

 

[SK-1]

Gigabyte traded color schemes with Asus.

 

[micropage7]

orange is ugly,

maybe coz they cant match it like red and black
btw bright color with dark color is nice so it looks more attractive
maybe Gigabyte need to learn from ASUS how to match them

 

[kkaddu]

You might be missing the point guys this UD3 though less beafy has everything you need. and one more PCI 3 slot than UD5!!
basing on Gigabyte's previous MB success, i can see that UD3 on most new wishlists.
and OH how about those sata ports perpendicular to the board.
a win for me.

 

[buggalugs]

Apparently Gigabyte are using digital VRM like Asus. The early Gigabyte X79 boards shown at IDF had analog VRM but Gigabyte made a last minute switch to digital just before production started.

 

[LiveOrDie]

Nice 8 ram slots wish EVGA would do the same.

 

[Sasqui]

I'm only amazed at the Legacy PCI slot!

 

[qwerty_lesh]

orange is ugly, the Gaming line is full of gimmicks. so no Gigy boards that suit my needs. top it that you still can differentiate even when colors are the same. look at an evga board, then at this. they do look different.

Having built systems with the 1155 G1 boards, I have to say they are far from gimmicky, you get heaps of really sweet additional sh..stuff with them, like a 5.25 USB3 and esata bracket, they are really high quality and very well engineered.

 

[stargazer7]

they are. in fact, full of it. beginning with the chipset hs shaped like an ammo clip. down to the now useless x-fi chip and killer NIC garbage. also, they're overpriced. for the money, one is much better off with a Maximus. there's not one way that board beats the Maximus in terms of quality or performance. maybe the hologram of that skull guy with a knife in his mouth... again, if you're 14 years old... no offense to you btw.

 

[Inceptor]

Nice looking boards, no flashy gewgaws or colour schemes.

As for RAM slots... you don't need more than four of them, unless you're building a workstation using this board. For the lifetime of this board, having 4 slots and the ability of using up to 32GB of RAM is more than enough, even for light to medium 'workstation' class usage.
More is not better, more is just a way for them to charge buyers more money for something that most of them won't ever use.
If you're using it for gaming, you're not going to use all eight slots anyway, you're going to use four of them with a max of 16GB RAM. Because for the lifetime of the X79 chipset boards, that will be more than enough for gaming, probably still overkill for gaming.

 

[Disparia]

Yes, 8 RAM slot usage isn't for everyone. However, I think the point Live OR Die was making was Evga doesn't have one model yet with 8 slots (besides the SR3, which is in it's own class) while Gigabyte and Asus each have at least one.

Plus, 8 slots makes 32GB easy and cheap with 4GB sticks instead of 8GB, which there are less options regarding speed, timings, and color.

 

[stargazer7]

EVGA doesnt have a good engineering team to do anything right now. half their mobo crew got left. they were already a small company and now they're in an even harder situation... what gets on my nerves though is the way they still market geniously like their marketing articles, as if they're still the kings of the castle.

 

[AsRock]

I wish they would put a x1 slot above the x16 slots.. Other wise i like them all.

 

[LordJummy]

they are. in fact, full of it. beginning with the chipset hs shaped like an ammo clip. down to the now useless x-fi chip and killer NIC garbage. also, they're overpriced. for the money, one is much better off with a Maximus. there's not one way that board beats the Maximus in terms of quality or performance. maybe the hologram of that skull guy with a knife in his mouth... again, if you're 14 years old... no offense to you btw.

Elaborate on why the x-fi chip and killer NIC is garbage? It does what it advertises, so I don't really see your point. Do you have first hand experience with it. Does it not work how it should? I haven't actually tested those, although I have used some gigabyte boards in the past. You have to realize some people like the black/green theme (me, as I have a black/green water setup) and the silly aggressive stuff.

EVGA doesnt have a good engineering team to do anything right now. half their mobo crew got left. they were already a small company and now they're in an even harder situation... what gets on my nerves though is the way they still market geniously like their marketing articles, as if they're still the kings of the castle.

Everyone wants to market like they're the king of the castle. That's the point of advertising, and in the marketing world everyone is #1. Didn't you know that?

I heard EVGA was making a come back in the mobo department.

The SR-3 looks pretty interesting from the sneak peaks I saw, if it is indeed real.

 

[stargazer7]

i think you're the one that doesnt know here. EVGA gives out bs beyond scope. both in their site and forums. down to mousepads with "evga pwnage" on them instead of making good hardware. the last good own design of them was the E762.

sr-3 is real. those shots are from jacob. but there's zero use for us to have a dual cpu board. compare a good a x58 to the sr-2, it gets trumped. unless you do rendering and calculations, there's no use for it

 

[LordJummy]

i think you're the one that doesnt know here. EVGA gives out bs beyond scope. both in their site and forums. down to mousepads with "evga pwnage" on them instead of making good hardware. the last good own design of them was the E762.

sr-3 is real. those shots are from jacob. but there's zero use for us to have a dual cpu board. compare a good a x58 to the sr-2, it gets trumped. unless you do rendering and calculations, there's no use for it

Huh? The one that doesn't know what? I was asking you to elaborate on what you said. You seemed to have misinterpreted that.

 

[stargazer7]

Huh? The one that doesn't know what? I was asking you to elaborate on what you said. You seemed to have misinterpreted that.

what do you want me to elaborate? EVGA's marketing bs? dx11 done right? go figure on your own. oh, you have been an AMD fanboy for a long time, haven't you? guess why you don't know. run along.

 

[LordJummy]

what do you want me to elaborate? EVGA's marketing bs? dx11 done right? go figure on your own. oh, you have been an AMD fanboy for a long time, haven't you? guess why you don't know. run along.

Elaborate on why the x-fi chip and killer NIC is garbage? It does what it advertises, so I don't really see your point. Do you have first hand experience with it. Does it not work how it should? I haven't actually tested those, although I have used some gigabyte boards in the past. You have to realize some people like the black/green theme (me, as I have a black/green water setup) and the silly aggressive stuff.

^

Also, AMD fanboy? lolwhat? You must be new to this forum.

Do you mean AMD CPU's? Because I don't own any (well I have an FX chip on order, but that's just for testing). My main CPU's are an i7 970 and an i7 950 in my home machines. So I'm not really sure where you are pulling these fantasies from. You obviously are a bit worked up, so I will just disregard the trolling.

 

[stargazer7]

^

Also, AMD fanboy? lolwhat? You must be new to this forum.

Do you mean AMD CPU's? Because I don't own any (well I have an FX chip on order, but that's just for testing). My main CPU's are an i7 970 and an i7 950 in my home machines. So I'm not really sure where you are pulling these fantasies from. You obviously are a bit worked up, so I will just disregard the trolling.

huh huh, i'm referring to the stuff you used before your last machine. as for being new to this forum, i was reading here back in 08 you had no idea of. as for being "worked up" or trolling, that pretty much tells your fantasies on AMD. but this is way out of topic, so move on.

 

[xBruce88x]

I wish they would put a x1 slot above the x16 slots.. Other wise i like them all.

agreed, a 1x slot above the others seems the most logical and useful spot.

I'm only amazed at the Legacy PCI slot!

Indeed that is a surprise, a welcome one.

 

[LordJummy]

huh huh, i'm referring to the stuff you used before your last machine. as for being new to this forum, i was reading here back in 08 you had no idea of. as for being "worked up" or trolling, that pretty much tells your fantasies on AMD. but this is way out of topic, so move on.

I deleted my original reply to this because you are dragging things so far off topic.

You are pretty far off in fantasy land now with your posts, and I honestly can't understand anything past the first sentence.

Anyhow, I just wanted you to explain WHY the G1 boards addons (nic, sound) were "garbage". Please explain. Thanks.

 

[xBruce88x]

orange is ugly, the Gaming line is full of gimmicks. so no Gigy boards that suit my needs. top it that you still can differentiate even when colors are the same. look at an evga board, then at this. they do look different.

seems to look just fine with all of those HL2 case mods out there.