Gigabyte X79 UD3 and UD5 Final Design Motherboards Detailed

[MikeMurphy]

I'd use 8 dimms!!! huge cache

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I'd use 8 dimms!!! huge cache

?

You'd use them as cache how? If you're talking about creating a ramdisk then using it as the swap file I could see that, otherwise huge amounts of RAM either sit and do nothing or get used in non-32 bit applications.


I see the draw of the 32GB of RAM. Honestly, the UD5 is what I'm eyeing. It just doesn't make sense for everybody.

 

[Disparia]

- Use it to do disc rip-transcode operations, then move the finished file to disk.

- Downloads/torrents. Especially if they're compressed. (expand from ram to disk, instead of disk to disk).

- When my needs go beyond a memory table, I'll sometimes move the entire database over to a RAMdisk to perform the operations.

And even after carving out 8-12GB for RAMdisk, there's still immense room for Superfetch to cache.

That's how I personally go about it. Let the built-in method for caching do it's thing and use RAMdisks for temporary purposes. Other people keep persistent RAMdisks, so options such as application installation open up for them.

 

[cadaveca]

Guess I need to hit up Gigabyte.

 

[stargazer7]

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

EAX is dead and creative is a crapshoot. any card can do the same from software just as good, if not better depending on component selection. as for the Killer nic, it does NOTHING to decrease your ping. only comes bloated with crap drivers.

 

[cadaveca]

I have to disagree, stargazer. I'm currently using a Gigabyte G1.Sniper2, and the onboard KillerNIC and X-FI offer better bandwidth and less CPU utilization, allowing the board to have slightly higher performance than other products who use solutions that require more CPU-time.


And considering the price of ram nowadays, with 8GB costing as little as $60, the time where users could complain about memory usage of an app is O-V-E-R. Most users on boards like the ones in the OP will end up with AT LEAST 8GB when running in quad-channel mode, and the 75MB of KillerNIC "bloatware" is hardly something to complain about wit h8GB of ram, nevermind it's not even needed to make the NIC work.

Making comments like that is like saying that XP is still the OS to use...which it most definitely isn't. Sound like you need to catch up with current technologies.

 

[stargazer7]

no, they dont offer better bandwidth. as for less cpu usage, you're talking about single digit percantages. with a modern chip, it makes little to no difference. the killer nic is junk. and i'm talking about drivers. a board with an Intel nic is much better.

btw, you're a lying cheating scum. i let all things you said slip through in the other thread. i remember you saying you're the biggest AMD fanboy ever. then you got a 480 SLI after you got sick of their drivers, which you ditched back for 6900 cards. remember the time you got banned from here? this should be enough

 

[cadaveca]

no, they dont offer better bandwidth. as for less cpu usage, you're talking about single digit percantages. with a modern chip, it makes little to no difference. the killer nic is junk. and i'm talking about drivers. a board with an Intel nic is much better.

My comment is very similar to your comment about bloatware. Very intentional. But the fact of teh matter is there the difference IS real, no matter how big or small.

btw, you're a lying cheating scum. i let all things you said slip through in the other thread. i remember you saying you're the biggest AMD fanboy ever. then you got a 480 SLI after you got sick of their drivers, which you ditched back for 6900 cards. remember the time you got banned from here? this should be enough

My opinion is always something I am very open with. I don't ask that everyone agree with me, but I have every right to think whtever I want, thank you very much. You too, so I value your feedback.

I know my opinion changes. That's what happens with experience...and being 100% honest all the time means that over time, of course my opinion will change. You may call it lying and cheating, but really, it's just honesty.

I got banned by Mussels, for what was basically a personal disagreement. Of course I remember, because all the history is saved here on the forum, and every time i visit my user CP, I see those infractions. I am more than willing to show them:

And yes, I change hardware often. That's the name of the game as a reviewer. My opinion is based 100% on real-life experience with the parts I talk about:

That also includes parts not in retail...that you'll find nowhere else...yet:

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Steven B]

Hey, wait when it says private, does that mean its b/c they don't like you or because you said it in a PM? Some mod at OCn gave me a warning a while ago and told me it was for swearing, but it said private, did like he go through my PMs and give me a warning for swearing in them? lol Sometimes mods are picked incorrectly, i feel like you should require mods to send in a photocopy of their driver's licence to make sure they are within the proper age limits lol.


i agree with cadavega, the Sniper 2 really does perform better than other boards in games with sound, and when online. its very very very very very very rare that one board will outperform another in gaming like that, and its due to the fact that resources for the NIC and Audio being offloaded from the CPU and memory. Their latency is lower becuase both have their own memory, and the component selection on the Sniper 2 isn't cheap either.

An no, I have a maximus 4 gene-z and a sniper 2 i compared their audio performance, Sniper 2 was ahead of the UD7 and Maximus 4 Gene-Z, both of those have the same ALC889. maximus uses a creative software pack and ALC889, that is a gimmick, to put a XF-I sticker on a ALC889 LOL.

The NIC isn't best thing, it can't change much, but it does have a nice software suite, and my local ping is lowered by it. But to be honest if it wasn't on this board i wouldn't buy it.

Then get to the fact that there are no PCi-E lanes being taken up by the devices, and then the fact that they are hard wired to the ports , no need to go through a PCI-E switch/ or MUX to handle resources.

To you it might be like a gimmick, but to anyone who knows what they are talking about its price might be high, but the audio is not a gimmick.

 

[cadaveca]

Says private because the post was removed.


Anyway, it's the G1.Sniper2 that won me over for Gigabyte, and has me interested in these boards. The G1.Sniper2 is pretty damn good. As a gaming board, it's not the bet overclocker...Gigabyte has other boards for that. I use an amp and "high-end" bookshelf speakers with my PC, so the audio part really matters, and the X-Fi works great, much better than my experience with X-Fi cards a couple fo years ago, when driver issues were still a big thing.

I do get higher download speeds with the KillerNIC, for whatever reason. Not too sure why, but it does seem to work.

But of course, lie k Isaid, that's my own experience. I tend to not say much about stuff i don't have.

 

[Steven B]

another thing I liked about the Sniper 2 was that it didn't have the BIOS issues that some other LGA1155 boards from GB had, like no boot loops.

 

[cadaveca]

It can be picky about ram.

I deducted points from the Sniper2 for the ram issues, and for the auto-overclock when XMP was disabled. Newest release BIOS(F4) removes the auto-OC thing, so that's solved, but there are still some outstanding issues with ram, which can be said about most boards.

I gotta commend Gigabyte for dealing with the XMP thing with the very next BIOS.

 

[stargazer7]

An no, I have a maximus 4 gene-z and a sniper 2 i compared their audio performance, Sniper 2 was ahead of the UD7 and Maximus 4 Gene-Z, both of those have the same ALC889. maximus uses a creative software pack and ALC889, that is a gimmick, to put a XF-I sticker on a ALC889 LOL.

To you it might be like a gimmick, but to anyone who knows what they are talking about its price might be high, but the audio is not a gimmick.

you dont know jack about audio. soundmax ADI1988b codecs like supremefx2 are capable of EAX, and come with Matsushita fine gold caps for deep sound and bass. EAX is a moot point to begin. i can only recall unreal engine and DIRT using eax instructions through openAL. the x-fi chip does nothing. nothing at all. its components that matter, dacs, op-amps. not the sound processor.

if you're going to talk audio, offer benches like for harmonic distortion. you cant properly test audio by listening. doh.

 

[cadaveca]

you cant properly test audio by listening. doh

You may not be able to tell the difference, but I most definitely can. Most musicians spend the majority of thier lives persuing some random audio cue in their head, and that pursuit either leads to a complete understanding of audio and the power it gives over the human mind and emotions, or they go crazy.

Guitarists will spend countless thousands of dollars in search of "tone".

Long before there were ways to record, humans understood the importance of audio reproduction, or recordings would have never been invented in the first place.

If you cannot tell the difference between one audio solution and the next using a proper amp and capable speakers, then your hearing is damaged.

I personally don't need benchmarks, at all. I'm sorry you've damaged your ears and require such things to tell the difference.

And just so we are clear, what I am refering to is often called "absolute pitch", or "perfect pitch".

Here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch

 

[Steven B]

the entire RMAA bench was used, check out some of the reviews
you seem to really have a problem with everything, so you like anything?

 

[cadaveca]

you seem to really have a problem with everything, so you like anything?

I'd say no.

Is there a UD7 too, Steven? Have you heard anything?

 

[Steven B]

well its not called the X79-OC its sold as the X79-UD7, the name brand of -OC was thrown out, so i guessed some people pushed to make the UD7 the OC board, as well as the UD3. you notice the OC boards have 4-way SLI, but 4 DIMMs. GB has structured it so that:
UD3 for OCer/Power user on a budget, basically the UD7 but without a lot of the OC features
UD5 for workstation/OC with some buttons
UD7 for hard core OCer and someone who wants all the features
G1 Assassin 2 for the hardcore gamer

most of the boards are 4-dimmed as it helps the memory clocking, i mean if it was good for OCing in quad channel to use 4 DIMMs on one side, then they would have done that, but spec is starting to show that the trace distance really has a large impact, that is why you see that no board seems to have extra distance between the socket and the DIMMs like on previous platforms as well. I am guessing this is why only the UD7 has 8 DIMMs.

That is how I think they laid it out, of course there will be more models. If you notice tho, this time the Assassin 2 isn't ATX-XL, they kept it e-ATX so it fits in most cases.

The UD7 is ATX-XL with 4 -way and the UD3 is 4-way in ATX, For the UD7 they use ATX-XL so give more spacing between the DIMMs and the first PCi-E slot for insulation purposes and such.

My other observation is that GB has switched over to using IR digital PWMs, IR bought Chil a little while ago, and took Chil;s tech and has been selling its own digital PWMs, and still has Chil selling theirs. basically same PWm with different name.

now the PWM used on this board, and if you notice ASUS is using Digi+ II, same thing here, these boards use an unreleased VRD12/12.5 certified IR PWM, and it seems like for the memory they are using some of IRs very high quality powerstages, i will go over the new tech in my review or even preview of the board. i am just waiting on the boards now.

 

[stargazer7]

You may not be able to tell the difference, but I most definitely can. Most musicians spend the majority of thier lives persuing some random audio cue in their head, and that pursuit either leads to a complete understanding of audio and the power it gives over the human mind and emotions, or they go crazy.

Guitarists will spend countless thousands of dollars in search of "tone".

Long before there were ways to record, humans understood the importance of audio reproduction, or recordings would have never been invented in the first place.

If you cannot tell the difference between one audio solution and the next using a proper amp and capable speakers, then your hearing is damaged.

I personally don't need benchmarks, at all. I'm sorry you've damaged your ears and require such things to tell the difference.

And just so we are clear, what I am refering to is often called "absolute pitch", or "perfect pitch".

Here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch

wrong, audio is subjective. while one CAN tell it, its wont be entirely accurate. as for the power audio gives to make yourself "go crazy"... yeah... i bet you listen to stuff to make yourself to crazy. makes sense, doesnt it? there're binaural beats that COULD get you in daze, but thats it. aside of that, yes, you listen music to get relaxed lol dude

you'd come up with anything to make yourself look right. i love how you changed the subject to your room and review parts when you got called the biggest AMD fanboy, said with your own words.

you seem to really have a problem with everything, so you like anything?

i do, i'll chalk up my years of experience to your bs. that Sniper board is an overpriced piece of crap. you can get a Maximus IV extreme with a cheap intel nic and a sound card. and let me tell you, it will be MUCH better.

 

[Steven B]

let me tell you i have used both, and that is the purpose of the Sniper 2, its IMO the best LGA1155 board GB makes, hands down. You add cheap intel NIC? why woudl you add a NIC that the board already has? you want to add a sound card? ok that is the whole purpose of the Sniper 2, SLi without NF200 + audio card without eating up lanes. i bet in the same game, the Sniper 2 will give you more FPS too, you can bet on that.

on top of that I have actually used both boards, you haven't.

your years of experiences, please don't get into this with me, i used to review here 5-6 years before you joined.

 

[cadaveca]

AMD fanboy, said with your own words

I've NEVER denied this. I don't see how it's important.

However, like any professional, I seperate my personal opinion from my professional opinion. The fact you think it's a big deal is amusing, to say the least.

wrong, audio is subjective. while one CAN tell it, its wont be entirely accurate.

All opinions are subjective..that's a given. However, I think it's more important to report user experience in some cases, as raw numbers don't truly tell you all that much. Fact of teh matter is that any result will be coloured by the recording medium, and more often than not, is not a true representation of actual audio reproduction.

i do, i'll chalk up my years of experience to your bs.

And you are? Both Steven and I are product reviewers, that companies trust to propmote their products accurately. This is why we state things as fact like we do, and both Steven and I seem to hold the same values, so we get along pretty good too, as well as sharing opinions on hardware. That what happens when you stick to the facts.

you, on the other hand, are on the offensive. Naturally, you're offensive while being on the offensive. I can take it perosnal, but you know what..that's against forum rules here. Would you like a link? Nevermind, I'll jsut quote for ya:

Posting in a thread
Be polite, if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all. This includes trolling, continuous use of bad language (ie. cussing), flaming and insulting others.
Short and pointless posts like "yeah", "me too" or "haha" can be made on the rest of the internet, not here. Post count doesn't increase your e-penis.
Stay on topic, changing the topic won't help the discussion.
If you reply to multiple posts use the "multi quote" button, that way the forum is easier to read.

 

[stargazer7]

let me tell you i have used both, and that is the purpose of the Sniper 2, its IMO the best LGA1155 board GB makes, hands down. You add cheap intel NIC? why woudl you add a NIC that the board already has? you want to add a sound card? ok that is the whole purpose of the Sniper 2, SLi without NF200 + audio card without eating up lanes. i bet in the same game, the Sniper 2 will give you more FPS too, you can bet on that.

on top of that I have actually used both boards, you haven't.

your years of experiences, please don't get into this with me, i used to review here 5-6 years before you joined.

best GB board, so? your point? why wouldnt you buy a board with an intel nic? the P67WS revo is way better. as for more FPS, you're talking about A FEW frames for the offloading of sound. nonsense.

so my join date puts you on top of me? you reviewed, so what? there're a bunch of better choices than the sniper. and that's a fact.

 

[cadaveca]

there're a bunch of better choices than the sniper. and that's a fact.

That's not important, nor a fact. Fact is, there's nothing really wrong with the Sniper2, and it's good at what it was intended for. Yes, there are other options, which offer different things...


But that doesn't really make one product any better than another. The Sniper may not be the right choice for you...that's fine...but clearly it's right for others. Personally, I use one everyday, so it's perfect for me. Meets my needs exactly, running 16 GB in 4x 4GB sticks @ just over 1900MHz, with just 1.1v on the VTT. Not every board can do that.

Anyway this is a news thread, and this off-topic discussion doesn't really have place here. You're more than welcome to post your comments about the G1.Sniper2 in the comment scetion of my review of it.

Here's a link:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/G1_Sniper2/

 

[stargazer7]

the Maximus can do that. that board costs $350. full of gimmick and a p67ws revo with a better sound card would come cheaper. no, thanks.

 

[cadaveca]

I cannot say the Maximus can do that, as ASUS hasn't given me one, and I don't buy hardware anymore, OEMs give it to me for review purposes. The stuff i need for reviews OEMs don't provide is funded by other means. All of my comments, as I mentioned, are based on my real-world experience with the hardware in question. If I haven't reviewed it, my opinion does not contain or include it. Some people woudln't evne consider the ROG boards, simply becuase they are red and black.

However, from the boards that I have, the G1.Sniper is one of FEW boards that can do this with these sticks, and my test CPU.


I actually haven't seen many people clocking 16GB at once. Got some links?

And don't get me wrong, you can knock the hardware all you want. That's your opinion, and is very valid(and I do report valid user comments to the OEMS, in hopes changes wil leb made to meet user needs). Taking it personal, on the other hand, isn't something we do here on TPU. I personally don't have any issues with stuff like that, but it is directly against forum rules, and as respect to the other users and staff here, I like to stick to those rules. Makes for better conversation.

 

[stargazer7]

the Maximus is known as the best sandy board. it has the strong build quality with a proadlizer, chil pwm, directFETs.... not considering it is pointless.

about clocking 16 gb at once, you're coming up with bs again. give it up, 8gb is more than enough. and if you need 16, you still can clock up.