Gigabyte W480 Vision D

[Black Haru]

The W480 Vision D is another striking motherboard from Gigabyte’s creator-focused Vision lineup. On top of key features, like a powerful VRM and 2.5 Gb/s LAN, the Gigabyte W480 Vision D offers support for Xeon W processors and ECC memory. Let’s see if Gigabyte's latest offering can live up to its creator's vision!

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[efikkan]

It is kind of funny to test a workstation board without testing its main feature, isn't it? (Xeon with ECC)

There are far too few tech sites doing proper workstation reviews, and there are plenty of interested users among your audience, so this is a chance to differentiate yourself from other tech sites.

Things I would expect from a workstation board review;
- Testing with a Xeon
- Testing with ECC and check which ECC features are detected by the OS (ECC is pointless if the OS don't enable it properly)
- An extended stability test (more than 30 min)
- Ethernet controller(s) - bandwidth and latency. (Networking is important for workstation users, and is also the biggest differentiator between motherboards)
- Testing if Linux is supported (boot up and basic features)
- Not running water cooling(!)

I do hope you will do more testing of workstation, both for the W580 coming with Rocket Lake in a few weeks, for the next Threadripper and for upcoming Ice Lake X/SP. Also, testing of the "gold standard" of workstation boards; Supermicro, would be appreciated.

 

[DrCR]

Without underminding the quality that is present in the review, I'd like to add a "Hear, hear" to efikkan's comment above.

 

[LTUGamer]

Looks sooo good... I would like to see this design in regular motherboards instead of current childish RGB nonsense.

 

[altermere]

Looks sooo good... I would like to see this design in regular motherboards instead of current childish RGB nonsense.

black version looks way better. finally a heatpipe with proper heatsinks. i wish it would trickle to "peasant" $150 boards.

 

[Operandi]

Looks sooo good... I would like to see this design in regular motherboards instead of current childish RGB nonsense.

Yeah, this is what boards should look like by default. I shouldn't have to opt into being an adult, that should just be implied. If I want to pretend to be an immature man/woman child then the ROG, Aurous, God Like should be the option.

 

[efikkan]

black version looks way better. finally a heatpipe with proper heatsinks. i wish it would trickle to "peasant" $150 boards.
View attachment 189110

This board is very well featured and well designed, at least on paper, finding good reviews of these is hard. I haven't tried Gigabyte myself in recent years, how is their stability and BIOS quality?
Very nice to see a POST code display and fairly good heatsinks!

I also like the X12SAE from Supermicro.
Look at this beauty;

That's all the heatsink that's needed to cool it as long as they have good fins, instead of these "metal blobs" that most consumer boards have these days. These workstation boards are meant for continous load and are more durable than their bloated consumer counterparts.

 

[Operandi]

That's all the heatsink that's needed to cool it as long as they have good fins, instead of these "metal blobs" that most consumer boards have these days. These workstation boards are meant for continous load and are more durable than their bloated consumer counterparts.

Those types of heatsinks are only good for stock speeds and voltages and assumes fairly decent air flow. Same goes for that VRM which is tiny and probably isn't really good for anything besides stock speeds either.

Most consumer boards these days are pretty bad when it comes to form over function but this Gigabyte board is pretty good when it comes to actual functional heatsinks where they count. It also looks good which should never be the priority (which sadly often is) but does count for something in a retail consumer board.

 

[efikkan]

Those types of heatsinks are only good for stock speeds and voltages and assumes fairly decent air flow. Same goes for that VRM which is tiny and probably isn't really good for anything besides stock speeds either.

Stock speeds are the only ones relevant for workstations. (and even most PC builders doesn't overclock)
Fins are good for dissipating heat quickly, while "metal blobs" are designed to retain short bursts of heat and dissipate slowly.
That Supermicro board still can handle the PL2 peak consumption of 250W of W-1290P, or even look at the monstrous Supermicro X11SPA-T which can handle the power draw of LGA3647 CPUs.
You should always have a decent airflow in a computer, otherwise the motherboard will not remain stable for long. But keeping VRMs cool isn't hard when they have good fins, while still retaining a low noise level.

Consumer boards for Intel Z490 or AMD X570 usually have overkill VRMs, but usually not the means to cool it.

 

[Operandi]

Stock speeds are the only ones relevant for workstations. (and even most PC builders doesn't overclock)
Fins are good for dissipating heat quickly, while "metal blobs" are designed to retain short bursts of heat and dissipate slowly.
That Supermicro board still can handle the PL2 peak consumption of 250W of W-1290P, or even look at the monstrous Supermicro X11SPA-T which can handle the power draw of LGA3647 CPUs.
You should always have a decent airflow in a computer, otherwise the motherboard will not remain stable for long. But keeping VRMs cool isn't hard when they have good fins, while still retaining a low noise level.

Consumer boards for Intel Z490 or AMD X570 usually have overkill VRMs, but usually not the means to cool it.

Yeah, that Supermicro board is built to purpose, not arguing with you there but if you are bringing it up in context with this Gigabyte board which is aimed at prosumers who could potentially be overclocking its a poor comparison as those types of heatsinks or the VRM wouldn't be up to it. Also lots of people building home workstations / prosumer machines (whatever you want to call them) will be aiming for low noise air cooling or water cooling which isn't going to provide a lot of air flow over the VRM (this is most of the machines I build). The Gigabyte board here has a better VRM and better cooling on it and would be better suited for a home workstation.

I've used Supermicro a bunch for severs and they are solid but from my experience with them there I wouldn't choose them for a home workstation.

 

[efikkan]

Also lots of people building home workstations / prosumer machines (whatever you want to call them) will be aiming for low noise air cooling or water cooling which isn't going to provide a lot of air flow over the VRM (this is most of the machines I build).

Most decent tower coolers from Noctua, BeQuiet etc. will (assuming a front intake and rear exhaust fan) have plenty of ventilation around the VRMs of these boards, actually way more than most consumer boards which have "covers" above the VRM (which is ridiculous). Cooling both the CPU, the GPU and the VRMs while keeping the noise levels down isn't hard as long as you don't overclock.

Water cooling is more challenging though, as the VRM cooling then may depend on additional airflow. But I don't believe water cooling belongs in a "workstation". By all means, do water cooling if you want to, but it doesn't belong in a machine which should be reliable.

And in terms of overclocking, this is simply not relevant or advisable for a "workstation" at all. And those who want to have fun with overclocking and need a computer for "work" should simply build two computers. Buying expensive workstation hardware and destroying it with overclocking is a waste of money.

I've used Supermicro a bunch for severs and they are solid but from my experience with them there I wouldn't choose them for a home workstation.

The ones that I've linked to are from their workstation series.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

Yeah, this is what boards should look like by default. I shouldn't have to opt into being an adult, that should just be implied. If I want to pretend to be an immature man/woman child then the ROG, Aurous, God Like should be the option.

Dafuq does RGB lighting on a motherboard have to do with being an adult? You DO realize you can just turn the stuff off, right? FFS

 

[lightning70]

My Gigabyte Z490m UD motherboard VRMs are getting very hot (113 degrees) what could be the reason? Soon I could replace it with the Asus B560. I'm using 10700F my CPU is 76 degrees max in Freezer34 single fan version.

 

[Wirko]

Looks sooo good... I would like to see this design in regular motherboards instead of current childish RGB nonsense.

Yes. I have always maintained that professional users buy RGB separately, in amounts and types that they need, and deduce tax. They then program the effects in Python or Powershell, according to written specification.

 

[InVasMani]

This board looks like it consider functionality over style more and yet appears rather strikingly stylish for that very reason. The cooling actually looks like it was taken into consideration and not so hodgepodge as most boards appear like they were thrown left over scraps at the table. This is in a tier of few a couple of recent EVGA Intel boards among a army of hodgepodge designs left, right, and center brimming with RGB.

 

[Operandi]

Most decent tower coolers from Noctua, BeQuiet etc. will (assuming a front intake and rear exhaust fan) have plenty of ventilation around the VRMs of these boards, actually way more than most consumer boards which have "covers" above the VRM (which is ridiculous). Cooling both the CPU, the GPU and the VRMs while keeping the noise levels down isn't hard as long as you don't overclock.

Water cooling is more challenging though, as the VRM cooling then may depend on additional airflow. But I don't believe water cooling belongs in a "workstation". By all means, do water cooling if you want to, but it doesn't belong in a machine which should be reliable.

And in terms of overclocking, this is simply not relevant or advisable for a "workstation" at all. And those who want to have fun with overclocking and need a computer for "work" should simply build two computers. Buying expensive workstation hardware and destroying it with overclocking is a waste of money.


The ones that I've linked to are from their workstation series.

The primary factor is really the VRM itself; the power stages used and how many phases there are and that Supermicro board is using a very small VRM. I have no idea what the stages are or how efficiently they are operating but with that few of them regardless of how good they are its going to working relatively hard with top of the stack CPU (particularly a Intel one) even at stock. At stock speeds I'm sure its fine since thats what the board is designed for but its still small relatively weak VRM, far weaker than the Gigabyte board.

Also, we might be working with different definitions of "workstation" but overclocking dosn't destroy anything. I consider my desktop more of a workstation than anything else and its been running overclocked for years running World Community Grid pretty much maxed out in the winter months warm up the office a bit. I wouldn't overclock a production machine thats being used in a business but thats totally different than a personal video editing, 3D rendering, (insert other prosumer hobby here) "workstation".