The Board - A Closer Look

Starting with the BIOS, Gigabyte has equipped the A75-UD4H with a dual-BIOS solution, making for easy recovery when overclocking, and let us tell you, with this board, it really works. Employing an Intersil ISL6324a VRM controller, the A75-UD4H features an 8+2 VRM configuration with a two-part high/low MOSFET configuration, although the dual NB/GPU phases do feature dedicated input drivers as well. We find a single-phase DIMM VRM next to the memory slots, which doesn't seem like much, but did prove more than adequate during our testing phase.


We find two separate Etron J168A USB 3.0 controllers onboard, each one dedicated to the near-by rear I/O tower with USB 3.0 slots. It's thanks to the use of these controllers that the Gigabyte A75-UD4H has a total of eight USB 3.0 ports, although this design decision can lead to installation issues in certain scenarios, as there are only two USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O.


Realtek provides both audio and LAN controllers for the A75-UD4H, with the high-end, but common, ACL889 controller found for audio, while LAN support comes via the also common RTL8111E controller we have seen on many products throughout the industry.


We find an ITE IT8720F for voltage monitoring and fan control, while the provided ICS 9LRS4850AKL PLL controller conforms to the FM1 AMD specifications, yet offering a bit more flexibility than some other options on the market today, can have a significant impact on overclocking with the A75-UD4H, too. FireWire support is provided by a VIA VT6803P controller, which not only powers the port on the rear I/O, but also offers an internal header too.


The matching cooling solutions provided with the A75-UD4H blend well with the color theme the board has, while providing more than ample cooling. The chipset cooler is very large, with many protruding fins, but maintains a low profile so as to not interfere with expansion cards. Gigabyte has chosen to use a standard thermal interface material, one that very closely resembles chewing gum, even with it's pink color, yet proves to provide excellent thermal transfer. The MOSFET cooler is equipped well too, with the thermal pad making full contact with the MOSFETs it sits over, as you can see by the impressions left in the pad.


We want to take a minute here and point out that although the chipset cooler employs screws that are easily removed, the cooler's design is such that its removal may not be so easy, as when we attempted to remove it for pictures, we found that the cooler's stand-offs backed out of the cooler rather than the screws coming out of the stand-offs, which could lead to board damage if care is not taken. Given that the cooler is so large, and thermal interfaces do provide more than sufficient contact, we suggest that users do not attempt to remove these coolers, and if there are any issues with them, to return the board to Gigabyte for repair, although we are confident that such will never need happen, thanks to an excellent design.