Board Layout

We pulled the Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 from the packaging and placed it in our photo box, taking note that the board had some good heft to it thanks to the 2oz. Copper PCB layer. The new color scheme from Gigabyte, a definite separation from previous product lines clad in blue, really made an impression on us as well, so much so that we were excited to get it on the test bench. Both heatsinks have a small touch of blue on their gunmetal grey surfaces, reminding us that some of the old Gigabyte roots are well planted within the design of this product. On the reverse side, we are greeted by a very clean layout, and it almost seems as if they have ground down the ends of any protruding pins, as the entire board feels smooth, yet strong and potentially quite fast.


The socket area of the board looks nice and clean, but our first response was to notice that the proximity of the CPU power capacitors is going to make insulation for sub-zero clocking a bit more work than we have been used to with 1156 and 1366 products. This proves to be a minor issue though, as the P67 platform doesn't need extremely low operating temperatures to reach extreme speeds, and quite often, 5.0 GHz can be reached on aftermarket air cooling. Opening the socket cover and removing the protective plate shows the inner socket area fully populated, and all the pins in perfect condition; just how we like it. The back side of the socket is devoid of any surface-mounted components, and as mentioned earlier, the pins from the VRM chokes are very short and level, ensuring full compatibility with the myriad of aftermarket cooling solutions available currently.


The P67A-UD4-B3 comes equipped with four DIMM slots, each of which supports a module with a maximum density of 8 GB. With support for 2133 MHz, the black DIMM slots almost disappear into the board, and are situated far enough from the uppermost graphics slot that addition of aftermarket memory cooling fans can be done with relative ease. There are seven expansion slots in total; two full-size x16 slots, three x1 slots, and two PCI slots to round out the expansion capabilities. The two x16 slots are spaced far enough apart to allow for a full slot space between two dual-slot graphics cards, making case ventilation easy to deal with.


At the bottom edge of the board we find a serial port pin header, four USB headers, and the front panel header, each nicely labeled inside the socket and on the bottom edge on the board. There is also a fan header here, most likely intended to be used for a bottom case fan, should your chosen casing support one. Together they all make case wiring management easy to do, and when paired with a case that has supporting routing holes, the layout of the pin headers is clearly intended to help make for a near "invisible" installation. The Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 is outfitted with four internal fan connectors; two PWM-based, and two in a standard 3-pin format. Only the CPU_FAN header can be controlled from within the BIOS, offering both standard PWM-controlled settings, as well as the option for manual fan slope control.


For internal SATA connectivity, Gigabyte has provided the P67A-UD4-B3 with a total of six headers; two of which provide SATA 6 Gbps support, and the remaining four support SATA2 only, all of which are natively driven from the P67 chipset. On the back panel we do find two additional eSATA3 drive headers, along with eight USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, the usual 6-port audio, a LAN port, digital audio connectors, and finally a PS/2 port to round out the full compliment. There is enough here for most users, but we were a bit disappointed to not find an additional two SATA 6 Gbps internal headers provided by an additional SATA controller chip. At the same time, the simpler the board design, the less chance there is for other parts to interfere with others, which really lead us to looking at this board as a serious clocker, without all the bells and whistles found on higher priced products. The clincher, of course, will depend on the individual components, and how they work with each other, so let's take a closer look.