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PC Motherboards

Unread postby icycalm » 05 Jan 2010 21:18

Gigabyte's GA-X58A-UD7 seems to be the top-of-the-line motherboard as far as the X58 chipset is concerned (which is currently the most future-proof chipset available). EVGA and Asus have a number of more exotic boards on the market, but EVGA's are more geared towards SLI (whereas I am going with CrossFireX), and the Asus ones are either geared for Intel's Extreme Edition processors, or like the EVGA ones have too many PCI-Express x16 slots, for 3- or 4-way SLI, which I don't need -- while they lack other neat features of the Gigabyte, like support for SATA III, or USB 3.0, or memory speeds up to 2200 MHz, etc.

Overall, after a quite extensive comparison of motherboards, I settled on the Gigabyte. Here's some specs and info on it:

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http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... uctID=3251


Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 an orgy in features

Written by Andreas G 18 November 2009 20:45

Gigabyte has one of biggest assortment of motherboards around, you might even call it overwhelming. It has now revealed a new top model using Intel's high-end X58 chipset, supporting Intel's LGA1366 Core i7 processors. Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 is a complete orgy in features boosting SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 where Gigabyte's USB Power Boost technology will offer better compatibility and powering of various USB units.

The board also sports four PCI-Express x16 slots supporting NVIDIA's 3-way SLI and ATI CrossFireX. To maximize stability and overclocking Gigabyte has used the Ultra Durable 3 design with extra copper in the circuit board, while the chipset cooler is a hybrid that can use both air and water for cooling.

The power supply is directed by 24 phases feeding the processor and 2 separate phases for the six DDR3 memory slots and another 2 phases for the Intel X58 chipset.

The price of Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 will be around $300 and should become available very soon.


http://www.nordichardware.com/news,10267.html

As always, if you are aware of something better, let me know.
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icycalm
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Jan 2010 20:26

And a review:

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Those are our two major gripes with the X58A-UD7 but otherwise this is a phenomenally good motherboard. This second-generation X58 board is fast, it is rock stable, and it's packed to the gills with features. SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 are absolutely must-have features on any motherboard bought in 2010. Even if you don't see yourself using a SATA 6Gb/s hard drive or solid state drive (SSD) any time soon, any self-respecting power user is going to own at least one USB 3.0 device in 2010, there's no doubt it. The performance advantage over USB 2.0 is dramatic and it finally allows external enclosures to connect to the system at full speed, without the need for eSATA or FireWire, both of which will likely suffer a quick death due to this new interface.

With the new 24-phase power design and enhanced overclocking capabilities, this motherboard is just begging for a six-core 32nm Gulftown chip. While our overclocking results were limited by the capabilities of our CPU, they were still the best that we have achieved so far on an X58 motherboard. Even in the hands of your average joe, we have been seeing some eye-popping CPU and BCLK overclocks on various forums with the X58A-UD7. The memory overclocking capabilities need to be enhanced a little bit, but given the fact that we are only on the second version of the BIOS, we suspect that Gigabyte will be able to improve things on this front.

While the $360CDN pricetag will be off-putting to many, it is not at all unreasonable for a motherboard of this caliber. There's always a market for those who demand the very best, and there's not much better than the X58A-UD7.


http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... eview.html
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