Hardware Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P and DS4 motherboards

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/01/21/gigabyte-ga-ex58-ud4p-and-ds4-review/1

Who needs extreme behemoths when there are more affordable Core i7 options like this pair from Gigabyte. The UD4P and DS4 are still very capable and well featured, but aren't as expensive as other X58 boards - we see if they're powerful enough to take on the big guns.

 

The title of the Handbrake chart needs changing.

Good review, that. It's a shame the prices can't be lower. Looking at the benchmarks in particular, the P6T looks to be a bargain in comparison.

 

I was looking foward to the Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME review
but still Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P makes me certain Gigabyte is the way to go.

 

The DFI X58-T3eH6 is lower and boasts the same OC's as its bigger brother on current gen i7's.

I'd say THAT budget board, is the way to go
source: http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f28/dfi-lanparty-dk-x58-t3eh6-overclocking-results-60707/


Hell, even the DFI X58-T3eH8 is only 25€'s more expensive than the UD4P >_<
but the only Sub 200€ board ATM = Gigabyte UD3R


I don't see the point in prying 30€ off the price if you could get the top-end DFI board which boasts the highest OC's with lowest volts of any other board out there...
Especially not when you're going i7, since 30€ is then probably only like 1.5% premium in total price

 

All the I7 boards are pretty close to each other if it comes to overclocking, no surprise though since half the chipset was relocated to the cpu.
Besides, as hot as I7 gets, the cooling becomes the limit very fast.
So the not so good oc of the bduget gb boards doesnt really matter.
A basic board for 200£ I think it's rather strange to try to sell a 200£ board that lacks a lot of features, seriously, those spending 200£ will probably also be willing to spend 250£, but those who are actually strapped for cash they will most likely stick with C2D / C2Q anyway atleast until I5 arrives.

 

Why does Gigabyte make their board so ugly?

 

The H8 is £100 more expensive than the UD4P in the UK and the H6 isn't even available. If you can get the H8 for 25 Euro more - BUY IT NOW because that's a bargain.

Dork - what's wrong with it?

 

For sake of doublechecking my sources:
UD3R =192€
UD4P = 249€
T3eH8= 279€
EVGA = 299€

Now if only those RAM prices for decent Samsungs/Elpida's came down...

BTW, anyone want me to order their DFI's since apparently they are dirt cheap around here ATM

 

I think they are some of the nicest Gigabyte boards to date. One criticism of previous Gigabyte models was that they looked too colourful, so they make a pretty swish and sleek looking board and people say its ugly

I think certain companies always take flak for their design regardless of what they do.

I for one will always buy gigabyte from now on, I have had no problems with my board, it is an excellent OCer and didn't cost the earth.

I very rarely see a gigabyte product that gets a bad or even mediocre review.

 

I actually commented to Gigabyte about this - they consistently only hit 7-8/10s for us, and occasionally one hits the fold that scores slightly more to be recommended. On one hand that's certainly not a failure because 7-8 is a good mark, but it's also not pushing the boundaries into "try something really new" which could potentially be a 9-10 (or 5-6 if it goes wrong).

 

That's true, but a reliable score of around 7-8 is much better than wildly varying ones between boards. It gives those that have a minimal knowledge of mobo differences a manufacturer that they can rely on, maybe not the best, but at least if you get a Gigabyte board you know you won't be getting shorted by a bad board design, and they constantly hit a good price for the performance point their boards are aimed at.

I have had a few boards in the past that if you looked at the chip set you would think they were good boards, but they were unstable - even at stock settings in some cases. Granted they were cheap low-budget boards, but even the Gigabyte equivalents of these are reliable.

 

Good review guys and thx.

I read the following:
"Gigabyte doesn't really have quite the same community because this was it, and there are no profiles to try out in sight here or on the official EU and TW websites."

I just wanted to let everyone know that the BIOS profile is now ready to be download
You can click here

 

I will be in the market for an LGA1366 motherboard in the near future and the UD4P looks like a good choice to me. The UD3R is cheaper but the lack of SLI support and 4 ram slots instead of the standard 6 is a deal breaker.

 

whats your stress testing for OCing? i dont see anything about it, so id like to know how stable your OCs are

 

From the pdf guide, Set QPI/VTT to 1.515v:that's far beyond what would be considered safe

 

is the difference in fps for GTX 280 SLI here really that big from the results here

74.7 against 48.5 even if the major differences in the two test set-ups are just the cpu and memory speeds. I thought crysis was more gpu intensive (or is it just me?)

 

A 3.7GHz versus a 2.6GHz CPU is a huge difference though.

 

@Bindibadgi:
how about the results here http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/6