Hardware Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard Review

Gigabyte trims the fat from its latest Core i7 board, but leaves in USB 3 and SATA 6Gbps.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/05/07/gigabyte-ga-x58a-ud3r-motherboard-review/1

 

I've used a few Gigabyte boards on a few recent builds and I agree with the general consensus of quality and performance. The recent GA-H55M-UD2H was pretty much the same.

I think it's time to pick one of these up and drop in an i7-930 for a new build.

 

What was the reason for this? Windows installer issue or hardware issue?

 

It's a hardware issue - something in the BIOS I suspect - Gigabyte are still looking into it and haven't given us a definitive answer.

 

I recently purchased this board - blind - as I had heard great things about the UD7. I'm really glad I did.
I encountered the same error with Windows installer not working; I knew it was a problem with the chipset, as I encountered something similar on a P45 board with lots of sata controllers, so I simply installed from USB flash drive (I always had problems with USB booting in previous boards so I kept my DVD handy, but this one was/is fantastic).

My i7-920 is overclocked to 4ghz Linpack stable with less than default core voltage. Since I'm running 6 ram modules at tight timings and fairly high speeds, my QPI voltage is fairly high, but overall I have never been so impressed with a motherboard before. This is my first Gigabyte, and I'm certain it won't be my last (My previous board was an MSI P45 platinum).

I think you're right on the money BT. Maybe in future I'll wait for some reputable reviews before dropping £700 on a platform upgrade though, just in case

 

I'm interested in buying this board for a new build, the only problem is the PCB colour, which wouldn't be too bad if the Gigabyte GFX cards we're readily available in the UK. Finding a matching HD5870 is proving difficult.

 

Awesome.. further confirmation that this is the board I should build my i7 system with, Thanx for the review! As for the Windows 7 install issues... sounds like this can be addressed with a bios update. I've never built with Gigabyte b4 I've had an Asus Crosshair gen 1 for the last 4 years. But I'm looking forward to this build! I might miss the power and reset buttons on the Mobo, but it's not worth another 100-150 bucks!

My build Core Specs:

CPU: i7 930
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Ram: OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

 

After the issues I've had with the X58-UD5, I'm going to be avoiding Gigabyte. Very disapointed with it. BIOS has a few bugs in it, and it's proving tricky to flash to an ealier BIOS to undo it (used to be able to hit 4GHz easy, now it blue screens if i go above 3.3GHz)

 

Good luck with the build. Don't forget, even if Gigabyte doesn't provide a BIOS fix for the Windows 7 install problem you can always just switch the drives over once the installation is complete.

 

I have this board and love it. Not only is it awesome, but the price difference between it and the other high end 1366 boards enabled me opt for a 5870 instead of a 5850...

 

I snapped one these up from scan back in march and it hasn't disappointed. It came with F1 bios and installed win 7 on SB sata ports fine for me,however the driver disc is crap as it made my IDE dvd-rw drive appear as a SCSI drive in device manager and the drive wasn't usable until I defaulted to the microsft driver.

 

I've got this and its great. Except that if I plug in a extention cable for my extra keyboard it won't start up and repeats the start up screen.

 

Hi Gent's, I am new to the forum and Pleaase!! need some help.
I am looking at upgrading my son's computer (Dell - Intel P4 dual core) to some thing better - for his birthday.

I have looked at some prices on web sites as well your reviews and it seems that the i7 930 is the way to go for the future. So my question is? Do I go with with earlier technology using 1156 i5/i7 processors and 1156 mother boards and get these much cheaper for just about the same performance.

OR

Do I go with the unknown future which currently suggest 1366 and i7 930.
Secondly , I am a bit worried as some of you are exited about the new 1366 motherboards and others are not. There does not seem to be any of the 1366 mother board reviews that are entirely positive.

a) Which 1366 motherboard should I go with?

b) If the suggestion is to stick with the older cheaper 1156 technology - what is the proven combination of hardware (motherboard/cpu) I should go with?


Regards
Louis van Wyk

 

Louis 1366 is not that new, it has been around for a few years. It is actually reaching end of the line next year I believe.

You can't go wrong with a i7 930/1366 though, I just got one myself!

You need to think carefully about what your priorities are with this build though, as an i7 doesn't see much of a performance advNtage (if any ) over and i5 with most current applications.

 

Hi Guys

I bought one of these motherboards on the weekend with a new 920 and i am very happy with it. It really is a bargin.

Can you please let me know what settings you used for the overclock or point me to a guide as i cant get my cpu over 3.2 ghz

thanks

 

Edward, or anyone

I have looked a bit deeper into my son's current PC and he has an E6850 core 2 Duo which seems to be a very popular CPU at the time 3 Ghz 1333 Mhz and 500 FSB occording to one of the forums/reviews. His mother board supports SATA which we use for hard disk and other devices but the mother board use DDR2 memory. We have 4 G installed.
We already added Raidmax 730 PSU as well as an EVGA 512 M 9800 graphic card. Besides Games we also use the PC for Home movies where we record edit and convert AVI to DVD's

Will we doing that much better in performance using i5 750 or i7 930 concidering that not all games utilize quadcore and multithreading. Not sure if the video processing mention earlier will gain from mutithredaing and Quad core.

Is this really that much of an upgrade??!!!

Louis

 

Edward, or anyone

I have looked a bit deeper into my son's current PC and he has an E6850 core 2 Duo which seems to be a very popular CPU at the time 3 Ghz 1333 Mhz and 500 FSB occording to one of the forums/reviews. His mother board supports SATA which we use for hard disk and other devices but the mother board use DDR2 memory. We have 4 G installed.
We already added Raidmax 730 PSU as well as an EVGA 512 M 9800 graphic card. Besides Games we also use the PC for Home movies where we record edit and convert AVI to DVD's

Will we doing that much better in performance using i5 750 or i7 930 concidering that not all games utilize quadcore and multithreading. Not sure if the video processing mention earlier will gain from mutithredaing and Quad core.

Is this really that much of an upgrade??!!!

Louis

 

Games wise, a graphics card upgrade will always get more fps. Only a few games would make the most of a i5/i7 not worth buying new cpu/ram/mb.

 

Looks good, even price..
Need a new board as.my Deluxe for no reason has.blown.
About to order this...

 

Does anyone know if the problems with Southbridge and the driver CD have been fixed?
Thanks.