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Hardware Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Review

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 14 Jul 2011.

  1. arcticstoat

    arcticstoat Minimodder

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    arcticstoat, 14 Jul 2011
    #1
  2. Siwini

    Siwini What is 4+no.5?

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    Nice
     
    Siwini, 14 Jul 2011
    #2
  3. [USRF]Obiwan

    [USRF]Obiwan What's a Dremel?

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    So better of with a cheap 67 board...
     
    [USRF]Obiwan, 14 Jul 2011
    #3
  4. TheLostSwede

    TheLostSwede What's a Dremel?

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    Considering the chipset price difference is less than US$5, this board should be cheaper than what it's retailing for...
     
    TheLostSwede, 14 Jul 2011
    #4
  5. aLtikal

    aLtikal 1338-One step infront of the pro's

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    Id stil go for a GD53 over this...More I/O on the back...its cheaper by £6 and seems to have better passive cooling?
     
    aLtikal, 14 Jul 2011
    #5
  6. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    If one would actually want a cheap Z68 board there is still the GA-Z68A-D3-B3 which is more than 20£ less and all you'll loose is the third pci-e x16 slot.
     
    Anfield, 15 Jul 2011
    #6
  7. xaser04

    xaser04 Ba Ba Ba BANANA!

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    You look like you also lose the onboard VGA which might be an issue for some people. Still, £77 is an excellent price for a decent entry level SB board - especially as it still looks to overclock quite well.

    I am slightly confused by this review though. What is the point in reviewing a Z68 board that has Virtu and Intel SRT and not testing, or at the very lease "reviewing" those features?

    We all knew the board was going to perform (in the real world) identically to any other board using this chipset so more emphasis should have been spent on the Z68 specific features and not the performance numbers.
     
    xaser04, 15 Jul 2011
    #7
  8. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    That's because we've already written a separate article about those features, and linked to it on the first page of this motherboard review.
     
    Lizard, 15 Jul 2011
    #8
  9. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    in which you didn't test the virtu mode interesting to gamers (d-mode) ;), but I understand that encoding and virtu aren't really all that important.

    Anyway, it beats the Asus P8P67 and the Asus P8P67-m Pro on price and performance, but it's rated lower because of "less features" (while offering Intel SRT and (if you use it) Virtu) :eyebrow:
    BIOS...well it OC's to the level of both Asus mentioned above. It does have Dual-BIOS though.
    Missing audio-out (SP/DIF) is a bummer, granted.
     
    Xir, 15 Jul 2011
    #9
  10. xaser04

    xaser04 Ba Ba Ba BANANA!

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    Right, so how does this Gigabyte MB cope with these exact features, are there any issues surrounding the implementation, how does SRT perform? Er I have no idea because they were not looked at in this review....

    I wouldn't expect exact performance numbers but a couple of paragraphs detailing the reviewers experiences with the Z68 only features would be very useful especially considering this is a Z68 board (with all of the Z68 features) for low end P67 money.
     
    xaser04, 15 Jul 2011
    #10
  11. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    in the article: how-to-overclock-the-intel-core-i5-2500k the Gigabyte board still has the "old style" BIOS, how's the UEFI BIOS on this one?

    Update..my bad, it still doesn't have UEFI-BIOS, right?
     
    Last edited: 15 Jul 2011
    Xir, 15 Jul 2011
    #11
  12. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Gigabyte is driving me nuts, they've got so many different models motherboards... 17!!! MoBo's with Z68 :wallbash:

    The Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 (see the difference between the testedZ68A-D3H-B3?) is a bit dearer (about 20€) but has all the features including full scale sound-out.

    That price puts it between (instead of below) the ASUS P8Z68-V and ASUS P8Z68-V Pro though.
     
    Xir, 15 Jul 2011
    #12
  13. xinaes

    xinaes What's a Dremel?

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    What people really need to realise when comparing Z68 and P67 is the benefit of being able to use the IGP. For me, this means a 40W drop in power consumption running dual screen with one screen on the GPU & one on the motherboard, rather than running both on the GPU. Crazy, huh?

    FWIW I have a Z68X-UD3H-B3 and am pretty happy with it apart from the seeming slight lack of control over system fan speeds which I managed to overlook. Plenty of IO etc for my needs at least. Don't use the onboard sound anyway.
     
    xinaes, 17 Jul 2011
    #13
  14. DeX

    DeX Mube Codder

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    Can someone explain why the SATA 3 (6Gbps) performance on this board is no where near as good as that of the Asus Sabertooth P67?
     
    DeX, 19 Jul 2011
    #14
  15. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Xir, 20 Jul 2011
    #15
  16. christianminas

    christianminas What's a Dremel?

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    In the first page says:
    Memory support 4 slots: max 16GB DDR3 (2,133MHz)

    In the manufacturer site the maximum is 32GB.

    What is correct?

    And about the memory too, what is the maximum MHz without OC?

    Thanks a lot!
     
    christianminas, 19 Aug 2011
    #16
  17. The_EXorcist

    The_EXorcist Possibly Australian

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    The only thing putting me off changing to a z68 is not knowing whether my Frio fits or not. Socket seems very close the the ram dimms
     
    The_EXorcist, 22 Aug 2011
    #17
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