Gigabyte P55-UD6 LGA1156 Motherboard Review‏

Hardware Installation

In the Hardware Installation section we examine how major components fit on the motherboard, and whether there are any serious issues that may affect installation and general functionality. Specifically, we are interested in determining whether there is adequate clearance in all critical areas.


Since we have encountered heatsink/memory installation issues on nearly all P55 motherboards thus far, it was inevitable that we would see them on the P55-UD6 and its unique 6 memory slot design. When installed in the traditional North-South orientation, our Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU cooler did prevent the installation of a memory module with tall heatspreaders in the first memory slot, regular height modules are fine though. Having said that, this is a non-issue for most people since that particular slot should only ever be used when six modules are installed. The white memory slots are the ones used when only 2 modules are installed, which should account for about 95% of users. On the plus side, there is no clearance issue with the second memory slot, and thus you can install four modules with tall spreaders, which is something you can't do on most other P55 motherboards.



However, as always, when we rotated the cooler to the East-West orientation things get a little more tricky. As you can see, in this orientation the CPU cooler overhangs the first and second DIMM slots completely, which means that you can't use memory modules with heatspreaders taller than 5CM. There is no clearance issue with the third memory slot, and as mentioned above, the white slots are the ones used when only 2 modules are installed.


The 24-pin ATX power connector and 8-pin CPU power connector are both placed in ideal locations, so there are no issues to report.


Thanks to the expansion slot layout, there is a nice gap between the memory clips and the back of the graphics card.


No matter what orientation the CPU cooler is installed in, there is plenty of clearance between it and the back of the graphics card, which means easy access to the PCI-E x16 slot clip.


Thanks to a well thought out expansion slot layout, when you install two dual-slot graphics cards on this motherboard you will not lose access to the precious PCI slot.


What if you're a Folder and you want to make use of the third PCI-E x16 slot? Well you definitely can, but you will lose access to the onboard clear CMOS and reset buttons, as well as the debug LED. You will also lose access to the all the USB and FireWire headers at the bottom of the motherboard. More importantly though, if you install a dual-slot graphics card in the third PCI-E x16 slot, it will overhang the motherboard, so keep that in mind if you have a shorter case.


The ten 90-degree SATA ports are obviously accessible no matter how many graphics cards are installed.


There is really nothing on the back of the motherboard that would give us cause for concern regarding clearance issues with an aftermarket CPU cooler mounting bracket.