Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 LGA1366 Motherboard Review

Conclusion

When we first saw a prototype of what was to become the X58A-UD7, it was hard not to be impressed since it had a massive 24-phase power design and support for SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0. When this model was finally revealed in retail form, we were glad to see that it hadn't lost any of what made it unique, and had actually gained an additional PCI-E x16 slot, which placed it among rarified company in the motherboard realm.

However, as we discussed in our Closer Look section, the additional PCI-E x16 slot is not quite the blessing we had hoped for, since it's really only usable if you're using single-slot graphics cards. This is obviously problematic since mid-to-high-end graphics cards simply aren't being manufactured in single-slot format anymore. By modifying the northbridge cooler, Gigabyte's engineers could have made this motherboard support four dual-slot graphics cards, which in our opinion would have opened it up to a whole new market.


Speaking of the northbridge cooler, Gigabyte really have to go back to the drawing board with it. We trashed its design on the EP45T-Extreme, and it has basically been carried over to this model. Using fins to transfer heat from the bottom layer to the top layer of a cooler is highly inefficient. There just isn't enough contact area to properly transfer the heat load to the top layer. As a result, adding a water block to the top is fairly pointless, as is attaching the huge Hybrid Silent-Pipe module. This is not to say that the heatsink doesn't do a good job at cooling the X58 chipset since it does, but it could be so much better.

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.


Pros

- Solid performance.
- Convenient layout.
- 4 mechanical PCI-E x16 slots.
- 3-Way CrossFireX & 3-Way SLI capability (Quad CrossFireX also possible).
- Impressive overclocking capabilities.
- Next-generation 24-phase power design.
- Very good voltage regulation & output.
- Surprisingly power efficient.
- Supports SATA 6Gb/s & USB 3.0
- Easy to use, option-rich BIOS.
- Dual BIOS chips.
- Comprehensive software suite.
- Cooling systems works well, but...


Cons

-...the northbridge cooler is oddly designed and too big.
- Doesn't support four dual-slot graphics cards.
- No integrated bluetooth to take full advantage of the bluetooth-based software utilities.
- Memory overclocking could be a tiny bit better.
- No voltage read points.
- Not enough temperature and voltage readouts in the BIOS and EasyTune.
- Large CPU coolers + tall memory heatspreaders can cause installation annoyances.

Our thanks to Gigabyte for making this review possible!