Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 LGA1366 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.


With the little water block on top of the northbridge heatsink assembly, the overall height of chipset cooler is fairly high. While we encountered no issues with our Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme, installing a wider heatsink might be problematic. Adding the Hybrid Silent-Pipe module doesn't create any additional clearance issues with respect to the CPU socket area.


As is nearly always the case when dealing with a six slot memory layout, tall memory heatspreaders, and a large CPU cooler, there are clearances issues with the first memory slot. 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, but only when we used Thermalright's 120MM fan holder. If we removed the fan shroud, we could install a DDR3 module in the first memory slot but the clearance between the module and the fan was microscopic. Installing the fan on the other side of the heatsink is obviously an alternative, but at the expense of blowing the hot air inside of your case.


When we rotated the cooler to the East-West orientation things got a little more tricky, as they always do. As you can see, in this orientation the CPU cooler overhangs the first memory slot and comes very close to the second slot. Close enough that we couldn't properly install our memory module in the second memory slot. You will need to use memory modules with heatspreaders no taller than 5CM if you plan to install your CPU cooler in this orientation.


Thanks to the expansion slot layout, there is a nice gap between the memory clips and the back of the graphics card, so there are no problems there.

While the 24-pin ATX power connector is ideally placed, the 8-pin CPU power connector can be somewhat difficult to access as your fingers are jammed in between the heatpipe and the back of an I/O module. Those with larger hands/fingers will find the procedure particularly problematic.


If you install the Hybrid Silent-Pipe module you will lose access to one of the PCI-E x1 slots, but the other one is still open. It will not accept expansion cards over 3 inches long though.


What if you're a Folder and you want to make use of the fourth PCI-E x16 slot? Well you definitely can, but you will lose access to the IDE and floppy connectors, the debug LED display, and 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 fourth 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. There are a few surface-mounted devices (SMDs) near the bracket, but the reference LGA1366 backplate causes enough elevation to clear them.