Today, we are going to take a look at the latest i7 LGA-1366 motherboard from Gigabyte, the GA-X58A-UD7 (rev. 1.0). Adding SATA 6 Gbps and USB3 support, Gigabyte are marketing this as the "333 On-board Acceleration" feature, comprising of:
- USB 3.0 10x Super Speed
- USB Power x3
- Sata 3.0 4x Speed via Raid 0
The board also has a whopping 24+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support, almost double that of the GA-EX58 Extreme, Gigabyte's previous flagship X58 board, which sports a 12+2+2 power phase. As well as giving enhanced power regulation, the heat generated is spread over a greater number of phases resulting in less heat and load per phase.
The board retails at around £260, so is it worth it? Read on to find out.............
The Package
The motherboard comes in what must the biggest motherboard box I've seen, the depth is 5.5" almost double the 3" depth of a normal sized box.
Front.
There is a flap on the front of the case which has a Velcro fastener. Inside the flap are more information about the board.
There's a clear window through which the board is visible, the Hybrid Silent Pipe2 Cooler is also visible and explains the reason for the large box depth.
Rear.
The Motherboard
The Motherboard.
The board is the same colour scheme as earlier UD3 boards. Like earlier Extreme boards, the UD7 even without mounting the Hybrid2 cooler the board feels very heavy. With it's eight layered PCB and 2oz copper inner layers, there is definitely a quality feel to it.
The dark heat pipes and CPU socket give a different feel to other boards.
The CPU area is quite clean, albeit packed with the 24 phase PWM.