GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD3 (rev. 1.0) Pro Reviews

Like any other mainboard, Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 is not totally flawless. Even one of its advantages, such as four graphics card slots supporting 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI configurations may be considered a drawback, because the first slot is located too close to the CPU socket and it may be difficult to use it in systems with large CPU coolers. We also pointed out several concerns and issues uncovered in the BIOS, however, they are also present in other company’s mainboards. Another problem is the board’s inability to overclock our processor to its potential maximum. However, despite all that we were overall pleased with the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 mainboard. We didn’t have any serious problems working with it and responded adequately and predictably to all changes in settings. The board performed at an expected level in nominal and overclocked modes, its power consumption is about the same as on the other boards, although we wish its proprietary power-saving technologies worked correctly. Although it is the junior model in the mainboard series based on the Intel X79 Express chipset, it boasts extensive feature set. So, there is no doubt that a lot of users will choose Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 mainboard for their systems for this particular reason.

Proof you don't need a top-dollar motherboard to achieve a great high performance PC

While X79 and Sandy Bridge-E is the talk of the performance town, the UD3 is an odd board which fits in the middle of 'budget' and 'mainstream'. It has the features, perhaps not the software or the stock performance, but X79 is still young and in a maturity phase. If it were my money on the line, it would be a hard choice between the UD3 and the ASRock X79 Extreme4. The ASRock had overclock and heating issues, but it felt a little more polished and performed better at stock. So the question becomes, do you overclock, and are you looking for a board from $235-$270? If you overclock, the Gigabyte seems the better choice.

We’ve seen many different tiers of motherboards here at Motherboards.org from the very entry level motherboard like the ECS motherboard up to the very high end like the Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 and ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboards. They vary in features and price ranges as well which will either help or hinder in your decision in buying these new motherboards. The Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard is more for the mid-level enthusiast because it offers many features and allows for some overclocking as well. The UD7 motherboard is made for the extreme user and high end overclockers, however the UD3 will be the right niche for people building new PC with the X79 chipset.