Verdict and Conclusion
Motherboards are somewhat difficult to rate on a numerical basis, there are many features that some people want that others don’t. Overclocking is key for some, Thunderbolt is a selling point for others, looks for still other people, PCIe slots for others. I can realy only assess how a motherboard fits my needs, and take guesses about other people.
I don’t have any Thunderbolt devices. This is due mostly to the fact that Thunderbolt devices are horrendously expensive at this point. That is why I didn’t test the Thunderbolt.
The overclocking is good, EasyTune6 actually functions (don’t forget to install the Intel Management Engine, ET6 won’t work without it) and gives access to a ton of settings. The OCing process would be easier if the board had onboard power/reset/clear CMOS buttons and a POST status LED, but so it goes. The end results were good, though I’d have liked to get that last CAS down on the RAM. It is worth noting that the Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP memory and this board got along quite well. The issues only surface when using high performance memory with tight CAS.
Looks wise I like this board, the grey RAM slots don’t really fit in perfectly, but the board overall looks nice.
The IR MOSFET setup is excellent, even at high vcore and high load they stay nice and cool without airflow. That’s a pretty decent trick really. I’m impressed. The power control options you have access to are quite nice as well.
The port selection is solid.
The PCIe / PCI slot combination is nice, if fairly standard.
The CPU socket area is pretty open and clear, it should be a fairly easy area to insulate for Liquid Nitrogen use.
The overclocking scaling is excellent, no hidden issues there. It’s rare that there are, but tremendously annoying when it happens. No throttling issues, either.
The accessories pack was a bit disappointing, though it isn’t a huge issue.
The current online retail price appears to be $185, this puts it a bit more expensive than the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H. If you have Thunderbolt devices, or want to use water cooling for the CPU and not worry about the CPU power MOSFETs overheating, this is a solid choice. If you don’t need Thunderbolt and don’t mind having airflow on the MOSFET heatsinks, the UD5H has more features.
I’d like to see a BIOS selection switch and onboard power/reset/clear CMOS buttons on a board in this price range.
The five fan headers are nice, that’s a bit above average for this price range. I like having lots of fan headers.
Support for direct output to 4K resolution TVs is a nice feature for Super HTPC use. Why they’re calling it 4K when the resolution appears 3,840 x 2,160 I don’t know, but they are. That’s not Gigabyte’s doing though.
All told there are quite a few pros:
- Two Thunderbolt ports.
- IR CPU power bits run very cool and are very efficient.
- Plenty of fan headers.
- Plenty of internal USB2 headers.
- Nice looking, effective, PCH and MOSFET heatsinks.
- mSATA slot.
- Tons of power control and overclocking options.
There are cons too however:
- Not as many SATA ports as other boards in this price range.
- No power/reset/clearCMOS buttons or BIOS switch or POST LED display.
- Doesn’t like my 2133MHz 7-10-7 RAM overly much.
- Seems a bit overpriced for the features. I guess Thunderbolt is expensive.
Final words
All told this is a solid motherboard, it’s not perfect (little is, I’ve found), but it is very much worth consideration. None of the cons are showstoppers and some of the pros are really quite nice. I suspect the Thunderbolt chip is an expensive one, as the rest of the features don’t warrant a $185 price point in my opinion, other than Thunderbolt and IR 3550 power bits the UD5H has more features at roughly the same price. I give it a 8.4/10 rating, andrecommend that you consider it for your next build, if the feature set looks good to you.
SCORE
8.4/10
