Thread: Gigabyte's GA-EX58-UD4P motherboard

Gigabyte's GA-EX58-UD4P is a high-end performance motherboard based on the Intel X58 chipset. And it comes with a truckload of features.

Design
The board has an ATX form factor and we also liked its metallic blue color. With six memory slots, the UD4P has triple channel DDR3-2100MHz RAM support for a whopping 24GB. There are a lot of LED activity indicators on the board. Also, the number of input-output ports on the UD4P is staggering-eight SATA ports, eight USB ports, two PS/2 ports, FireWire, S/ PDIF, 7.1 channel audio support, Gigabit Ethernet, and a clear CMOS button. The board also incorporates an on-board TPM chip for 2048-bit hardware encryption, providing an enhanced layer of data security; a feature that even its heavy-weight sibling, the Gigabyte UD5 lacks. In case you're not sure how TPM works, there's an extensive manual included with the accessories that will help you get started.

Features
One of the highlights of this board is its inclusion of three graphics card slots and an extensive range of overclockability. It doesn't matter whether you fit in an Nvidia or ATI graphics card, as the UD4P supports three-way CrossFire or SLI-music to an enthusiast gamer, I'm sure. But it has a minor snag: with two GPUs, they enjoy full 16 lanes of PC Ie 2.0 each; however, put in a third and only one runs on 16 lanes while the other two run on 8 lanes each. Having said that, this has very little effect on current GPUs. Overclocking is as easy as it gets on the Gigabyte UD4P.



In the BIOS, watch out for the Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker (M.LT.), where the board throws an exhaustive and in-depth set of tweaks. For example, increasing voltages within a safe working limit is highlighted in yellow, higher settings in purple and red. When you save a purple or red setting, the BIOS flashes a warning accordingly. Try not to get lost here while you finetune every aspect of the board in the minutest detail.

Performance
We ran all our benchmarks on the Gigabyte UD4P with the following configuration: 3GB ofDDR3 Kingston HyperX RAM, Intel X25-M 80GB SSD, and a Radeon HD4870X2. All this was powered by a Tagan BZ-1300 SMPS. It got a high score of 145 on World-Bench 6, a notch below the Asus P6T Deluxe (Asus' flagship board for the Intel Corei 7) which got 151. Although in SysMark, another comprehensive benchmark suite, it out¬matched the Asus P6T Deluxe with an overall score of 216, a couple of points more. Similarly, PC Mark Vantage 'and 3D Mark Vantage scores of 9379 and 16224, respectively, are better than any 'Other X58 board we've reviewed. All through our testing the board had a reasonable operating temperature.

Conclusion
The overall impression of the Gigabyte UD4P is that it's a very well-balanced board, with triple GPU support and simplified overclocking. Unfortunately, the high price tag ensures that only early adopters, gaming enthusiasts, and overclockers will be picking this point in time.