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Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Motherboard Review

The Gigabyte EX58-UD3R represents a budget X58 motherboard, if there is such a thing. While the feature set is somewhat limited when compared to other more robust X58 boards, the EX58-UD3R's performance and overclockability is anything but limited.

Introduction

Gigabyte is certainly not a newcomer to the enthusiast motherboard market. Gigabyte offers a wide range of boards ranging from the most expensive price points to the most reasonable you can purchase. Currently, Gigabyte has several X58/ICH10R chipset based motherboard offerings, from the high dollar EX58-Extreme to the very capable EX58-UD5, to the much less expensive EX58-UD3R ($179.99 after $15 MIR with Free Shipping) which we are looking at here today. The GA-EX58-UD3R represents Gigabyte's budget oriented Core i7 offering. While I wouldn't call it "cheap," it is certainly among the least expensive X58 chipset based boards on the market today.

The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R is based on Intel's X58 chipset which is also coupled with Intel's ICH10R southbridge. The board supports DDR3 1333MHz speeds officially and supports DDR3 1600MHz speeds through overclocking. (The board is capable of much more than that however.) The board didn't initially support SLI but Gigabyte has recently extended SLI support to its entire X58 lineup. So SLI is now supported on the EX58-UD3R. ATI's Crossfire technology was already supported so fans of either GPU camp have their bases pretty well covered with the EX58-UD3R. The board also supports only 12GB of RAM though the chipset supports 24GB of RAM. This limitation is due to the reduced number of memory slots found on this board vs. others like the GA-EX58-UD5 and GA-EX58-Extreme. The board also includes Gigabyte's branded version of the JMicron JMB36x controller which adds support for an additional 4 SATA ports. Like the rest of Gigabyte's Ultra Durable X58 offerings, the EX58-UD3R uses all solid state Japanese manufactured capacitors. These are supposedly rated for 50,000 hours of use. According to Gigabyte the board also features lower RDS MOSFETs and a 2 oz copper PCB. This is supposed to improve efficiency by reducing circuit impedance.

Also featured is a dual BIOS ROM configuration allowing for better recovery from bad overclocks and built in redundancy in case a BIOS ROM fails or ends up with a bad flash during updating. The board also features an additional IC chip Gigabyte calls "Precision OV" which allows for voltage adjustments as small as 20mv. Finally the board is built to Intel's VRD 11.1 specifications. So long as these specifications are adhered to, any future processor built to be compatible with VRD11.1 specifications should work on this board with only a BIOS update. (We hope anyway.)

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Specifications Overview:

Packaging

The EX58-UD3R is packaged using a very plain and traditional retail box. The board is protected by foam and cardboard and is placed in an anti-static bag. The board was adequately protected and arrived safely. The package contains a minimal amount of included accessories. Inside are a manual, quick start guide, floppy and IDE cables, SATA cables, I/O shield and driver disks.

Board Layout

The EX58-UD3R is a fairly simple and well laid out design. It has no obvious problem areas or issues of concern with regard to layout. The 8-pin power header isn't exactly placed in the most ideal spot, but it is certainly in a functional position. About the only thing that jumps out at me is Gigabyte's hideous color scheme. Since I've read on the forums that some people actually find the colors appealing I'll have to concede that the colors are a subjective matter and regardless, even if they weren't, it wouldn't impact the board's functionality. Despite the pastels it’s a fairly good looking board. The quality is excellent in terms of soldering, component quality, PCB thickness, and the PCB wasn't excessively warped.

The CPU area is clear of obstructions and fitting the massive Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme -1366RT to the board was easy. There was still plenty of room left for the RAM clearance after installation of the cooler.

The board features four DDR3 DIMM slots instead of the usual six I've seen on most X58 chipset based boards. Not sure what the reason for this move was here but it works well. You still have enough room for your triple channel kit of choice. Though I do prefer boards with six slots I have to concede that much of the time enthusiasts do not always populate all six memory slots. The oddball blue slot is color coded thusly so that you can identify the proper triple channel configuration.

I said earlier that there were no glaring flaws in the board's layout. Well when I got to carefully examination of the north bridge area I realized that the size of the north bridge cooling solution and the placement of the chipset and or topmost PCI-Express x1 slot is such that the slot is virtually useless for most cards. This is again not a huge flaw, but something I've seen on many boards that annoys me just a bit. Then again they are constrained by the limitations of the ATX form factor.

The south bridge is somewhat unique in that this is one of the few boards I've seen lately that used only a passive heat sink for cooling. Not a big deal as it seemed to work well. The south bridge is placed directly in front of the PCI-Express x4 slot and between the two x16 slots. There were no clearance issues I could foresee given the configuration. Directly in front of the south bridge are the 8 SATA ports. All of which are the right angled locking kind. (Major props to Gigabyte for this.) To the left of that is the poorly placed IDE channel.

The expansion slots are generally well positioned but as usual I can nit pick about this virtually all day on just about any board save for few exceptions. As I stated earlier the placement of the topmost PCI-Express x1 slot is terrible and I'd have preferred the PCI-Express x4 slot to be placed above the primary PCI-Express x16 slot. Minor issues, but noteworthy.

The rear I/O panel has 8 USB 2.0 ports, 1 RJ-45 LAN port, six mini-headphone jacks for sound output, 1 optical, 1 SPDIF port, one small IEEE1394a port and one standard port and finally PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports.