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Gigabyte has recently expanded their Intel X58 motherboard line-up with a new and rather unique addition called the X58A-UD9. Like the X58A-UD7 before it, the UD9 has heaps and heaps of features on offer. However where the X58A-UD9 differs is in its support for multi-GPU technology, which it is fair to say is rather extreme. So extreme in fact that this motherboard does feature a ridiculous price tag, which will certainly place it out of reach for most!
Chances are, if you were to give someone the opportunity to build their dream gaming computer, it would comprise of an Intel X58 motherboard. This is because the X58 is still the only chipset to support LGA1366 processors, which are of course currently the world’s most powerful desktop processors and therefore an obvious choice for a dream machine.
There are an abundance of X58 motherboards available which is not surprising given the platform has existed for almost 2 years now. The Intel X58 chipset started life as a premium product with a typical motherboard price set well above $200 US. However as time went on pricing started to fall, as it often does, and today a quality X58 motherboard can be had for well under $200 US. Still, most examples cost over $200 US, while there are a dozen examples that cost around $300 US or more. Motherboards such as the Asrock X58 Supercomputer ($270 US), DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 ($280 US), MSI Big Bang-XPower ($300 US), Gigabyte X58A-UD7 ($340 US), Asus P6T7 WS Supercomputer ($400), and EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 ($430 US) are all quite extreme in their own right. Motherboards such as the MSI Big Bang-XPower, ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer and EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1 all have something in common, and we are not talking about the ludicrous price tags. These motherboards all feature at least half a dozen PCI Express x16 slots, allowing them to support 4-way SLI or 4-way ATI CrossfireX technology. That is right, these crazy motherboards have been designed so even crazier gamers can stick four Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards together at a cost of over $1500 US just for the graphics cards. Fans of the green team might opt for four GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards instead, which is likely to cost at least $2000 US just for the graphics cards. Gamers spending well over $1000 US on their graphics cards are probably not all that concerned with how much they spend on other components, such as the motherboard. At least this is what Gigabyte is banking on with their new X58A-UD9 motherboard. Most of you probably think that Asus is a little crazy asking $400 for their premium X58 motherboard, or that EVGA are off their meds if they think $430 is a reasonable price for their flagship X58 board. If that is the case, then you best prepare yourself for the new Gigabyte X58A-UD9, which is set to cost a staggering ... wait for it, $700 US. At over 60% more expensive than the EVGA 170-BL-E762-A1, we have been scratching our heads as to why the X58A-UD9 is so expensive. Thankfully Gigabyte finally sent us a board so we could try and close the mystery as to why this board has been tagged with such an astronomical figure. |
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Razor |
Posted on: 07/27/2010 02:32 PM
OMG can you say overkill?!??! |
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kazza |
Posted on: 07/27/2010 02:44 PM
You are right its complete overkill but damn it looks cool anyway  |
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Vadoom |
Posted on: 07/28/2010 12:54 AM
Holy cow batman that thing is crazy!!! |
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archange Posts: 9 Joined: 2010-07-22 |
Posted on: 07/28/2010 08:08 AM
Nope, "that thing" is definitely not crazy. One, however must be quite out there in order to buy it... |
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DON3k |
Posted on: 07/30/2010 02:33 PM
One physical flaw in this board's arrangement, which I have not seen any reviews cover, is that the molex connector next to PCI-E 1 is blocked if you use the Northbridge cooler. This can be seen in the first photo in the review. The fins of the cooler, which are made to exit out of an open slot on the rear of the PC case, will overhang this molex socket just enough to prevent the molex from connecting. The MB requires that both molex connectors be connected if more than one video card is used (manual lists this requirement). However, nowhere does it note the either/or arrangement of the cooler/molex option. My solution was to snap off the 2nd heat-pipe-connected metal fin grid, since it was literally glued onto the primary NB cooler grid. Dubious as to how much heat this would have transferred anyway. You can see the hidden glued connector area in this photo of mb, covered by a small blue metal square that is just behind the water pipe connectors, above the word Gigabyte. Just a small amount of prying on the heatpipe area and it came away. I saw no solder, but instead what appeared to be superglue used to hold the pipes to the main fin-grid - http://www.legionhardware.com/pic.php?image=images/review/Gigabyte_X58A-UD9/Image_28.jpg - I thought this was poorly designed, and frankly rather than the 2nd grid exiting the rear of the case, the main fin grid above the NB equipped with a small fan, instead, would have avoided the problem and likely cooled better. |
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ProX |
Posted on: 08/04/2010 11:38 AM
Its a shame you guys don't have four GeForce GTX 480 cards to test this board against others but I understand that it is not easy to get this many of these cards. I enjoyed reading this review anyway. |
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Fermi |
Posted on: 08/16/2010 12:37 AM
How many gamers really have the cash to splash on a 4-way SLI setup on a $700 motherboard? |
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dinos22 |
Posted on: 09/09/2010 11:43 PM
In terms of the comment about molex connector. Please beware that there are two separate molex connectors placed on the board for this specific reason if you cannot use one you can the other ok . The second one is located below the 7th PCIe slot.Guys if you drive around in a Honda and give people attitude for buying a Porsche it is probably somewhat misplaced I would say. This board is as good as it gets when it comes to motherboards and anyone that builds a PC based on Core i7 980X which costs $1500 in Australia while the board sets you back in low $600 you are not really going to want any of the cheaper stuff. You'd get the best which is what X58A-UD9 is Dino |
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Fermi |
Posted on: 09/11/2010 02:49 AM
The problem with that being there is a significant difference between a Porsche and a Honda. Of course the Porsche is still grossly overpriced but you are at least getting a good quality car that has a lot of street cred. The GA-X58A-UD9 on the other hand says I have way too much money and don’t care what I spend it on. Evidence being that the GA-X58A-UD7 is pretty much the same board at half the price. Has the same features that you are actually going to use, same performance, same overclocking abilities and same board design. There is no way anyone could justify the price difference between the UD9 and UD7. Then to cap it all off 4-way SLI scales horribly. |
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Bossco |
Posted on: 09/22/2010 01:01 AM
Thanks for the review this is a really cool looking motherboard. Its out of my price range but still very cool. |