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The Gigabyte X58A-UD9 list of integrated peripherals includes Firewire, dual Gigabit LAN, 8-Channel audio that supports Dolby Home Theater, SATA RAID, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0, CrossfireX + 4-ways SLI support, an advanced 24 power phase, and the list just goes on.
Memory support is no longer dictated by the motherboard, as the memory controller has been relocated to the processor. Evidently the motherboard still has a say in how many DIMM slots it will support, and while it does set the memory frequency and voltage, they must work to the Core i7 specifications.
While the Intel pre-production motherboard that we originally used to test the Core i7 processors only featured four DIMM slots, the X58A-UD9 like almost all X58 motherboards supports six. This makes it possible to use a pair of triple-channel memory modules for a maximum memory configuration of 24GB. As things stand today Core i7 processors work with either DDR3-1066 or DDR3-1333 memory, however through overclocking the X58A-UD9 offers official support for DDR3-2200+ memory as well.
The Gigabyte X58A-UD9 features a total of seven PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots and impressively four of them can provide full x16 bandwidth. The other three slots are limited to x8, which should still be enough for many high-end devices.
On that note, along with standard 4-way CrossfireX support, the X58A-UD9 supports 4-way SLI. This is really what the X58A-UD9 is all about and should only be purchased by those planning on pairing it with four of the most powerful ATI or Nvidia graphics cards.
Moving on to storage, the familiar ICH10R south bridge provides support for six SATA 3Gb/s ports. Furthermore, support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID5, RAID 10, and JBOD is also included, providing users with a great deal of flexibility. Other than the SATA support provided by the ICH10R south bridge chip, Gigabyte has also included the Gigabyte SATA2, Marvell 9128 and JMicron JMB362 chips.
The Gigabyte SATA2 (Re-labeled JMicron JMB363) controller offers an IDE connector and a pair of SATA (3Gb/s) ports. Meanwhile the JMicron JMB362 chip serves up an additional two SATA 3Gb/s connectors, which have been used to provide the motherboards eSATA support. Finally the Marvell 9128 chip provides a pair of SATA 6Gb/s ports that support RAID 0, and RAID 1.
Another chipset feature is the Intel High Definition Audio (Intel HD Audio). This provides eight independent DMA audio engines that support multiple audio streams with audio codecs. Driving this feature is the Realtek ALC889 codec, enabling high-quality 192KHz/24-bit audio output.
The X58A-UD9 supports IEEE1394a (Firewire 400) useful for bandwidth-intensive applications like digital video (DV), professional audio, and external hard drives, which often consume hundreds or even thousands of megabytes of data per file. The board provides three 1394a ports due to the inclusion of the T.I. TSB43AB23 Firewire controller.
The more obvious USB 2.0 support comes from the ICH10R chipset, and therefore the X58A-UD9 supports a total of twelve ports (4 on the I/O panel + 8 additional using the supplied brackets). Support for the new USB 3.0 standard also exists with the inclusion of the NEC D720200F1 chip which provides a pair of USB 3.0 ports.
The X58A-UD9 features a pair of Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit LAN controllers which use the PCI Express bus for maximum throughput. These controllers support both Teaming and Smart Dual LAN. Gigabyte Smart Dual LAN technology features clever LAN port auto-switching between the two physical Gigabit LAN chips, offering hassle-free, zero downtime, high-speed network connectivity. An interesting feature that Gigabyte has added to all of their new motherboards is called “3x USB Power Boost” which is designed to deliver greater compatibility and extra power for USB devices. This unique USB power design is also able to efficiently regulate output over the full voltage range, which greatly enhances USB device compatibility. In addition, dedicated lower resistance fuses ensure lower voltage drops, and provide more stable and plentiful power delivery. |
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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. |