titleIf you are looking to build a Sandy Bridge rig there is no question you have heard of Intel’s newest chipset, the Z68. Taking their P67 chipset, they've added everything that was missing, including the ability to take advantage of the GPU built in to your Sandy Bridge CPU. We are a little late to the party though; after the original Sandy Bridge launch I ran into a few health problems, but I am back and better than ever. It’s finally time to take a look at a Z68 chipset and this time around it’s a Z68X-UD3H-B3 from Gigabyte. Let’s find out if you should be looking at Z68’s or P67’s.

Product Name: Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

Review Sample Provided by: Gigabyte

Review by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

Specifications

CPU

Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package

L3 cache varies with CPU

(Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information.)

Chipset

Intel® Z68 Express Chipset

Memory

4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
* Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.

Dual channel memory architecture

Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules

Support for non-ECC memory modules

Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

(Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.)

Onboard Graphics

Integrated in the Chipset:

1 x D-Sub port

1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.

1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200

1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600p

Audio

Realtek ALC889 codec

High Definition Audio

2/4/5.1/7.1-channel

Support for Dolby® Home Theater

Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN

1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Expansion Slots

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

3 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

2 x PCI slots

Multi-Graphics Technology

Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology
* The PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode when ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI is enabled.

Storage Interface

Chipset:

2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices

3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_4) supporting up to 3 SATA 3Gb/s devices

1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device

Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.

Marvell 88SE9172 chip:

2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_5, GSATA3_6) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices

Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1

USB

Chipset:

Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, 8 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

2 x Etron EJ168 chips:

Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 on the back panel, 2 via the USB bracket connected to the internal USB header)

IEEE 1394

VIA VT6308 chip:

Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)

Internal I/O Connectors

1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector

1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector

4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors

1 x CPU fan header

2 x system fan headers

1 x power fan header

1 x front panel header

1 x front panel audio header

1 x S/PDIF Out header

4 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers

1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header

1 x IEEE 1394a header

1 x serial port header

1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header

1 x clearing CMOS jumper

Back Panel Connectors

1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port

1 x D-Sub port

1 x DVI-D port

1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector

1 x HDMI port

1 x DisplayPort

4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports

1 x IEEE 1394a port

1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector

2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports

1 x RJ-45 port

6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

I/O Controller

iTE IT8728 chip

H/W Monitoring

System voltage detection

CPU/System temperature detection

CPU/System/Power fan speed detection

CPU overheating warning

CPU/System/Power fan fail warning

CPU/System fan speed control
*Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.

BIOS

2 x 32 Mbit flash

Use of licensed AWARD BIOS

Support for DualBIOS™

PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b

Unique Features

Support for @BIOS

Support for Q-Flash

Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue

Support for Download Center

Support for Xpress Install

Support for Xpress Recovery2

Support for EasyTune
* Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.

Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2

Support for Smart 6™

Support for Auto Green

Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)

Support for ON/OFF Charge

Support for Cloud OC

Support for Q-Share

Bundle Software

Norton Internet Security (OEM version)

Operating System

Support for Microsoft® Windows® 7/Vista/XP

Form Factor

ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

Image 15

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #20783 07 Nov 2011 21:40
A great motherboard for both gamers and basic PC's

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