Sineglazka. Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 motherboard testing

Technical characteristics

Chipset: Intel X58 Express + ICH10R * Supported processes: Intel Core-I7 (Socket 1366) * Supported memory: 6x DDR3-800/1066/1333/2200 MHz up to 24 GB * Graphic connectors: 7x PCIE X16 (X16+X16+X16+X16 or X16+X8+X8+X8+X8+X8+X8), NVIDIA SLI, 2-WAY/3-WAY/4-WAY CROSSFireX * Disk system: 10x SATA 2, 2X SATA Rev. 3, IDE, FDD * Sound subsystem: Realtek Alc889, 10 channels * Rinseyanel: 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 2x PS/2, 2X GBLAN, 2X ESATA/USB Combo, 2x IEEE 1394A, S/PDIF -out, Audio * Form factor: XL -TX * Dimensions: 345×262 mm * Price July 2010: 17 500 rubles

We are not tired of surprising the ingenuity of motherboard manufacturers. Only a month ago we talked about Asus Crosshair IV Formula , admired the cooling system, overclocking potential and many different functions. And on the stand it is already worth Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 for 17,500 rubles, which claims the title of best motherboard for acceleration. Let's figure out what this was invented in Gigabyte And for what they want so much money.

New standards

Packed GA-X58A-UD9 cool. The box is such that you can put the gaming laptop there. It is beautifully decorated: pleasant printing, leaning cover, a transparent window with a view of the fee. Inside the package is divided into two compartments. In the first lies the motherboard itself, in the second – complete devices. Unfortunately, in addition to a heap of wires and an external panel with a pair of Esata and Molex connectors, nothing interesting was found. And it’s a pity, for 17,500 rubles it would be possible to add some display to control the parameters of the system.

The scarcity of configuration is atoned by the board itself. Its sizes will hit an unprepared person. Is it a joke, GA-X58A-UD9 4 cm longer and 2 cm wider than the usual ATX. Officially, the form factor has not yet been recognized, but the eyes are called XL-TX for his eyes. It was first presented last year when a fee appeared Evga X58 Classified 4-Way Sli. As planned by developers, on additional centimeters you can place another, eighth expansion slot. But this is in the future, when the idea will be supported by manufacturers of corps. So far, both Evga and Gigabyte are limited to seven ports.

Shake the antiquity

In the case of GA-X58A-UD9, engineers installed seven PCIe X16 2.0. Gigabyte states that four slots work in full speed mode, and three more have received eight lines. If you count, it turns out 88 (!) PCie lines. We decided to check.

Chip Intel X58 Express gives 36 PCIE lines, another 6 pieces are provided by the southern ich10r bridge, but we do not count them, since they go to official needs. Further Gigabyte installed a pair NVIDIA NFORCE 200 – These are 32 more lines. In the end, it turns out that we have only 66 pcie. This is enough to support the four full -fledged PCIe X16, but where to get three more PCIe X8? It turns out that Gigabyte has connected them with paired connectors. And this means that as soon as you insert a fee in the PCIe X8, then eight lines will be taken from the main slot. And in the maximum configuration, the operating mode will be this: x16+x8+x8+x8+x8+x8+x8.

The numbers are beautiful, but useless. It will be difficult to score seven PCIE slots, but devices on PCI (for example, sound cards Creative ) you can safely send to the trash – there is nowhere to put them here. Well, at least it did not affect the old hard drives and discs: both IDE and FDD left in place.

Store forever

The file system on the GA-X58A-UD9 can be dialing eight with hard disks. Two controllers are responsible for their work at once. The first, dear Intel ICH10R , Provides six SATA 2 with the possibility of creating a RAID. Second, Marvell 88se9128 , is responsible for a couple of brand new Sata Rev. 3. All ports are located on the edge of the motherboard and are placed at right angles to the textolite. It’s difficult to get into the case in the case, but even the longest video card will not block them.

Gigabyte also took care of connecting four external HDDs via SATA 2 and Esata interfaces. They work through controllers JMICRON JMB362 and company chip, GIGABYTE SATA2.

With a set of USB GA-X58A-UD9 standard. South bridge gives twelve USB 2.0, four of which are carried out on the input/output panel, and the rest are available through external conclusions. Plus a chip is installed NEC D720200F1 , providing the work of two USB 3.0. All ports support proprietary technology 3x USB Power : Power supply on them is three times compared to the standard value. For us, this means faster charging phones and players and one hundred percent work of the external HDD from one USB port.

Of the rest of the GA-X58A-UD9 interfaces, we note three FireWire and two Gigabit Ethernet. The latter are implemented through the chip Realtek RTL811E , which supports the function Smart Dual Lan : you can connect a couple of Internet cables and combine them into one connection.

What is upset is the sound: a tenth connection is provided through the standard Realtek Alc889 – this is found on budget decisions. You could put something more interesting here- Creative X-Fi , For example.

The song is about the main thing

Slots for DDR3 installed six pieces. The maximum volume is standard for Intel X58 – 24 GB. The strips of up to 2200 MHz are supported, it is also possible to use XMP profiles for overclocking.

There are no problems with processors. All that Intel released under Socket 1366 will start without question. To nutrition of monsters such as Core i7-980X Extreme Edition , Gigabyte built a system of two ATX 12V sockets. With phases, as usual, they took up and put 24 sets of “transistor-condenser-rush”. It will not help much in work, but it will be more effective (especially since Gigabyte uses expensive elements with reduced heating losses).

To cool so many supply chains and control chips, Gigabyte had to work hard. The GA-X58A-UD9 is the most impressive cooling system that we have ever seen. Five radiators were placed on the board. Three of them surround the processor socket and cool the power with the North Bridge; Another cooler covers the Southern Bridge Intel ICH10R; And finally, the fifth radiator can be put separately above the northern bridge and fixed through the expansion slot in the case. If there is little, then in addition to the GA-X58A-UD9, you can bring the water cooling system: the corresponding connectors are on the radiator of the North Bridge.

Turbocharged

When the GA-X58A-UD9 only appeared in our editorial office, we naively believed that Makhina would disperse the computer by pressing one button for 17,500 rubles, and even bring coffee. We thought so in vain. GA-X58A-UD9 does not have simple solutions. There is only one normal management option – BIOS. Knowledgeable people will find a lot of interesting things here. Each trifle lends itself to setting up, starting with BCLK and ending with voltage on the seventh PCIE slot. Only now, not everyone can deal with all this, and for many the only option would be https://sister-site.org/players-club-vip/ acceleration from under Windows. For this, there is a utility on the disk from the software Easytune 6 , in which you can easily raise the frequencies not only of the processor and memory, but also squeeze more from the video card.

You can experiment with overclocking and flashing the board without fear. Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 is equipped with two BIOS. If something goes wrong and the system does not load, then the motherboard will automatically connect a backup copy. It will not be difficult to track where the error has occurred: in the lower left corner of the board there is a small LCD screen, on which post-codes are displayed. Gigabyte also thought out a monitoring system for LEDs. They are scattered according to the board, and by color you can determine the temperature and voltage of the main components of the system, as well as evaluate the load on the power circuit.

Above the clouds

To check GA-X58A-UD9, we installed Core i7-920 , Equipped him with a cooler Cooler Master Hyper N620 , added three memory planks Kingston Hyperx DDR3-1666 2 GB each and hoisted a huge Radeon HD 5970. The system from 850 watts of the unit was powered OCZ , And controlled from under Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. To the assembly process – no complaints. The distances between the ports are verified up to the millimeter, and not a single wiring is interfered. The only thing is if you install an additional radiator on the North Bridge, it will close the Molex age of the PCIe X16 slots-for this case, Gigabyte duplicated the connector on the lower part of the board.

In two weeks of working with the motherboard, we did not have a single problem. The overclocking potential of the GA-X58A-UD9 is decent: raising the BCLK frequency to 190 MHz, we easily dispersed our test Core i7-920 to 4 GHz.

* * *

The conclusion on GA-X58A-UD9 is very simple: the motherboard is excellent. Good design, powerful filling, support for the latest technologies and huge accelerated potential. But the price is 17,500 rubles – albeit justified, but too high for the motherboard.

Pros:

• competent layout
• A powerful cooling system
• High acceleration potential

Cons:

• Very high price
• There are no PCI ports
• The sound card could be better