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Gigabyte launches line of X79 motherboards

by Parm Mann on 14 November 2011, 12:36

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376)

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Intel's fastest desktop CPUs are here, and as expected, there's a long line of supporting motherboards waiting to get in on the action.

We've already seen what Gigabyte has in store (including some brand new features), but the company's quartet has just been made official and is now popping up at retailers the world over.

The line-up consists of the £185 GA-X79-UD3, the £230 GA-X79-UD5, the £265 GA-X79-UD7 and the range-topping G1.Assassin 2 (pictured below) priced at a wallet-busting £310.

The boards certainly aren't cheap, but Intel's fastest platform was never going to be, and one glance at the specification sheet suggests that Gigabyte's boards are not for the faint-hearted.

All four offer at least two full-speed PCIe x16 slots (the UD7 can actually run four lanes at x8 apiece for quad-GPU configurations), and Gigabyte's latest tuner-friendly power-delivery system - dubbed 3D Power - is featured as standard across the range.

The G1.Assassin 2 is top of the pile in terms of price tag, but think hard before buying, as the UD7 may have the edge in features. The former is geared toward the gamer with Creative audio and an integrated Bigfoot network card, but the latter makes use of a 16-phase power design, an extra PCIe x16 slot and an XL-ATX form factor that's all about bragging rights. Decisions, decisions.

Still need help in choosing? The specification of all four variants is broken down neatly in the table below, and there's also a dedicated microsite at Gigabyte.com.

 

  G1.Assassin 2 GA-X79-UD7 GA-X79-UD5 GA-X79-UD3
CPU Support 2nd Generation Intel Core Processors 2nd Generation Intel Core Processors 2nd Generation Intel Core Processors 2nd Generation Intel Core Processors
CPU Socket LGA 2011 LGA 2011 LGA 2011 LGA 2011
Interface DMI 2.0 DMI 2.0 DMI 2.0 DMI 2.0
Chipset Intel X79 chipset Intel X79 chipset Intel X79 chipset Intel X79 chipset
Graphics Interface 3*PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot (2*PCIEx16+1*PCIEx8) 4*PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot (2*PCIEx16 or 4*PCIEx8) 3*PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot (2*PCIEx16+1*PCIEx8) 4*PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot (2*PCIEx16 or 4*PCIEx8)
Memory Type 4 Channel DDR3 2400/1866/1600 MHz 4 Channel DDR3 2400/1866/1600 MHz 4 Channel DDR3 2400/1866/1600 MHz 4 Channel DDR3 2400/1866/1600 MHz
Memory DIMM 4*DDR3 4*DDR3 8*DDR3 4*DDR3
Expansion Slots 2*PCI-Ex1+1*PCI 3*PCI-Ex1 2*PCI-Ex1+1*PCI 2*PCI-Ex1+1*PCI
SATA connector 4*SATA3 +4*SATA2+2*eSATA2  6*SATA3+4*SATA2 6*SATA3+4*SATA2 +2*eSATA2  6*SATA3+4*SATA2 +2*eSATA2 
SATA RAID RAID 0,1,5,10 RAID 0,1,5,10 RAID 0,1,5,10 RAID 0,1,5,10
USB 4* USB3.0+14*USB2.0 4*USB3.0+14*USB2.0  4*USB3.0+14*USB2.0  4*USB3.0+14*USB2.0 
Audio Creative CA20K2 8-channel HD 8-Channel HD 8-Channel HD
1394 - - 2*1394 -
LAN Bigfoot E2100 GbE LAN GbE LAN GbE LAN
Features & Software HW OC Button, 8 Power Phase, Ultra Durable™ 3, 3 Way SLI,  3 Way CrossFireX, 3D Power, 3D BIOS,  UEFI DualBIOS™, On/Off Charge, Cloud OC,  Japanese Solid Capacitors,  Dolby Digital Live, DTS OC-VRM,OC-Touch, OC-DualBIOS, OC-PEG,  16 Power Phase, Ultra Durable™ 3, 4 Way SLI, 4 Way CrossFireX,  3D Power, 3D BIOS, UEFI DualBIOS™,  On/Off Charge, Cloud OC,  Japanese Solid Capacitors,  Dolby Home Theater, 110dB 12 Power Phase, Ultra Durable™ 3, 3 Way SLI,  3 Way CrossFireX, 3D Power, 3D BIOS,  UEFI DualBIOS™, On/Off Charge,  Cloud OC, Japanese Solid Capacitors,  Dolby Home Theater, 110dB 8 Power Phase,  Ultra Durable™ 3, 4 Way SLI, 4 Way CrossFireX, 3D Power, 3D BIOS, UEFI DualBIOS™, On/Off Charge,  Cloud OC,  Japanese Solid Capacitors,  Dolby Home Theater, 110dB
Form Factor (mm) E-ATX (305x264) XL-ATX (325x254) E-ATX(305x262) ATX (305x244)


HEXUS Forums :: 3 Comments

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Table doesn't actually show what motherboard the columns refer too…

£185 GA-X79-UD3 - BARGAIN!!!!!
biggest benefit of these fore me is the 6 sata3 6gb/s slots. A bit odd how the UD-5 is the only one with 8 dimm's though but we knew about this from the previews of the boards
32 or 64GB memory supported depending on the model. nice indeed!