Gigabyte X79-Line-Up - Layout and Design
Category : X79
Published by Marc Büchel on 26.10.11
With Gigabyte, the first heavy weight in the motherboard market shows it's entire line-up regarding their upcoming X79 motherboards. The GA-X79-UD3 will therefore be the entry level board. The GA-X79-UD5 aims at content creation and the GA-X79-UD7 targets overclockers and enthusiasts. And finally there will also be a board only for gamer: the G1.Assassin 2, which at a first glance seems not to make any compromise at all. 
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GA-X79-UD3 - Mainstream and Overclocking
Gigabyte says that the UD3 has been developed as an overclocking and mainstream motherboard. Therefore you find a total of four PCI-Express slots on the PCB. The first and the third slot are x16 ports, the second and the fourth have been labled with x8. In fact this x79 entry level board offer quad SLI or CrossFireX support with up to four graphics cards. Sure, a setup like this will block the connectors at the bottom edge of the board.
According to the pictures we see that Gigabyte equipped the UD3 with a 16 phase power design. If this is correct we will know when Gigabyte releases the official specifications.
It seems like Gigabyte had enough from their eingine block design chipset cooler. Theses days the do simple but good looking passive cooling elements.
On the UD3 you find a total of four DIMM slots which means that just one Quad-Channel-Kit can be put in place. If you use 8 Gigabyte modules there'll certainly be enough memory but upgradeability is slightly compromised. Nevertheless thanks to the fact that this board "only" comes with four DIMM slots Gigabyte has been able to keep it in an ATX formfactor, which means that it fits in every single ATX case out there.
A closer look at the I/O panel lets us guess that Gigabyte equipped this board with a total of eight USB3.0 ports. Furthermore there are two USB2.0 connectors, two eSATA ports, a gigabit ethernet connector an analogue audio panel as well as an optical an coaxial audio out. Even a PS2 mouse/keyboard connector can be found. Regarding the audio chip we can only see that it comes from Realtek but we do not know which model it actually is .
Regarding SATA port one can find a total of ten on the UD3. Eight of which have been angled by 90 degrees. Two are straight and they are located at the bottom edge of the board.
Looking for fan headers shows that there are four on the UD3. Two are above the CPU socket slightly to the left another is on the right edge of the board and a last can be found at the bottom edge.
Placing a dual slot graphics card in the last PCI-Express x16 slot will mean that the connectors at the bottom edge of the board will be blocked. But on the other hand, with four PCI-Express x16 slots at hand this might be a very unlikely scenario.
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GA-X79-UD5 - Content Creation
Concerning the UD5 Gigabyte talks about this board that it is most suitable for Content Creation. On this PCB you'll find three full length PCI-Express slot of which the first and the third are real x16 and the second is x8. In this case it is possible to run a triple SLI or CrossFireX setup with up to three cards. Below the first to full size PCIe slots there are two x1 slots. Below the thrird GPU slot there is a legacy PCI connector.
A closer look at the power design reveals that Gigabyte put 22 phases on this board. This looks a bit suspicious because until today manufacturers chose from eight, sixteen, twentyfour or thirtytwo phases. In this case we have to wait until Gigabyte discloses the full specs to give you this information.
The UD5 has got eight DIMM slots, which should really be enough for any usage scenario. If one should decide to use eight 8 Gigabyte modules then the system would have 64 Gigabyte of memory. Today there wount be any desktop workload which needs this much memory but probably in two or three years we'll see the first enthusiasts really using this much memory. The eight DIMM slots bear the consequence that the UD5 only fits on an extended ATX PCB, which in other words means that you'll need quite a big case to put it in.
Like with the UD3 Gigabyte makes use of two plain and simple but very nicely designed passiv cooling elements which keep southbridge and current converters at low temperatures. Furthermore both blocks are connected via a heatpipe.
After having taken a closer look at the I/O panel we believe that there are seven USB3.0 ports, two USB2.0 connectors, two eSATA ports, a FireWire port, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, an analogue audio panel and an optical audio out. Furthermore you'll also find a CLR-CMOS button at this place.
Regarding SATA ports you'll find a total of ten connectors which have been angled by 90 degrees which means that extra long expansion cards wont cover them and maintain highest compatibility.
Because of the fact that Gigabyte put three full size PCI-Express slots on this board they have been able to place them in a way that a GPU in the last slot wont block the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. What you'll also find on this board is a power and a reset button. Why Gigabyte put this buttons on this board but not on the UD3 from which they say it is targeted a overclocks too, we simply don't understand.
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GA-X79-UD7 - Enthusiast and Overclocking
This time the UD7 is the board which addresses Overclockers as well as enthusiasts. Therefore you get a lot of overclocking features with this board. For example, there are the OC buttons you might already know from the X58A-OC. Using the plus and minus buttons you can increase/decrease either multiplyer or BLCK. In the same area on the board you find a power button as well as voltage measuring points which allow to read out current voltages. Next to the DIMM slots on the upper left side of the board there are two ATX 12V connectors. For even more stability there are two SATA power connectors at the right edge of the board.
Regarding the power design we count 28 phases. Again this is a strange number and we already pointed this out when discussing the UD5.
Like on the UD3 there are four full size PCI Express slots. The first and the third are x16 slots and the second as well as the fourth are x8 slots. This means that you can even build a quad SLI or a CrossFireX setup using four cards.
Similar to the UD3 and UD5 the UD7 comes with a black matte PCB. On this board you get orange design elements, which means that the PCI-Express slots, two DIMM slots and parts of the cooling blocks are being kept in orange.
The UD7 again comes with four DIMM slots. Using 8 Gigabyte modules it would be possible to equip this board with 32 Gigabyte of memroy. The UD7 also needed an extended ATX PCB but this time it's not because of the DIMM slots, is much more because of all the overclocking features.
A closer look at the I/O panel lets us guess that Gigabyte decided to equip this board with eight USB3.0 ports, two USB2.0 connectors, an analogue Audio panel, an optical audio out, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a PS2 mouse/keyboard connector as well as a clear CMOS button.
Analgue to the UD5 there are no less then ten SATA connectors. All of them have been angled by 90 degrees, which means that there wont be any incompatibilities with oversized expansion cards. The only thing which a dual slot graphics card can cover concerns the connectors at the bottom edge of the board.
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G1.Assassin 2 - Gaming
Already at the launch of Intels upcoming X79 chipset Gigabyte will have a pure gaming motherboard in its portfolio. The G1.Assassin 2 also comes with a black PCB but with venom green expansion slots. The most flamboyant design aspect on the G1.Assassin 2 concerns the southbridge cooler which actually is shaped like a weapon. Lots of gamer will like this but we think there definitely wont be other users buy this board.
Counting the phases of the power design, we get 18. Again, this is an unusual number for a power design. Therefore we're waiting for Gigabyte to disclose the specs of the board. It might be possible that there are additional phases on the backside of the motherboard.
Gigabytes gaming motherboard comes with three full size PCI-Express slots. Between the first two you find PCI-Express x1 slots and the last expansion slot is a legacy PCI. The first and the third full size PCI-Express slot features sixteen lanes where as the second is connected to the CPU with eight lanes.
Gigabyte decided to equip the G1.Assassin 2 with four DIMM slots which means that using 8 Gigabyte modules one can put 32 Gigabyte of memory on this board. Like we know it from the UD5 and UD7 the developers put two passive cooling blocks on chipset and current converters. The two blocks are connected via a heatpipe to provide good cooling efficiency.
A closer look at the I/O panel lets us guess, that this board features four USB3.0 ports, four USB2.0 connecotrs, two eSATA ports, an analogue audio panel, a gigabit ethernet port as well as an optical audio out and a PS2 mouse/keyboard connector. Furhtermoer there also is a CLR-CMOS button.
Regarding SATA ports you wont find ten like on the other Gigabyte X79 board, there are "only" eight. Because all ports have been angled by 90 degrees there wont be any compatibility issues with oversized graphics cards.
Looking for fan header you'll find five on the G1.Assassin 2. There located around the CPU socket, on the left side of the board and at the bottom edge.
With the gaming motherboards Gigabyte also delivers a sound chip that has been manufactured by Creative. Normally is an X-Fi chip which offers nice and crisp audio quality. Fruthermore they also put a Killer NIC on these kind of boards which they bundle with decent sofware to control all your NAT settings and traffic related things.
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Conclusion
GA-X79-UD3
We think that the UD3 is the most interesting of all the upcoming Gigabyte X79 motherboards. The fact that it comes with four full size PCI-Express slots makes it very versatile. We also like that it is the only of the four boards which uses an ATX formfactor. This will allow a wide audience to upgrade their system. Furthermore the UD3 will be the cheapest of the Gigabyte X79 motherboards which is another very good point for this board. If finally the performance is on a competitive level, then the UD3 could be highly recommended.GA-X79-UD5
Also Gigabytes new UD5 will be an interesting board. Many buyers will like the fact that there are eight DIMM slots and the memory is therefore quite scalable. Furhtermore this board offers more features than the smaller UD3. If this thing will be available for less than CHF 300.- (est. EUR 250.-) and the performance is on a good an competitive level, then it will get a lot of recommendations from all over the planet.GA-X79-UD7
With the UD7 Gigabyte finally targets the overclocking and enthusiast market. In our opinion the success of this board will depend highly on the performance. The problem with this board is that when you look at it as a pure overclocking motherboard there will be very strong competition from ASUS. From an enthusiasts point of view it simply doesn't offer everything they might want. It lacks for example a high quality audio chip. Sure, a competitive price will make Gigabyte sell more of these board but the most important factor is how well the enduser accepts this product.G1.Assassin 2
Without compromise, this is about the best description we have for the G1.Assassin 2. Especially the cooling shaped like a hand gun really only targets gamers. What gamers also like is the creative audio chip as well as the Killer NIC, which comes bundled with a practical and useful software. But we might all have to deep breath when Gigabyte discloses the price tag, because Gigabytes Gaming-Motherboards aren't know for their very low price, in fact they're quite expensive.Discuss this article in the forums.