GIGABYTE
www.gigabyte.us
GIGABYTE’s GA-Z87X-UD5H offers an ensemble of passive cooling and enhanced power capabilities through its Ultra Durable 5 Plus technology. The resulting reliability and stability made the GA-Z87X-UD5H an ideal fit for our overclocking needs. Support for up to 32GB of memory (at frequencies up to DDR3-3000) and two GPUs in SLI or CrossFire didn’t hurt, either.
GIGABYTE installed large heatsinks that run along the PWM and PCH areas to help keep the motherboard within optimal thermals. The Ultra Durable 5 Plus technology also includes Black Solid Caps that are rated for 10,000 hours of operation at 105 degrees Celsius. The CPU socket receives digitally-controlled power from International Rectifier’s PowIRstage ICs. Even the BIOS is protected with GIGABYTE’s DualBIOS design, which provides both a main and backup BIOS.
When it comes to overclocking our Intel Core i7-4770K, we had plenty of available information and control from the GAZ87X-UD5H. Voltage read points along the top right of the motherboard let us use a multimeter to get real-time readings for core voltage, DIMM voltage, and more. For troubleshooting, GIGABYTE provides a debug display and onboard power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons. The GA-Z87X-UD5H also comes with GIGABYTE’s EasyTune software, so we could adjust frequency and voltage settings in Windows.
A good gaming rig requires a mobo with support for multiple GPU configurations, and the GA-Z87X-UD5H meets our needs in this regard, as well. It provides full support for two-way SLI and CrossFire, and includes a SATA power connector along the right side of the motherboard to help deliver additional power stability for multi-GPU setups. There’s space for other add-on cards too, as you’ll find another PCI-E x16 slot (doesn’t support triple SLI or CrossFire), three PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, and a legacy PCI slot.
For internal storage, there are 10 6Gbps SATA ports; the top six are the stock Z87 chipset ports and support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configs. The bottom four are powered by a Marvell 88SE9230 chip and support RAID 0, 1, and 10 configurations. The SE9230 controller also supports Marvell’s HyperDuo Technology, which allows an SSD to act as a data cache for a connected HDD, giving you an optimal blend of capacity and speed. There are six USB 3.0 ports on the back panel and four more are available via internal headers.
GIGABYTE made performance a priority with the GA-Z87X-UD5H, but still manages to provide top-shelf reliability and stability.
In short, we expect this motherboard to be a mainstay in the system for years to come.
Form factor: ATX; Max memory: 32GB (DDR3-1600/Max OC: DDR3-3000); Slots: 3 PCI-E 3.0
x16, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI; Storage; 10 6Gbps SATA; Rear I/O: 2 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, 1 DVI, 6 USB
3.0, 2 Ethernet, 1 S/PDIF out, audio I/O, 1 PS/2 port; Warranty: 3 years