Motherboard Differences

I was just looking through some mother boards and saw in another thread recommending various lga1366 x58 boards and want to know what the differences between these two boards are:

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R


GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7

What makes the UD7 $150 more worthwhile than the UD3R?

Thanks sorry for the most likely extremely dumb question but I have no idea and there is no stickies for motherboard

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
Advanced 24+2+2 power phase design with VRD 11.1 support
and a sound card and more options.

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 8 power phase design

They both have a 3 year warranty, that is vary good.

Read this Everything You Need to Know About The Motherboard Voltage Regulator Circuit.
LINK:http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/616/1

So essentially it deals with the quality of electrical components which result in "cleaner" power and longer life for the motherboard? Is that really worth $150 more?

Icebl@ster said:

I was just looking through some mother boards and saw in another thread recommending various lga1366 x58 boards and want to know what the differences between these two boards are:

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R


GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7

What makes the UD7 $150 more worthwhile than the UD3R?

Thanks sorry for the most likely extremely dumb question but I have no idea and there is no stickies for motherboard

Click to expand...

i have the x58a UD7 and many other 1156 and 1336 gigabyte boards.

the 3-3-3 thing is kinda dumb, the SATA 3 ports on gigabyte boards are pretty week, the 3 x power for the USB ports is nice and haven't tried USB3 yet.

have to say that the UD7 is an insane overclocker. At very high speeds / voltages the 24 mosfetts do seem to help. In OCCT / prime 95 / linX voltages have no ripples during testing.

got my 920 to 4.3 24/7 and it is very very happy. that's with 6 sticks of mem, some people have complained about gigabyte boards when using 6 sticks, EVGA boards seem to deal with 6 sticks better.

had to change from 6 sticks of (7-7-7) OCZ plat to some (8-8-8) XMS3 to get a good overclock on the UD7. my OCZ plat ran like a champ on my old EVGA X58 A-1 Board.

the onbaord Audio is not that great UD7, better than average but not that great for a $400 board. I have an HT Omega, the ASUS Xonar is a great sound card for the money if you want to upgrade.

Really, a UD5, the one w/ out the 3-3-3 may be the way to go. I like the one i have a lot.

I would not get a UD3.

I have this board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049

it has 2 great features, EVGA tech support and the EVGA forum, it aslo has alot of bells and whistles for the $.

I would either get the cheep EVGA or the UD5.

Icebl@ster said:

So essentially it deals with the quality of electrical components which result in "cleaner" power and longer life for the motherboard? Is that really worth $150 more?

Click to expand...

That is your decision. I buy the cheapest boards that gives me a 3 year warranty, that's all I need is 3 years. With the higher end boards you might get the extra 200-300 MHZ it mostly depends on the CPU. I see people get 4.3 GHz on air with GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58

Some chips have a low base clock and a cleaner VRM for the CPU, IMC, Memory phase will help with 200-300 MHZ and last longer maybe. There is more components that could fail to do to a grater percentage of the possibility of manufacturing defects, like in car electronics..

Also I have seen a few people say the UD3 does better than the UD5 with the same CPU.

EDIT: I just viewed a post were he was getting 4.47GHz stable Gigabyte X58A-UD3R

wingman99 said:

That is your decision. I buy the cheapest boards that gives me a 3 year warranty, that's all I need is 3 years. With the higher end boards you might get the extra 200-300 MHZ it mostly depends on the CPU. I see people get 4.3 GHz on air with GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58

Some chips have a low base clock and a cleaner VRM for the CPU, IMC, Memory phase will help with 200-300 MHZ and last longer maybe. There is more components that could fail to do to a grater percentage of the possibility of manufacturing defects, like in car electronics..

Also I have seen a few people say the UD3 does better than the UD5 with the same CPU.

Click to expand...

Yup im one of those people who can get 4.3ghz out of my CPU on the X58A-UD3R.

Like another guy said earlier, do you really want to spend an extra £150 on the UD7 for maybe a 200 or 300mhz extra out of your chip, use the extra money to buy a better chip instead, and stick with the UD3R.