SOLVED 990FX- UD7 vs Crosshair V

[bmwbaxter]

So I am preparing for the release of Bull Dozer and was wondering which motherboard people would suggest UD7 or Crosshair V? This is my first time buying a highend AMD setup and want some advice. I am going to be using it for benching only. (might retired to become my daily rig someday ) I know both of these companys make good boards on the intel side, but what about on this side?

the $10-$15 price difference isn't an issue at all.

 

[BigTerminator]

Looking and doing some research on both boards all I can say is that they both are extremely impressive. The Gigabyte does support quad graphics cards while the Asus only supports 3. Asus board has UEFI while the Gigabyte doesn't.

The thing is that this won't be Asus' best board. You are just looking at the Formula which is very good but they will release a Crosshair V Extreme down the road that will support 4 cards and have many more features.

On the basis of benching only, I think the Gigabyte board would be better because it supports more graphics cards and I believe it has more PCIe lanes (correct me if I'm wrong). You really just want to focus in on the power delivery and how much electricity it can pump into the CPU. I've heard on another forum with your same exact question that this guy had higher overclocks with the Gigabyte UD-5 board compared to the Crosshair V formula.

For benching go with the Gigabyte, if you want to use it as a daily board then I would go with the Asus board.

 

[Devil_Dog]

I would go with the ASUS. That's what I have on the way. Main reason is better bios support. Gigabyte has been severely lacking in the bios area. I dumped my P67 UD7 for the MIVE due to this.

I will be using the CHV for benching.

 

[hokiealumnus]

ASUS. I'm typing the UD7 review now. Without a doubt ASUS. Long story short - the UD7's software isn't anywhere near as good and the uncontrollable Vdroop is atrocious.

That said, I've sent this information to Gigabyte to see how they respond. Perhaps they'll introduce LLC control with a BIOS update. Right now though, I simply can't recommend the UD7.

 

[Devil_Dog]

ASUS. I'm typing the UD7 review now. Without a doubt ASUS. Long story short - the UD7's software isn't anywhere near as good and the uncontrollable Vdroop is atrocious.

That said, I've sent this information to Gigabyte to see how they respond. Perhaps they'll introduce LLC control with a BIOS update. Right now though, I simply can't recommend the UD7.

Same problem on 1155. They've known about it for months and have not addressed it.

 

[Metallica]

ASUS. I'm typing the UD7 review now. Without a doubt ASUS. Long story short - the UD7's software isn't anywhere near as good and the uncontrollable Vdroop is atrocious.

That said, I've sent this information to Gigabyte to see how they respond. Perhaps they'll introduce LLC control with a BIOS update. Right now though, I simply can't recommend the UD7.

Do you think the UD3 has the same problem?

 

[bmwbaxter]

ASUS. I'm typing the UD7 review now. Without a doubt ASUS. Long story short - the UD7's software isn't anywhere near as good and the uncontrollable Vdroop is atrocious.

That said, I've sent this information to Gigabyte to see how they respond. Perhaps they'll introduce LLC control with a BIOS update. Right now though, I simply can't recommend the UD7.

thanks! that just saved $250.00 of heartbreak.... or worse....fried hardware

Looks like asus for me, I love my MIVE so hopefully the crosshair won't disappoint.

Thanks again for the heads up about vdroop.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Do you think the UD3 has the same problem?

Can't tell you, I don't have one to test. I can only speak to those I've tested and the UD7's Vdroop is horrible. If they add an LLC option (which I'm trying like hell to get them to do), I'll say it boils down to how important you think Windows overclocking is. Except for the software (and really the software is good, it just doesn't have any voltage control other than Vcore) & Vdroop it's a great board...but the Vdroop is a game changer in my opinion.

thanks! that just saved $250.00 of heartbreak.... or worse....fried hardware

Looks like asus for me, I love my MIVE so hopefully the crosshair won't disappoint.

Thanks again for the heads up about vdroop.

Yea...right now, for extreme benchmarking, it's the Crosshair V all the way. IF they address the Vdroop problem, then maybe the UD7 would be just as good for extreme benching; but they have to fix this or it's just no good for it.

 

[Devil_Dog]

The SB's UD7's have multi LLC options and it's still a huge problem. The best bios is still an old as hell beta bios which only has 2 levels of LLC and is somewhat predictable. The newer bios has 10 levels and it's just horrid.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Bump from the depths. We're holding the review while Giga addresses a BIOS problem (odd clock throttling issue with multipliers > 16.5x...very strange), but they have introduced LLC on Rev. 1.1 UD7 boards and it does its job pretty well. I'd still go with the Crosshair V Formula for extreme benching, but for anything else the UD7 is just as good. Well, except for the software....Giga's software coders went to sleep coding the AMD software.

 

[bmwbaxter]

Thanks for the update. I already purchased a crosshair V. Gonna be taking my 8150 cold this Friday