GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD5-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard

Comment:
Probably the best all around P67 B3 stepping board available.

Comment:
2600kNoctua NH-U12P se2G. Skill 1600mhz Ripjaws 2x4gbCoolermaster HAF 922 caseother stuffNo big complaints about this board. Well, one tiny blemish is that the slightly-tall G.Skill Ripjaw ram sticks forced me to raise the intake fan on my large cooler a bit. No big deal at all, but if you're going to mix tall ARM stick with a huge cooler, you may want to reconsider a component, or use a slim fan. Mind you, the Noctua is quite large. However, there's still plenty of clearance from the heatsinks on thw motherboard.The SATA ports face out the side, and not up. While this is necessary to place longer video cards in there, i'd have preferred they be placed in a location that wouldn't interfere with the first PCI-E slot in teh first place. I also have a huge case, so there room for that port orientation. If the mobo space in your case is narrow, you may want to take this into account.Has a 3 year warranty, which is always nice.FIVE fan fan plugs. Personally, i use a fan controller, so i only use the CPU plug, but it's sweet to have.The heatsinks on the board work quite well, and have stayed fairly cool to the touch, even after a gaming session.Overclocking is dead easy, with a good amount of options to tweak to get what you like. I've been able to put my 2600k to run at 4.8ghz stable, and that's without even touching voltages or anything else - just a simple clock increase. Also lots of Yes, it's on the expensive side, but if you want options, quality, and goodies, you have little choice. I learned while back that you get your moneys' worth when paying for a motherboard. $80 work, and can be great, but $200+ dollar boards are awesome.RAM voltage is 1.5v is very nice. There are easy to hit CMOS clear, Reset, adn Power buttons on there, which is great. The F. Panel conenctors are labeled well.Two eSATA/USB 3.0 ports, two dedicated USB 3.0 ports (they do not support USB 1.1, btw). Sata3 is neat, and I do see a slight increase using it with my WD Caviar Black drive, but I really think a SSD would be a better idea, which is coming. Though, I'd get a PCI-E SSD instead. another reason to love the geeat array of PCI-E slots.Although it has 3x PCI-E slots (16x,8x,8x), if you're looking to sue three video cards, you'd be much better off buying the UD7 variant.As the other reviewer stated - there are not too many extra goodies. Two 90 degree SATA cables.Okay i guess that's it. I researched 1155 boards for about 3 weeks before i settled on this one. An ASUS P67 came in at a close second. I've had two Gigabyte boards previoulsy, and I was happy with both of them. the first one, holding a 900ms Athlon, is still going strong. I think its 12 years old, now. Only needed a new battery about 3 years ago.

Comment:
an excellent motherboard all around, black pcb for a clean look, nice looking heatsinks. great overclocking features for pro and novice. 20 power phase allows for potentially crazy overclocks. being a b3 board means no worries about the sata 2 ports. a bit on the pricey side, but being an enthusiast board, the premium is definitely worth it for all the features you get.