VPN: GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
Product ReviewsGIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
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69%
29%
3%
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 Rating: Review Date: 12/27/12  |
Cons: None
Pros: Good QualityWorks Well |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/29/12 |
Cons: - Random but rare bluescreens related to USB3 and sleep mode
Pros: - Great value for the features. Only paid about $120 after rebate- Rebate was easy- Build is running pretty great so far Comment:
Overall very happy with this board and my machine has been running great. Looks very slick installed. See picturehttp://i.imgur.com/FzKWI.jpgI cant take a point away for the con becuase it's a very minor and rare issue at this point specific to windows, that was improved with the latest BIOS. Initially when I had my USB3 external HDD plugged in, it would blue screen almost every time I tried to put the machine to sleep. The latest BIOS has practically fixed it but it has still blue screened when going to sleep on 1-2 rare occasions since. This shouldn't be a deal breaker as the board is otherwise excellent and maybe you wont be using windows or a USB drive. |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/20/12 |
Cons: N/A
Pros: Great motherboard, easy to figure out, super durable Comment:
I got this pricematched down to 130 and then the 20$ mir, meaning i got this for about 110$ and for that price it's a great motherboard, BIOS was easy to configure and the cd with the drivers were helpful. |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/04/12 |
Cons: Mosfets feel like they're a little flimsy (Mine didn't come with foam protecting it during shipping)Small amount of USB 2.0 portsFront Audio internal header is near the audio outputs at the back. My case's cable doesn't reach that far
Pros: VERY sleek looking board, definitely looks great inside a nice case. It's VERY fast when used with the smart response technology.Lots of Bios options Comment:
This board is extremely nice, and has a very sleek look to it.I got it on sale and it was WELL WORTH the money.It's very fast, and the small LED indicators on the MOBO itself actually help out quite a bit.Lot's of customization options available with this board, and it seems to have plenty of PCI slots.So far, I'm loving it |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/11/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Stable and cold...Gigabytes makes efficent stuff. i.m.o. Comment:
I always trust this brand. Always a little plus for the money. And related to ihack stuff, its the line to go... |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/02/12 |
Cons: Rebates (ugh)Relatively few power phases for a modern board
Pros: Great price on sale, especially after rebateA ton of features for a modestly-priced board Comment:
I have been considering purchasing a Sandy Bridge setup for awhile now, while they are still available, and when this board went on sale for $139.99 plus a twenty dollar rebate, I decided to take the plunge.The box includes the normal, meaning sparse, contents for most boards nowadays: an I/O shield, two straight and two right-anle SATA cables, a SLI bridge, a driver/utility disk, a printed manual, a setup guide, an Intel Smart Response installation guide and two case badges. Nothing much to see there. One thing I did notice, which was new to me, was the fact that several connectors on the back panel actually had protective caps installed: the DVI connector (not completely surprising) and VGA connector, but also the HDMI and DisplayPort connectors. The board itself is matte black (unusual), with largely grey, charcoal and black connectors and other devices, giving it a fairly understated appearance. There are no heatpipes, just a largish, flat heatsink over the Z68 chip and a relatively innocuous heatsink to the left of the socket to cool the mosfets. Some might find it drab, but personally, I like it. The mosfet heatsink is attached with pushpins, but the chipset heatsink is actually attached with screws through the back of the board, so is presumably removable/replaceable. Most of the salient features are described in the marketing material and online reviews and I won't repeat them all, but it is a pretty full-featured board and (typically) probably has more than I will actually use. It seems everyone has a different take on the locking mechanism for PCI-E x16 slots, and the ones on this board are new to me. They use a small pivoting lever that snaps open and shut automatically when installing a card, but take note of how it operates to ensure you know how to unlock it when necessary. To unlock, one simply pushes down (towards the slot/card). This is not intuitively obvious, so it is worth noting beforehand, since prying up will undoubtedly break the little lever. On that not, the lever is tiny and chubby fingers may find it awkward. I found it simple and easy to use myself, once I figured out how it worked.The board still uses a jumper to clear the CMOS, at a time when most boards have gone to a simple switchI've seen this board described.as having seven phase power regulation circuitry, although Gigabyte's own specs omit the number of power phases for this model (deliberately?). In his unboxing, Linus describes it as a "six plus one" design. There are seven chokes arranged around the CPU socket, which would suggest seven phases. Linus' reference was do to the fact that Sandy Bridge processors have an onboard memory controller that requires a dedicated power circuit, thus leaving only six phases to supply power to the CPU proper. However, if you look at the higher-end Gigabyte boards that actually list the number of phases in their specs, such as the GA-Z68XP-UD5, the GA-Z68XP-UD4, or the GA-Z68XP-UD3P with advertised 20 Phase, 16 Phase and 12 Phase power respectively, you'll notice that the boards have 20, 18 and 14 chokes respectively surrounding the processor socket. None of these three boards have either VGA or DVI ports on the back panel to support integrated graphics as the Z68X-UD3H-B3 does. My point is that if the processor requires a separate power circuit to support the integrated memory controller, and an additional dedicated circuit to support the integrated graphics controller on the CPU die, that would only leave five phases on this board to power the CPU itself. Technically, it would be a "five plus one plus one" (or actually 5x1x1) power phase arrangement, unless I've got something wrong. In short, this board isn't really intended to be used for any heavy overclocking, especially where voltage increases are required, as that would increase the strain on the voltage regulation circuit given the number of actual phases available, not to mention the fact that the power component cooling solution is modest compared to higher-end models. It doesn't mean overclocking is not possible, but that it will potentially put more strain on this board's components than on the more expensive models. Fortunately for me, I'm not really into overclocking anyway. Turbo mode will suffice when needed, and shouldn't cause problems.I confirmed that the PCH heatsink does get a little warm as reviews have suggested, and so good flow-through ventilation in this area is advisable.This is the first system (ever) that I have built with onboard graphics and I actually found the onboard graphics convenient for initial out-of-case testing. I was all set to install a PCI-E graphics card when I realized I didn't need to install one for testing. Quite handy unless you have a proper test bench setup. I expect that I'll try out the Lucid Virtu chip for switching between onboard and add-in graphics dynamically according to demand. I'll probably be keeping an eye on overhead to see if there is any performance penalty for the sake of the power savings.All in all, it seems a nice full-featured board at a reasonable price, but time will tell as I tend to keep and use my PCs a long while, and durability, stability and reliability over time are high on my priorities.I'll have to wait and see how the rebate goes before I'll know what sort of deal I really got. I do hate those credit cards. If they were real, you should be able to just cash them in at a bank. Its just another roadblock to having people actually redeem their rebates, IMO |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/30/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Awesome motherboard. Havent tried it for a long time but seems perfect. Overclocking made easier with the included software Comment:
Discontinued..I think the qualit/price was very good, affordable and powerful. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/16/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Solid, Strong, easy to use Comment:
When first opened the box and felt the mobo i was suprised how strong and durable it felt.After installing it into my new computer it ran everything perfectly no problems at all. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/27/12 |
Cons: None i can see so far
Pros: Nice look and features Comment:
This is a very solid board with everything you need on it. Run great with 8GB of G-Skill 1600 and a 2500k OC at 4GZH easily. Nothing to complain about it. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/24/12 |
Cons: None that can be thought of.
Pros: Fits everything you need. Spacious. USB 3.0! Comment:
Another great product of NCIX, this was a purchase in which I have purchased for my Coolermaster Haf X EATX Tower Case and at the same time purchased a Noctua NH-D14, Everything fits perfectly. Great product with yet another great price for all the components. Thanks again NCIX. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/22/12 |
Cons: USB issues
Pros: Power saving Comment:
Easy to install and set up. The power saving feature is useful for when I forget and leave my system on - it only uses 6W on standby and resumes in under 10 seconds. I did have some issues at the start booting up when my usb mouse/keyboard not recognized. Had to dig out a ps/2 set. Problem went away after updates. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/16/12 |
Cons: None so far.
Pros: No problems at all setting up. Comment:
Easily set this board up with a i2500k and 8Gb mushkin ram. Runs like a charm. I Could've used another fan hookup is the only small complaint I have. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/14/12 |
Cons: None
Pros: Unexpensive for what you are gettingStableBlack colour Comment:
This is a great motherboard, i highly recommend it. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/11/12 |
Cons: none so far
Pros: Great Price, Looks GREAT and overclocks easily Comment:
Great board for the price on sale. Paired it with an i5 2500k. Able to run sli and crossfire. Has all the features one could need on a motherboard |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/01/12 |
Cons: Some oddly-located fan connectors.
Pros: Exactly at my price/features sweet spot, sturdy appearance, better ALC889 integrated audio Comment:
This Gigabyte motherboard fiils the gaping hole is the Asus Z68 lineup: below the P8Z68-V and above the P8Z68-V LE. It has all what is needed, including the better ALC889 audio, but nothing superfluous (such as Bluetooth). Ultra Durable III construction is a plus. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/18/12 |
Cons: USB 2 drivers must be installed for windows, weird.
Pros: Good price, lots of features, nice look, well placed expansion slots Comment:
Overall good board with plenty of features for this price range. Haven't played much with overclocking yet. Weird thing is i had to install the USB 2 drivers for it to work once windows was installed.Satisfied overall. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/08/12 |
Cons: Wish it had updated BIOS. Included basic accessories.
Pros: Inexpensive Z68. Does the job without complaints. CrossFire and SLI supported. Comment:
Included Accessories for this board are similar to budget motherboards even though this appears to be a more premium board. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/06/12 |
Cons: USB 3.0 port on mobo was too far away for my front panel connector (HAF-X).
Pros: Great price and look.All black with silver and grey components matches any system.Easy OC with 2500-K Comment:
Overall great board. Been using it with my 2500-K n 4GHZ and HD 6950 with no problems so far. Looks nice too :) |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/01/12 |
Cons: Non so far
Pros: nice easy to setup , well built board Comment:
Bought from competitor as I missed the sale here when it came with ram at Christmas.Runs great with 8gig of Kingston 1600speed ram and i5-2500K.Real easy setup with exception the A97 audio driver did not get installed with disk that came with board . Driver was available from Gigabyte.Highly recommend Gigabyte boards.One note if you want to run SATA in ACHI moe turn on in CMOS before you install windows 7 otherwise you will have to re-install .Also if in sata to IDE mode Acronis backup software can't see stata drives connected to it. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/29/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Perfect for a gaming rig, allows you to overlock i7 2600k, supports SLI. Comment:
A perfect motherboard for a gaming or a high performace rig, allows you to install two graphic cards (SLI) and also overclocking your processors. Had for the F10 BIOS and is easy to use for overclocking purposes etc.. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/25/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Very nice board... not one problem during installation of hardware & software. Overclocking is nice with this board. I love it. Comment:
Honestly bought this board cause of its looks... then read reviews and now that I actually have it - I'd say it's one of the best mid-level boards out there. I don't mind the traditional bios cause... well... honestly I'm only using it 2 or 3 times a year. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/24/12 |
Cons: - None at the moment
Pros: - Very good features for cheaper- Better audio than standard mobo Comment:
Got this board to go with i7 2600k. It is a good mobo for a value price. There are no problems with this board yet. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/20/12 |
Cons: I don't like the sata port being paralel to the board instead of going out.
Pros: -Touchbios application-Automatic OC work very well-Clearance is good soo it's easy to install a huge cpu heatsink like the nh-d14 Comment:
Got it for 1 days, seem very stable, automatic OC work fairly well. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/07/12 |
Cons: PriceyLimited # of sata ports (only 4 ports powred by intel, 2 of which are sata 2), 2 other ports powered by a 3rd party (marvell), none of which support my Corsair Force 120GB ssd at the maximum 550MB/s, the SSD only benches at 400 on all these portsSomething's off!
Pros: Z68 chipsetonboard audio Comment:
One of the best chipsets, but limited amount of sata ports for a pricey motherboard.The 4 sata 3 ports provided are by 2 diff companies, not all by intel, so a few compatibility issues.The ssd I have doesn't max out at 550MB/s on this thing. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/06/12 |
Cons: none
Pros: Has 6 SATA inputs Comment:
Great board, does everything I need it to do. No problems with it whatsoever. Some aftermarket heatsinks may interfere with the ram though. |
Very nice simplistic motherboard I bought for my new build.