![](http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/1542/72265457.jpg)
With the introduction of X79 everyone was a bit scared about what would happen to prices of motherboards, as the CPUs available at the time were so expensive, an entry level system for the X79 chipset would put you back $500 for the CPU alone. Now we have the 3820 which costs about as much as a 2600K, and thus X79 is picking up a lot more users, especially those looking for the latest and greatest platform to replace their X58 systems. Now if you remember X58 you might have remembered the X58A-UD3R, a pretty reasonably priced motherboard which was loaded with most of the connectivity features of its bigger brothers, but also it also held its own against competitors in the same price bracket. Well today I will give you a look at the X79-UD3 and what it offers, as well as test it not only on water, but also some sub-zero action with LN2. I will also show you guys how I insulted the board to how I overclocked it. First we will begin with the basic things potential buyers might want to know, such as how the board is built hardware wise, and what it has to offer.
- Introduction
- Box, Board, and Accessories
- Board Layout and Design
- In-Depth Circuit Analysis
- BIOS Gallery
- Test Setup and OC Guide
- Benchmarks
- Insulation Guide and LN2 Performance
- Conclusion
Box, Board, and Accessories
![](http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8984/73539314.jpg)
The box is very typical of the GIGABYTE X79 lineup, they seem to have gone totally white, from the boxes background color to the inside color of the package.
It is like an apple product almost, but instead of being made in a Foxconn factory like many other motherboards are, GIGABYTE manufacturers these boards in their own factories.
![](http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1609/19344677.jpg)
We have:
- I/O Shield
- 4 SATA6GB/s Black Cables.
- SLI Bridge
- 3-Way SLI Bridge
- 4-Way SLI Bridge
- CrossFireX Bridge
![](http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8349/96337532.jpg)
Layout and Design
![](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4295/11552245.jpg)
It is a very nice looking motherboard, perfect for black on black action/builds.
![](http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5919/65667023.jpg)
![](http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/1066/98969105.jpg)
![](http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/7879/70933010.jpg)
![](http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1035/39167202.jpg)
Here we have the upper right quadrant, behind the 24-pin connector we have a USB 3.0 header positioned closer to the front panel bays. An extra fan connector as well is positioned in this area. Be sure to install your memory before putting in your long GPU.
![](http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1391/57157106.jpg)
The lower right quadrant is here, we have a TON of SATA6GB/s for a UD3! 4 extra ports here are provided by two Marvell SE9172, but there is also another Marvell SE9172 for the back panel eSATA6GB/s. You should use the Intel ports first, also the white is the Intel SATA6GB/s, the Black is Intel SATA3GB/s, and the gray are Marvell SATA6GB/s. Two of the Marvell are not angled. We also see another fan header in the lower corner of the board, next to the case headers. The clear CMOS jumper is two pins right outside the plastic that encompasses the front panel headers. Short these two pins and you have just cleared the CMOS.
![](http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/1703/38429911.jpg)
The lower Left quadrant of this board shows us the beauty of 4-way SLI on an ATX form factor at 16x/8x/8x/8x. The X79 platform offers 40X PCI-E 3.0 lanes, so if you do 2-way SLI your first and third 16x slots will be 16x, if you do 3-way the second will be 8x, while the other two remain the same. I think the last slot should only to be used in the case of 4-way operation. The PCI slot is native to the X79 PCH.
In Depth Circuit Analysis:
![](http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6108/38035370.jpg)
![](http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7759/53909891.jpg)
![](http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/396/36335247.jpg)
![](http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/9295/89320719.jpg)
Above we have a special treat on the GIGABYTE X79 boards, the award winning IR Power Stages, these are the IR3553M and are capable of 40A per phase with up to 1MHz switching frequency. They have excellent characteristics, and run pretty cool, thus no heatsink. They are basically a driver and two MOSFETs in one, thus called a powerstage. DrMOS is a type of powerstage if you were wondering. Below we have a 3+2 phase Digital PWM which powers these power stages as well as the DRAM VRM.
![](http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6087/83209360.jpg)
Above we have a IR3750 (3+2 Phase) Digital PWM. This PWM is VRD12 certified, and provides a lot of outputs. The UD3 has two of these PWMs, to provide true digital control over all the VRMs on the board, except the PCH power. The memory VRMs are both driven by these digital PWMs, and the System Agent VRM we just looked at uses two phases off of one of these. Each set of 2-DIMMs is powered by one of the IR 3553 40A power stages, enough to power double the number of DIMMs, even overclocked.
![](http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3195/71723309.jpg)
![](http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/1722/80946286.jpg)
![](http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3342/72717048.jpg)
WG82579V is an Intel PHY which provides 1GBit Ethernet to this motherboard. Intel is preferred over other brands for its low latency and high performance, another good thing is that the NIC is integrated into the PCH, so this works in tandem with that. Above is a PHY or physical layer device that provides the actual LAN output. It is only a 0.66W IC.
We also have a Realtek ALC898 a 110dB SNR Realtek Hi-Def audio Codec used on high-end X79 boards. When many manufactures say they have Creative XF-I they are really talking about an ALC892 or ALC989 audio codec using Creative Software. In this case you get the same hardware, but without the price of the creative software. If you want a true Creative XF-I with an actual Creative audio codec you should look at the G1. Assassin 2 X79, it also has a bunch of other hardware like DACs and AMPs to support the package. But here we have a ton of capacitors to smooth out the highs and lows of the audio. This Codec also supports Blu-ray playback.
![](http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2499/52018495.jpg)
Centered in the above picture is an iTE IT8728F a very common SuperI/I found on almost all GIGABYTE boards, it supports all the fan, voltage, and temp monitoring and also gives us PS/2 for the backpanel. The same chip is a BG chip which supports the addition of the COM port to the board.
![](http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/1142/72309733.jpg)
![](http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2555/74797659.jpg)
Two ICS clock generators provide the clocks needed to push the BLCk dividers and the PCi-E clocks on the board.
![](http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/3131/40301667.jpg)
Here we have the beloved Intel X79 PCH which has 8X PCI-E 2.0 integrated, as well as a bunch of other goodies. Two Marvell SE9172 provide 4 SATA6GB/s connectivity to the 4 internal gray SATA6GB/s headers. In total this board carries 3 Marvell SE9172 for extra SATA6GB/s.
BIOS Gallery
![](http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9404/16951116.jpg)
![](http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/4229/73893830.jpg)
![](http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2338/29489840.jpg)
![](http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6338/76090598.jpg)
![](http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5373/16968973.jpg)
![](http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8918/47773350.jpg)
![](http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7767/17136196.jpg)
![](http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/3619/91244076.jpg)
![](http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2091/64423922.jpg)
![](http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/5425/54272817.jpg)
![](http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/9379/39770556.jpg)
![](http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9653/39091307.jpg)
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