Hands on pictures of Gigabyte's upcoming X79 motherboards Read more: http://vr-zone.

[siopao1984]

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Hands on pictures of Gigabyte's upcoming X79 motherboards by VR-Zone.com

VR-Zone got to spend a little bit of time with Gigabyte's upcoming motherboard for (as we were informed by Gigabyte who in turn had been instructed by Intel to tell us that we should call it) the Intel Core i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 socket, otherwise known under Intel's code name of Sandy Bridge-E. We've already seen Gigabyte's X79 motherboards a few times, but these are the first detailed pictures and as such we have a few additional snippets of information to share with you.



Starting with the X79-UD3 we don't have too much new to report, but we know for sure that we're looking at a couple of additional Marvell controllers for the extra four SATA 6Gbps ports. Another feature we weren't aware of until now is that Gigabyte has moved away from Realtek on all of its X79 motherboards in favour of Intel Ethernet controllers. That said, the audio is still from Realtek, but that's more or less the norm today, no matter what motherboard you buy with a few exceptions.



A third Marvell controller adds the two eSATA ports and as we mentioned before, Gigabyte has moved over to Fresco Logic for the USB 3.0 host controllers on its X79 boards. Sadly Fresco Logic's four port host controller wasn't ready in time, so multiple controllers had to be used. This is also the only of Gigabyte's X79 motherboards that lacks a heatpipe, but to make up for it a taller heatsink has been fitted to help cool the VRM.



Moving on we have the X79-UD5 and we'd like to point out that the heatsink in this case is quite different to the UD3 and we're not talking about the blue colour here. Due to in part the heatpipe running from the VRM to the heatsink and in part to the two different coloured materials used, Gigabyte has fitted a much thicker and more solid feeling heatsink on the UD5, even though it might not look like it's anything special from the pictures. As we mentioned before, the UD5 is Gigabyte's only eight DIMM board, although this is at the cost of the seventh expansion slot. We should also mention that this is there are no PCI Express switches on this board, as it's configured in dual x16 and a single x8 slot and as there are enough PCI Express lanes to go around, there's no need for any switches.



For those still using FireWire, this is also Gigabyte's only X79 motherboard that supports FireWire. You'll also find an eSATAp (powered eSATA/USB combo) port around the back. As we mentioned back at the IDF preview, that blue and green button below the O.C. button around the back is in fact for manual BIOS switching. There's also what appears to be a small clear CMOS button here. Otherwise this board offers fairly similar functionality to the UD3.

[siopao1984]

Next up is the X79-UD7 which is as we mentioned before the replacement for Gigabyte's X58-OC. It has the same heatsink configuration as the UD5, although in orange rather than blue. The main features here are the overclocking buttons, power measuring points, extra power via a pair of eight pin connectors as well as two SATA power connectors on the front edge of the board. There's also a POST80 debug LED on this board, a feature we hope Gigabyte will add to more of its motherboards, as it's a real time saver when something is wrong with a system. Not so much going on around the back, although the O.C. button gets to reside here rather than up front with the other buttons, unlike the X58-OC.



Lastly we have the G1.Assassin 2 which actually looks a lot better in real life than in pictures, although opinions are divided in the team here at VR-Zone about the heatsinks. Love 'em or hate 'em, at least they're unique to Gigabyte and we can't help but snicker at the statement Gigabyte had to print on the heatsink due to some complications in the past when going through customs. As with the UD5, there are no PCI Express switches on this board. As with the previous G1.Assassin board, we're looking at Creative X-Fi audio and a Killer NIC as the major extras on this board. Around the back we find the same BIOS switch O.C. button and reset button as on the previous two boards, although here we get a pair of eSATAp ports as well.



We also got a quick look at the GC-WIFI card as Gigabyte's add-on 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 card is called and as far as we're aware, the current version features the Atheros AR9004WB-1NG chipset which is a combined single chip 150Mbit Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 solution. That said, Gigabyte did mention that they're looking at other alternatives as well. For those concerned that this will add a lot of cost, apparently it won't, although Gigabyte wouldn't say exactly how much the card costs them to bundle with the boards, but it's meant to be a freebie rather than add extra cost to the boards.



There are quite a few things we can't tell you about as well, at least not yet, such as Gigabyte new UEFI which will be something of a game changer for those that are uncomfortable poking around with the BIOS/UEFI settings. Sadly we can't tell you more than now, but it's not the only new feature that Gigabyte will be including with these boards. We'll provide more details as soon as we can, although it's unlikely to be until the official launch as Gigabyte doesn't want to give away details of what they've got planned too early.

[butitoy]

nice info bro..

[3kster]

nindota sa green oi,. naay pakapin pusil,.. hhaaha... imbaha na sad ani,.. socket 2011

Great infos again from siopa