User review Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3

Does it suffer from the "Resume from Sleep" problem that plagues a lot of P67 boards?
 
tangoseal said:
Nice review and btw the 2600k with quicksync absolutely flys

However my 6970 tends to outperform quicksync any time of the day so I prefer to use that more than anything.
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'Inte’s Quick Sync is untouchable though. It’s 48% faster than NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 460 and 71% faster than the Radeon HD 6970. " -Straight from anandtech. Also lol @ spelling mistake

To put it simply. Quicksync should own your 6970.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

Quicksync destroys nvidia GPU's and they're faster than ATI ones (Nvidia goes for performance over quality)
 
silk186 said:
This board is great but why didn't they use UEFI
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Either stratification or price, it appears; nobody offers UEFI in the $150USD-minus price range (despite there being twenty Z68 motherboards alone in the price range between $100USD-$150USD) - not even value-brand ASRock's Extreme4.

Also, has *anyone* come up with a genuine difference between full UEFI and hybrids like Gigabyte's TouchBIOS? (I'm thinking of the old proverb, "A difference which makes no difference is no difference.") Basically, what are the minuses of hybrid designs compared to full UEFI?

If there are noticeable (to the user) differences, there is obviously a justification to it being priced significantly higher (Gigabyte *does* offer full UEFI, albeit in their higher-priced SKUs, both Z68 and P67 alike.)
 
PGHammer said:
Either stratification or price, it appears; nobody offers UEFI in the $150USD-minus price range (despite there being twenty Z68 motherboards alone in the price range between $100USD-$150USD) - not even value-brand ASRock's Extreme4.

Also, has *anyone* come up with a genuine difference between full UEFI and hybrids like Gigabyte's TouchBIOS? (I'm thinking of the old proverb, "A difference which makes no difference is no difference.") Basically, what are the minuses of hybrid designs compared to full UEFI?

If there are noticeable (to the user) differences, there is obviously a justification to it being priced significantly higher (Gigabyte *does* offer full UEFI, albeit in their higher-priced SKUs, both Z68 and P67 alike.)
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AsRock has two budget boards, each with UEFI and similar VRM setups, if I am not mistaken.

Correct me if I am wrong, but UEFI does allow booting from 3TB drives. I am not certain that Gigabyte will do that.
 
Noetic said:
AsRock has two budget boards, each with UEFI and similar VRM setups, if I am not mistaken.

Correct me if I am wrong, but UEFI does allow booting from 3TB drives. I am not certain that Gigabyte will do that.
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Not with the Z68 chipset.

UEFI doesn't require Z68 (the lowest-priced UEFI motherboard from anyone @ Newegg is a Biostar H61 model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138313) - MC offers this same motherboard as this week's loss-leader (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0361810). My argument is that apparently UEFI and Z68 *together* are pricey - either by itself is not.
 
PGHammer said:
Not with the Z68 chipset.

UEFI doesn't require Z68 (the lowest-priced UEFI motherboard from anyone @ Newegg is a Biostar H61 model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138313) - MC offers this same motherboard as this week's loss-leader (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0361810). My argument is that apparently UEFI and Z68 *together* are pricey - either by itself is not.
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Asrock Z68 Pro3 and Z68 Pro3-m are both UEFI boards and are cheap.
 
PGHammer said:
Not with the Z68 chipset.

UEFI doesn't require Z68 (the lowest-priced UEFI motherboard from anyone @ Newegg is a Biostar H61 model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138313) - MC offers this same motherboard as this week's loss-leader (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0361810). My argument is that apparently UEFI and Z68 *together* are pricey - either by itself is not.
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http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68 Pro3&cat=Specifications
 
novadaemon said:
Asrock Z68 Pro3 and Z68 Pro3-m are both UEFI boards and are cheap.
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My quibble (and it's entirely subjective, I admit) with ASRock is that other than small local retailers, ASRock has no brick-and-mortar presence (MicroCenter does not carry ASRock, for example). Also, I buy from MicroCenter locally due to their having the best price among local retailers *and* typically the best stock - those same local retailers that *do* carry ASRock are very hit-and-miss when it comes to local inventory.
 
Well in my case there were only two boards that met my requirements (7+ sata, display port); the gigabyte and asrock. Microcenter had neither; they mostly had micro-atx z68 which had fewer ports. I would have gone witht he gigabyte if they had it in stock (esp with the $40 savings it was pretty good deal); but they didn't and said they had no intention on carrying it.

PGHammer said:
My quibble (and it's entirely subjective, I admit) with ASRock is that other than small local retailers, ASRock has no brick-and-mortar presence (MicroCenter does not carry ASRock, for example). Also, I buy from MicroCenter locally due to their having the best price among local retailers *and* typically the best stock - those same local retailers that *do* carry ASRock are very hit-and-miss when it comes to local inventory.
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Have you noticed any new quirks with the board since your initial review? I'm leaning heavily towards purchasing this board on Monday over the Asus P8Z68-V. :)
 
I am actually running it as my main system right now.

It has been pretty painless overall.
 
What do you guys think about the GA-Z68XP-UD5? Is it worth the additional cost over the UD3 and UD4? I'm considering upgrading to a 2600k and 2x6990's and sorta liked the look and features of the UD5 even though my 6990's would be limited to x8/x8.
 
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It can run my 2600K at 5.1 ghz no problem.

I think SB overclocking is far more limited by the CPU than the motherboard.
 
Do you have to get a board with onboard video (like this one in this thread) to get access to/utilize the QuickSync feature or does it work on any sandybridge board with compatible software eg mediaEspresso?
 
What about aZ68 board with a video card with video out? Is that the same or just Z68 boards with onboard video?
 
That is where the Lucid Virtu software comes in. It will allow you to use the onboard for Quick Sync, while still having a discrete GPU.
 
I have a choice to make between this board and its brother the 'R" model with no onboard video. If both support Intel quick sync then I will go for the R (I need the extra SATA controller) but if the R doesn't support Quick Sync (it has no onboard video) then I will go with this board. Both seem excellent boards for the price.
 
Wondering if I got a bad board. I picked this up to use in a new PC. I did the full build using the i5-2500K, G.Skill 2x4GB Sniper DDR3 1600, Seasonic 660.

As soon as I try to add my Ceton InfiniTV4 to a PCI-E slot, the board won't get past loading operating system and reboots. I have tried all three x1 slots and even the top x16 slot with the same results.

The card works fine in my old GA-P55-UD4P.
 
sounds like soem sort of conflict. It does happen, but may be able to be sorted with a bios update. Suggest you contact Gigabyte support and describe the problem.
 
Great review! just installed this as my new system and loving it.

Does anyone find any information about when/if QuickTime will ever support Quick Sync?
TIA!
 
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