Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Overclockers Choice
Category : X58
Published by Jean-Luc Hadey on 06.12.08
With the GA-EX58-UD5, Gigabyte presents a mainboard which is based on Intels latest X58 chipset. Gigabyte packed this product full with features and tools. With this board Gigabyte provides you with triple SLI and CrossFire on the same mainboard. It should also be possible to overclock the EX58-UD5 very high.
On the following pages you will see what the new Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 is capable of.
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Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core i7/ 45nm Processors |
| Chipset | Intel X58 + ICH10R |
| QPI | 6.4 GT/s |
| Memory | Triple Channel DDR3, 6 x DIMM, Max. 12 GB DDR3 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066 Non-ECC, unbuffered |
| Multi-GPU | Triple SLI & CrossfireX |
| Slots | 3 x PCI-Ex16 (x16, x16, x , 2 x PCI, 1 x PCI-Ex1, 1 x PCI-Ex4 |
| Sound | High Definition Audio CODEC (8-channel audio support) |
| Storage | 10 x S-ATA II 3 Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 1 x ATA 100/66/33 |
| LAN | Dual Gigabit Ethernet |
| Firewire | 3 x 1394a ports (1 via Backpanel, 2 via Mainboard Header) |
| USB | 12 x USB2.0/1.1 Anschlüsse |
| Divers | Onboard Switches: Power, Reset, C-Mos Clear Diagnose-Code display, Dual-Bios |
| Dimensions | ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
Included in delivery
| Cables and divers |
| 1x ATX I/O bezel |
| 1 x SLI Bridge, 1 x Triple SLI Bridge |
| 4 x SATA cables |
| 1 x SATA power cord for 2 drives |
| 2 x eSATA-SATA Adapter |
| 1 x IDE cable, 1 x floppy cable |
| 1 x 2-port eSATA bezel |
| Gigabyte driver and utilities DVD |
| Manual |
| Anti Virus Software OEM |
Gigabyte ships the GA-EX58-UD5 with a large bundle of accessories, software and utilities. Next to all the cables and drivers you'll find supplements lik OEM anti virus software, @BIOS to update your BIOS within windows, Dynamic Energy Saver and EasyTune6. The last two items allow hardware monitoring and divers settings in windows. If you choose "Tuner" you'll be able to adjust clock and voltages and in the "Advanced" menu Gigabyte makes it possible to manipulate memory divider, CPU multiplyer as well as memory voltage.
Several overclocking attempts have been executed via EasyTune6 which seems to be very reliable.
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Layout and I/O
The layout is clearly arranged. All connectors are well placed and accessible. Installing new hardware is very convenient because on the whole board there is plenty of space around the bigger components.
Altogether there are six memory slot (E) on the GA-EX58-UD5 which officially support DDR3-1066/1333 with up to 12 GByte/s transferrate. If you want to overclock the memory subsystem Gigabyte says DDR3-1600 is also possible.
With its 90 degree angled SATA connectors Gigabyte lets the you arrange its cables neatly (A) and the onboard power- and reset button are very practical (B). Further you'll find a two several diagnostic LEDs which are capable of showing different states.
Overcurrent protection-LEDs: Overvoltingstufe der CPU, Speicher, Northbridge und Southbridge.[/de]stage of CPU, memory, northbridge and southbridge overvolting.
CPU Overclocking-LEDs: Overclockingstufe der CPU.[/de]stage of CPU overclocking.
Temperature alert-LEDs: CPU und Northbridge Temperatur.[/de]CPU and northbridge temperature.
To cool the GA-EX58-UD5 Gigabyte put a massive, passive heatpipe on it (F). Despite their dimensions there is plenty of space to install even a huge CPU cooler.
If you are looking for external connectors on the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 you can find two Gigabit ethernet ports, ten USB 2.0 connectors (two via mainboard header), PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors, optical and coaxial S/PDIF connectors as well as firewire, two eSATA connectors and 8-channel audio I/O.
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BIOS
| BCLK Frequency | 100 - 1200 MHz in 1 MHz steps |
| QPI Link Speed | Auto, x 36, x 44, x 48, Slow Mode |
| PCIE Frequency | 100 bis 200 MHz in 1 MHz steps |
| CPU Voltage | Auto, Normal, 0.50 - 1.9V |
| QPI/Vtt Voltage | Auto, Normal, 1.1 - 2.2V |
| IOH Core | Auto, Normal, 1.0 - 2.0V |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, Normal, 1.3 - 2.6V |
| QPI/PLL | Auto, Normal, 0.8 - 1.6V |
| PCIE Voltage | Auto, Normal, 1.0 - 2.14V |
| ICH Core | Auto, Normal, 0.92 - 2.38V |
It takes some time until you have a good overview of all the settings Gigabyte delivers. The many different voltage settings and the possibility to save different BIOS configurations are interesting and suitable for overclockers needs. It is also possible to change all the settings in Windows with Gigabytes EasyTune.
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Test environment
| Hardware | |
| Mainboard | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58 Express Chipset, LGA 1366 Socket |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition, 3.20 GHz Intel Core i7-920, 2.6GHz |
| Memory | Corsair 3 x 2GB DDR3 1800 MHz CL8 @ 1066 MHz (Triple Channel Kit) |
| Graphic card | ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB GDDR5 |
| Harddisk | Samsung 620GB F1 |
| PSU | Corsair HX 1000 Watt |
To test the mainboard on performance and stability we use the following games and benchmark programs.
Benchmark programs
Futuremark PCMark Vantage: Checks the system performance with five different tests: System, CPU, memory, graphics and HDD.
3DMark Vantage: Checks the systems gaming performance.
Sisoft Sandra XII 2008: Performance- and stability test through memory bandwidth, multi-media performance and arithmetic performance.
Super PI mod 1.5XS: Performance and stability test which calculates PI on a specified number of decimal places.
HD Tach 3.0.4.0: measures the performance of hard disks. We use HD Tach 3.0.4.0.
Games
- F.E.A.R (DX9.0c)
- Crysis (DX10)
Resolution: 800 x 600
Anit Aliasing: none
Filtering: by system
Details: medium
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Test results and overclocking
| PCMark Vantage | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | Asus P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| PCMarkSuite | 7453 | 7434 | 7457 |
| Memories Suite | 5592 | 5583 | 5601 |
| Gaming Suite | 10441 | 10455 | 10462 |
| 3DMark Vantage | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | Asus P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO DDR3 |
| Total | 9893 | 9864 | 9683 |
| GPU Score | 8474 | 8456 | 8286 |
| CPU Score | 19874 | 19712 | 19837 |
| SiSoft memory bandwidth MB/s | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | ASUS P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| Integer | 18620 | 18500 | 18150 |
| SiSoft memory bandwidth MB/s | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | Asus P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| Floating point | 18850 | 18610 | 18260 |
| SuperPi | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | ASUS P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| 1M | 12.322s | 12.371s | 12.106s |
| 32M | 11m.45.681s | 11m 46.321s | 11m.20.875s |
| HD Tach USB-2.0-interface | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | ASUS P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| CPU load | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Burst (MB/s) | 37 | 36 | 35 |
| Read average (MB/s) | 32.4 | 31.7 | 32.5 |
| HD Tach SATA interface | |||
| CPU load | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| Burst (MB/s) | 219 | 216 | 213 |
| Read average (MB/s) | 92.5 | 91.6 | 90.2 |
| Resultate in FPS | Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 | Asus P6T Deluxe | Intel DX58SO |
| F.E.A.R (DX9) | 459 | 462 | 457 |
| Crysis (DX10) | 73.46 | 72.45 | 70.23 |
With our overclocking attempts we are looking for the highest possible Busclock. As a stabilitytest we use SuperPI 1.5 which has to run a 32M calculation. Therefore the results can be considered as stable.
With the corresponding BIOS settings we were able to clock the CPU to 4.22 GHz and the board to a BCKL of 201 MHz. Therefore the CPU needed 1.48 volts and a multiplyer of 21.
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Conclusion
When it comes down to performance, stability and equipment Gigabyte plays with the GA-EX58-UD5 in a very high league. All benchmarks performed very well and could be done absolutely stable. Also the layout is optimal. Therefore you get easily accessible connectors, 90 degree angled SATA ports as wells as onboard power and reset buttons.
For gamers and/or overclocking freaks the GA-EX58-UD5 comes with and easy to handle BIOS and with the 12+2+2 phase power design you get an absolutely stable current supply.
In our overclocking attempts we managed to get more than 200 MHz out of the GA-EX58-UD5 which these times is a really respectable value for an X58 mainboard.
With the GA-EX58-UD5 Gigabyte has a convincing and very solid product in its portfolio which would be a safe investment for hardware enthusiasts and this to a fair price.
Resulting of the above mentioned reasons we give our OCaholic Top Hardware Award to this product.
You can buy the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 at Digitec.ch for CHF 369.-
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Author: jl.hadey@ocaholic.ch
Revised by: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch