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The board also features Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable components. The VRMs are quite heavy due to the heatsinks Gigabyte uses, while it makes the board quite a bit heavier it does wonders to keeping the VRMs cool while overclocked. This is to insure stability and to reduce wear and tear on the 8+2 Phase power delivery. Also not to forget it has ferrite core chokes which helps overclocking performance yet again. Finally to round off the power delivery, the board has a full 8-pin CPU Connector.
The board also comes equipped with SLI support and up to 3 cards in Crossfire as the system can be configured to do x8/x8/x4, but we would not recommend 3-way GPU configurations since most games don’t scale well enough after 2 cards. While still having 2 PCI-E x1 ports and a legacy PCI Slot.
Moving on to the I/O, this Motherboard is equipped with 6 SATA 3.0 ports 2 of which are disabled when using the SATA Express port or the M.2 port. While only 6 SATA ports may not seem like a lot it should be fine for most users. Most boards in this price range come with a similar set up.
We also get the Realtek ALC 1150 rated at 115 dB Sound to Noise playback ratio and 104dB Sound-to-Noise recording ratio. Overall the sound quality was not muddy or washed out and was quite solid, with the interference being very low goes to show how far onboard audio has gone in the past few years. For an audiophile, you may want to stick with your expanded sound card for increased performance.
We also get all high grade solid capacitors, which again help with durability while overclocked.
The front panel connectors are clearly labeled which is a huge plus to new and veteran builders alike. We can also see the dual bios here which is a fantastic addition in case of bios corruption while updating or errors while overclocking. This is something we love to see and makes a great addition.
For the back I/O we have 4 USB 3.0 Ports and 4 USB 2.0 Ports for a total of 8 on the back, along with an Intel Ethernet port, your standard Audio ports, PS/2 Keyboard and mouse, which seems a bit excessive as one is more than enough for most users. Also if you plan on using the integrated video we have an HDMI, DVI and VGA Ports for all your visual needs.
Review Overview
Design
Features
Overclocking
Performance
Warranty
Rock Solid Motherboard!
The Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H Black Edition is built like a tank and runs like a thoroughbred! If you are looking for a motherboard that won't let you down, no need to look any further!
I would argue against your claims that Gigabytes do “rock solid motherboards”.I’ve had 2 die on me in the last month plus the 3rd one doesn’t work properly.
Bought a Z-97- HD3. Couldn’t get post and only got black screen with GTX 780 card. Older 580 card was OK though. GTX 780 works fine on spare PC by the way.
Gigabytes customer support is an absolute joke. No help at all , they just refuse to answer questions and shunt you about.
Buy anything from Gigabyte at your own risk. I’d give ’em 2 stars for the quality of their products and half a star for their customer service.
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes with Gigabyte products.
When we refer to something as “rock solid” or “reliable” we of course can really only speak for the experiences we’ve had ourselves, and perhaps at best the general consensus of those who’ve purchased their products in the past.
Unfortunately we can’t judge the product based on anecdotal evidence from any one customer, as that would be unfair to the company, and our viewers. That being said, we will of course raise your concerns with customer service with Gigabyte in the future.