Gigabyte's X58A-UD9 under the spotlight. Seven PCIe slots for starters

by Tarinder Sandhu on 19 May 2010, 05:00

Tags: GA-X58A-UD9, Gigabyte (TPE:2376)

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It is feasible to have both the block and SilentPipe 2 working in tandem, increasing cooling performance, but non-liquid-cooling users may want to remove the block.

Being X58, six DIMM slots are available, scaling up to DDR3 memory operating at 2,200MHz, and we expect most enthusiasts to fill them. Power and reset buttons - now staple fare for enthusiast-class boards - are close by.



So why the need for extra width and height of PCB? The reason is the same as for EVGA, that is, the PCB space required to house bridging chips that boost the X58 chipset's 36 PCIe lanes. There's little point in having seven full-length PCIe slots if bandwidth cannot be allocated in a sensible manner.

This is why the GA-X58A-UD9 ships with two nF200 chips that hang off the X58 IOH. Add it all up together and total PCIe allocation means that you can run four graphics cards at x16 for either four-way SLI or four-way CrossFireX.


And here are the slots. Looking from the top the first, third, fifth and seventh slots all work at x16 electrically. The in-between slots operate at 8x. This means that you can have double-width cards arranged in a four-way grouping. Quad GeForce GTX 480s, anyone? The bridge-covering heatsink connects to the X58 IOH's and whilst well-made, it doesn't feel very substantial.

Moving away from the cornucopia of PCIe laneage, the board also ships with two SATA6 ports - although a further two are confusingly coloured a SATA6-matching white - that are powered by a Marvell controller as well as USB 3.0 from NEC.



Realtek chips in with dual Gigabit and high-definition audio. Gigabyte doubles-up on a couple of ports - bottommost orange-coloured ones in the middle - and is able to push both eSATA and USB through them.

Gigabyte already has a well-established X58 chipset-based range of motherboards in the form of the 'UD3R, UD4, 'UD5, and 'UD7 boards. The GA-X58A-UD9 is one that's intended to appeal to the proper hardcore enthusiast who plans to run three or more graphics cards and the very latest hardware to match. We reckon it will cost well over £300 when it makes an appearance at etailers' listings. Worth it? Wait for the review next week.


HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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Seven single slot GFX cards = 1 mental F@H rig :)
£300 :surprised:

Does this match/exceed the cost of dual-socket motherboard 10 years ago?

(Don't hear often about those since the advent of multi-core CPU)
TooNice
£300 :surprised:

Does this match/exceed the cost of dual-socket motherboard 10 years ago?

(Don't hear often about those since the advent of multi-core CPU)

I take it you haven't heard of the EVGA W555 then?

:p
I'm curious - why might non-watercoolers like to remove the waterblock? I rather assumed it would increase heat dissipation due to its greater surface area, but apparently not?

Edit: And wow, only 16 cases supported apparently. 12 of which are Thermaltake ones.. it doesn't fit in the Obsidian range I take it then? :confused:
This is one hell of a board. I so would like one.:drool:
Edit: still having a little problems with the baby blue though

@miniyazz: It doesn't add any more cooling when liquid cooling your rig. You want your liquid to only cool your chips and not the air as well for better results. But that is just a guess. So you just leave it of.

And for the 16 rigs. You need 10 slots to have this baby in your case (corsair only has 7). Even though the top 2 won't be used unless you use the superpipe.