Final thoughts and rating
Gigabyte's newest board for Intel's Core i7 900-series processors is the X58 USB3. Designed to entice users into committing for Intel's best-performing consumer platform by lowering the price to £135, including VAT, Gigabyte needs to balance the need to cut costs while not skimping on features we've come to associate with high-end desktops.The X58 USB3 uses the well-received X58A UD3R v2.0 as a blueprint and cuts away features such as SATA 6Gb/s, eSATA, IDE, three-way graphics, and optical S/PDIF support. But what remains is still attractive in our eyes; the board still has enough to satisfy being called a premium offering, headlined by, as the name suggests, USB3 support.
No X58 chipset-based motherboard will have it all for £135, clearly, but if you want a no-nonsense offering that will be a good home to a lower-end Core i7 9x0 chip, Gigabyte's X58 USB3 is a fine place to start. Indeed, it's only the relative excellence of the X58A-UD3R v2.0, attracting a £15 premium, which inhibits us from recommending the X58 USB3 without reservation.
The Good
One of the cheapest X58 boards
around
CrossFireX
and SLI support
Decent overclocking potential
The Bad
Relative excellence of X58A
UD3R v2.0 puts this in the shade
HEXUS Rating
Gigabyte X58 USB3
HEXUS Awards
Gigabyte X58 USB3
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Gigabyte X58 USB3 is currently available on pre-order from Scan.co.uk for £137.67.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
