Final thoughts and rating
Gigabyte's commitment to the Intel Z68 chipset is evidenced by having no fewer than 22 distinct boards in its worldwide line-up. Ensconced in the middle of the pack is the Z68XP-UD3P, priced at £130.
Packed with Z68 goodies such as Smart Response Technology and able to run both integrated and discrete graphics, Gigabyte includes USB 3.0, FireWire, SATA 6Gbps, SLI and CrossFire, and video-mixing Virtu support, and these features are on top of what Intel provides with the underlying chipset.
Board layout is good for one with a bevy of manufacturer-provided features, and the BIOS, while not presented as a modern UEFI, has all the bells and whistles an enthusiast could want.
But £130 is still a significant chunk of change for a motherboard, especially when quality H67 boards sell for under £100 and the non-IGP-supporting P67 can be purchased for £30 less on a roughly-matching feature-set.
By reading this far you'll know if the Z68 chipset is right for you. If that happens to be the case, the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P is a quality motherboard from start to finish. Recommended.
The Good
Good layout
Handsome feature-set
for price
Decent BIOS, for the most part
Includes Virtu technology
The Bad
Could do with a DVI port on the I/O section
HEXUS Rating
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P motherboard
HEXUS Awards
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P motherboard
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Gigabyte board is available from Scan.co.uk.
HEXUS Right2Reply
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