There has been a growing trend for manufacturers to differentiate themselves from the competition by bundling unique software with their components. ASUS and Gigabyte are no different and over the next few pages, we will take a closer look as to what's offered with the UD3R. The driver CD is presented in a nice, easy to follow GUI. The first tab lists the important chipset drivers and users can decide to install them all or select which drivers they want.
Scrolling down are more drivers for the USB and SATA controllers. The adjacent tab allows for each driver to be installed separately.
Under application software, there are three tabs for Gigabyte utilities, third-party software and applications specified for the UD3R. Utilities on the first tab are general ones that can be used to update the BIOS, find the latest version of other utilities or view more information about the motherboard. The most notable utility is EasyTune 6, which similarly to ASUS's TurboV, enables users to overclock their motherboard in Windows rather than BIOS.
The next tab contains some applications to get new users going after installation such as Firefox and Adobe Acrobat Reader as well as Raid and Ethernet utilities.
The last tab is home to three Gigabyte specific software, Smart6, Dynamic Energy Saver 2 and Auto Green. Smart6 is an innovative tool that aims to combine 6 small programs to provide easy and smart PC system management. The program can be used to speed up boot time, manage and secure important files or passwords, and even control when the PC can be accessed. Dynamic Energy Saver 2 enhances system efficiency through reduced power consumption and auto-phase-switching for the CPU. It's akin to ASUS's EPU implementation and we will have a closer look over the next few pages.
Guides are provided for all the bundled applications. It is quite daunting having so many utilities to keep track of and my recommendation would have been for Gigabyte to incorporate a few of them into one application. It would also reduce the number of software users have to install on their brand new system just to take full advantage of the board's capabilities.
