The GA-X58A-UD3R is dominated by the cool blue and white colour scheme that most would have grown accustomed to by now. The blue PCB may not be as menacing as the more popular black ones that are flooding the market but it distinguishes Gigabyte from the competition. It's certainly good to see a company adhering to their own philosophy of innovation and uniqueness. As with most motherboards, the motherboard measures 12 inches x 9.6 inches ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm), complying to the standard ATX form factor. The key selling point of the Gigabyte motherboards, as the company constantly reminded us on the packaging, is its Ultra Durable 3 design. The board uses 2oz of copper in the power and ground layers of the PCB to dissipate heat more efficiently and reduce impedance by 50%. The 2oz of copper also promises to improve signal quality and lower electromagnetic interference. Those come together to create a more durable and efficient board that is bound to open the overclocking headroom.


If the box wasn't already a visual spectacle, then the board is certainly colourful factoring in the I/O plate, chrome finished heatsinks and the various onboard components. The board itself is very well laid out and all the components, DIMM slots, SATA ports and expansion slots are where we would expect them to be placed. Similarly to the ASUS P6X5 -E, the socket is centrally positioned relative to the DIMM slots to minimize the distance between the CPU and the RAM for lower latencies. Hopefully, the results later on will reflect this.


On the back of the motherboard, we can see the LGA1366 socket retention backplate. This has a reflective gun metal grey finish for further appeal. The X58 chipset heatsink is fairly large so requires a support bar for security and additional pressure. The other heatsinks use push pins instead. Whilst not ideal, it helps reduce costs. It's also not dissimilar to ASUS's implementation on their value motherboard.


There is a wide range of connectors at the back. Going from left to right, there is the:

-PS/2 mouse port (green)
-PS/2 keyboard port (purple)
-Optical S/PDIF Out port
-Coaxial S/PDIF Out port
-Clear CMOS switch
-IEEE 1394a port (yellow)
-USB 2.0/1.1 ports (yellow)
-eSATA/USB Combo connector (yellow)
-Mini IEEE 1394a port (yellow)
-USB 2.0/1.1 ports (yellow)
-eSATA/USB Combo connector (yellow)
-2 x USB 2.0 ports
-RJ-45 LAN port
-2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (blue)
-8 Channel Audio I/O ports

With a total of 8 USB ports on the back panel alone, users can plug in all the devices or peripherals they need. The main innovation here is the eSATA/USB combo ports, allowing for both types of interface to be used from the same port. The USB3.0 ports provide up to 10x more bandwidth than USB2.0 for a total of 5Gbps instead on 480Mbps. Another unique feature that Gigabyte are claiming is that their ports can deliver up to 3x more power for increased compatibility and stability with USB devices. The advantage is that external storage devices will not require an additional connection or power adapter to work. This is achieved through the onboard JMicron JMB362 chip. The audio comes from the Realtek onboard ALC889 8 channel high definition audio CODEC.



Tucked away behind the I/O ports is the NEC D720200F1 chip that delivers USB 3.0 support to the board.


The motherboard makes use of a single 8 pin ATX 12V power connector, which should provide adequate power for overclocking purposes. We can also take a closer look at the push pins used on the chipset cooler as mentioned before.


The chipset cooling is fairly impressive on initial looks. The heatsinks use a fin shaped aluminium design to dissipate heat from key components including the ICH10R chip, X58 chipset and the MOSFETs. To increase surface area, the fins branch out in different directions, adding to the visual appeal at the same time. All the heatsinks have the same gun metal grey finish, a true mark of quality over standard boards. A single heat pipe connects the X58 chipset heatsink to the leftmost MOSFET heatsink, both of which are covered by a blue metallic finished plate with the Gigabyte and Ultra Durable names. The Southbridge heatsink is a standalone low profile cooler that tries to maximise surface area using a similar fin design to the other heatsinks. One thing to note is that the heatsinks are low profile to ensure compatibility with the majority of CPU coolers including the Noctua NH-D14.