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GA-Z68XP-UD3 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy Award

runn3R

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GA-Z68XP-UD3 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy Award
« on: July 19, 2011, 09:41:50 am »
GA-Z68XP-UD3 with EZ Smart Response & mSATA connector onboard has received Recommended Buy Award from Tom's Hardware



“We’ve been told that at least one physical graphics connection must be present for a Z68-based motherboard to support Quick Sync hardware accelerated video transcoding through the CPU’s integrated graphics engine, and Gigabyte addresses this need by adding a single HDMI connection. The firm also adds a legacy FireWire port, separating the -UD3 from previous upper-range parts only in its lack of secondary network and outdated digital coaxial audio outputs”
 
“Up against the limits of our intended budget, the Z68XP-UD3 is one of only two motherboards in today’s roundup to include a front-panel USB 3.0 header. The entirety of features would have made this a $160 board even if it had used the P67 chipset, so we’re not entirely clear how Gigabyte managed to retain this price with a Z68 product that includes Lucidlogix's Virtu license.”

And yet Gigabyte wouldn’t let us get away without mentioning its mSATA socket, a feature used in its more expensive Z68XP-UD3-iSSD to add a bundled 20 GB SLC-based SSD for caching. Buyers of the model viewed today are also able to add their own mSATA drive; just bear in mind that doing so with either board disables one of its SATA 3Gb/s ports.”



“The Z68XP-UD3 includes four SATA cables and an SLI bridge, which are our minimum standards for a mid-priced SLI motherboard. Cheaper boards can get away with fewer cables, since the lower price often appeals to budget builders with fewer drives.”


“The Z68XP-UD3 firmly targets performance fanatics with a layout that eschews the use of integrated graphics as a primary output, instead favoring SLI and CrossFire.”

“Up against the limits of our intended budget, the Z68XP-UD3 is one of only two motherboards in today’s roundup to include a front-panel USB 3.0 header. The entirety of features would have made this a $160 board even if it had used the P67 chipset, so we’re not entirely clear how Gigabyte managed to retain this price with a Z68 product that includes Lucidlogix's Virtu license.”

“…After careful deliberation, Gigabyte’s Z68XP-UD3 gets our Recommended Buy award”.


The article is “From $100 To $160: Five Z68-Based Boards, Compared“
GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3 review at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,2980-6.html
Conclusion and Award at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,2980-19.html
ZX-S & C64 are still my favourites ;-)

Dark Mantis

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Re: GA-Z68XP-UD3 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy Award
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2011, 10:07:00 am »
Another well deserved accolade for Gigabyte! From a well respected source as well. 8) 8) 8)
Gigabyte X58A-UD7
i7 920
Dominators 1600 x6 12GB
6970 2GB
HX850
256GB SSD, Sam 1TB, WDB320GB
Blu-Ray
HAF 932

Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3
i7 3770K
Vengeance 1600 16GB
6950 2GB
HCP1200W
Revo Drive x2, 1.5TB WDB RAID0
16x DLRW
StrikeX S7
Full water cooling
3 x 27" Iiy

Badbonji

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Re: GA-Z68XP-UD3 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy Award
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2011, 01:58:28 pm »
Nice! I read the review. The results were mostly luck in the benchmarks with only slight variations. Good to see that the board with the most features win though!
Core i7 965 @ 4.35Ghz 1.37Vcore
6Gb G.Skill 1600Mhz DDR3 @ 1740Mhz 8-8-8-20 1T
HIS HD5970 @ 800/1100
Gigabyte Extreme X58
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty
256GB M4 + 150GB Raptor
EK Supreme HF/GTX480/MCP655/EK Res :D

Re: GA-Z68XP-UD3 got Tom's Hardware Recommended Buy Award
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2019, 07:07:10 am »
Still running my GA-Z68XP-UD3 rev 1.0 (BIOS F10) board and have no plans on upgrading given it runs games just fine. Use it primarily for DCS
Win 10 Pro 1909 18363.476/GA-Z68XP-UD3/Core i7 3770K/32GB G-Skill Trident X 7-8-8-24/Asus RX 570 OC 4GB/Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer/1TB Crucial MX500 SSD/1TB RAW Mushkin SSD/1TB Hitachi SATA3/1TB WD Black SATA3/LG Blue Ray DL/Antec 650w PSU/Rosewill Mid Tower Challenger