GA-990FXA-UD5 Living Review

[derobert]

Thanks absic! That was very helpful I will try to provide some speed tests when i get my own board.

[derobert]

that looks good i think... i used 3x Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ in RAID 0 and Windows drivers which, as u said, are better than drivers from AMD ;-)

Meantime on the other side of mother board... PCIE_16X slots ARE TOO CLOSE! My graphic card in slot 1 have a barely room to breathe! about 3mm! Its almost 70C temp in stanby... i must buy super long Crossfire connector and put one of cards in PCIE_8X slot to make a space for airflow

[absic]

Hey, who needs SSD'd with figures like that?

Pleased you got the RAID up and running without too much trouble and it is nice to have it confirmed about the Microsoft drivers performing better over the AMD ones.

Yes, when running multiple GPU's the slot spacing does leave a little to be desired, especially if you wish to use both X16 lanes, but this seems to be the case with all motherboards if browsing the internet is anything to go by for multiple GPU set-ups.

[Lordred]

Hey, who needs SSD'd with figures like that?

Pleased you got the RAID up and running without too much trouble and it is nice to have it confirmed about the Microsoft drivers performing better over the AMD ones.

Yes, when running multiple GPU's the slot spacing does leave a little to be desired, especially if you wish to use both X16 lanes, but this seems to be the case with all motherboards if browsing the internet is anything to go by for multiple GPU set-ups.

Tis the case for all boards which support 3-way and 4-way, there are alot of 2-way boards which offer x16/x16 with a 3-slot spacing.

But the performance hit in running x16/x8 is at best only 1%. Even the GTX580 is unable to fully saturate a PCI-E 2.0 x8 config

[derobert]

But the performance hit in running x16/x8 is at best only 1%. Even the GTX580 is unable to fully saturate a PCI-E 2.0 x8 config

I red about a test of x4/x4 SLI and there was about 1-2% performance drop too 16x/16x, in some tests it was even better performance! ;-) But i must say that i tried yesterday both my 4890's in 16x/16x  and top card was getting about 95C temp in benchmark.... I was so angry that i took one of the cards and put it on auction... I will buy single 6950 and thats all... argh i was so angry!

[Dark Mantis]

Shame I would have been interested in how the two 4890s benched compared to some of the new cards.

[geekyadz]

The board seems to get a good review here: http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/motherboards/ga-990fxa-ud5/

They couldnt OC it as much as they like though (apparently)

[iSeries]

'Mid range', seems quite expensive for a mid range board to me lol.

No mention of vdroop in that review.

[ack65]

i just got the UD5 this weekend. i am currently using a 1090T with a Prolimatech Megahalems. my previous board was an MSI 790FX-GD70, which was a rock solid board. the 1090T ran 4.141 Ghz on 1.44V, 2828 Mghz cpu/nb on 1.34V.

with the UD5 i am at 4.0 with the BIOS set to 1.45V, and this is where the disappointment begins. number one, why the huge .025V increments for v-core and cpu/nb voltage?
i am currently using Aida64 for monitoring, though HWmonitor reads the same...so, 1.45 vcore in BIOS, Aida64 reads 1.48V idle, and drops to 1.42V under stress testing. i have read enough about this issue with this board, unless a solution is forthcoming, there will be an rma in my future. my first Gigabyte board and i am unbelievably disappointed.

[Dark Mantis]

As a bleeding edge user this sort of issue is bound to appear from time to time. I am, sure it is just a BIOS quirk that will be fixed soon enough but that is about par for the course.

[teknology9]

Hello Absic,

Where did you get them switches from PWR, Reset etc?


Thanks,

Teknology9

[absic]

Hi there,

I got these from Maplins for £4.99. Here's a link: http://www.maplin.co.uk/motherboard-testing-switch-set-98842 and I have to say it's the best money ever spent on computer bits! 

[teknology9]

Thanks for that Absic, I'll pop along to Maplins and pick up a set. I learnt a lot from your article, perhaps  an update  would be good when Bulldozer is launched just to see how the 990 FX boards perform.


Thanks,


Teknology9

[absic]

There will be some further updates coming along, just got a bit sidetracked with other things.

I've still got to do a test of the Marvel SATA controller and I will definitely be doing some further updates when the new AM3+ processors hit the shelves.

[teknology9]

Hello Absic,

Good to hear that. I have got my eye on the GA-990FX-UD7 because ofthe onboard on/ reset and clear cmos buttons as well as the LED display, good for troubleshooting.

Thanks,

Teknology9