GA-990FXA-UD5 (Rev 1.0) Living Review
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Gigabyte’s new GA-990FXA-UD5 motherboard has just been delivered to me and I have to say it looks pretty impressive. Detailed specifications can be found here: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3891&dl=1#sp so I won’t bore you with all those details. Suffice it to say that this board sports the new black colour scheme of Gigabyte’s higher end motherboards, is AM3+ ready, for when AMD releases the new Fusion FX (Bulldozer) CPU’s and has the latest 9 series chipsets from AMD. It also supports 3 way Crossfire and SLI support, something which hasn’t always been available on recent AMD motherboards.
The box is covered with the usual logos and is actually printed in a dark green colour (apologies for the poor photographs which make it look black).
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When you open the box you find 4 black SATA leads, a 2 way and a 3 way SLI connector (if you use ATI Cards the Crossfire connectors usually come with the graphics card), User’s Manual, Quick Start manual, Backplate and a couple of stickers.
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The motherboard itself looks very impressive. The Northbridge and Mosfet coolers are of a slotted design and are linked with a heatpipe to transfer heat more efficiently.
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The AM3+ Socket is black and there is a new design for the Cooler bracket which now runs down 2 sides of the CPU rather than the large rectangular box design previously seen. Once, again, this design tweak is to aid cooling and to improve airflow around the CPU socket.
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The first thing that I really did notice on this board is just how low the profile is for the Southbridge cooler. It is so low, in fact, that it actually sits below the SATA ports on the edge of the board.
(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/5264/990ud5007.jpg) (http://img717.imageshack.us/i/990ud5007.jpg/)
The new design for the Mosfet Cooler has allowed for easier access to the 8 Pin 12V power connector socket.
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/7319/990ud5008.jpg) (http://img825.imageshack.us/i/990ud5008.jpg/)
OK first grumble coming up….. I know that Gigabyte have added a disclaimer with regard to the PCIEX1 socket stating that: “Due to a hardware limitation, the PCIEX1 slot can only accommodate a shorter PCI Express X1 Expansion card.” But, I tried to install a USB expansion card which I think is quite small, the distance from the back of the slot to the back of the card is only 17mm,
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and this was too long. I’m not sure which PCIEX1 cards will actually fit this slot and it could be an issue for some users.
(http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/8923/990ud5012.jpg) (http://img853.imageshack.us/i/990ud5012.jpg/)
The SATA ports are placed on the right hand edge of the board. The 6 black ports are controlled by the AMD SB950 Chipset whilst the 2 grey ones are controlled by the Marvell 9172 Chipset.
(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4554/990ud5013.jpg) (http://img18.imageshack.us/i/990ud5013.jpg/)
The backpanel follows the standard layout and has a plethora of USB ports.
(http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4585/990ud5014.jpg) (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/990ud5014.jpg/)
The headers for the front panel connections, Front Audio, USB, USB 3.0 Header, Firewire, etc, are placed along the lower edge of the board
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The back of the motherboard is clean and tidy and the backplate for the CPU cooler mount is made from black metal.
(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9813/990ud5011.jpg) (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/990ud5011.jpg/)
Unlike the GA-890FXA-UD5 that I have been using, this board lacks certain features. For example, there are no Power, Reset or Clear CMOS buttons. It also has only one LAN connector which although not a big issue to me, does make one wonder why they have not been included. This board also lack the Coaxial S/Pdif connector that the GA-890FXA-UD5 had, although it does retain the Optical S/Pdif output. Also, there is no longer an IDE or Floppy header, so this board is SATA only, if you have any older hardware that uses these connections you will have to replace them. So, there are same major changes with the hardware that this board packs over the GA-890FXA-UD5.
However, the inclusion of SLI support is something that many users will be pleased to see along with the new AMD 9 Series chipset. In some ways, at first glance, this board seems like a step backwards but, and it is a big but, this board has been designed for the new AMD AM3+ Fusion FX (Bulldozer) processors, when they come along and, as such, we shouldn’t be too critical of what seems to be lacking.
to be continued.....