We have talked much about the IvyBridge CPUs of Intel and now they had launched their new generation of CPU to make full domination in the market. The SandyBridge and the IvyBridge CPUs made great money for Intel and also users are much pleased with the performance of the last two generations. This new platform also open the door for the Z87 based motherboard in the market as these 4rh Gen CPUs are based on new socket and chipset so every brand is launching its z78 based motherboard and one most important thing to mention here is that these Z87 systems will support more USB 3.0 ports than previous Z77 based systems. Today we are gonna review a Z87 based from Gigabyte Z87 series and the motherboard on the review table is Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H.
The Gigabyte does not go further with performance or feature as they decided to stay balance between the feature of the board and its performance in case of Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H has pretty much improvements than its predecessor. It has black, silver and red color scheme which looks pretty decent. The Gigabyte added 6x USB 3.0 ports at the rear and 8x SATA ports at front of the motherboard as well. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H has DVI-D and VGA as well as HDMI port for displays. The PS/2, Ethernet and digital and analog audio options are also available on the rear. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H has the same problem as ASUS Z87 PRO has about using multiple PCIe slots as they slow down a bit when all of them are in use. Gigabyte continues to do well with this technology. With dual BIOS system, when a missed boot would cause the old backup ROM to overwrite the new one, when the old firmware wasn’t compatible with a new CPU but its not a problem with Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H. The Z87X-UD4H gives hard time for overclocking with top-mounted power and reset buttons, a CLR_CMOS button, two BIOS switches, a POST code LED display, and a row of voltage rail detection points. The BIOS switches select single or dual BIOS mode, and which MOS is primary where as AsRock Z87 Extreme 6 was pretty much easy to overclock. Well lets go to benchmarks and they will tell you the truth…..
The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H is really a nice looking motherboard from Gigabyte and the features of this motherboard are really good and I am happy to see plenty of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps ports in all the new Z87 based motherboard including this one. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H has PCIe slots problem, they slot down when all of them are in use, I mean 3 way SLI/CrossFire users will see the performance lack or you can say bandwidth lack. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H is not easy when its comes to overclocking compared to AsRock and Asus z87 based motherboard so Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H is not bad but not good as other two z87 motherboards we have tested so far.
- Nice looks and color scheme.
- Decent Performance.
- Feature and connectivity.
- Solid build quality.
- Overclocking is not easy as compared to others.
- PCIe slots have problem.
