After a look into the design and features of the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H we are now diving into how well it performs. Unlike the MSI Z68A-GD80 we do not have any indications that we will run out of PCIe lanes, however we are still a little concerned about how well the Z68X will perform when we drop in the HD5870. We are also more than a little curious to see how the touchBIOS will work on the real world. So, let’s dive in and get to testing the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H.
Value -Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item. The Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H B3 sells for $150 on most e-tailers which is the price range for the lower end of the middle range products. However, the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H B3 is far from that market space. In fact with the performance we saw the $150 price tag is quite good. Gigabyte throws some pretty decent features at you as well, but one of the things that I liked was just how overclockable the board was. Yes there is a ceiling around 50x, but that is still very good and if you have a CPU that does not need as much power as the i7 2600k does at that speed you can get even more for your money. Conclusion -As the second Z68 based board we have tested the Z68X-UD3H gives us a more favorable impression of this new range. We can still safely say that it will not be replacing the X58 any time soon (or indeed at all). However while the X58 is in no danger from the Z68, AMD’s 8xxGX series boards are. At $150 for the board (and CPU prices that are dropping) we can see Gigabyte’s Z68X-UD3H eating away at AMD’s entry level market space even with a lower end CPU. The Z68X-UD3H is not just for the entry level though. Even if you are only running with the GMA GPU on the Core i7/i5 you will get solid performance for general computing and decent performance with workstation applications. If you are looking for an inexpensive board to start out with then the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H is a good place to start. You will get good results with only a small amount of effort, but still have plenty of room for tuning. In short Gigabyte’s Z68X-UD3H is a good board for many different market spaces.Discuss this in our Forum
