GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD3 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 5 year coverage

Cons: Unfortunately board went out, lost time, lost money, lost work. This is the second item out of the 2000.00 plus dollars I spent on parts to go out on me in less than a year.

Pros: Works great had no compatibility issues at all and is running just fine.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: 4x pci-e x16 slots

Cons: Make sure to check the processor compatibility list for the LGA 2011 proc you are buying for this board. There is a sticker on the box that says bios F7 or higher. I bought an i7-3820 which is not supported on this board until bios F8. The computer will not post which after researching is common with an unsupported processor. As far as i can tell the board cannot be flashed without a processor therefore the board is completely useless.

Other Thoughts: Im sure with a supported processor or a bios update this would have been a very nice board. I gave it 2 stars for the price and specs.t

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

BIOS F8 has a release date of Jan 2012. Unless you purchased extremely old inventory from a dealer, any recent purchase of this model should have BIOS version F11. If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013041702 in the subject line. We perform BiOS update free of charge.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: X79, boatload of USB pots, nearly every feature you could want. USB3.0, eSATA, SATAIII. This board is a solid board. After updating the bios, I've had 0 issues with this board. Great design for layout, and rock solid. Don't pass up on this board due to it only having 4 DIMM slots.

Cons: Only 4 DIMM slots, any X79 board should come with more slots. Even though 32GB of RAM is more than enough for 99.9% of users, it still feels limiting for such a great board. This is a small issue though overall.

The biggest issue I ran in to with this board is that the BIOS version I had had a problem with network speeds. I was limited to speeds of 1/MBps at MAX. After updating to a newer version of the BIOS, speeds are where they should be.

Pros: Nothing. Definitely not the customer support.

Cons: This board came to me with problems. The NIC required the drivers to be uninstalled/re-installed everytime from a cold start in order for it to successfully initialize. And now, after having the board only a short 3 months, it has completely crapped out on me. My machine will not boot. Don't buy Gigabyte. Ever.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with your product. Usually if you are having a issue with any of the features or onboard connections, I would suggest you load the defaults, to verify that everything is working according to factory defaults before begining to overclocking your system. In your case, you should load the Optimzed defaults to make sure your NIC was working as you should not have to reload drivers each time.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013040302 in the subject line with your completed system configurations and any special BiOS settings. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue as soon as possible.

Please contact our Live Technical Support at 626-854-9338, option 3 if the matter is urgent.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: board works great! Almost had it a year.

Cons: the 3d bios was bad from the start. I had to flash it a few times before the board would post correctly. However to this day I can't get into the bios with out it locking up. I was able to use the software in windows to configure the bios and make everything work. For almost 300 bux I would expect not to have any issues.

Other Thoughts: Leave the bios alone no reason to have a 3d bios. just complicates things. Mainly because it didn't work.

Pros: Several complaints about older bios but when it arrived board had the latest and greatest bios. Installed without any issues.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: CPU: I7-3820
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaw Z Series 16gb
Cpu Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011

Pros: Quad SLI, Blazing fast memory with huge bandwidth, easily overclocked, 5 year warranty.

Cons: Horrible bios out of the box, solution makes me concerned about the durability of the board when stressed.

Other Thoughts: It took a long time for me to get to the point where I felt I could actually review this item honestly, and without being jaded about my initial experience with the board. At first I couldn't even get a windows install going on the machine and I kept getting hard resets out of nowhere. I did a little research and found that there was an updated bios that effectively limited power to certain parts of the board. I just wanted to get it working so I installed the new bios and all was well. Overclocking has never seemed to be a problem despite the BIOS hamstring. I have been running a 3960X @ 4.6GHz stable for several months now. I must say I'm impressed with the board after the initial setup problems, and proud of Gigabyte for standing up and offering the 5 year warranty after initial concerns about the board. All of this being said, I would have concerns about putting the 150w 3970X in this board.

Pros: Very stable and does its job. I use this every day all day with Pro Tools HDX.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I would buy it again.

Pros: Fast boot up, no instal issues, Compatible with all devices:
DVBS2 pcie cards, ATSC HDTV cards, USB HDTV devices, DVBS2 devices, Raid card, lots of USB2 ports, PCI slot is nice for older card, MSI/AMD HDMI/Display Port card installed.

Cons: none I can find, board works great with all devices!

Other Thoughts: 3.3GHZ i7 6 core installed. Liquid cooled CPU installed, 16GB Ram.