GIGABYTE GA-X79-UP4 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Motherboard looks fantastic aesthetically - not too flashy and not too minimal.

It has all the appropriate connections you could ever need

Feels weighty in your hand and sturdy enough to not warp under weight (shouldn't if installed correctly, but some video cards these days are HEAVY)

Booted up fine with no issues

BIOS is easily navigated

Instruction manual is well-written and very thorough.

Cons: None.

Pros: Looks great.

Cons: Can't get past the bios screen or into the bios after days upon days of testing with numerous configurations. Second defective board from Gigabyte, the first being GA-X79-UP5-WIFI. Save your sanity and skip this board.

Manufacturer Response:

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

The new UEFI interface tries to auto detect all your system components before completing post. If your system stops at the post screen, the motherboard is working correctly. The possible causes may be that motherboard is failing to detect some component or your BIOS setting is corrupt or set too aggressively. I suggest your remove your components, and only install the basic, CPU, 1xDIMM, graphics card, PS, KB/Mouse. Be sure to connect both the 24 pin power cable, the ATX12V power cable, and the power for your graphics card if needed. If this does not work, try reseting your BiOS options by removing the power, and the CMOS battery for at least 8 min, and try again.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013042201 in the subject line with your complete system configuration.

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

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Simply beautiful! Quality construction, impeccable layout & design. This thing has so many features and settings it took me back a bit. Overclocking is a breeze with plenty of fine tuning available.

Cons: Bottom PCIe slot is just a bit too low and pose an issue with the USB, sound and other connections at the bottom are plugged in with a bigger GPU wanting to use that slot. I didn't plan on using 4 GPUs anyway so not a big deal.

Other Thoughts: To be honest I can usually install a board and know inside and out within a few minutes in the BIOS. This board has so much to it I actually had to study the book a bit. I like the fact it has that many features and settings.

On a side note; I like to do a mock support ticket in situations where I'm not use to a company. Their support is as amazing as the product.

Pros: x79, quad channel memory with 6 slots, lots of I/O, slots are spread out nicely, USB 3.0 header for my case's front panel. It even has a PCI slot for an older card, if needed.

Cons: I have had a lot of little troubles with this board: won't power off on shutdown in either Win7 or Win8, difficult timing hitting del to enter the bios with an enterprise class raid controller, audio won't completely disable with an added audio card, audio sometimes fails to be recognized on boot because of conflicting resources forcing another reboot, has to rerecognize hardware every time it reboots, bios difficult to work with and slow to respond, poorly designed bios interface, overclocking seems to be simple enough at first but doesn't seem to work the way I think it does, slightly unstable, bluescreens about once to twice per week, even when not overclocked. They're not big deals on their own, and one or two on the list would be tolerable, but all of them together are slowly driving me nuts. It reminds me of Ferraris of the 70s, fast but unreliable, unstable, and overly sensitive. It's just too much trouble to work with.

Other Thoughts: it's a decent, inexpensive board, but there are better ones out there. I had to get this one because it was the only one available where I got it (I found a special where I got an extra $50 off when I bought it with a processor, when I thought it would save me $150 over buying it at Newegg, instead I'm going to be losing an extra $150 because I have to buy another MB because this one is going to drive me nuts. I should have bought it at NewEgg, and I should have bought an Asus MB from the start.)

Pros: 6 internal and 2 external SATA-3 controllers, low power consumption, absence of fan on chipset, ultra-durable, looks very aesthetic

Cons: undocumented possible problems with Windows installation, first PCIe 16x slot is located very close to CPU, just 4 case fan connectors

Other Thoughts: 1. I connected two Samsung 840 Pro SSDs to Intel SATA-3 (6Gb/s) controllers (RAID 0), four 2Tb WD Red to Intel SATA-2 (3Gb/s) controllers (RAID 10) and Asus DVD drive to Marvel SATA-3 controller and started Windows 7 Pro 64 bit installation. Once the RAID drivers were installed Windows recognized all RAIDs. Partitioning and formatting went fine but Windows generated the error that "System cannot be installed on this drive". And this error was with every formatted drive. After 30 minutes search on forums I found that DVD drive should be attached to one of Intel (not Marvel!) SATA controllers. Once done, Windows installed without problems.

2. I installed the video card (Sapphire VAPOR-X RADEON HD 7970 6Gb) into first PCIe 16 x slot and found out that it's located very close to the CPU heatsink (Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO). For better heat distribution I decided to move the graphics card to the second PCIe 16x slot but I could not push on the card release lever without removing the CPU fan and heatsink. On my opinion the best configuration of PCIe slots would be 8x (closest to CPU), 16x, 8x, 16x (closest to the end of motherboard).

Pros: Great mobo, have it paired with a i7 3820 @ 4.1Ghz and 8GB of Consair memory.

Cons: BIOS takes awhile to load because of the stupid 3D model, quite annoying and unnecessary but nothing major.

Other Thoughts: Newegg somehow managed to lose my first order, so it took almost a month for me to get it with Express shipping. Another one was sent free of charge the day after I contacted them, so props for quick costumer service.

Pros: Fits well in a Fractal Design R4 case, performs as expected, lots of Sata connections, great overall MOBO

Cons: Built-in Network Interface Card (Intel 82579LM) does not support Gbs speed. If you set the link speed to Auto Negotiate, it runs as 100Mbs, if you set it to 1000Mbs, it stops working altogether. All drivers are current. All other computers connected to the Netgear switch run at 1Gbs. Not sure if the hardware is defective or if there is a driver problem. Manufacturer's have not provided an answer.

Other Thoughts: Intel's support response to the problem was "contact the OEM", Gigabytes reply was "connect directly to the modem". Both companies provided non-answers so keep this in mind before you purchase their products. Also note that Gigabyte and Intel do not have a phone number you can call for support. I'll update this review when I have more information.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 93149 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Good value. Great layout. Works especially well with a water cooler. Plenty of RAM dimms.

Cons: This hardware is revision 1.0 and it was a serious headache during the build. Mushkin 4x8GB Blackline would not boot. Then I realized the list of compatible memory is very short. Replaced RAM and still had boot problems and crashes. Memory had to be tuned down to stabilize. Also, I heard a clicking near the processor. Northbridge heatsink was not tight on board. Tightened screws and clicking sound is gone.

Other Thoughts: I was able to troubleshoot this but it took too much effort. I suspect it will improve with BIOS updates and hardware revisions. It had the potential to be the perfect board for me..... turned into days of headache and troubleshooting.

Manufacturer Response:

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

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013012806 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue as soon as possible.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Plenty of Sata ports

Cons: - Too much Vdroop
- Dual BIOS feature very rarely works, clear CMOS jumpers often don't work either

Other Thoughts: I bought this board knowing that they were not great overclockers, but as my Corsair 550D case has limited cooling anyways, I didn't want to take my 3820 past 4.5GHz anyways.

Once I started overclocking, I had nothing but problems. It is very difficult to get this board to post at all when you use a 1.25 bclk strap, and when you do manage to get your settings in such a state that the board won't boot, often the backup bios will refuse to kick in. The system will literally just get stuck in a boot loop infinitely. That wouldn't be *too* bad, however the clear cmos jumper only works occasionally.

It got worse though. I had gotten a stable 4.5 GHz @ 1.38V stable overclock I was happy with, and decided to start to work on my memory. I have 1600MHz Corsair XMS3 memory, and I had it running at 1332MHz at the time. I upped the memory multiplier to 16 and the system now no longer posts. It does not give me beep codes anymore, it doesn't display anything on the monitor, clearing CMOS and even removing the mobo battery does nothing.

I'm currently waiting on Gigabyte's response on the ticket I submitted to them, but even if I get this system running again I intend to return it and buy a different motherboard from a different manufacturer (I hear the ASUS boards don't stop working when you overclock them).

Pros: #1 pro for me is the extra PCIe lanes! I was coming from an X58 Chipset platform and this mptherboard is a huge, huge improvement.

#2 pro is all the memory slots. Normally you have buy a workstation/server class motherboard to get 8 memory slots. Quad channel RAM is nice and fast BTW!

#3 Layout of the motherboard. Gigabyte made a quadfire platform in the space that a few manufacturers have to use ATX-XL form factor. The layout may not be optimal for some, but it's perfect my requirements.

#4 The Look. You can almost feel the extra weight of the dual copper board. This is one of the most solid feeling boards I've ever felt. The look just tops it off. A black, it will match anybody's color scheme.

#5 Pro is specific to my build but you may find it useful. I upgraded from an X58 that was using 6, 4GB sticks of DDR3 1066. My hope was that I could buy 2 more sticks to populate all banks and run 32GB. Gigabyte has very little 1066MHz in their QVL list, so I gambled, it paid off. This RAM is rock solid in this board.

Cons: One thing thats a con, not so much specific to this board, but rather all X79's, There is a compatibility issue with all AMD HD7000 series cards. The Card/motherboard were sending false PCIe signals causing system hangs/freeze.

AMD/ATI has claimed they have resolved the issue with their latest catalyst 11.12 beta 11. If the issue is resolved, why is it still in beta for over a month?. It's really a bummer too, the X79 and the AMD HD 7000 series are two of the gaming worlds flagships, and yet they don't work together without a beta? What a bummer!!!

Also, seeing as how the X79 has been out for about a year and AMD just released the beta in Dec of '12, that may be where some of the negative reviews come from.

Also, AMD HD 7000 cards will not display a lot of the new UEFI's (BIOS) interfaces without a BIOS update.

Other Thoughts: I hope this review has a purpose and someone finds it useful. Hopefully, by sharing my system configuration it will help someone else figure out what's compatible with this Motherboard.

Gigabyte X79-UP4
Intel Core i7-3930k
Intel liquid cooling solution
32GB (8x4GB) DDR3 1066MHz Kingston value RAM -KVR1066D3N7
ATI/AMD Sapphire HD6770 (x2 in crossfire)
6 Kingston 120GB SSD v+200
2 WD 250GB SATA II HDD's
1 Lite-On DVD, 1 Lite-On Blu-Ray burner
Seasonic X1250 power supply.

As always, NewEgg shipped a perfect product. Fast and reliable.

Gigabyte, Thank your designers for me for making such an awesome board! I love it!