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Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Motherboard Review

The Gigabyte EX58-UD3R represents a budget X58 motherboard, if there is such a thing. While the feature set is somewhat limited when compared to other more robust X58 boards, the EX58-UD3R's performance and overclockability is anything but limited.

Easy Tune 6

Included with the EX58-UD3R is Gigabyte's Easy Tune 6 software. The application very much resembles the look and style of CPU-Z and GPU-Z. The layout of the software is simple and intuitive.

Once the main application window is open you'll see the CPU-Z inspired interface showing the CPU information. Core type, model, stepping, cache information, clock speeds, code name, etc. are all listed here. This part of the application isn't adjustable. Next you'll find the memory tab which contains information about each of the installed memory modules. CAS latencies and frequencies are displayed here along with additional SPD information.

The graphics card tab contains settings for overclocking your GPU. As has always been my experience, these features didn't work for me causing the system to hard lock, or restart on its own. The clock frequency values were all correct for the memory, core and shaders. The Smart tab contains the CPU Intelligent Accelerator feature. You can select several predefined profiles that correspond to varying overclock presets. None of these are going to give you extremely high overclocks and are more useful for the novice. Also present here is the Smart Fan modes. This allows the fan to ramp up speed or slow down based on various thermal parameters either preset or defined by the user. You can easily set the fan speed to correspond to the CPU temperature at your discretion. The Hardware monitor tab shows you everything you need to know concerning voltages and temperature ranges. Here you can also set alerts that will notify you of undesirable conditions such as excessively high temperatures or failed fans.

BIOS

Gigabyte chose the Award BIOS for the EX58-UD3R. Version F4 was used for all the screen captures, and the BIOS was updated to version F5 for overclocking. Let me preface this by saying that while the BIOS implementation is good in terms of layout and ease of use, I had what I consider a major BIOS related issue when working with this board. The system did not behave correctly with a USB keyboard initially. I had to get a PS/2 keyboard and connect it to the system in order to make BIOS adjustments or to even enter the BIOS initially. I had to enable the USB keyboard support in BIOS manually. This is ridiculous as most of the keyboards sold or included with OEM systems today are going to be USB and not PS/2. PS/2 keyboards are a bit of an afterthought in today's market. With that said, BIOS F5 seems to have corrected that issue. At least it did for me. While I don't see any differences between F5 and F4 in terms of appearance, layout or features, it is worth noting that these screenshots were taken before I flashed the board to F5. There may be some minor differences I didn't catch when working with the two different BIOS versions.

Right off the bat the first option found in the BIOS is the MB Intelligent Tweaker or M.I.T. for short. This is the section of the BIOS governing all aspects or at least most aspects of the board's performance. I'll come back to that in a second. The Standard CMOS Features menu contains the usual suspects. Time and date settings, floppy, and IDE settings and halt on controls. Additionally, you'll see some basic memory information at the bottom of the menu.

Back to the heart of the matter in the MB Intelligent Tweaker menu you'll find your CPU Clock ratio, Advanced CPU Features, QPI Link Speed, Uncore & QPI Features menus, Advanced Clock Control etc. Performance enhancement settings as well as X.M.P. profile support are also found here. DRAM settings can be controlled from this menu as well. SPD values can be adjusted from automatic mode to manual mode. In manual mode many of the memory settings become adjustable. CAS :Latencies etc are adjustable in manual mode. Additional submenus like Advanced CPU Features contain Intel Turbo Boost, HyperThreading control, C1E etc. settings. I could go on and on listing all the settings individually but I think that it is generally sufficient to say that the board has just about everything you can think of in regard to BIOS settings. The settings do not give one the feeling of this being a stripped down or budget product.

The Advanced DRAM features sub-menu shows some of the same settings seen in the main MB Intelligent Tweaker menu. Among those are the Performance Enhance, System Memory Multiplier, and Extreme Memory Profile. Timings are adjustable per channel. When set to Manual, the same CAS latency adjustments appear in the Advanced menu as well as they appear in the regular MB Intelligent Tweaker menu. Next is Advanced Voltage control. Here you will find Load Line Calibration to help eliminate vdroop as well as all the adjustments you'd probably ever need. As Gigabyte claims on the box, the precision OV IC on the board does allow for very small (20mv) adjustments to each of the voltage settings. The main settings you generally need to adjust for overclocking are found at the bottom of the MB Intelligent Tweaker menu but the rest are contained in the Advanced Voltage Control sub-menu. As you can tell from screenshots, the settings are numerous.

Integrated Peripherals of course contains the settings for all the onboard hardware such as the LAN, IEEE1394a controller, USB ports, SATA controllers, and so on. Power management controls ACPI settings and HPET support. Power on by Keyboard and Mouse settings are found here as well. PC Health Status shows all of your chassis intrusion settings along with fan speeds and voltages. Warnings for various failure events can be found here as well.

Despite the one issue I did have with the BIOS it is generally well polished and easy to use. Settings are easily understood and there are no glaring misspellings which I sometimes see in the BIOS on many boards.