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- Date:
- Sunday , August 02, 2015
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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GIGABYTE X99-SLI LGA 2011v3 Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE’s X99-SLI promises to be a multi-GPU capable power house for enthusiasts on a budget. The design is very similar to the X99-UD4P which was an excellent motherboard so the X99-SLI has a lot to live up to as expectations for it run high. Does $240 get you a solid X99 motherboard?
Introduction
GIGABYTE was established in 1986 and is one of the world’s largest motherboard manufacturers. In Q1 of this year GIGABYTE shipped over 4.8 million motherboards surpassing ASUS’ 4.5 million motherboards. This makes GIGABYTE the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world. Needless to say GIGABYTE has become a very popular option in the do it yourself computer arena. GIGABYTE, like its contemporaries has a diverse product portfolio which includes desktop PCs, graphics cards, power supplies, cases, PC peripherals, laptops, and even Windows and Android based tablets.
GIGABYTE has a reputation for stability, reliability and innovation among enthusiasts. GIGABYTE has like its competitors segmented their branding somewhat to better target specific audiences. Ultra Durable, SOC and G1 brands each have specific design elements which populate across the product stack but each contains unique features. The Ultra-Durable motherboards are the standard product line which have a more general feature set and design. SOC is geared exclusively to the overclocker while G1 motherboards are positioned to appeal to the hardcore gamer. All of these motherboards share a common design which targets the enthusiast.
The X99-SLI is essentially identical to the X99-UD4P which we reviewed not that long ago. The bulk of the differences are cosmetic. The X99-UD4P has some LEDs which the X99-SLI lacks. Additionally the bundle for the X99-SLI is definitely a lot lighter. You do not get the extra SLI bridges or included accessories the X99-UD4P has.
The GIGABTTE X99-SLI is part of the Ultra-Durable family and is based on Intel’s X99 Express chipset. This chipset is compatible with Intel’s LGA 2011 v3 CPUs. This includes both Core i7 and Xeon families. Xeon support includes E5-16xx, E5-26xx and E5-46xx v3 CPUs based on the "Haswell-E" microarchitecture. GIGABYTE’s X99-SLI offers a wide range of design features including full XMP memory support for memory speeds up to DDR4 3333MHz. The X99-SLI is built with a 2oz. copper PCB. The 2oz. Copper PCB allows for lower temperature operation, increased power efficiency, low EMI, and low impedance. As usual for an Ultra-Durable family motherboard, the X99-SLI features IR Digital PWM and IR PowIRstage ICs which uses a single package DirectFET MOSFET design. Server level chokes are used with long life 10k rated black solid electrolytic capacitors. Gold plated contacts for the CPU socket, 288-pin DDR4 DIMM slots, and PCI-Express slots are used.
GIGABYTE’s dual BIOS makes a return on this model along side Q-Flash Plus. The dual BIOS adds redundancy while the Q-Flash Plus allows for the BIOS to be updated without installing memory or a CPU. This can definitely help when new CPU steppings or processors are released which require firmware updates to even reach a POST state. A new heat sink design and ambient LEDs round out some of the cosmetic design elements.
As I said this motherboard is very similar to the X99-UD4P which was one of the best motherboards I’ve had the pleasure of working with. I have high expectations that the X99-SLI will be virtually the same given the similarities in the design.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging for the X99-SLI is very basic. The box resembles other Ultra-Durable series motherboard packages. There is no extra flap or window in the box. Our sample arrived intact with all accessories accounted for. Inside the box you’ll find the following accessories: User manual, multilingual installation guidebook, driver disc, SATA cables, 1x Crossfire bridge, 1x SLI bridge, and an I/O shield.
Board Layout
The layout of the X99-SLI is well thought out. I am not a huge fan of the CMOS battery location although I recognize this as unavoidable. The only people who may have issues with this are going to be the 3-Way and 4-Way SLI crowd.
The CPU socket area is clean and free of obstructions. The MOSFETs are cooled with a black and gold heat sink with an embedded heat pipe. The heat pipe itself connects to the chipset cooling hardware. The CPU header is in an unusual location. Normally this header is near the motherboards edge. Although in this case the location makes some sense as the outer edge has a heat sink to contend with for PCB real estate.
The X99-SLI has four 288-pin DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM at speeds of up to 3333MHz through overclocking. These slots are color coded black and gray in order to denote proper dual channel memory mode operation. These slots use a single retention lever to lock them in place. This is necessary given the tight clearances between the expansion slot area and the DIMM slots.
The chipset is cooled via a black and gold heatsink that shares a heat pipe with the MOSFET cooling hardware. The machine work is decent and the finish seems to be durable. I accidentally scraped a video card across it while setting up the system. This didn’t mar the finish at all. The GIGABYTE logo is somewhat rough around the edges but not enough to cut your hands or anything. The X99-SLI’s many SATA 6Gb/s ports and SATA Express port are in front of the chipset. Just behind the heat sink you can see the dual M.2 setup. One of these is actually a mini-PCIe slot that’s designed for use with a GIGABYTE WiFi adapter. You can also see the CPU mode switch to the left of the heat sink. This sets the CPU socket mode to normal or OC mode. The latter leverages extra pins in the CPU socket for increased electrical stability and potentially increased overclockability. The user manual cautions that this could result in incompatibility problems with some CPUs. I have only tried the Core i7 5960X with this motherboard. In fact I’ve only used retail and engineering sample (ES) based 5960X CPUs with all the X99 motherboards I’ve ever tested. Many of the ASUS and GIGABYTE motherboards all share this "OC Socket" feature. I’ve yet to experience any CPU issues as a result. I have to wonder if this is something that might affect Xeon processors or this note simply appears in the manual as a CYA type of thing from the legal department.
If you’ve been reading HardOCP motherboard reviews over the last 10 years you probably know that I can’t stand legacy expansion slots on motherboards. I’ve had motherboard manufacturers explain their reasons to me and the bulk of it stems from selling motherboards in China where legacy slots are more desirable. Fortunately the X99-SLI doesn’t have any of that nonsense to contend with. This comes as no shock because this motherboard is targeted at multi-GPU users. There simply isn’t any real estate left for legacy nonsense. The X99-SLI features 4x PCI-Express generation 3.0 slots which support the following 3-Way and 4-Way lane configurations: 16x0x16x8 or 8x8x16x8.
You will find an M.2 slot supporting up to 80mm devices directly between slots 2 and 3. Keep in mind that in a multiple GPU configuration that your M.2 drive is going to get hot. I’ve heard reports of increases in temperature up to 20c which can cause throttling of the drive. For this reason I’d recommend using the Intel SSD 750 in multi-GPU systems which can be remotely mounted thanks to the adapter it uses. Unfortunately, to further complicate matters GIGABYTE chose to allocation only two PCIe gen 2.0 lanes to the M.2 slot limiting the bandwidth to 10Gb/s.
The I/O panel features dedicated PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, 4x USB 2.0 ports, 4x USB 3.0 ports (including a dedicated Q-Flash Plus port), 1x RJ-45 LAN port, 1x optical output, and 5x mini-stereo jacks for analog audio output. Sadly there is no clear CMOS button here which I think should be standard on all motherboards. Lastly you’ll find a bracket on the back plane with two holes in it. This is to accommodate wireless antenna connections if you use the optional GIGABYTE WiFi adapter. This version of the motherboard does not come with that.