Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3 Motherboard Review

Gigabyte are widely regarded as one of the biggest computer component manufacturers in the world, especially in the motherboard market. They cater for all of the latest AMD and Intel platforms including AM3, socket 1156, 1155 and 1366 and with Sandy Bridge taking over, we still believe that 1366 has some life left in it.

1366 based boards are still being sold all across the world and will eventually be taken over by the X79 chipset sometime in the near future, though this doesn’t mean that X58 will be phased out straight away and this leading board manufacturer will keep producing these products until there is no market for them anymore.

Some consumers are still on the X58 ship and don’t believe in jumping from it any time soon as they believe that Sandybridge and 1155 still isn’t as powerful as the well loved 1366 socket with its triple channel memory support and fantastic stability.

Today sees us look at the X58-USB3 board from Gigabyte which shouts out that it’s a socket 1366 board, with stability in mind and aimed at users who want the best performance and blistering speed for their peripherals and USB devices. Let’s see if it delivers.

Specifications

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 100%]
[TR]
[TD]CPU[/TD]
[TD] Support for an Intel®*Core™ i7 series processor in the LGA1366 package (Go to GIGABYTE’s website for the latest CPU support list.)
L3 cache varies with CPU[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]QPI[/TD]
[TD] 4.8GT/s, 6.4GT/s[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Chipset[/TD]
[TD] North Bridge: Intel®*X58 Express Chipset
South Bridge: Intel®*ICH10R[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Memory[/TD]
[TD] 6 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 24 GB of system memory (Note 1)
Dual/3 channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

(Go to GIGABYTE’s website for the latest supported memory speeds and memory modules.)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Audio[/TD]
[TD] Realtek ALC892 codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for Dolby®*Home Theater
Support for S/PDIF In/Out
Support for CD In[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]LAN[/TD]
[TD] 1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Expansion Slots[/TD]
[TD] 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2) (Note 2)*

(The PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1) (Note 3)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots
1 x PCI slot[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Multi-Graphics Technology[/TD]
[TD] Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology*

Technology (The PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots only.)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Storage Interface[/TD]
[TD]South Bridge:

6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]USB[/TD]
[TD]Integrated in the South Bridge:

Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the back panel, 6 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

NEC chip:

Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel

* USB 3.0 10x performance is a maximum theoretical value. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Internal I/O Connectors[/TD]
[TD] 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
3 x system fan headers
1 x power fan header
1 x North Bridge fan header
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x CD In connector
1 x S/PDIF In header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
3 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x clearing CMOS jumper[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Back Panel Connectors[/TD]
[TD] 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
1 x RJ-45 port
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/ Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]I/O Controller[/TD]
[TD] iTE IT8720 chip[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]H/W Monitoring[/TD]
[TD] System voltage detection
CPU/System/North Bridge temperature detection
CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
CPU overheating warning
CPU fan fail warning
CPU/System fan speed control (Note 4)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]BIOS[/TD]
[TD] 2 x 16 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Unique Features[/TD]
[TD] Support for @BIOS
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue
Support for Download Center
Support for Xpress Install
Support for Xpress Recovery2
Support for EasyTune (Note 5)
Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2
Support for Smart 6™
Support for Auto Green
Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)
Support for ON/OFF Charge
Support for Q-Share[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Bundle Software[/TD]
[TD] Norton Internet Security (OEM version)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Operating System[/TD]
[TD] Support for Microsoft®*Windows®*7/Vista/XP[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Form Factor[/TD]
[TD] ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Note[/TD]
[TD](Note 1) Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.

(Note 2) For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots.*

(Note 3) The PCIEX4_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1_3 slot. When the PCIEX4_1 slot is popu- lated with a PCIe x4 (or above) card, the PCIEX1_3 slot will become unavailable

(Note 4) Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.*

(Note 5) Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Remark[/TD]
[TD] Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
Most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME/2000/XP SP1/SP2. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]