Gigabyte X99 UD4 (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing (accurate at the time of writing)

The Gigabyte X99 UD4 motherboard retails for $258.99 at Newegg and $259.99 at Amazon in the USA. Here in the UK it can be had for £167.99 at Overclockers UK. Gigabyte offer a 3 year warranty with this product.

Summary

The phrase”entry-level motherboard” is a misleading one for the X99 platform. Indeed by definition the Gigabyte X99 UD4 is an entry level product, as it is one of the cheapest X99 motherboards money can buy making it the entry level standard for the platform. However, do not be mistaken: for an entry level product the Gigabyte X99 UD4 is incredibly feature packed and is hard to ignore. If you’re torn between a Core i7 4790K Z97 system or Core i7 5820K X99 system the Gigabyte X99 UD4 could help you make that decision by bringing the cost of the X99 platform down and making it more accessible.

The Gigabyte X99 UD4 loses very few features over the X99 Gaming 5, in fact I prefer this board for a number of reasons. Firstly, the audio may lose quite a few features such as headphone amplification, switchable op-amps and gain controls but the codec that is used is actually better performing (although not that noticeable in the real world) and has a more sophisticated software package with better configurable options. Secondly, the ethernet is now provided by Intel instead of Killer which for general users is a nicer option. The Intel NIC doesn’t always offer as much throughput in general tests but it does use less CPU overhead and the software package is less intrusive. That said if you do desire for better packet prioritization in gaming the Killer NIC in the X99 Gaming 5 option is a great choice but if you don’t need it the Intel NIC is better.

Setting the comparisons aside the rest of the Gigabyte X99 UD4 is a very pleasing package for the price. Gigabyte’s dual BIOS has grown on me a lot and I still like it with X99, sure the early versions of the BIOS have been slightly buggy but Gigabyte are working around the clock on BIOS updates and fixes and as I’m writing a number of problems we saw in testing have been ficreation of the App Center to unify all that software was a smart idea, but the unification process still needs some work to make the software more user friendly. The programs are still very discrete and all the app center does is effectively collate shortcuts to all the exe files and each program or utility launches discretely. That said, it’s free with the motherboard and to this day most people are not fans of motherboard software, so take this as you will.

The overall design and aesthetic of the board is clean and sensible. The X99 UD4 has a well balanced range of connectivity on the storage, PCI Express and USB side. The only exclusion I can take note of is the omission of a WiFi or Bluetooth card for the specially included M.2 WiFi slot they have. It does make sense to exclude it to keep the price down for most users that do not want the WiFi but Gigabyte need to provide the M.2 card and antennae as a “sold separately” accessory at the same retailers who stock the boards with which that M.2 WiFi package is compatible. The other noteworthy exclusion is any onboard buttons or overclocking features, but this board is not targeted at that kind of user and again its the exclusion of things like this that help keep costs down on this board making it so attractively priced.

Finally, a last note on performance. This board performs well in the bulk of CPU, GPU, networking and audio tests. Just like with the X99 Gaming 5 only memory performance was a little off-the-mark, especially the fact overclocking decreased memory performance. I can hope that future BIOS releases from Gigabyte will improve the memory performance, even if they do not there isn’t really any real world hit from memory performance as most the memory benchmarks we use are synthetic in what they show.

Pros

• Fantastic pricing for what you get
• High quality audio & networking hardware
• Dual BIOS design
• Great range of storage & peripheral connectivity
• 4 Way GPU support

Cons

• BIOS needs a little tweaking
• Memory performance could be improved
• Not clear where to acquire the optional WiFi M.2 accessory

“The X99 platform may not be the cheapest but with Gigabyte’s X99 UD4 and a six-core i7 5820K you can easily spec up a system to beat Intel’s flagship Z97 part, the i7 4790K and a high-end motherboard. What’s even more impressive is Gigabyte’s X99 UD4 allows you to do that at a similar price point: it’s a great board with a fantastic price.”

Thank you to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.