Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard Review

As we conclude this review, I see myself splitting it up into sections so that we can break apart every part of the board into its individual segment, starting with the design. It’s not ugly, but it’s not exactly pretty, but you do get what you pay for. The addition of the gun-metal grey heatsinks is about the only lively looking thing on the board, but the type of user this board is aimed at, is unlikely to have a windowed case, and therefore it doesn’t really matter what it looks like. For those with a windowed case, it’s blue, and being blue means that it’s especially easy to match up fans and/or liquid cooling dye etc… so at least things are colour coordinated.

Feature wise, it’s nice to see something different being added on to make this board stand out, with the mSATA connector, though with the price of mSATA based drives still being fairly high, it takes the unique selling point of the price out of the equation slightly, which is a real shame.

Price is a very important factor with this board, as that is really is the main focus this board has. Gigabyte have really tried to offer a great package, whilst not skimping to much, but keeping costs down at the same time, which in turn can be passed onto the consumer, and not hit our wallets too hard, which as we all know, with Christmas coming up, can be a very pricey time of year. Coming in at a very attractive £80.02, it’s certainly going to appeal to those on a budget, or those who just want to save a bit of money, but does it offer the performance?

Well, if we look back at the performance, we can see that it certainly did, and the fact that we tested at 4.6GHz, showed us how easy it was to overclock, even using an older BIOS, and the results after the overclock showed how well this board can work with your other components, including having the ability for XMP.

Speaking of overclocking, though the BIOS had some unique voltage options, was relatively easy, even for a novice user and a comfortable 5GHz was easily achieved, though some higher than normal volts were used, even on lower voltages, 4.9GHz is easy to get going showing that this board really can keep up with others that can cost twice as much, and even more.

If you’re looking at building a new system or upgrading your old one and are restricted to a budget, the Z68AP-D3 is definitely a board that should be looked at, as it can lead to an extremely powerful system, but for a very small cash outlay, especially when you pair it up with a 2500k, which seems to be one of the best selling processors at the moment, offering great performance for a great price, which is exactly what this board is about. It almost feels as though they are made for each other. If you want that little bit more performance though, you can go down the route of using the 2600k or 2700k like we did, and see for yourselves that this board really can do it all, and still leave enough money for a crate of beer at the end of the day, once you’ve built your new Sandy Bridge system.

Having a quick talk about the rating, which we don’t normally delve into, I wanted to clarify why this board earns our prestigious Editor’s Choice Award. It was destined to gain the Bang For Buck Award but the performance results showed us that it can rival some of the bigger, more expensive boards on the market, and the icing on the cake was how well it overclocked. The board really did meet, exceed and literally fly past our expectations, and we have to congratulation Gigabyte on making such a fantastic board. Sure it’s not the prettiest thing at the party, but it will take you places you never dreamed of, consider it a cheap thrill.