Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK (LGA 1150) “Black Edition” Review

Ryan Martin / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Gigabyte’s Z97X-UD5H-BK costs $229.99 at Newegg and $220 at Amazon. In the UK it costs £170 at Amazon, £162 at Scan Computers and £175 at Overclockers. A 5 year warranty is provided on these motherboards in the UK and the USA. Note that pricing was correct at the time of writing this article.

Overview

Gigabyte’s Z97X-UD5H-BK is the first premium motherboard we’ve tested from Gigabyte so far with this Intel 9 Series. This motherboard is certainly something to shout about with nearly every element executed flawlessly. The extensive range of connectivity is the first important thing: 8 SATA III ports, 8 USB 3.0 ports, SATA Express, M.2, buckets of PCI(e) and lots of fan headers. The quality of the BIOS and the overclocking is also an important part of this motherboard, sure the dual BIOS design can be found on the entire Gigabyte Z97 range but paired up with the beefy 12 phase VRM you’ve got an overclocking monster with this board. If it can’t push your CPU further than other boards it will at least allow you to drop the volts more for longer term durability. Next we found the performance to be a mixed bag, some things were much better than other boards and other things weren’t. At the end of the day though the overall picture is good performance all around. The audio seriously impressed me offering some of the best results I have ever seen. The networking was also impressive, we saw some great performance from the Intel NIC and to know that you also have a Killer NIC to choose from is absolutely fantastic. Gigabyte have essentially fitted two of the best Gigabit NICs on the market to their board which gives you great flexibility. Finally, to top everything off we’ve got a pleasant aesthetic design and a good variety of onboard buttons and diagnostics.

As to this board having server grade reliability of course this is something we can’t test. However, we have enough trust in Gigabyte and were impressed enough by the board to assume it does have these things. There were a few negatives with this board that I think are worth pointing out. Firstly, the heatsinks get really warm, which surprised me because the VRM ones have a heatpipe and the PCH is bigger than normal. The temperatures aren’t warm enough to cause any problems, just they are a bit warmer than normal so worth pointing out. Secondly, I think Gigabyte should have used two identical NICs to allow for LAN teaming, having different NICs can be problematic. I also feel given the “high end” nature of this board having more SATA ports is desirable. Once you use an M.2 or SATA Express port you instantly lose two SATA ports, then you’re left with six. In high end systems you could easily use six SATA ports, two SSDs, four storage drives and an optical drive is hardly an unrealistic scenario. Finally it would have been nice to see some LED lighting around the audio PCB separation or on the heatsinks to make the design “pop” a little more.

Pros

A strong range of connectivity options
Powerful 12 phase VRM
Class leading dual BIOS design
Intel and Killer NICs
Excellent Audio
Onboard buttons and diagnostics
Great aesthetics

Cons

Warmer than usual heatsinks
No Dual-LAN teaming support
More SATA ports would be more suitable for target audience

“Rammed with connectivity, brimming with style and exploding with features – Gigabyte’s Z97X-UD5H-BK is a fantastic motherboard for any high-end rig. Whether you’re in the market for gaming, overclocking or productivity this board still has something to offer everyone. The high-end Z97 market is fairly cut-throat these days but this board definitely has what it takes to fight with the big boys.”