GIGABYTE P67A-UD4 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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GIGABYTE P67A-UD4 Motherboard Review - The P67A-UD4 one of the newest releases from GIGABYTE supporting the socket LGA1155 Sandy Bridge processors. What the board does not have in features, it more than makes up for in style and raw performance.
 
Sounds like this board is a good value, but a little bit behind the times in the BIOS area. With that said you can't argue with the results and it does look good. I'd seriously consider one if I buy another SB machine setup.
 
The current version of CPUz doesn't report CPU voltage properly with the UD4. That's one thing I do use Easytune for as it seems to report it correctly. Realtemp has recently added voltage monitoring, but it seems to report what the cpu is requesting not what voltage is set in bios.

I've found the 44x multiplier auto setting "barrier" as well. That's where I had to start pouring on the voltage for increases. At auto settings, 44x will randomly fail to POST and crashing when idle at the desktop. I can game and stress it without a hiccup though. 43x @ auto is working well for me atm.

Also I'd like to point out Anandtech's comment on the UD4's bios:

"Gigabyte’s dual BIOS system is on this board. Yes, that is right – BIOS. No UEFI here. Well, that's not strictly true, as one of the latest BIOS updates at the time of writing (F6) implements an EFI into the BIOS, reportedly allowing bootable access to hard drives over 2.2TB. This is due to, as Gigabyte explained, that their board is actually UEFI, but without a proper GUI interface like other boards. They've used the old BIOS-style interface for now, as after years of plugging away they believe it's quick, stable and recognisable for consumers to understand."

This comment was found here http://www.anandtech.com/show/4130/the-battle-of-the-p67-boards-asus-vs-gigabyte-at-190/5

That is the only place I've seen that claims Gigabyte has said this. Do you all have any connections that can confirm or deny this? Just curious.
 
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Interesting you mention the long boot times. I have been experiencing this problem on my system lately but I have an old ga-p35-dq6 board. Maybe it is due to the weird modified gigabyte realtek sound drivers which are the same for my board and this board.
 
Anand is correct about the UEFI implementation allowing the large drives. The BIOS is still overall the "bad" thing about this mobo.
 
seamusmc said:
If that's the worst that can be said of the board ...
Click to expand...

It's a shame none the less. It almost looks like they are trying to justify being late to the game by saying that the old BIOS interface is better than the mouse-friendly graphical interface offered by Asus and MSI.

Still, they are making an effort by apparently making it compatible with older motherboard models (X58 chipset down to new G41 chipset).
 
I would rather deal with an old style bios than unexplainable, seemingly random instability with a user friendly gui.
 
GlazedDonut said:
I would rather deal with an old style bios than unexplainable, seemingly random instability with a user friendly gui.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I have seen no issues with a "seemingly random instability with a user friendly gui" on any of the UEFI boards we have tested except Gigabyte's.
 
Lots of room for those wondering about the Ripjaw ram
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13856732@N05/5396122983/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13856732@N05/5396723210/
5396723210
 
Has anyone experienced any audio problems using the onboard? Sometimes during games explosions and things like that will sound all digitize and the game might hitch a little. Maybe this is just a Realtek thing? Every other build I've had since 04' I've carried over an Audigy 2.
 
Interesting review, but i am having a hard time figuring out why this thing is $190+. Am i going to have to spend more than $200 to get a mobo with UEFI? Are other manufacturers following along the same line of product segmentation where their cheaper boards are BIOS-based and more expensive ones UEFI? I would rather see UEFI implemented accross the entire p67 line...
 
ryko said:
Interesting review, but i am having a hard time figuring out why this thing is $190+. Am i going to have to spend more than $200 to get a mobo with UEFI? Are other manufacturers following along the same line of product segmentation where their cheaper boards are BIOS-based and more expensive ones UEFI? I would rather see UEFI implemented accross the entire p67 line...
Click to expand...

MSI, ASUS, ASRock provide uEFI for all their p67 boards at all price points. Gigabyte chose not to implement most of EFI for reasons stated in the linked blog post. It's a modular spec and they chose only to implement the portion required to support larger disk capacity.

Either it escaped them that it would be a popular feature or they just decided to implement it over time. Considering reviews of MSI's EFI implementation I think the choice was valid.
 
i took one look at a pic of the mobo and it stoped their for me .
2 pci {i want more}
no floppy disk connection
no ide support
i don't like the heat sinks on the chip-set.
no parallel port
atx form factor {too small}
 
War Zone said:
i took one look at a pic of the mobo and it stoped their for me .
2 pci {i want more}
no floppy disk connection
no ide support
i don't like the heat sinks on the chip-set.
no parallel port
atx form factor {too small}
Click to expand...

How many SB boards have IDE support? Do any of them use anything bigger than an ATX form factor? Floppy disk connection? Parallel port? Not sure you have realistic expectations, unless you are joking (in which case, whoosh).
 
Forceman said:
How many SB boards have IDE support? Do any of them use anything bigger than an ATX form factor? Floppy disk connection? Parallel port? Not sure you have realistic expectations, unless you are joking (in which case, whoosh).
Click to expand...

I kind of thought it was a joke as well. I thought floppy was kind of funny.
 
Anyone else ever have issues with Gigabyte boards layout? On my currernt board, the GA-P35 DSR3, I cannot use the top PCIe slot. I was going to install a card into it but it kept bumping into the mem slots.
 
Got the new P67A-UD4-B3 Sandy Bridge replacement in the mail today from Newegg....dropped right in and rebooted...a few new driver installs from Win7 (Ethernet driver needed reloading) and it was back up and running. One thing to note, is that the BIOS version number is for B3 stepping boards isn't the same as the original ones. Board came with F1, website has F2....flashed no problems. Back running at 4.1ghz no problems...
 
I was having trouble finding reviews on this board, but I was searching for P67A-UD4-B3. Just ordered this from eWiz for $130 after promo code and MIR. Seems like a pretty good deal. I'd probably prefer the P8P67 Evo, but couldn't justify the $30 difference.
 
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