Gigabyte EX58-UD3R X58 Motherboard

 

 Gigabyte were one of the first motherboard manufacturers to take advantage of Intel’s latest X58 chipset with the formidable (and current editors choice) EX58-UD5. Along with the range topping Extreme (which is a clone of the UD5 but with fancy cooling) and the mid-range EX58-UD4P we reviewed here, Gigabyte also have a budget board in the form of the EX58-UD3R which we have for review today.

 

The UD3R is aimed toward the entry level of the market and despite costing a pint of lager over £150, the UD3R is certainly one of the cheapest X58 motherboards out there today. As with the UD4P, the UD3R is a stripped down version of the flagship motherboards, each having less features as we slip down the scale. That isn’t to say the UD3R isn’t a capable motherboard, far from it. Being Crossfire compatible as well as having RAID capabilities, 8 SATA ports, twin 16x PCIe 2.0 slots, 8 USB ports (expandable to twelve), things are not quite as clear cut as you may think. Budget board maybe but it’s certainly not lacking in features.

 

Sporting a similar Dynamic Energy Saver to it’s high end brother, the UD3R has hardware based dynamic four-gear switching as opposed to the UD5’s 6 Gear switching. The UD3R also features the confidence building ‘Dual-BIOS’ technology which automatically recovers BIOS data when the main BIOS has crashed or failed a flash due to improper BIOS updating. For those who do not like to delve into a motherboards BIOS, Gigabyte also include EasyTune6 which allows the monitoring and tweaking of system components in a windows environment.

 

Here’s what Gigabyte had to say about there entry level motherboard: