Gigabyte P67A-UD7 Review

Up Close

The box for the UD7 is as amazing as the board is. A clear black top and back, with shiny gold sides.

This is such a large departure from the blue and light-blue Gigabyte colour-scheme that they deserve huge praise for trying something new, and succeeding in such a comprehensive manner.

Within the exterior we have a huge window that allows you to spend ages looking at the board and the clear plastic cover helpfully protects the motherboard from your drool.

Within the accessories package we have the standard selection of SATA cables, Crossfire bridge, manuals and driver disk.

The simple fact of the matter is this. This is the most beautiful motherboard we've ever laid eyes on. No different colours for the various PCIe slots. No variances in the the RAM pairings. In a Spinal Tap fashion, none more black.

It seems a small thing that all the slots are the same colour, but actually there is more to it than meets the eye. This is a UD7 motherboard. It's the absolute premium motherboard Gigabyte do for this chipset and is targeted squarely at enthusiasts. We don't need different colours to be able to tell the difference between a PCIe x16 slot and a legacy PCI slot. We can cope with understanding the DIMM numbering scheme.

It's like Gigabyte are treating us as adults. Given that they once rivalled DFI for the "Crayola factory" style motherboards this is a massive leap forwards and one that cannot be overstated how pleasing it is to see.

Even the heatsinks have a level of class about them and the design. The gold on the UD7 is no mere cheapo dull gold effect, but rather so fine we'd think it was plated. The heatsink design shows that some of the more outre ones we've come across lately are needlessly esoteric.