Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 Review
by Brendan van Varik on July 11, 2011 7:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Gigabyte
- Motherboards
- Sandy Bridge
- Z68
The Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H offers 'bang for buck' performance. If you are still waiting to get on the Sandy Bridge bandwagon, you could consider this motherboard as it offers a large amount of features and performs fairly well compared to other, more expensive motherboards. However, if you already own a P67, then there is no point in switching over.
Being a Z68, it incorporates the best of both worlds from the H67 and P67 platforms. It includes a few features such as Virtu and SSD caching, which may prove to be very useful to those who require them. Gigabyte has produced a considerable number of products for the Z68 range to try and cater for all budget ranges.
Gigabyte has yet to adopt a full graphical BIOS. It is a shame, as some competitors now have a graphical UEFI BIOS on their entire range of motherboards. Gigabyte has chosen to keep a non GUI based BIOS because according to them, millions of users are already familiar with the current layout. According to the EFI specifications, support for a mouse within the EFI BIOS is not mandatory, so Gigabyte have decided to play the safe card. Maybe some time in the not too distant future, we will see Gigabyte adopt the GUI based UEFI BIOS.
Based on the benchmarks and performance figures seen in this review, it shows that you do not have to spend big amounts of money on a motherboard to get on to the Z68 platform. A motherboard that could arguably be aimed at the budget end of the spectrum has performed well - if you are wanting to invest into a Cougar Point Z68 platform and a Sandy Bridge CPU, you should consider the UD3H to see if it offers features you want.
The Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 is currently available (at time of writing) for $170 from Newegg.
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DBissett - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
What is it with using plural verbs following "Gigabyte", as in "Gigabyte have...." and "Gigabyte do....". This sounds atrocious in an otherwise well written article. Verbs should be "Gigabyte has...." and "Gigabyte does...." because "Gigabyte" is a singular noun. Where's the editor?LtGoonRush - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Corporations are treated as plural nouns in most English-speaking countries.Death666Angel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Then Anandtech isn't being consistent, because they treat Apple, for example, as a singular entity, see iPad2 and iOS 4.3 reviews ("Apple has...").As a non native English speaker, I agree with DBissett, reading "Gigabyte have..." is not very intuitive and distracts.
Otherwise, nice article. I'm still using a i7 860 and a AMD 5770 and will use those until the 28nm GFX and 22nm CPUs are around.
Snotling - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I noticed it too, but "an SSD" is just as bad... its "a SSD"Exodus220 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Actually, you would be incorrect in stating that it should be written "a SSD." The usage of "a" vs "an" is in regards to the beginning vowel sound of a word, not if it begins with a vowel. Since SSD begins with an "es" vowel sound it requires "an" placed before it. Thus, "an SSD" is 100% correct.awaken688 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Yep. 100% correct.roboray - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
"As a non native English speaker, I agree with DBissett, reading "Gigabyte have..." is not very intuitive and distracts."As a native English speaker, I agree as well. I can count on my fingers the number of times I have seen corporations treated as plural nouns, and it's always a distraction. It makes me suspect that the editor is someone who got their Master's in English without having actually used the language much for anything other than a topic of study. "Proper" or not, it's not common practice, at least in the US.
Jambe - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Get over yourself.I like to go all Grammar Nazi from time to time myself, but seriously. This is a trifle.
joshv - Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - link
This is standard British usage. It's just different, it's not incorrect. You will rarely encounter it in writing by American writers, though the British usage is starting to make some beachheads. It's not at all clear to me that or the other way is more proper or correct. The British just interpret corporate entities as representing multiple people - thus plural.DBissett - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I disagree. I've been writing in the US for 50 years and the use of singular verbs with corporate names has only recently begun to creep into otherwise good writing. Check any publication you like. Further, AT is very inconsistent in this regard both between and within articles. The responder below points this out. Also, look in this article's summary, where Gigabyte is used with a mixture of singular and plural verbs.