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Gigabyte X99 UD4 Motherboard Review
Posted by: on: 01/06/2015 09:51 AM [
3 comment(s) ]
In this review we check out the Gigabyte X99 UD4, it is the more affordable X99 motherboard in the Gigabyte range and we have had our hands on. It has a nice feature set like SLI/Crossfire support, heaps of SATA3 connectors, M.2., good tweaking features, a near audiophile audio solution, and yeah the means to tweak. Join us in another X99 motherboard review.
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bobmitch
Senior Member
Posts: 457
Senior Member
Posts: 457
Posted on: 01/06/2015 06:18 PM
I have the next tier Gigabyte UD5 Wifi, which is basically the same hardware PLUS AC Wifi built in. Overall, very nice hardware, but that is where it ends.
Bios support is shoddy. I started with bios f8h and updated to f9 upon release and that is where it ends. First and foremost, like other model motherboards, this one is plagued with the USB 3.0 issue, where if an external USB 3.0 HDD or peripheral is connected during bootup, the bios fails and you get a message that the overclock failed....click X to enter setup, load bios defaults, etc. You enter bios....save and exit and you can reboot. Basically to make this go away, you have to disconnect the USB 3.0 device during bootup.
Also...when using Non beta bios, your CPU will throttle. UD4 and UD5 models plagued with the fact that when you want a static overclock, mild or aggressive, you set it up and find that whether you disable EIST or not, it is always on. To be more specific...I set my 5820K to run at 4.0 GHZ static. On bios f8h it was fine...on any non beta bios, it allows 4.0 GHZ, BUT...it throttles from 1.1 GHZ to 4.0 GHZ. One cannot disable C states in the bios.
Basically nice hardware with bad software support. Talked to tech support and no one could help. They were clueless as to what could be wrong. As a matter of fact, they took notes from me! Bios is broken...one must be very careful when going with Gigabyte. Read the Gigabyte boards...not just an isolated incident.
I have the next tier Gigabyte UD5 Wifi, which is basically the same hardware PLUS AC Wifi built in. Overall, very nice hardware, but that is where it ends.
Bios support is shoddy. I started with bios f8h and updated to f9 upon release and that is where it ends. First and foremost, like other model motherboards, this one is plagued with the USB 3.0 issue, where if an external USB 3.0 HDD or peripheral is connected during bootup, the bios fails and you get a message that the overclock failed....click X to enter setup, load bios defaults, etc. You enter bios....save and exit and you can reboot. Basically to make this go away, you have to disconnect the USB 3.0 device during bootup.
Also...when using Non beta bios, your CPU will throttle. UD4 and UD5 models plagued with the fact that when you want a static overclock, mild or aggressive, you set it up and find that whether you disable EIST or not, it is always on. To be more specific...I set my 5820K to run at 4.0 GHZ static. On bios f8h it was fine...on any non beta bios, it allows 4.0 GHZ, BUT...it throttles from 1.1 GHZ to 4.0 GHZ. One cannot disable C states in the bios.
Basically nice hardware with bad software support. Talked to tech support and no one could help. They were clueless as to what could be wrong. As a matter of fact, they took notes from me! Bios is broken...one must be very careful when going with Gigabyte. Read the Gigabyte boards...not just an isolated incident.
eXXon
Member
Posts: 42
Member
Posts: 42
Posted on: 01/07/2015 07:53 PM
^^^ Let's not forget the "switch 'n' bait" fiasco too (see what I did there?).
They used to do it on their GPUs long time ago.
Reviewers got Rev 1.0 which was an amazing OC'er, try to go out and buy it, only to find it's Rev 1.1 or 2.0 which doesn't even come close to the original card reviewed.
Happened to me with a pair of 7970s.
^^^ Let's not forget the "switch 'n' bait" fiasco too (see what I did there?).
They used to do it on their GPUs long time ago.
Reviewers got Rev 1.0 which was an amazing OC'er, try to go out and buy it, only to find it's Rev 1.1 or 2.0 which doesn't even come close to the original card reviewed.
Happened to me with a pair of 7970s.
Click here to post a comment for this article on the message forum.
Junior Member
Posts: 19
Excellent hardware means nothing with awful support. And Gigabyte in the last few years... it just became one of the worst manufacturers about BIOS support quality, reliability and updates. They release BIOS versions full of critical bugs affecting stability and performance. They stop releasing new BIOSes for their boards after a few months. Even though Intel keeps releasing CPU Microcode updates that other manufacturers keep adding with new BIOS releases, Gigabyte just wouldn't even for their high-end motherboards.
In the past Gigabyte had top-notch support, nowadays they don't care about their customers anymore. Their e-mail support on their websites is now a joke, they blame everythiing on customers and negate any bugs affecting their products. They keep releasing new hardware making a fool of their customers.
After having been a Gigabyte customer and having installed Gigabyte hardware for plenty of friends and in offices assembling PCs for business use for more than 15 years.. I just had to stop recommending and buying their products. Too many bugs, really no customer support. They don't deserve money anymore, their hardware is still good but it's useless with no proper high quality BIOS updates and customers support.