Gigabyte X58A-UD3R: USB 3.0, SATA 6G

A Look At The BIOS Lots of Options and Tweakability

   

The first screenshot is the top-level BIOS navigation page, with PC Health and Advanced BIOS features on the far right. Compared to boards from certain competitors, Gigabyte's board-level fan speed controls leave nearly everything to be desired. You get exactly two settings—Smart Fan and Smart Fan Mode. 

The Advanced BIOS options (and really, all of the other areas the BIOS covers) are quite detailed, as shown below.

  

Integrated Peripheral options are on the far left, the control panel for various CPU and motherboard settings on the right. There's a full range of settings to experiment with—a feature that can come in exceedingly handy if you're trying to find the exact point at which your system is stable while overclocked.

What we'd really like to see Gigabyte offer is a BIOS that's just as detailed as the X58A-UD3R's, but includes comprehensive fan setting options. Sure, it's fair to argue that those features only matter to a small number of enthusiasts, but if you check some of the screenshots above, it's clear that the company provides much more overclocking and voltage control than anyone but the highest of the high-end OCers would actually need.

Since this isn't a zero-sum game, we're hoping Gigabyte might listen on this one and add the one feature that sticks out as weak in a virtual garden of options.