Gigabyte Z87 Haswell Motherboard Round-Up


Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H

With its striking red accents that pop against a black and gray color scheme, the Z87X-UD4H represents a solid mid-range offering in Gigabyte’s lineup of Z87 boards. Its feature list is essentially a rundown of all the platform offerings with virtually no special extras, but the board certainly looks and feels high-end.

The ATX mainboard supports up to 32GB of DDR3-3000(OC) memory over four DIMM slots, and the onboard graphics options include DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D, and D-Sub. The board has a plethora of expansion slots, including three PCIe x16 slots (running at x16, x8, and x4), three PCIe x1 slots, and a PCI slot, and it supports up to 2-way SLI or CrossFire.

Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H
Specifications & Features

CPU:

Chipset:

Memory:





Onboard Graphics:





Audio:




LAN:

Expansion Slots:






Storage:







USB:





Form Factor:

Price:
Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron processors in the LGA1150 package

Intel Z87 Express Chipset

4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture, support for non-ECC memory modules and XMP
Support for DDR3 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) /
2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) /
2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz memory modules

1 x D-Sub port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096x2160
1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 3840x2160
Maximum shared memory of 1 GB

Realtek ALC898 codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for S/PDIF In/Out

Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
3 x PCI Express x1 slots
1 x PCI slot
Support for 2-Way AMD CrossFire / 2-Way NVIDIA SLI technology

Chipset:
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5) supporting up to 6 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
Marvell 88SE9172 chip:
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7) or 2 eSATA 6Gb/s connectors
   on the back panel, supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

Chipset:
Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB header)
Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (available through the internal USB headers)
Chipset + 2 Renesas uPD720210 USB 3.0 Hubs:
Up to 8 USB 3.0/2.0 ports

ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Currently reasonably priced - $187.85

There are six SATA 6Gbps connectors via the Z87 chipset (supporting RAID 0/1/5/10) and another four courtesy of a Marvell chip (that support RAID 0/1). Two of those Marvell ports can be switched to support two eSATA ports on the rear I/O panel. Between the chipset and a Renesas chip, the Z87X-UD4H supports ten USB 3.0 ports as well as six USB 2.0 ports.



The rear I/O panel is home to a PS/2 port (for old time’s sake); the aforementioned D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort ports; optical S/PDIF; six USB 3.0 ports; two eSATA ports; gigabit LAN jack; and six audio jacks.

         
 

These days, pretty much every motherboard in the mid range and above has physical power and reset buttons on the PCB, and indeed the Z87X-UD4H has them too, as well as a Clear CMOS button.



This board also sports a pair of switches that selects which BIOS you’re using and what BIOS options you see; the BIOS switch lets you opt for one of two BIOS configurations when you boot. You can either use a main BIOS or one you’ve carefully overclocked, while the SB switch alternates between the Dual BIOS or a single BIOS depending on preference. LEDs let you know which is active. There are also voltage measurement points on the PCB so you can check voltages with a multimeter.

  

The Z87X-UD4H's box contains the usual: a user manual and quick installation guide, driver and utilities disc, four SATA cables, the I/O shield, and an SLI bridge.  It's not a decked-out bundle but for the money, it's a very good value.

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