It is compatible with Intel's upcoming Haswell-E Core i7 CPUs

Aug 16, 2014 09:01 GMT  ·  By

We've already checked out one of Gigabyte's next-generation mainboards, called Gigabyte X99-SOC Force. Now, we can look at one that is even more advanced than it, at least in some ways.

The Gigabyte X99 UD7 Wi-Fi gets its name from the Wi-Fi card that has to be installed in the mini PC Express slot. Yes, Wi-Fi is a standard part of mainboard now, like Bluetooth, but add-in cards are always better. No one would bother making them if they weren't.

For all that the name contains the term Wi-Fi, however, that's just a useful accessory in the end. The core specifications will have a greater impact on marketability.

First off is the LGA 2011-3 socket (8+2+2 phase VRM), which supports Intel Haswell-E central processing units, with six and 8 cores: Core i7-5960X, Core i7-5930K, and Core i7-5820K.

We're bound to hear about ludicrous overclocking sessions as soon as the chips come out, or at least within the first two weeks. Maybe even before the launch actually.

Another important asset offered by LGA 2011-3 mainboards is the DDR4 support. The Gigabyte X99 UD7 Wi-Fi has eight slots, which is a lot by any stretch, though no different from what the other X99 platforms have exhibited. It should be possible to install 128 GB of memory. Clearly, Gigabyte is playing for keeps.

Then there's the set of four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots. You'll be able to install up to four add-in graphics cards from NVIDIA or Advanced Micro Devices.

The SLI or CrossFire modes will have the slots (and cards populating them) functioning in one of the following setups: x16/NC/x16/NC, x16/NC/x8/x8, or x8/x8/x8/x8.

It depends on whether or not you install a card in all of them. Gigabyte could have added a third-party PCI Express controller that would allow all four slots to operate in x16 mode, but deemed it an unnecessary expense.

OC buttons are included as well (for easy manual overclocking), along with a diagnostic LED and 10 SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, for HDDs (hard disk drives) and/or SSDs (solid state drives). RAID RST and SRT moder are supported, along with RAID 0 and SSD TRIM (maintains performance of SSDs over time).

Finally, a SATA Express port is available, for storage devices capable of reaching 10 Gbps (thanks to being wired through SATA and PCI Express at the same time). An M.2 slot, USB 3.0/2.0, and other I/O ports round up the spec sheet. Sadly, the (sure huge) price has not been disclosed.