Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
Features and Layout
Knowing that a pair of dual-GPU graphics cards is the most popular method for configuring four-GPU CrossFireX, Gigabyte reduced its x16 slots to only two and added other features instead.
For a slightly lower price than the competing Asus model, Gigabyte buyers get four extra SATA ports, dual-Gigabit network controllers, and an extra FireWire port. Buyers lose the ability to run more than two graphics boards, but also lose the higher price that accompanies Asus’ 10 electronic PCIe pathway-selector switches.
That makes the UD5P a more cost- and space-efficient design for single or dual graphics card configurations, all the way up to a pair of Radeon HD 4870 X2s. Gigabyte even cut away a portion of its northbridge sink to make room for full-length PCIe x1 expansion cards in the top slot, which is a great place for a discrete audio card upgrade. Ironically, the most likely add-in here would be Asus' Xonar.
What’s old is new again, at least when it comes to adding convenience to the MA790FX6-UD5P layout. For example, the ports that hardly anyone uses—legacy serial and parallel—have been moved to the bottom rear corner where they can be more easily accessed with a rear-panel breakout plate. Meanwhile, IDE and floppy connectors are both found above the centerline of the board’s front edge, for easier cabling to upper bays of full-tower cases.
Gigabyte knows that builders no longer rely on slot brackets to connect USB and FireWire breakout cables, so it moved these headers forward for easier cabling to front-panel ports. The front-panel audio header resides in front of rear-panel jacks for a similar reason.
We have no layout complaints, but builders should be aware that all four of the MA790FX-UD5P's add-in SATA ports (white) share a single PCIe pathway through the JMicron JMB363 controller, for a maximum combined throughput of 250 MB/s. That’s far short of the 1,200 MB/s combined bandwidth that four 3.0 Gb/s ports are theoretically capable of supporting.
BIOS
A comparison of frequency and voltage range for today’s motherboards can be found in this article’s overclocking section.
Gigabyte's M.I.T menu provides a fairly large selection of clock and several voltage controls.
The DRAM Configuration sub-menu contains all popular timings, along with several not-so-popular sub-timings. “Automatic” mode is not available for individual settings, but two columns to the left of these show what would have been used in Automatic or SPD mode. The less-initiated can simply copy values from one of these two columns into each manual register as needed.
Accessories
Our MA790FXT-UD5P sample arrived white-boxed without a manual or DVDs, but Gigabyte did include the cable pack. With no eSATA ports on the motherboard’s I/O panel, Gigabyte includes a SATA to eSATA breakout plate with four-pin power, a four-pin-to-two-drive SATA power adapter cable, and two eSATA to SATA data cables. Gigabyte is also the first of only two companies in today’s comparison to include a floppy cable, as associated drives are still useful for adding AHCI or RAID drivers during Windows XP installations.
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It would be interesting to see how much AM3 processors improve over AM2+ especially come the next gen of graphics cards. Is the jump to AM3 boards worth the extra upgrade from AM2+? Im currently using a X2 6000+ but im doubtful that jumping to AM3 processors is worth it atm especially for gaming. My next upgrade will probally be the processor to prevent bottlenecking since my 4870 manages 22" easily but Id preferably like to get a mobo with 2X 16XPCIe lanes.
It would be interesting to see how much AM3 processors improve over AM2+ especially come the next gen of graphics cards. Is the jump to AM3 boards worth the extra upgrade from AM2+? Im currently using a X2 6000+ but im doubtful that jumping to AM3 processors is worth it atm especially for gaming. My next upgrade will probally be the processor to prevent bottlenecking since my 4870 manages 22" easily but Id preferably like to get a mobo with 2X 16XPCIe lanes.
I am going to switch back to AMD even if they perform less than intel. Why? I am not going to buy a motherboard for every processor. Who knows how many pins the next processor of Intel has. Upgrading is a major reason to choose a platform. Besides I do not need the power of i7 to game on a 20"
LOL, I doubt even Intel knows. It used to be 1160, but then they removed 4 pins in October and now they're talking about LGA1156. Anyway, point taken, the i5 CPUs won't work in either LGA775 or LGA1366 boards.
That Gigabyte board sounds perfect for somebody who might want 9 hard drives and a burner, because it has 10 SATA ports. I was looking for such a thing. This paragraph:
We have no layout complaints, but builders should be aware that all four of the MA790FX-UD5P's add-in SATA ports (white) share a single PCIe pathway through the JMicron JMB363 controller, for a maximum combined throughput of 250 MB/s. That’s far short of the 1,200 MB/s combined bandwidth that four 3.0 Gb/s ports are theoretically capable of supporting.
is a bit scary, but in fact it's not a problem IMO. Even if you happen to copy a huge file from HDD 7 to HDD 8 (both on the JMicron controller), you still get over 100 MB/s bandwidth for each, and that's pretty much the average read/write rate of the WD Caviar Black 1TB. That is, there's no bottleneck after all.