The recent release of AMD's new flagship processor, the Phenom II 955, might have stolen some of Intel's thunder, but their Core i7 is still up there when it comes to pure processing power. Of course, a processor nothing without a motherboard to sit on and a large variety of them are now available. They're all built around the X58 chipset although they do come with more or less unique feature sets mostly depending on the targeted price point.
Gigabyte's line of X58 motherboards has widely broadened since the December launch and what we have today is their EX58-UD4P which falls in the upper mid-range of their line-up. It carries Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 and Dynamic Energy Saving technologies along with three-way video card configuration. This is also the board used in Gigabyte's own overclocking competition, showing they really stand behind this product.

Specifications
| CPU |
- Support for an Intel® Core™ i7 series processor in the LGA 1366 package
(Go to CPU Support List for the latest CPU support )
- L3 cache varies with CPU
|
| QPI |
- 4.8GT/s / 6.4GT/s
|
| Chipset |
- North Bridge: Intel® X58 Express Chipset
- South Bridge: Intel® ICH10R
|
| Memory |
- 6 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 24 GB of system memory (Note 1)
- Dual/3 channel memory architecture
- Support for DDR3 2100+/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
(Go to Memory Support List for the latest memory support list.) |
| Audio |
- Realtek ALC889A codec
- High Definition Audio
- 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
- Support for Dolby® Home Theater
- Support for S/PDIF In/Out
- Support for CD In
|
| LAN |
- 1 x Realtek 8111D chips (10/100/1000 Mbit)
|
| Expansion Slots |
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2) (Note 2)
- 1 x PCI Express x8 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1) (Note 3)
(The PCIEX16_1, PCIE16_2 and PCIEX8_1 slots support 2-Way/3-Way NVIDIA SLI/ATI CrossFireX technology and conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
- 1 x PCI Express x4 slot
- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
- 2 x PCI slots
|
| Storage Interface |
South Bridge:
- 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
- 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
- 2x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD
iTE IT8720 chip:
- 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
|
| IEEE 1394 |
- T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
- Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 2 via the IEEE 1394a brackets connected to the internal IEEE 1394a headers)
|
| USB |
- Integrated in the South Bridge
- Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
|
| Internal I/O Connectors |
- 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
- 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
- 1 x floppy disk drive connector
- 1 x IDE connector
- 8 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
- 1 x CPU fan header
- 3 x system fan headers
- 1 x power fan header
- 1 x North Bridge fan header
- 1 x front panel header
- 1 x front panel audio header
- 1 x CD In connector
- 1 x S/PDIF In header
- 1 x S/PDIF Out header
- 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
- 2 x IEEE 1394a headers
- 1 x power LED header
- 1 x chassis intrusion header
- 1 x power switch
- 1 x reset switch
|
| Back Panel Connectors |
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
- 1 x PS/2 mouse port
- 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
- 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
- 1 x IEEE 1394a port
- 1 x clearing CMOS switch
- 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 1 x RJ-45 ports
- 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
|
| I/O Controller |
- iTE IT8720 chip
|
| H/W Monitoring |
- System voltage detection
- CPU/System/North Bridge temperature detection
- CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
- CPU overheating warning
- CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
- CPU/System fan speed control (Note 4)
|
| BIOS |
- 2 x 8 Mbit flash
- Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
- Support for DualBIOS™
- PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
|
| Unique Features |
- Support for @BIOS
- Support for Q-Flash
- Support for Virtual Dual BIOS
- Support for Download Center
- Support for Xpress Install
- Support for Xpress Recovery2
- Support for EasyTune (Note 5)
- Support for Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced
- Support for Time Repair
- Support for Q-Share
|
| Bundle Software |
- Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
|
| Operating System |
- Support for Microsoft® Windows Vista/XP
|
| Form Factor |
- ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
|