Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 (AMD 990FX) Review

There is no doubt that the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 is a well designed motherboard that makes a fantastic partner for AMD's flagship Phenom II X6 1100T processor.

That said, until AMD's new Bulldozer processors are unleashed into the public domain these 990FX motherboards aren't quite the attraction they could be. Those currently with a 890FX board will not find it a ‘must have' upgrade, although current AMD users who demand SLI configurations will find it desirable.

As we expected from Gigabyte, the build quality of the 990FXA-UD7 is top drawer and the board itself is one of the most attractive designs we have seen in recent years. There are no performance related concerns and overclocking is very straightforward, reaching the maximum air cooled limits of our Black Edition processors.

Gigabyte certainly haven't cut any corners, making this one of the finest boards on the market for AMD performance oriented users. With six PCI E slots for four way multi GPU configurations, as well as native SATA 6 Gbps, USB 3.0 and eSATA ports, the vast array of connectivity will appease a wide cross section of the enthusiast userbase. The ‘PC off' option to charge USB devices is also handy, even if it isn't exclusive to this particular product.

The only negative point we can really mention is the lack of UEFI, which has been included on all ASUS boards we have reviewed in recent months. Documentation indicates that the motherboard does natively support 3TB drives however.

If you are in the market for a new AMD motherboard, with an eye on upgrading to a Bulldozer processor when they are released, then this should definitely be right at the top of your shortlist.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• multi GPU configurations
• fully loaded feature set
• overclocking is a strong point
• looks are great

Cons:

• lack of UEFI

Kitguru says: One of the finest AMD boards we have tested.

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