Gigabyte X58A-UD5 Overview
When you first take the X58A-UD5 out of the packaging you will notice it carries the same blue and white theme as most Gigabyte motherboards do, including the X58A-UD3R we reviewed. There are large heatsinks covering all of the areas of the motherboard that will be hot. They are all connected by heatpipes. Just to be clear this is revision 2.0 of the board.
Starting at the CPU socket you can see that even though there are large heatsinks there it is clear from all obstructions. Also you can check out the 16 phase power design, it just looks mean! Right below the CPU socket sits the Intel X58 northbridge which is covered by a large heatsink with the Gigabyte logo on it. To the left of the CPU socket at the top you have the ATX12V power connector and moving down you have the front panel audio connector.
Moving over the to memory slots you have 6 multi-colored (blue and white) DDR3 DIMM slots. The 24pin ATX power connector is located right beside the memory slots and there are on board power and reset buttons. I always like to see these on motherboard because they make it really easy when you are troubleshooting an issue with a board. There are also 2 3pin fan connectors labeled PWR_FAN and SYS_FAN1. When it comes to SATA connections you have 10 total. The 6 blue ports are for SATA 2 and the 4 white ports are for SATA 6.
Below the SATA connections is a LED diagnostic display. This can be very helpful when troubleshooting issues with your motherboard. Below that you have your IDE connector, front panel connectors, and on / off charge USB connection. This is one of the differences between Rev. 1.0 and Rev 2.0 of this board. The on / off charge USB connection will charge your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch while PC Hibernates or even when shut down. Above all of that is the southbridge, which is covered with a large low-profile heatsink. Going along the bottom of the board you have 2 more USB connections, a 3pin SYS_FAN3 connection, a 4pin SYS_FAN2 connection, floppy connector, and the firewire connection is hiding between the last PCI-E connector. There are 7 total add-on card slots on the X58A-UD5. They include 4x PCI-E x16 slots, 2 PCI-E x1 slots and 1 PCI slot.
Looking at the I/O connectors you have PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, optical out and coaxial out audio ports, a clear CMOS button, 2 Firewire connections (1 normal, 1 mini), 4 USB ports, 2 eSATA / USB combo ports, 2 Ethernet ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports and 6 audio jacks. If we flip the board over there really is not much to show.
