Gigabyte P67A-UD5 vs. Gigabyte P67A-UD4

[willmalcom]

Hello folks,

So like many others I am getting ready for a Sandy Bridge build.

I am a gigabyte fan, so I will be getting a gigabyte mobo.

My question is in your opinion, does the phase 20 power design in the UD5 justify the price increase from the UD4 that has the phase 12 power design? I do plan to overclock the CPU (on air using a noctuna cooler), but I doubt I will try to push it past 4.6 - 4.8ghz. I do not know if the higher rated power design helps directly provide stability in overclocking or if it just controls and regulates voltages better to help provide OC stability in a roundabout way.

Sorry, I am still pretty inexperienced compared to those of you with a lot of knowledge.

 

[sportsfanboy]

If you plan on some serious overclocking, the board with the better voltage regulation always wins. I have learned the hard way in the past not to skimp on mobo's when overclocking. The 20 phase will most likely allow you to run a bit lower voltage, so over all wear and tear will a tad less and heat will be a bit lower as well.

 

[willmalcom]

Thanks! I appreciate the response, it is only 70 - 75$ more for the UD5, so it isn't major money or anything like that. So, it seems like I should spring for the extra $$.

I won't know for sure until I have the build up and running of course, but I do not know if I will even want to attempt voltage changes, or if I am just going to stick with changing multipliers.

I appreciate it!

 

[sportsfanboy]

You'll have to change the voltage for any significant overclock, say over 10 to 15 percent past stock.

 

[willmalcom]

I thought that I had read somewhere that ... here it is ... that they were able to get an i5 2500k to 4.62 mhz without playing with the voltage? Or maybe I read it wrong?

 

[sportsfanboy]

I don't have time to read that whole article right now, however knowing what I know about chips,voltage and current tech, you can't overclock even an efficient Sandy Bridge cpu to 4.6 without a significant voltage bump, most likely overvolting it at that speed.

 

[willmalcom]

Well, I guess I should trust the Veteran
Look over it sometime if you get the chance and let me know what you think.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Alright I will get back to you in a bit.

 

[sportsfanboy]

Well, I guess I should trust the Veteran
Look over it sometime if you get the chance and let me know what you think.

I had a look at that page there are a few notables there. They said they manged to change the multiplier without messing with any advanced options. That's not the same as running stock volts as the mother board will start increasing the voltage as you raise the multiplier. They did however achieve an impressive overclock at 1.4 volts. That said that's a measly .5 or so away from max voltage and that's on a most likely cherry picked cpu.

It's generally not recommended leaving voltage on auto, especially when going for a high overclock. You will need to set voltage manually to a fair amount above stock volts(or your chips VID) in order to achieve the overclock your talking about.

In any case I'll stick to the more expensive better overclocking board if I were in your shoes.

Not all Veterans are created equal Good Luck

 

[jaquith]

Anything > 14 Phase gets into stupid land, and if ALL the phases are only going through the CPU even dumber.

I've seen the Intel DP67BG P67 which is ONLY a 4+2 Phase MOBO hit >5GHz; BTW the Intel MOBO are horrible! Not a fan of GA MOBOs either... Therefore the GA-P67A-UD4 (rev. 1.0) is sufficient to 'melt' the CPU.

Side-by-Side -> http://www.gigabyte.us/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=3647,3648

R3E's phases will get you to need Nitrogen to max-out the power to the CPU.
- 8-phase CPU power
- 3-phase QPI/DRAM power
- 3-phase NB power
- 3-phase Memory power

 

[willmalcom]

@sportfan Thanks for all the info, I appreciate the responses


@ jaquith Well, I haven't had any trouble with Gigabyte, but then admittedly I don't have a ton of experience either. I am always open to other options!

I do tend to trust those with more experience than myself. And tbh, I have read on various forums posts from what seem like experienced people saying that they don't care much for Gigabyte. Any reasoning and suggestions on other manufacturers?

 

[RetiredChief]

First - Are gigabyte beter than some of the other, probably not, but I'm also partial to Gigabyte. Last 3 biulds:
E6400 OC to 3.2...I5-750 Stable at 3.8 GHZ... I3-540 (For wife. Not one problem.

On Nr. of phases. There is a point of Diminishing returns. Where that point is I'm unsure.
More Phases -> less current per phase (possible lower failure rate), better ripple reduction , Higher componet count (increased failure rate.

I'd probably go with jaquith that 12 are enough. The 20 is more for bragging rights and increased profits as the manuf cost are not that much higher

 

[jaquith]

More isn't 'better' if it sits there doing zip; waste of $. My feelings about GA aren't -- hmm...today I hate GA. They have the highest failure rate in this forum, and I unfortunately discovered & confirmed the SSD + RAID on the UD3R {rev 2} and helped confirm the {rev 1} SSD issue. Imagine rebuilding 10 rigs! Tom's latest GA build discovered the Swiss Army Knife galore approach caused the SATA2 and SATA3 speeds about the same; too much allocation of bandwidth.

I could go on and on, but I'll keep an open mind with the P67 and GA. My preferences: EVGA, ASUS, MSI, ASRock, Gigabyte.

If I had to build one now the ASUS P8P67 PRO, or wait for the EVGA P67 Classified http://news.softpedia.com/news/EVGA-P67-Classified-Is-an-Enthusiast-Grade-Sandy-Bridge-Ready-Motherboard-173250.shtml

GA-P67A-UD4 (rev. 1.0) - http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3648#sp
P8P67 PRO - http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=HMMvTCuBcZLfu2YL

P8P67 PRO:
4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)*/2133(O.C.)/1866(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)
Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology
Supports ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology
-
Intel® P67 Express Chipset
2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray)
4 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue)
Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10
Marvell® 9120 controller
2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (navy blue)*
JMicron® JMB362 SATA controller
2 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports*
-
Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
-
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (blue)
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x S/PDIF Out (1 for Coaxial, 1 for Optical)
-
Industry leading Digital 12+2 Phase Power Design

GA-P67A-UD4:
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
{Convoluted way of saying x8/x8}
Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology
-
Intel® P67 Express Chipset
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
{Convoluted way of saying poorer performance}
Marvell 88SE9128 chip:
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1
-
NO Bluetooth
-
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
-
NO COMMENTS ON Phase ; generally not a good sign ; suggests poor poorer power to CPU/RAM

 

[willmalcom]

"My feelings about GA aren't -- hmm...today I hate GA. They have the highest failure rate in this forum, and I unfortunately discovered & confirmed the SSD + RAID on the UD3R {rev 2} and helped confirm the {rev 1} SSD issue. Imagine rebuilding 10 rigs! Tom's latest GA build discovered the Swiss Army Knife galore approach caused the SATA2 and SATA3 speeds about the same; too much allocation of bandwidth."

I read that last night, and it did make me question my commitment to Gigabyte. And I have read less bad things about the ASUS boards, so they might have to be a serious consideration.

The Asus board just looks like it is going to cost about 150 extra bones!!

 

[willmalcom]

Oh I got served, they are about the same price ...

 

[jaquith]

Where are you shopping? The costs are about the same??!! GA-P67A-UD4 vs P8P67 PRO are priced within $10 in the USA anyway. Sorry, I am CoFuSeD?

 

[willmalcom]

yeah check my above post

I was just immediately responding based on the picture ...

Maybe that should say something )

 

[jaquith]

I did.

 

[willmalcom]

10$ is about the same to me ... now I am CoNfUsEd

 

[jaquith]

I Added more! You're gonna have your head spin-off...

 

[willmalcom]

It already did ... yikes!

 

[jaquith]

If it were 'me' go the X58 route...

 

[willmalcom]

Why just out of curiosity?

 

[jaquith]

As I've been saying all along in 'that other' post the P55 vs P67 no big deal, as you're finally I think realizing the 'baby step.' The biggies to me are x16/x16, unshared PCIe bandwidth & more overall PCIe bandwidth, Tri Channel RAM vs Dual, 6-core CPUs vs 4-core, and better architecture.

Now IF the P67 offered PCIe 3.0 then duh get the P67. However, to date the best I've seen is the EVGA Classified P67 with X16/x8 but my guess it's going to cost ~$300. More for less performance doesn't add-up. Prices for X58 have been going down. 3/4-WAY SLI/CF is no big deal on the X58, but the P67 it's a PITA to get 3-WAY much less a 4-WAY and then it';; be like a dead appendage.

What concerns me is I haven't seen any mention of SATA4 {1200 Gb/s}/or whatever it will be called for any MOBO; there are SSDs now - today with >700 MB/s R/W and SATA3 craps out at 600 MB/s -- so the SSD must be PCIe!

So far, I have not been wrong...

Good links to see what's what:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_microprocessors
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

FYI - I'm 1 of 4 Gold MOBO period and 1 of 2 that answered so many correctly we broke the forum counter - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/profile-388864.htm

 

[sportsfanboy]

FYI - I'm 1 of 4 Gold MOBO period and 1 of 2 that answered so many correctly we broke the forum counter - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/profile-388864.htm

What do you want a metal,oh badge sorry