The aesthetic of the motherboard would be nice. That is, if it weren't for those green capacitors by the audio chip. Seriously, with a good looking red and black motherboard, what is such a color doing on it? Otherwise, it looks like a pretty good motherboard, albeit a bit pricey even for an X99 motherboard.
They're colored that way because Nichicon makes them that way and has for years. Audiophiles who know the difference will notice this immediately and prefer this over a black or red tinned version.
Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save the lackluster sound output, which ends up sounding extremely low bitrate and crushed/dumpy at higher output levels (adjusting input load level does not help).
If you have a few add-in boards installed, chances you don't see these caps anyways.
Those look like electrolytic capacitors rather than solid state. Is there a particular reason as to why they would have gone with those? Seem kind of out of place on a premium board.
>Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save > the lackluster sound output
Who's still using onboard sound output? Audiophiles will use the USB DAC-UP ports to attach a nice external DAC, and the rest of us are using HDMI audio. A motherboard is about the worst place possible to encode audio due to all the electrical noise from the rest of the MB.
The board looks nice, and has a ton of great features (3 year warranty is nice). Although I really question the built in wifi on a gaming board. Wifi is terrible for gaming. Random latency spikes make online gaming an aggravating experience.
I think the point is, its not either/or, it can be both. You can always hardwire your ethernet connection and use the wifi direct for connecting peripherals that use it for the best of both worlds...
Hi Morawka. I just want to know how that WiFi Direct Connection using your Xbox One or Nvidia Shield controller is working for you ... Even if it worked with any wireless card which the later doesn't do AFAIK and likely not the former either the Nvidia Shield one also need to have an Nvidia graphics card so it's complete garbage. It's disturbing Valve doesn't have Steam controller support built in in their Steam Link =P
Ian, did you have a chance to thoroughly test out OC'ing on this board, and if so, what BIOS revision did you test? I did note you had a few mentions of the auto-OC feature, but I have the Gaming 5 version of this board and I have to say it is one of the hardest I have ever worked with in over a decade of custom builds. From the feedback on various forums including the Tweaktown Gigabyte BIOS thread, it seems this is pretty consistent across all of the Giga X99 boards.
Some of the crazy stuff I have seen is:
1) Hard loop on bad OC settings. They have fixed this somewhat with the latest BIOS so it will usually allow you to re-enter the BIOS on a bad boot/OC. Before you had to do some janky things like disconnect all your RAIDed SATA connections or it would halt on POST and prevent you from getting into the BIOS.
2) Early versions of the BIOS did not allow for ANY overclocking. Things have improved gradually, but I have still found this board takes some 0.02-0.03V higher than other boards to achieve similar OCs. For example, an Asus board might only need 1.265V to achieve 4.5GHz, while I need 1.295V to get 4.4GHz stable.
3) Examples of "mostly" stable (ie. apps, games, stress tests) will have no problems in Windows, but they won't allow for wake from S3 Sleep. Adding more voltage allows the PC to wake but somehow the board defaults to its stock speeds, ie. does not retain overclock once it is awake. Restarting will result in the bad OC screen, showing the OC was not completely stable to begin with. Adding more voltage fixes this, but it is a lot of voltage compared to other boards.
4) This board does not like RAM speeds above the stock 2133MHz. Very disappointing, I'm using 2666MHz Corsair with XMP and this board will run, but again, will not wake from sleep or retain OC settings at higher RAM speeds. I know this is not official JEDEC spec but other boards do not have a problem with this at all. I have not yet tried to use manual settings for the timings, but I really shouldn't have to, that's what XMP is for.
5) Board would not boot at all with the auxiliary 4-pin molex connector attached.
I got this board for a great price (free), so I can't complain too much, but if I had spent my own money I would be very upset with it. I've had good experiences with Gigabyte in the past with their Z87X-UD4 and the X58-UD3R before that, but this board has been a big disappointment. There's probably at least 4-5 bugs I encountered that would've been a showstopper for a less experienced builder, so Gigabyte really needs to clean up their act, imo, because no one should have to jump through the hoops I went through to get this board working with a decent overclock.
That said, this board is probably fine for anyone who is planning to run it bone stock clocks.
Because "performs just as well" is not true? It might or it might not, but that depends on the application you're using. I'm running a 5960x overclocked to 4.1 GHz and I guarantee it will crush a 4770 like a bug.
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Meegul - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
The aesthetic of the motherboard would be nice. That is, if it weren't for those green capacitors by the audio chip. Seriously, with a good looking red and black motherboard, what is such a color doing on it? Otherwise, it looks like a pretty good motherboard, albeit a bit pricey even for an X99 motherboard.chizow - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
They're colored that way because Nichicon makes them that way and has for years. Audiophiles who know the difference will notice this immediately and prefer this over a black or red tinned version.https://www.google.com/search?q=nichicon+audio+cap...
Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save the lackluster sound output, which ends up sounding extremely low bitrate and crushed/dumpy at higher output levels (adjusting input load level does not help).
If you have a few add-in boards installed, chances you don't see these caps anyways.
stux - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
[img]http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviewimages/gigabyt...[/img]leetruski - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
Those look like electrolytic capacitors rather than solid state. Is there a particular reason as to why they would have gone with those? Seem kind of out of place on a premium board.JeffFlanagan - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
>Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save> the lackluster sound output
Who's still using onboard sound output? Audiophiles will use the USB DAC-UP ports to attach a nice external DAC, and the rest of us are using HDMI audio. A motherboard is about the worst place possible to encode audio due to all the electrical noise from the rest of the MB.
Stuka87 - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
The board looks nice, and has a ton of great features (3 year warranty is nice). Although I really question the built in wifi on a gaming board. Wifi is terrible for gaming. Random latency spikes make online gaming an aggravating experience.Morawka - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
ever heard of wifi direct? you'll need it for xbox one controllers, Nvidia shield controllers, etc..there are tons of wifi direct hardware on the market nowadays.
imaheadcase - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
So? Still does not change the fact wifi is terrible for gaming.chizow - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
I think the point is, its not either/or, it can be both. You can always hardwire your ethernet connection and use the wifi direct for connecting peripherals that use it for the best of both worlds...aliquis - Monday, March 5, 2018 - link
Hi Morawka.I just want to know how that WiFi Direct Connection using your Xbox One or Nvidia Shield controller is working for you ...
Even if it worked with any wireless card which the later doesn't do AFAIK and likely not the former either the Nvidia Shield one also need to have an Nvidia graphics card so it's complete garbage.
It's disturbing Valve doesn't have Steam controller support built in in their Steam Link =P
chizow - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
Ian, did you have a chance to thoroughly test out OC'ing on this board, and if so, what BIOS revision did you test? I did note you had a few mentions of the auto-OC feature, but I have the Gaming 5 version of this board and I have to say it is one of the hardest I have ever worked with in over a decade of custom builds. From the feedback on various forums including the Tweaktown Gigabyte BIOS thread, it seems this is pretty consistent across all of the Giga X99 boards.Some of the crazy stuff I have seen is:
1) Hard loop on bad OC settings. They have fixed this somewhat with the latest BIOS so it will usually allow you to re-enter the BIOS on a bad boot/OC. Before you had to do some janky things like disconnect all your RAIDed SATA connections or it would halt on POST and prevent you from getting into the BIOS.
2) Early versions of the BIOS did not allow for ANY overclocking. Things have improved gradually, but I have still found this board takes some 0.02-0.03V higher than other boards to achieve similar OCs. For example, an Asus board might only need 1.265V to achieve 4.5GHz, while I need 1.295V to get 4.4GHz stable.
3) Examples of "mostly" stable (ie. apps, games, stress tests) will have no problems in Windows, but they won't allow for wake from S3 Sleep. Adding more voltage allows the PC to wake but somehow the board defaults to its stock speeds, ie. does not retain overclock once it is awake. Restarting will result in the bad OC screen, showing the OC was not completely stable to begin with. Adding more voltage fixes this, but it is a lot of voltage compared to other boards.
4) This board does not like RAM speeds above the stock 2133MHz. Very disappointing, I'm using 2666MHz Corsair with XMP and this board will run, but again, will not wake from sleep or retain OC settings at higher RAM speeds. I know this is not official JEDEC spec but other boards do not have a problem with this at all. I have not yet tried to use manual settings for the timings, but I really shouldn't have to, that's what XMP is for.
5) Board would not boot at all with the auxiliary 4-pin molex connector attached.
I got this board for a great price (free), so I can't complain too much, but if I had spent my own money I would be very upset with it. I've had good experiences with Gigabyte in the past with their Z87X-UD4 and the X58-UD3R before that, but this board has been a big disappointment. There's probably at least 4-5 bugs I encountered that would've been a showstopper for a less experienced builder, so Gigabyte really needs to clean up their act, imo, because no one should have to jump through the hoops I went through to get this board working with a decent overclock.
That said, this board is probably fine for anyone who is planning to run it bone stock clocks.
BoredTech - Friday, December 25, 2015 - link
This is a game board, the oc board is the SOC from them.angrypatm - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
It's funny how some people are so concerned about the looks and color of a mobo, I guess they wouldn't buy it if it was brown and purple.littlebitstrouds - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
Awe, I miss DFI boards.gammaray - Saturday, December 20, 2014 - link
i don't get it, why invest in a X99 board with a 500$ cpu when a z87 coupled with a 4770 perform just as well?Zan Lynx - Saturday, January 17, 2015 - link
Because "performs just as well" is not true? It might or it might not, but that depends on the application you're using. I'm running a 5960x overclocked to 4.1 GHz and I guarantee it will crush a 4770 like a bug.