Gigabyte Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2133 LGA 1155 Motherboard GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YJVromLzL._SL160_.jpg
- CPU: Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors, Intel Pentium processors, Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1155 package . Chipset: Intel Z68 Express Chipset
- Memory: 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory, Dual channel memory architecture, Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
- Audio: Realtek ALC889 codec, High Definition Audio, 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel, Support for S/PDIF Out. LAN: 1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
- Expansion Slots:1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 . 2 x PCI Express x1 slots. 2 x PCI slots. Support for ATI CrossFireX/NVIDIA SLI technology.
- Storage Interface: Chipset: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors, 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors, Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
- Back Panel Connectors:1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port/1 x D-Sub port/1 x DVI-D port/1 x HDMI port/1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector/4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports/2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports/1 x RJ-45 port/3 x audio jacks (Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
- Internal I/O Connectors:1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector/1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector/2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors/4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors/1 x CPU fan header/2 x system fan headers/1 x power fan header/1 x front panel header/1 x front panel audio header/1 x S/PDIF Out header/4 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers/1 x serial port header/1 x clearing CMOS jumper/1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
- USB: Chipset: Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports. Etron EJ168 chip: Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel
Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Socket 1155/Intel Z68/DDR3/ATI CrossFireX & nVidia SLI/SATA3&USB3.0/A&GbE/ATX Motherboard
Gigabyte motherboard
Gigabyte Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2133 LGA 1155 Motherboard GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
List Price: $ 142.95
Price:
Good for almost 2 months,
This is the second Gigabyte motherboard that I have purchased from Amazon that has failed not long after the 30 day return period. The first board was returned to Gigabyte directly after contacting their customer service dept by email. There was about a 2 day delay between contacting them and getting an RMA. Once they had my board, they claimed it was damaged by me and sent photographs of damage that was not on the board I sent them. Warranty coverage was denied on that first board. I tried this model after reading good reviews here and at New Egg. It was easy to install and fast until it failed yesterday. It started with an apparent failure of the ATI HD5770 video card I am using. On boot up, the video signal was suddenly reported by my monitor as a resolution and frequency that was not supported. I pulled the video card and connected the monitor to the HDMI port on the motherboard. This enabled me to boot to the bios and check my settings. Nothing seemed wrong so I proceeded to install the video drivers for the Intel HD 3000 on chip video. After a reboot, the on chip video would not display anything either and I could not get the motherboard to boot into the bios. It looks like it is an infinite boot loop and all I get out of the HDMI port is garbage. I tried swapping in a known good power supply but that made no difference. I have owned this motherboard for 55 days. I am a 54 year old electrical engineer with 1000’s of hours experience building and testing sensitive electronic devices. I was a fan of Gigabyte motherboards for the past 5 years and built good systems for myself, friends and family with their products. The quality control and good customer service that was once a hallmark of this company is clearly gone.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Great board, great price!,
Picked this up for a new PC build, was going to go with an Asus at a similar price but it wasn’t available for immediate shipment so I decided to give Gigabyte a try. With all of the features of this board I doubt I will be disappointed. Everything installed smoothly. The one complaint I’ve seen is the placement of the SATA ports. While it does seem sort of strange, it didn’t cause a problem in my case (Antec 900). Now, that is a large case so some people doing a build in a smaller case might have some problems but I had several inches of open space in front of the board; didn’t even need the 90 degree cables.
The motherboard also comes with 4 SATA cables (2-90 degree, 2-straight) which I though was generous…that might be standard practice but I haven’t done a build in a while and thought it was nice.
Good board for a good price!
Was this review helpful to you?
|Really wonderful fun Mobo with i5 2500K. An easy 5 star.,
Rock solid stable using Bios F12. It seems the F12 was developed to cure the boot-looping problems which some of these boards were having. I O/C my i5 2500K with 16GB GSkill Ram to 4.47 GHz using Gigabytes Smart QuickBoost with one click from inside Win7 … no need to go into the bios. Runs Prime95 and Malwarebytes anti-spyware scan at the same time without problem at 4.47Ghz on air at about 59C at the lowest fan revolutions of my Thermalright MUX-120 … completely SSD silent. The QuickBoost keeps Intel’s power savings features enabled and simply manipulate the multiplier and voltage used by Turbo Boost technology so it throttles back to low power saving mode when more isn’t needed … really good stuff. The Vcore when O/C is about 1.32V and when not O/C its about 1.03V. Runs very cool and its still quite responsive when needed. I did try some manual O/C (I was able to get it to a stable 4.9GHz without super tweaking) but decided it wasn’t worth the time and trouble considering how well the QuickBoost worked. Click it and forget it … but for those who enjoy such sport you can manipulate the Vcore etc manually. Using the provided Gigabyte software you can also change other bios settings from inside windows … and while the traditional bios itself is not UEFI I personally don’t see the big deal about UEFI. All in all … good clear documentation and great software.
Lucid Virtu is fun and useful switching between the on-board CPU based Intel HD Graphics 3000 and my Powercolor HD 5770. Gigabyte Smart Recovery 2 software is great and saved my Win7 installation once after a nasty virus attack. Use it … it works ! I also liked that there are two PCI slots because I have an Asus sound card and an add-on 4X usb card … also the one PS/2 comes in handy because my fav. mouse is PS/2 … but i did my homework and verified the hardware specs. before ordering. Some of the other features of this board such as IRST and SLI/Crossfire were not needed but they are available for those who do use them. Installation of the mobo. was easy and it booted up the first try. I bought the GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 and the l5 2500k together for 259.00$ and I consider it to be a very good buy. I would pay another 10$ if they would change their color scheme … i find it double ugly … but if that is my only complaint its really not too bad is it?
If you flash the bios to F12 also flash the secondary dual bios so both are the same … instructions can be found on the internet. BTW there are two versions of the motherboard: rev 1.0 and rev 1.3 so make sure you know which you have before downloading any software.
Was this review helpful to you?
|