Gigabyte Z68X UD7 B3 Motherboard Review

For those of you familiar with the GA-P67A-UD7 you will notice something strangely familiar when you look at these overall motherboard shots.  The GA-Z68X-UD7 is identical and shares the same matte black PCB, grey and gold heatsinks and familiar black expansion slots.

The back of the motherboard does feature a few surface components around the PWM.  We like showing the back of these motherboards since it helps decipher what is going on in terms of the PCI Express expansion slots.  We'll talk more about these in the Multi GPU Index section.

To improve graphical performance Gigabyte has included the NVidia NF200 chip.  You will find the chip in the traditional North Bridge location and is tasked with dividing up the available PCI Express lanes for better distribution and improved multi video card support.

The heatsink array is removable and held in place with 10 spring loaded screws.  

Power is extremely important when overclocking to ensure the best stability.  On the Z68X-UD7 you will find a total of 24 power phases which in effect is a dual 12 phase PWM design.  Under normal operation both power channels are operational and will scale depending on power demands.

Behind the PWM cooler you'll find the 8 pin CPU power connector.  The connector is accessible however given the orientation and location between the PWM cooler and I/O panel you may have trouble removing the power cable.