CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories
CPU Cooler Fit
To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D14 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth CPU air cooler sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.
When running the unit oriented to blow air towards the rear panel, there is ample room along the front, back, and left sides of the board to accommodate the cooler's real estate as well as any installed peripherals.
The two-sided VRM heat sink does not conflict with the ability to mount the cooler, nor do any of the coolers heat pipes come into contact with the on-board heat sinks. There is plenty of room in the direct vacinity of the CPU socket to accomodate the cooler. Further, all four memory slots remain usable with the cooler in place.
The Noctua hold down mechanism is large enough to quickly determine exactly how much space is available around the CPU socket. Neither the heat sinks nor the chokes surrounding the CPU socket pose any constraint issues with the Noctua mounting mechanism.
The is no risk of board damage using a backplate with this board because of the lack of circuitry or chips directly around the socket.
Included Accessories
GIGABYTE bundled in only the absolute minimum components necessary to get the board up and running.
GIGABYTE includes a nicely detailed manual with information on all board setup and functionality. Additionally, a setup disc was included for installing all drivers and utilities necessary for board setup. GIGABYTE also includes an Ultra Durable branded case badge.
The rear panel shield is well marked with a flat black base and white lettering and icons, for clear identification of port function under most lighting conditions.
GIGABYTE included a total of four 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated port. The cables and sleeved with black plastic sleeving and have integrated port locks and a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors. Note that no SATA Express cables are included with the board.
For multi-GPU use, GIGABYTE includes a two-way NVIDIA SLI cable.
As usual great review Morry,
As usual great review Morry, Like! Like! 🙂
“For the PCI-Express x16
“For the PCI-Express x16 slots, the board supports full x16 bandwidth with a single card, x8 bandwidth with cards in the primary and secondary slots with two cards populated, and x8 / x8 / x4 in all PCI-Express x16 slots with three cards populated.”
If I am reading the specs correctly, it is x8/x4/x4 with three cards rather than x8/x8/x4.
What a strange way to go
What a strange way to go about it, a better way would be gen 3 x8, gen 3 x8, gen 2 x4 which is what my board does.
I don’t know if that is
I don’t know if that is better. I am assuming that socket 1150 boards are limited to one x16 connection to the processor. This gigabyte board connects through a pci-e switch (some plx chip?) such that all three cards are sharing the single x16 link direct to the cpu at gen3 speeds. With the x8/x8/(x4 gen 2) set-up you are describing, the x4 link probably comes from the PCH (southbridge), so this shares bandwidth with every other IO device (SATA, network, usb, etc.) instead of the other video cards. I believe the DMI link from the PCH to the cpu is similar bandwidth to x4, gen 2 pci-e. This is cheaper as it does not require a pci-e switch chip. The performance difference may be minimal since 3-card set-ups do not scale well anyway. Best to just run 2 cards with this board though. I have wondered if it would work to run a pci-e ssd in one of the slots connected to the switch.
You are correct, tri-card
You are correct, tri-card mode is x8/x4/x4. Thank you for pointing that out….
“GIGABYTE designed the
“GIGABYTE designed the Z97X-UD5H’s rear panel with the following ports: … an HDMI video port, a DisplayPort video port, a DVI-I video port…”
The photos do not show a DisplayPort video port.
I do not believe that the GA-Z97X-UDH5 has DisplayPort connectivity onboard.
Fixed. Thanks for pointing
Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out…
great review, but i prefer
great review, but i prefer the looks of previsios z87x-ud5(which i have for my g3258)the heatsinks on this one are a bit to much golden yellow, on the old one they are more blacks in there which ads to the visual look a lot, makes it look a loth better in my opinion
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke