GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3: Z68 Chipset With Smart Response

The Z68 Chipset and Smart Response

Introducing the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3

Back in January, Intel released their P67 Express Chipset, which provided users with a great solution to build systems with powerful discreet graphics and Intel's 2nd Generation Core architecture Sandy Bridge processors. The chipset also supported simple overclocking for high-end users. Due to the simplicity of overclocking, users on air cooling could easily reach speeds of up to 4.8 - 5 GHz. On the other hand Intel also released another very well known H67 Express Chipset. This category of motherboards were designed to use the processors built in integrated HD graphics to enhance video performance with systems running just integrated graphics. However, The H67 Express Chipset did not provide overclocking support for the CPU. Today, Intel is releasing the new Z68 Express Chipset, which combines the power of the H67 and P67 chipsets into one compact solution. There are two forms of Z68 based motherboards. One provides users with powerful dedicated graphics solutions with the support of the NF200 chip while also taking advantage of Intel's new Smart Response SSD Caching technology. The other has display connectors on the rear of the motherboard, providing full support for the integrated graphics while having full CPU overclocking potential, and SSD caching called Smart Response. Today, we will be taking a look at GIGABYTE's flagship high-end motherboard, the Z68X-UD7-B3, which follows the discreet graphics idea of the Z68 chipset. We will have a follow up review of GIGABYTE's Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard which is using mainly the integrated graphics on the Sandy Bridge processors, but also comes with LucidLogix Virtu™ GPU Virtualization which allows switching between the integrated and dedicated graphics. This can help in more than one way, including lower power consumption when discreet graphics is not needed, or Intel's Quick Sync media accelerator support which helps encode video quicker than ever.

In this review we'll take a closer look at the differences on the GIGABYTE P67A-UD7-B3 and Z68X-UD7-B3 motherboard. The differences are minimal, but we'll try to take a look at some of the main features that the Z68 chipset has to offer over the older P67 chipset. For those that are not yet familiar with the P67 chipset, we reviewed it in January. Please take a look at the GIGABYTE P67A-UD7 review which has an in-depth analysis of the P67 chipset on the Introduction page.

The GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 motherboard has an MSRP of $370, about $20 more than the P67A-UD7 when it was launched. This is expected because of the more expensive chipset and the extra features that come with the motherboard. It will be the users' choice between the P67A-UD7-B3 or the Z68X-UD7-B3 motherboards depending on the features that they will need.