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Gigabyte MW51-HP0 LGA2066 C422 Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts & Pricing

Pricing

At the time of writing this review, Gigabyte’s MW51-HP0 workstation motherboard isn’t listed on any of our usual UK pricing sites. Our US readers are in luck tho as it is widely available there. For example, Amazon has it listed for $583.83 with free shipping.

Overview

Let us get straight to the point. This is an excellent motherboard for any workstation, there can be no doubt about that. While the performance comparison charts aren’t as clear as they could be due to the changes which were needed in setup, the numbers themselves do paint a picture. Together with the CPU and memory possibilities, you can build yourself an amazing system with more power than you can handle.

The MW51-HP0 has excellent power connections and stability thanks to that. Even when maxing out the possibilities, you won’t have to worry about insufficient power or instabilities. The motherboard is utilising quality capacitors on the entire board and you also get Gigabyte’s reinforced PCIe and memory slots. Besides the extra stability, they also look great.

The CPU socket, in general, is great too. It is easy to get compatible coolers for the LGA2066 socket thanks to the default ILM 80×80 mounting system. That means you won’t run into the trouble finding a cooler such as you still will for the Scalable Xeon Platform, for example.

Connection Options

There’s truly no shortage of connection options on this motherboard. Starting with the 48 PCIe lanes offered by the CPU and 7 PCIe slots, quad-GPU setups are made easy and they’ll run with full speed. Not only does the board have 4 full speed x16 slots, there are three more x8 slots for you. Whether you want to install graphics cards, storage drives, controllers, or other add-in cards is up to you. Of course.

Aside from the add-in options, the board has plenty to offer on its own. There is dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet, more than enough USB 3.0 as well as a couple 3.1 ports. Even a legacy PS2 keyboard or mouse can be attached to it. More USB ports can be connected through the onboard headers and so can two COM ports. Storage wise, you’re well covered too. 10 SATA ports where 2 of them have DOM support, onboard M.2 slot, and U.2 interface allow for a lot of storage. The board comes with a VROC connector too and is ready for that.

You also get a 7.1 channel audio codec powered by the Realtek ALC1150 HD. While it isn’t bad as such, it isn’t the best audio solution either. That has to be said. If audio really matters to your work, then you’ll want to invest in a dedicated card. That said, it’s sufficient for ordinary needs and good to have onboard.

A little more

The Gigabyte MW51-HP0 motherboard doesn’t just perform well, it also looks great. The black PCB coupled with all the silver from the slot reinforcements and heatsinks will allow you to showcase a great looking system too. Just because it’s a workhorse doesn’t mean that it can’t look great too. I also like the way Gigabyte positioned the various features on the board. They are grouped together after what they are and they’re placed where you’ll need the connections. That’s another thing which will allow you to build a very clean and good looking system.