Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming LGA2011-3 Motherboard Review

John Williamson / 7 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming is available for £249.99 from CCLComputers. This is noticeably cheaper than many other retailers and I can only presume this is down to some kind of promotion. Around this price point, the competition is fierce and it’s possible to acquire the ASUS STRIX X99 Gaming for £279.98. On another note, MSI’s X99A GAMING PRO CARBON falls within this price bracket and costs £272.48. As you can see, the Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming is cheaper than competing solutions although the price difference isn’t massive. Saying that, the package is superb for the money and every little bit saved on the motherboard can go towards a graphics card or higher performing processor.

Summary

Gigabyte has adopted a fairly ambitious aesthetic design for the X99-Ultra Gaming which makes previous Haswell-E offerings look quite bland and unoriginal. The motherboard’s white and red colour scheme combines in an attractive manner and should appeal to a large audience. Of course, this flamboyant style isn’t going to be for everyone and the hefty white heatsinks may clash with certain builds. On the other hand, I’d prefer Gigabyte to try something different through a unique, and perhaps flashy infusion of colours. Personally, I adore the striking red lines and white I/O cover. On another note, the PCH and audio section contains small holes to allow the spectacular lighting system to flourish. The RGB illumination is quite bright and each colour really shines. Additionally, the option to cycle between various effects, alter the time interval and select your favourite colour is such a wonderful concept. This means you can customise the motherboard and employ a finish which you’re happy with.

The Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming is a premium product and utilises the highest quality of components. For example, the motherboard is powered by a reliable 8-phase IR digital PWM which can easily contend with a heavily overclocked 10-core processor. Not only that, the Cooper Bussmann chokes, 10K black capacitors and 15-micron gold-plated socket ensure the motherboard has a long lifespan. To prevent accidental damage from occurring, Gigabyte reinforced the DIMM slots and PCI-E slots. The stainless shield shielding withstands pressure relatively well and the patented PCI-E mechanism is extremely robust. The motherboard’s ESD protection is necessary to stop key components from being shorted.

Connectivity-wise, the motherboard is rather good and allows you to connect a huge array of devices. More specifically, the Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming supports U.2, M.2, SATA Express and houses loads of traditional SATA ports. The rear I/O even contains USB 3.1 Type-A and USB 3.1 Type-C as well as a dedicated USB port to update the BIOS without the CPU or memory being installed. The only grievance I have is the lack of Thunderbolt 3 which seems like a misstep. On another note, the audio segment is a major highlight and performed brilliantly. This is probably down to the highly revered Realtek ALC1150 codec, 115dB SNR and leading Japanese audio capacitors.

Gigabyte’s updated BIOS layout is a monumental improvement and much easier to use than their previous design. The easy mode lists all the main characteristics and allows you to browse system readings. The information is presented in a simple, easy-to-understand manner and the lack of variables should prevent novices from feeling overwhelmed. Once the advanced mode is enabled, the end-user can modify an astonishing amount of options and it’s bound to please those who enjoy tweaking different voltages. Gigabyte’s fan control utility has a pleasant user-interface and proves useful when creating your own fan curve.

The motherboard’s performance when running the i7-6950X at stock settings is exemplary and this is mainly due to Gigabyte automatically boosting the processor to 4.0GHz. As a result, the motherboard enjoys a significant lead over the ASUS STRIX X99 Gaming when tackling a number of benchmarks. As previously mentioned, this isn’t a fair comparison but I retained the default 4.0GHz setting as it’s likely other manufacturers will follow suit. Overclocking the CPU was remarkably simple and I managed to achieve a 4.4GHz result without any major issues. Saying that, the motherboard’s lack of any onboard diagnostic tools such as a LED post and clear CMOS button made the process take longer than it should have. Even though this is a 100MHz improvement versus the ASUS STRIX X99 Gaming, the reviews were conducted using two different samples because of supply problems. Despite this, the overclocked numbers were exceptional and the i7-6950X’s abilities in multi-threaded tasks almost defy belief.

When it comes to storage, the motherboard posted wonderful results and excelled during M.2 testing. Additionally, the SATA read/writes were good while the USB 3.0 performance deserves praise. Perhaps the most impressive feat was the motherboard’s networking hardware which outputted amazing figures in both UDP and TDP benchmarking. Across the board, the motherboard performed really well.

Pros

Clean, revamped BIOS is easy to navigate
Comprehensive software package
Dual BIOS
Dual networking solutions
Exemplary UDP networking speeds
Gorgeous lighting system
Great value for a Broadwell-E motherboard
Loads of connectivity options including U.2, SATA, SATA Express M.2 and USB 3.1 Type-C
Magnificent audio
Premium electronics should last a long time
Striking colour scheme
Wonderful CPU results due to factory 4.0GHz boost

Cons

Thunderbolt 3 support is missing
No diagnostic tools such as a LED post and CMOS reset button

Neutral

The lack of WiFi may annoy some but it’s not a glaring flaw

“The Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming is a stylish, feature-rich motherboard which offers superb value if you’re looking to compile a Broadwell-E system. In particular, the motherboard’s gorgeous lighting system and support for a huge array of connections make it a compelling choice.”

Editors-Choice