The Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 WIFI Intel X99 Chipset Motherboard uses an all-digital CPU power design from International Rectifier which includes 4th Generation digital PWM and 3rd Generation PowIRstage controllers that offer precision in delivering power to the power-hungry and energy-sensitive components. This allows enthusiasts to extract maximum performance from their Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs. It features Isense technology, which provides precise current sensing accuracy. This helps evenly distribute the thermal loading between the PowerIRstage ICs, preventing the overheating of each individual PowerIRstage, resulting in longer lifespan and better reliability.
The motherboard features a PCI Express design that utilizes all of the 40 lanes from the CPU when in a 4-way or 3-way graphics configuration. Standard designs limit all 4 main PCIe lanes to x8 (64 Gb/s) bandwidth, but thanks to the onboard external clock generator combined with the direct connection of one of the x16 lanes to the CPU (switchless design), this motherboard can unlock the full bandwidth (320 Gb/s ) available and provide the optimum graphic bandwidth possible to the user.
Featuring Dual M.2 technology, the motherboard provides users PCI-Express connectivity for SSD devices and onboard 11AC Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 card. It can deliver data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gb/s. The stacked design optimizes the PCB real-estate usage, allowing more components to be efficiently added without compromising any space.
The X99 motherboard features an onboard SATA Express connector that supports data transfer rates of up to 10 Gb/s, which won’t bottleneck faster NAND flash technologies in SSDs. SATA Express combines the benefits of PCI-Express and SATA to provide high bandwidth, allowing SATA Express based drives to perform at similar speeds as PCI-Express based drives.
The Realtek ALC1150 is a high-performance multi-channel high definition audio codec that delivers audio listening experience with up to 115 dB SNR, ensuring users get the best possible audio quality from their PCs. The ALC1150 provides ten DAC channels that simultaneously support 7.1-channel sound playback, plus 2 channels of independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs. Two stereo ADCs are integrated and can support a microphone array with Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Beam Forming (BF), and Noise Suppression (NS) technologies. The ALC1150 incorporates Realtek proprietary converter technology to achieve front differential output of 115 dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR), playback (DAC) quality, and 104 dB SNR recording (ADC) quality. Locating the right and left audio channels on separate PCB layers, this motherboard is capable of eliminating channel crosstalk.
The Dual Intel GbE LAN offers network data access of up to 2 Gb/s bandwidth transmission with the teaming function enabled, and power savings with the Green Ethernet feature. It also features cFos Speed, a network traffic management application which helps to improve network latency, maintaining low ping times to deliver better responsiveness in a crowded LAN environment. cFos Speed works in a similar way to an OS driver, monitoring network traffic packets at the application layer, allowing optimization and improved network performance for specific applications.
The motherboards features server level Cooper Bussmann chokes such as server level reliability and high current capacity. It also reduces heat created by power loss and provides efficient power delivery to CPU VRM area. This motherboard integrates solid state capacitors that are rated to perform at maximum efficiency for extended periods, even in extreme performance configurations. With ultra-low ESR, the capacitors come in customized jet black finish.
The X99 motherboard comes equipped with 30 micron thick gold plating for the CPU socket, 4 PCIe slots, and 4 DIMM slots, which ensures reliability and longevity for the diverse connectors overtime. It also features a 2X Copper PCB design that provides sufficient power trace paths between components to handle greater than normal power loads and to remove heat from the critical CPU power delivery area. This is essential to ensure the motherboard is able to handle the increased power loading that is necessary when overclocking.
With DualBIOS system, the motherboard protects users from BIOS failure due to virus attack, hardware malfunction, improper OC settings, or power failure during the update process. Q-Flash Plus allows users to update to the latest BIOS using a thumb drive without the CPU or memory needing to be installed. By simply downloading the latest BIOS and renaming it on a USB thumb drive, and plugging it into the dedicated port, you can now flash the BIOS automatically without the need to press any buttons or even the need of onboard memory or CPU. Utilizing the ITE EC 8951E controller, the X99 motherboard’s BIOS can be updated even if your system is unable to boot. An LED next to the EC controller will notify you once the procedure is complete and you are ready to boot your system normally.
The X99 motherboard features a wider copper ground pad and onboard components free area around the PCB screw mounting holes. This design reduces the chances of damaging any surrounding onboard components during the PC assembly process. Bigger copper ground pads also provide the added benefit of lower EMI disturbance for reduced noise interference. The motherboard features LED lighting for the audio guard light path, providing a cool, custom look to your rig. These lights programmable, so you can have them beat to the rhythm of the music you are listening to, or pulse at a soothing pace to create a great atmosphere to enhance the environment of your game, movie, or music.
The heat sink design offers efficient cooling on key areas of the motherboard including the PWM area and chipset (PCH) to maintain optimal thermal parameters. This Thunderbolt Ready motherboard allows you to expand your systems capability with an onboard pin header to accommodate the addition of a Thunderbolt add-in card (not included). The Thunderbolt controller can provide bandwidth of up to 20 Gb/s. The motherboard supports Intel Core i7 processors for delivering bandwidth totaling 320 Gb/s for the most demanding gamers or graphics intensive creation tasks such as video editing. With enhanced overclocking oriented option, this motherboard allows users to take full advantage of all the performance potential of Intel Extreme Edition CPUs (not included). It also supports 4-channel DDR4 RAMs for fast loading of programs, increased responsiveness, and handling heavy data tasks.
The Gigabyte APP Center gives you easy access to apps that help enhance the functionality of the motherboard. Using a simple, unified user interface, Gigabyte APP Center allows you to easily launch all Gigabyte apps installed on your system, check related updates online, and download the latest apps, drivers, and BIOS. The Gigabyte EasyTune is a simple and easy-to-use Windows-based software application that allows users to fine-tune their system settings, adjust system, memory clocks, and voltages in a Windows environment. It also helps display system-related information without the need to install additional software.
