Gigabyte motherboard naming conventions - alphabet soup

[timeshifter]

I'm looking to build a new machine and want to use a Gigabyte board to be able to have Hackintosh compatibility.

I'll probably go with a Core i7 2600k or an i5 2500k. Want a decent board with good features, maybe in the $150 - $200 range. I've narrowed down my selection to Socket 1155 / Z68 Gigabyte models, but damn, that doesn't really narrow it down that much - they have 23 f-ing different models.

To make matters worse, I can't make heads or tails out of their naming conventions. I've found a few pages online that attempt to explain them but it's not 100% clear to me.

Can anyone offer any pointers in deciphering the different models and naming conventions?

 

[ijhu]

Go to the site, select multiple boards and use compare feature. They will lay them side by side for you compare each feature.

 

[timeshifter]

There's 23 models and you can only compare 10 at a time. I may try that when I get home on my big screen.

Here's a summary of their codes according to their website for Socket 1155 / Z68 motherboards. There's really only three groups of codes to be concerned with.

Group 1:
GA-Z68xx (Gigabyte brand, Z68 chipset, followed by one or two characters)
A
AP
M
MA
MX
P
X
XP

Group 2:
D2H
D3
D3H
DS3
UD2H
UD3H
UD3P
UD4
UD5
UD7

Group 3:
B3
iSSD

At this point I don't know what most of them mean. Maybe over time I (we?) can fill out this list and it can serve as a reference.

The only one I think I know is the UD3, which stands for Ultra Durable level 3. Has to do with the amount of copper in the layers of the board. Supposed to make it more durable, and dissipate heat and EMI radiation.

 

[Morshu]

The higher number UDs are better at overclocking, which is why I got a UD5 for my i7 2600k. All I know is that the UD uses 2x the copper in the PCB. I believe the UD7 also has 2 PCIe 16x slots if you're using 2 graphics cards. The Z68X-UD5-B3 was very easy to set up and it was a good balance of what I needed and what I could use later on (SATAIII, USB3.0, etc.)

Just look around at what boards other users have had success with and go from there.

 

[timeshifter]

Been studying these boards for hours tonight / today. Come down to two choices:

GA-Z68XP-UD5 $270
+ more electrical power / heavy duty type features
+ fast powered eSATA 3 (6GB) ports

GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 $160
+ built in VGA, DVI and Displayport ports (could use without graphics card if / when needed)
+ $110 cheaper

 

[Haxx187]

same choices most come down to is between those 2 boards. its just gonna depend on what features or cost you want.

I have 3 UD5 on the shelf for customers that want overclocked windows rigs but the UD3H i have used plenty of times too due to cost etc

 

[timeshifter]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the UD5. Newegg had a $20 rebate that expired at midnight PDT last night. I noticed it at 11:15

 

[aviat72]

http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/279/i ... odels.html has a classification of the various Z68 boards.

UD has better construction (more copper) than D boards.

The numbers 2,3,4,5,6 represent the quality of the power control circuitry. The number of phases in power circuitry goes up with level 4 on which is only relevant to overclockers.

Within a class, there are

(1) Trade-offs between number of video outs, versus peripheral outs.
(2) Special features like integrated mSata ports for the SSD caching thingy
(3) Variation in the number of SATA, USB, eSATA, Firewire, ports etc.

 

[kidpub]

Here's a good page on Wikipedia that explains the Gigabyte motherboard naming codes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte_Technology

Perry