Price and Availability
The Gigabyte X99-UD3P X99 motherboard is available now. As of writing this review, the GA-X99-UD3P comes with a retail price of $185.99, making it (one of) the cheapest and most affordable X99 motherboard. It also comes with a limited 3-year warranty from the manufacturer.
Gigabyte X99-UD3P Review: Conclusion
Honestly, based on paper, the Gigabyte X99-UD3P wasn’t that appealing for me. It didn’t have any bells and whistles that most X99 motherboards have, and its set of features wasn’t jaw dropping as well. If you are used to premium and high-end motherboard packaging with lots of accessories, you may feel a bit disappointed with the included accessories as well. Everything on this motherboard, even the included accessories, is just the essentials.
However, when I first pulled out the X99-UD3P from its protective anti-static cover, I was amazed to see how the X99-UD3P looks very clean and neat. Despite lacking some eye candy, it actually feels premium on its own way. The matte black PCB looks very good, and the all-Black design with a touch of gold looks very minimalistic. How the components on the motherboard were laid out didn’t look messy as well. Aesthetically speaking, I’d say it’s pleasing to look at and if you want something that is minimal and blends with your black casing, this may look well inside your system.
When it comes to performance, the Gigabyte X99-UD3P doesn’t fall behind at all. In fact it was able to deliver very satisfactory results on all areas. I don’t have any problems when it comes to its performance, however I do have a slight problem with its memory. All the DDR4 16GB (4x4GB) memory kit, including my Klevv Cras 16GB DDR4-3000, were accepted by the motherboard. But my Kingston HyperX Fury 32GB (8GBx4) DDR4-2666 wasn’t recognized. I couldn’t even get into the BIOS, it just keeps restarting over and over. I tried updating the BIOS to its latest version but it didn’t help. I’m not sure if this is due to incompatibility or Gigabyte needs to fix the BIOS in order to recognize higher memory capacities.
There are also two things that I wished the X99-UD3P should have. It doesn’t have an onboard power and reset buttons, as well as an onboard debug LED display. You may not have a problem if you installed the motherboard inside your case and connected the front panel switches. However, without having the debug LED display it was quite tricky to identify the problem if the motherboard didn’t respond or didn’t enter POST. But for those who don’t plan to overclock their system, you may not need these features in the first place. Still, I feel that all X99 motherboard should have these two features.
Finally, the Gigabyte X99-UD3P is a good solid performing motherboard. It’s relatively cheap and you got all the essential things for an X99 system. It offers great value and I find no reason why I shouldn’t recommend this motherboard, specially if you are on a budget. If you are planning to build an X99 system but you’re on a tight budget, consider getting the Gigabyte X99-UD3P instead.
