Recently, Gigabyte revealed their Ultra Durable X99 motherboard – the Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI (GA-X99-UD7 WIFI) motherboard, completing the company’s first wave of X99 motherboards. Gigabyte first revealed the Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 WIFI for hardcore gamers and followed by the Gigabyte X99 SOC Force for the overclocking enthusiasts. The Ultra Durable is Gigabyte’s motherboard lineup that is geared towards the general consumers who wants a highly reliable and long lasting motherboard. The Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI, looks like an upgraded or “X99-ed” version of the GA-Z97X-UD7 TH. I noticed that there are features on this motherboard that came from their G1 Gaming series. Check out some of its features and specifications below.
Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI Motherboard Revealed
The Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI features an LGA 2011-3 socket supporting the latest Intel Haswell-E processors like the Intel Core i7-5960X, Core i7-5930K and Core i7-5820K. It has a total of 8x DIMM slots supporting the latest and faster DDR4 memory modules. Note that DDR4 DIMM slots are not backwards compatible with DDR3 memory, and the X99 motherboards doesn’t support DDR3 memory as well.
The GA-X99-UD7 WIFI features an 8 phase power design and draws its power from an 8 pin power connector. There is an onboard power button, reset button, debug LED, voltage check points and other switches located right beside the DIMM slots. The 24-pin power connector is located on its usual spot and below it is an onboard SATA power connector to provide additional power when you plan to install multiple graphics cards.
On the lower portion of the Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI, there are 8x SATA III 6Gbps ports and 1 SATA Express port, or 10x SATA III ports when SATA Express is not in use. In my opinion, the heatsink design looks better compared to their Z97 series. This X99 motherboard has 4x PCIE x16 slots and 3x PCIE x1 slots. There is an M.2 PCIE port for NGFF SSD and another mini PCIE slot for the WIFI card, both are located between the 2nd and 3rd PCIE x16 slots.
Unlike in the Ultra Durable Z97 motherboards, the Gigabyte X99 UD7 WIFI features an AMP-UP audio core with Nichicon Audio capacitors, and a LED path that separates the audio components from the rest of the motherboard. This feature is not present on their Ultra Durable Z97, but they can be found in some of their Z97 G1 Gaming motherboards, like the Z97X Gaming GT.
I can’t see what’s on the rear I/O panel, but I guess you’ll see the usual ports like USB 3.0 ports, audio ports, some video out ports and perhaps this board might feature a dual Gigabit LAN ports. There’s not much to say about the GA-X99-UD7 WIFI, and we will know more about it when it gets officially released by August 29 or onwards.
Gigabyte has also remained silent regarding the prices for their X99 motherboards, but we will find out soon. Expect that these X99 motherboards are not cheap, even the DDR4 and Haswell-E processors are not cheap as well.
