Overclockaholics Forums - Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 Voltage Review

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8...vivireview.png

Heya guy's, there are already all kinds of reviews out for this board so i thought i'd try something quick and interesting. This review is mainly targeted at overclockers.

Pic's of the board ready to go:

Scope Probe's and Read points soldered behind the CPU for accuracy.

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4030/img8210a.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/366/img8201k.jpg

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/286/img8199h.jpg

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/8648/img8195s.jpg

Voltage Set in BIOS vs BIOS readout vs Multi Meter readout

Looks quite accurate. Nothing out of the ordinary.
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2423/voltread.png

Next up i tested all 10 levels of Load Line Calibration (LLC). For those who do no know, it is the motherboards way to counter loss of CPU voltage when the CPU go's under load.

CPU SET 1.3V in BIOS

1st Load line Disabled. (The default setting).
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8521/llcdisabled.png

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7035/llc1.png

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6789/llc2.png

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/2356/llc3.png

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2554/llc4.png

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/4699/llc5.png

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8550/llc6.png

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4644/llc7.png

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/2312/llc8.png

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/28/llc9.png

:O (Don't try this at home.. or on 1.6v)
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/6015/llc10.png

Between LLC 4/5/6 You should get your best result / stability.

Now to test the clarity of the 24 phase beast.

I used an oscilloscope to see the fluctuation in voltage being fed to the CPU and Memory. I set my scope to .010v (10mv) per division. See below. (One block on the grid = 1 division).

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6875/ripple.png

I used 1.3V in the bios with LLC Level 5.
Wprime was used to stress all 8 cores.
And superpi which is considered to be light weight.

VCore
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9...ecpunormal.png

What i found very strange was at full load 8 cores Wprime the stability is incredibly. But look at how demanding single threaded superpi is??

VMem
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4641/scopemem.png

I was curious to see if changing the PWM frequency had any visual effect.

PWM AT +42%
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2665/scopecpupwm42.png

PWM AT -24%
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9...pecpupwm24.png

Nothing really too much.

i also checked the temperature after a few hours of load testing.
Not a big change with my low ambient and that huge heatsink.

The PWM stayed very cool.

http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/9721/ambient.png

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8691/pwmm.png

Then i did some random testing.
I wanted to see if this board is on par with the P67A-UD4-B3 in 3Dmark2001SE.

There is a visible difference, but im sure with finer tuning the gap won't be big.
System:
2600k @ 5ghz
Gtx 275 Stock

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5...1secompare.png

Lastly the max BLCK i achieved.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1892751

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/8312/blck.jpg

Coolios hope you enjoyed.