Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

» » Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

By Admin 05 October 2011 1 comment

  • Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

This is a review of the Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3).

Introduction
Combining the advantages of the Intel® P67 and H67 platforms in one complete package, the GIGABYTE Z68 series offer the best of both worlds; users can take advantage of the system tuning and overclocking features found in the Intel® P67 platform as well as the built-in visual features of the H67 platforms when combined with 2nd generation Intel® Core ™ processors.

Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3) picture 1

Support for PCI Express Gen.3
Approx. double the potential data bandwidth
The GIGABYTE motherboard is one of the first to provide gamers with the latest Gen.3 PCI Express technology, delivering maximum data bandwidth for the latest discrete graphics cards.

GIGABYTE Touch BIOS™ (Patent Pending)
An Innovative New Way to Modify BIOS Settings
Navigating through the BIOS to change system settings can be a daunting task for users not familiar with control “F”functions and mouse-less navigation. While some EFI BIOS try to address this with a mouse friendly environment, many implementations still lack a certain ease-of-use necessary for most people. With GIGABYTE Touch BIOS™, GIGABYTE engineers have completely re-imagined how users can interact with their BIOS, allowing for a more intuitive user experience. In fact, with a touch screen monitor, GIGABYTE Touch BIOS™ is as easy to use as most apps on your iPhone.

Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology
GIGABYTE Z68 series motherboards are equipped with the much anticipated Intel® Smart Response Technology, allowing users to experience system performance similar to SSD only systems. Intel® Smart Response technology works by using intelligent block-based caching of frequently used applications to improve system performance and responsiveness. In fact, GIGABYTE Z68 motherboards with Intel® Smart Response Technology are able to outperform hybrid drive systems by more than 2X (PC Mark Vantage HDD test) and HDD-only systems by as much as 4X (PC Mark Vantage HDD test) and deliver a 60% performance improvement over HDD-only systems in PC Mark Vantage Suite.

* 4X+ Faster than HDD-only system in PC Mark Vantage(HDD Score)
** The Intel Smart Response Technology requires a computer system with an Intel Z68 chipset-based motherboard and an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 series Processor.

Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3) picture 2
GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response
The GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response utility is a simple application that allows users to quickly and easily configure their system for Intel® Smart Response Technology. In the past, enabling Intel® Smart Response meant users needed to enter the BIOS in order to configure their system for RAID mode, which then required a complete reinstall of the operating system. Once that processes was complete, users then needed to install the Intel® Rapid Storage Utility as well as configure Intel's Smart Response Technology. GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response does all of this automatically, without users having to perform a complicated install process. This allows them to quickly and effortlessly enjoy a significant boost in system performance...

* The EZ Smart Response Technology requires a computer system with an Intel Z68 chipset-based motherboard and an Intel Core i3/i5/i7 series Processor.


Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3) picture 3
Built-in Visuals
Built-in Visuals GIGABYTE Z68 motherboards offer support for several 2nd generation Intel® Core™ Built-in Visual Features.

Intel® Quick Sync Video
Up to 2X faster media processing than any other solution for incredibly fast conversion of video files for portable media players or online sharing.

Intel® InTru™ 3D
Users can enjoy the ultimate 3D visual experiences–seamlessly–from their PC. Now they can watch their favorite 3D movies with Blu-ray Stereo 3D playback using active shutter 3D glasses. It delivers it all in 1080p full, high-definition resolution on the TV over HDMI 1.4.

Intel® Insider
Allows users to view premium 1080p HD content on their GIGABYTE Z68 series system.

Switchable Graphics with LucidLogix Virtu GPU Virtualization
GIGABYTE Z68 motherboards are enabled with LucidLogix Virtu GPU Virtualization technology which allows users to dynamically switch between their built-in graphics and their high-end, 3D discrete graphics cards. This is ideal for gamers who require high-resolution gaming and still want to enjoy the built-in media features of 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processors. In so doing, switchable graphics helps to dramatically reduce PC graphics power consumption.

Driver MOSFETs - Integration of VRM Components
A traditional Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) consists of a Choke, Capacitors, MOSFETs and a Driver IC. By incorporating the MOSFETs and driver IC in accordance with the Intel® Driver-MOSFET specification, we can achieve higher power transfer and increased efficiency at higher switching frequencies to satisfy the growing power requirements of today's processors. Driver-MOSFETs also help to reduce VRM real estate requirements in the CPU zone.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0
GIGABYTE motherboards boast SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology made possible through an additional onboard host controller. With superfast transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps, users are able to experience a theoretical 10x improvement over USB 2.0. Additionally, backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 assures users of long term use of their legacy USB 2.0 devices.

Technical Specifications of Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

CPU
  1. Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package
  2. L3 cache varies with CPU
(Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information.)
Chipset
  1. Intel® Z68 Express Chipset
Memory
  1. 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
    * Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
  4. Support for non-ECC memory modules
  5. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
(Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.)
Onboard GraphicsIntegrated Graphics Processor:
  1. 1 x D-Sub port
  2. 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
    * The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
  3. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
  4. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600p
Audio
  1. Realtek ALC889 codec
  2. High Definition Audio
  3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
  4. Support for Dolby® Home Theater
  5. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  1. 1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
  1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
    * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
  2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
    * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
  3. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
    * The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1 slot. When PCIEX1 slot is populated, the PCIEX4 slot will operate at up to x1 mode.
  4. 1 x PCI Express x1 slots
    (All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
Multi-Graphics Technology
  1. Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology (PCIEX16 and PCIEX8)
    * The PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode when ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI is enabled.
Storage InterfaceChipset:
  1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0~SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. 3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_4) supporting up to 3 SATA 3Gb/s devices
  3. 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device
  4. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
    * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
Marvell 88SE9172 chip:
  1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_5, GSATA3_6) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1
USBChipset:
  1. Up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, 10 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
2 x Etron EJ168 chips:
  1. Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 on the back panel, 2 via the USB bracket connected to the internal USB header)
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  4. 3 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
  5. 1 x CPU fan header
  6. 1 x system fan header
  7. 1 x front panel header
  8. 1 x front panel audio header
  9. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
  10. 5 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  11. 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
  12. 1 x serial port header
  13. 1 x clearing CMOS jumper
  14. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  2. 1 x D-Sub port
  3. 1 x DVI-D port
  4. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  5. 1 x HDMI port
  6. 1 x DisplayPort
  7. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  8. 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  9. 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector
  10. 1 x RJ-45 port
  11. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE IT8728 chip
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System temperature detection
  3. CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
  4. CPU overheating warning
  5. CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
  6. CPU/System fan speed control
    *Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.
BIOS
  1. 2 x 32 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
  3. Support for DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features
  1. Support for @BIOS
  2. Support for Q-Flash
  3. Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue
  4. Support for Download Center
  5. Support for Xpress Install
  6. Support for Xpress Recovery2
  7. Support for EasyTune
    * Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
  8. Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2
  9. Support for Smart 6™
  10. Support for Auto Green
  11. Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)
  12. Support for ON/OFF Charge
  13. Support for Cloud OC
  14. Support for Q-Share
Bundle Software
  1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
Operating System
  1. Support for Microsoft® Windows® 7/Vista/XP
Form Factor
  1. Micro ATX Form Factor; 24.4cm x 24.4cm
Remark
  1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors' website or 3rd party website.
  2. Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP SP1/SP2. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.


Data taken from http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3974. More information about the additional features, downloads, and more can be obtained there.
Share this post on Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)

Related posts

1 comments for Intel® Z68 Chipset GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 (rev. 1.3)


  1. Anonymous
    November 18, 2011 at 2:54 AM

    Hello,
    Thx for the information. Any clue about actual availability date for it ? As of now, I can only find the 1.0 (ie not PCE Express 3.0 compatible) version on merchants sites ?

Leave a reply

Newer Entries
Previous Entries