GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
26%
58%
11%
0%
5%
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Will_H@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 05/20/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:No on-board USB 3.0 headerVRM cooler could stand to be a little bigger.
Pros:Room for slight overclockDVI and HDMI on the rear IO! (Z68, to be expected) |
Mike_K@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 05/14/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:no support for a case usb 3.0
Pros:Great quality board, lots of features for the price Comment:
A few things to note if your considering this board, is there is no USB3.0 on the board to connect to a case that has USB 3.0 ports. It does have the external 3.0 on the back, but I would much prefer to use the front case USB 3.0, but it will only run at 2.0 speed. Aside from the heatsink plug, theres only 2 3-pin case fan plugs on the board, and in odd locations for cable routing. Not a big deal, but slightly annoying if your particular about your cable management and have a lot of fans.Otherwise, a great board...flawless setup, had no issues whatsoever getting everything up and running without even glancing at the manual. Everythings clear and easy to use. |
Eugene_H@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 05/05/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:none
Pros:PriceStability Comment:
Great Board for the price. Easy to work with.Would buy it again |
FlashFlood@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 05/01/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Overclocking is limited
Pros:StableGood feature setsolid caps means durability Comment:
Does the job, allows for a light OC, but not quite the high performer its more expensive brothers are. |
Shoujun_C@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 04/14/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:-overclocking makes the VRMs extremely warm-no USB 3.0 internal headers-color scheme is ... meh
Pros:-overclock friendly-supports all the cool intel features Comment:
This motherboard is, as the stars suggest, satisfactory.If I could go back in time, I would have purchased a different z68 board. As mentioned before, the VRMs get very hot with slight overclocking, but they handled the overclock of i5 2500k from 3.3 to 4.5 without a problemThe blue/white color scheme of gigabyte is only mediocre; would have preferred a matt black pcb. DIMM slots could be further from the CPU slot, but have not faced any clearance issuesThis motherboard supports duo graphics with either a PCI/PCI-express x1 soundcard. Exactly what I needed for my build. |
Josh_T@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 03/17/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:- No Base Vcore- No manual PLL voltage control.
Pros:- Lots of great features.- Great overclocking potential.- Fast loading times and post times.- Absolutely no boot loop (not a pro but its not a con so..)- Great expandability.- Well-built and sturdy.- Chipset has 2 Coolers built in. - Dual Bios.- 22nm CPU support.- Hybrid EFI support. Comment:
The Z68A-D3H-B3 is firstly a great motherboard. It seems Revision 1.3 got rid of the boot loop problems and features a more stable bios. No boot loops here. This thing is loaded with features that you see on higher end boards. I especially like the SPDIF digital audio jack on the back. People who say this board isn't good for overclocking because it doesn't have a base Vcore adjustment need to read up on some guides. I myself have an i5-2500k and what you need to do with this and similar intel processors is turn LLC (Load Line Calibration) to Level 2 and then turn Dynamic VCore (Voltage Offset) to +0.05-0.1 depending on the processor. This should allow you to maintain a stable overclock of 30% or more. On my 2500k i have it at 4.7ghz stable and it could go further with more voltage...stock cooler. This board has 3 Pci-express 3.0 slots, and 2 Pci Express 2.0 slots. The 3x3.0 slots are Pci express x16(x16/x4/x8) and both the 2.0 slots are x1. Supporting both crossfireX and SLI you can drop in a couple graphics cards and be on your way. Dual bios helps reset bios when overclocking fails, a flash fails or bios corrupts and the board supports 22nm processor for future upgrades... Unfortunately not having a vcore setting makes overclocking not as effective and perhaps a little mroe challenging, but this doesn't have much effect at all. You also cannot manually control PLL voltage and there is an automated overvoltage setting in the bios. |
b2doux@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 03/14/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:N/A
Pros:Good board easy setup Comment:
very good motherboard. for his performance.for the value for moneyI was not like I received the box as an openbox when it's .... |
Zag@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 03/04/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Little cheap quality build
Pros:Many BIOS featurePrice Comment:
My first Gigabytes mobo. Seems ok, all features are good but i didnt need. Some software have cool option for easy OC. Stable mobo. At 120$ its a good price. |
Evan_C@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 02/18/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:None
Pros:Good features for the price Comment:
Considering the price of the board I am quite happy with the features. SLI supported and has "some" play room with OC'ing.I used this board to slap together a gaming rig with some cheap kingston ram and a big video card. It is working great =) |
Fernand_D@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 02/03/12 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Old style CMOS
Pros:Easy to configure Comment:
This is my first time bying an OC board. I like it. I have a 2500k cpu running at 4 ghz with temps at 40C so no worries there.What I wanted most of all was to have USB 3.0 and the new SATA ports for future expansion. USB 3.0 is really as amazing as the revues show. I love it.I haven't installed all the software that came with the board, basically the only extra software I installed other than the drivers was the Lucid (I think it's called) software that allows to switch from onboard video to discrete video card on the fly. I tried the other software but I found that none of them are necessary for me. I have a 120 GB SSD that I use for my programs so I don't like to fill it up with fluff. I haven't bothered with the extreme hard drive since I prefer to have separate SSD for programs and HDD for downloads etc..I highly recommend the board but read the other review for good points. I didn't have a problem with the SATA connector being on the side, just plug in your cables before you mount the board and you won't have a problem.I know it's not the best board out there but I definitely give it a 4 star. |
Stewart_C@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 12/29/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:-Endless "boot loops", fans spin nothing happens.
Pros:-Price-Features Comment:
Nice board...when it worked, RMA'd once already now (after a month of owning it.) Now then second one has died also within a month. Great service from NCIX for the RMA! Very poor quality board though. |
Colin_C@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 12/27/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:-not enough sata 3 inputs
Pros:-Allows for next generation parts-perfect for dual sli/crossfire and a sound card-Price Comment:
Pretty good motherboard for the 2-3year type computer buyers and for the price it lets you spend a bit more on video card and CPU.All around pretty good buy for the price. |
The Great Gazoo™@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 12/04/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Not much for accessories in the package
Pros:Smaller form factorUSB 3 Comment:
Got this to replace an older blown LGA775 motherboard in the boss's computer. I like it and it was easy to work with. The board is smaller and only needed 6 standoffs to mount. I thought a Z68 mobo would be full size, but now worries, it has everything required for this build. The accessory package only included 4 SATA cables and not much more. No IDE or Floppy connections but that is old tech anyway so no biggie. I'd recommend for a higher than average build any day. |
Scott_A@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 11/13/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:none
Pros:price, features Comment:
Great price on a mother board with the z68 chipset, recognized all my hardware first try. The bios was pretty easy to navigate and customize the settings on. |
teknowledgit@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 11/13/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Not a true full size ATX board which causes the components to be a little closer together.
Pros:Bang for Buck -- Z68 chipset, Crossfire & SLI compatible, multiple PCI Express slots, USB3, SATA3. 4 DIMMS. Integrated video with HDMI. Affordable. Comment:
Super fast and stable at stock speeds with the i5 2500K and G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB memory kit. All devices were recognized upon first bootup with included driver cd for Windows 7 (64-bit). Very pleased with performance at this price point. |
Jacob_P@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 10/06/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Not enough power draw for heavy OC
Pros:Easy to OC on BIOS Comment:
Love this board, but enthusiasts who love to OC may want to stay away. I got a 4.7 stable on my 2500k, but since it only has a 4pin ATX12v connection (instead of 8), you could face stability problems if you try to go higher.If you plan on a fairly reasonable OC, with Z68 Northbridge, this is the board for you! |
Lumix@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 09/08/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:Lacks 7.1 audio on the backLacks front USB 3.0 connectorStrange form factor. It is not ATX, but still fits.
Pros:CheapZ68 ChipsetDuel BiosStable Comment:
Not a fantastic board, but good for anyone who wants the Z68 chipset and doesn't want to spend a lot of money. Would prefer if it had all 6 audio ports on the back, but hey, who has a 7.1 system for their computer anyways. The duel bios is a nice touch. I have my i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5 Ghz with the voltage on stock. Anything higher than 4.5Ghz is unstable, but I'm satisfied with how it overclocks, especially at the price point. Something odd about this boars is that it is not the ATX form factor, or at least a different version of it that I haven't seen before. The board is about an inch or two shorter than a standard ATX board, and my CM 690 II does not have the two additional screw holes that the board seems to require. |
Jean-Michel_C@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 08/19/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:None
Pros:AffordableSLIOverclock Comment:
I bought this card from another merchant and it's great! I read somewhere you cannont overclock your CPU with this board but it's completely false, I am currently running my i5-2500K p 4.5GHz. It's a great deal for the performance, I recommend it! |
Logain23@NCIX Rating: Review Date: 07/14/11 |
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cons:None yet
Pros:Price integrated Video Comment:
Bought this with a CoreI3 2100 for my WHS2011 DIY build.Very happy with it the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 installed flawlessly and I have had zero issues to date.WHS 2011 installed without any hitches as did the SAS card. |
Feature packed board for the price, I picked up a spot cool to keep the VRM at a nice temperature, that is more an issue I have than the board. Considering this is a basic board that probably shouldn't be used for overclocking, the 2500K works smoothly at 4.5GHz.The fan headers are not fully automated, only the obvious ones are. 2 4-pin fan headers obviously are (too bad I don't have another 4-pin to test with), but from what I can tell, no regulating the voltage on the other 2 3-pin headers. Considering the price point, that is probably expected.