Computer Fans & Cooling

Best Z68 Motherboard - GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 Review

After the release of intel Z68 chipset recently many computer enthusiast catches their attention towards this amazing chipset. After the success of the GA-X58A-UD3R and GA-890GPA-UD3H, Gigabyte has developed the best Z68 motherboard using this chip. The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 has the combined capabilities of the P67 overclocking capabilities and the H67 Trancoding applications that you can now enjoy both worlds. Not only that, the Z68 chipset has includes many features to offer with its advanced technology like combining the IGP with any discrete GPU of your choice. The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 belongs to the Ultra Durable series motherboards that are loaded with toughness features to ensure its longer life span.

The Looks

The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 motherboard comes in a black color with a combination of gray in its heatsink. The heatsink has a pretty descent size that can handle heat during stressed conditions. The two PCI-E slots are spaced properly in case you'll need to use it in SLI or CrossfireX configuration to have enough air passage. The 4 DIMM slots are well placed so that it never touches the GPU card when installed. The 8 SATA ports are mounted in right angle position for fast access and neat wiring as well as the 24/8 pin ATX power connector are also in a nice place. Back panel provides a healthy dose of ports in nice color code combination to easily identify each port. Overall, very nice design and cool looks for great performing board.

Specs

Supports Core i7/Core i5/ Core i3 processors

Intel Z68 Express Chipset

Support Dual channel memory architecture for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz

High Definition Audio Realtek 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel Dolby Home Theater with S/PDIF Out

1 x RJ45 LAN Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

1 x PCI Express x16 slot @ x16, 1 x PCI Express x16 slot @ x8, 2 x PCI Express x1 slots and 2 x PCI slots

Supports both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI technology

4x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s and 2x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors

14 USB 2.0/1.1 and 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports

2x IEEE 1394a ports

Features

New features for the GA-Z68-UD4-B3 is the touch BIOS in which you can control the BIOS settings with your fingers just like your iPhone. This is only applicable with a touch screen monitors and this is only available from their new Z68 motherboards. Another new features only from a Z68 motherboard from Gigabyte is the SSD they claiming it as 4X faster than the HDD-only system.

Other features from their previous board designs are the maximum power delivery that delivers more power to the CPU with the new VRM design. The 12 phase power design idea is to reduce heat by spreading the load into 12 power phases for more stable and cooler. It also delivers fast response during the CPU loading variations. Dual CPU power technology allows 1 set of power phase to rest while the other is active. In result, only half the amount of work by each power phase thus increases the motherboard durability and reliability. The integration of the Driver MOSFETs on a single IC that can achieved higher power transfer and faster switching frequency for more efficiency. The 108dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback ensuring a quality HD audio by further reducing the noise to deliver high performance multi channel output. The Gigabyte dualBIOS supports more than 3TeraByte of hard disk drive space without the need of partitioning for more data storage. This features also provides a main backup for incase the main BIOS has crashed it automatically quick recovers all data's. It provides two physical ROM BIOS install in the motherboard itself. The Turbo XHD provides an easy way to boost your HDD performance up to 4X by automatically detecting your hard drive to setup into RAID 0 configurations. The On/Off charge technology allows you to charge your iPad and iPhone even if the PC is in standby or off mode. Dynamic energy saver 2 reduces your power consumption while optimizes the efficiency of your system. This board is also equipped with an Over Voltage Control IC, for extreme overclocking that protects the CPU and memory.

Like what I said before the GA-Z68-UD4-B3 belongs to the Ultra Durable 3 series motherboards. The design for this board is twice the copper size for both the power and ground layers of the PCB. In this case it improves the signal quality and lowers the electromagnetic interference that provides better system stability which is great for overclocking. It also lowers the impedance by 50% that lowers the component temperature. It also uses solid Japanese caps and Ferrite core chokes for longer life span. The best part of this board is the support for both the SLI and CrossfireX multi GPU configurations. Some other features are the Smart 6 for smart PC system management those are the Smart QuickBoot, Smart QuickBoost, Smart Recovery 2, Smart DualBIOS, Smart Recorder and Smart Time Lock.

Testing The GA-Z68-UD4-B3

The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 was tested using the 2500K processor and GTX 460 GPU. With the release of the Sandy Bridge K version processor, you just can't increase the BCLK further than 100MHz unlike the previous unlock processors you can go more than 200MHZ. What we can do in here is to increase the multiplier and a bit of its voltage. Setting the multiplier at x45 and staying the BCLK at 100MHz we got a stable at 4.5GHz. We want to find out more if we can push it harder if we increase the BCLK at 103MHz resulting at 4.635GHz.

An increased of 1.335GHz from its base frequency of 3.3GHz shows a tremendous increased in its performance and smoothness in frame rate in various games. I presume that when a 2600K processor is used you can go further than these results. But as far as we got the following outcome, this motherboard shows a very impressive performance.

Conclusion

The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 is another great performer motherboard from Gigabyte. Overclocking this board never let us down just like their P67 series motherboard. But it doesn't have overclocking features for the IGP Video HD. This one has a great advantage due to its QuickSync feature is enabled from Sandy Bridge processors. This makes you enjoy its transcoding applications which is very useful in its unparallel performance. Combining the IGP and the discrete GPU is an amazing breakthrough in this technology with intelligent switching between low power applications and highly graphics 3D environment. The Support for both SLI and CrossfireX multi GPU configuration is also great.

Two of the best new features of the Gigabyte that introduces only in their Z68 motherboard are the TouchBIOS and SSD. The TouchBIOS is the Gigabyte answer to ASUS UEFI EZ BIOS. It has a great advantage using a finger touch in a touch screen monitor rather than a mouse control.

The GA-Z68-UD4-B3 comes at less $200 which is more than the average price range. Is the price tag really worth? I should say yes. Because, even though it's a bit higher than P67 board they have so many features to offer. It also combines the power of the P67/H67 chips which is a big plus and a rock solid design of this board really counts. Read more reviews of the best Z68 motherboard and Discover what's new with Z68 chipset from intel.

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Read the full review of the Gigabyte GA-Z68-UD4-B3 and discover more reviews of the Best Motherboards for intel and AMD.

HP Omni 200-5250 Review - An Absolute Must Have Clutterless PC!

Don't you just hate the many hassles of obtaining your personal computer wonderful those dang wires infiltrating your workspace. You aren't knowing best places to put that bulky CPU unit that can't easily fit into the corner. Or perhaps wanting to fit that monitor somewhere on your own desk that already has enough stuff as it is. I know many people do.

Well, that where HP solves this major bottleneck for those who only require an all-in-one PC with plenty of performance to get a reasonable price. This is why you happen to be looking over this HP Omni 200-5250 review. The HP Omni 200-5250 will make your health a reduced amount of stressful with it's banging features it gives you. At the end with this review, you will end up convinced enough to purchase this all-in-one desktop with complete confidence. Let's begin.

The Processor
Let's begin where any avid tech person would start, the processor. Just what exactly type of processor does the HP Omni 200-5250 have? This desktop PC carries with it an Intel Pentium E5500 Processor. It runs at 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache, and 800MHz front side bus. Now, a number of you who aren't computer savvy are in all likelihood a little bit confuse at this time. I'll break this down even more. When any spec sheet references '2.8 GHz', we're also talking about the processor's speed. GHz means Gigahertz, that is one billion cycles per second, the time speed with the processor. The harder GHz your personal computer has, the faster it runs.

Cache is required to store loaded, ready-to-use programs that'll be needed later from the initial startup in the computer. The microprocessor in most cases have an extra quantity of very quickly 'cache' memory integrated, which again, is often a couple of instructions the pc will used when it's started or started.

Cache memory makes programs on your computer improve your performance, so as a definite plus, the processor it redundant approximately it might normally must be, which is why some computers run more slowly.

Front side bus is really a band of signals, termed as a 'bus', which connects the processor on the memory controller, or perhaps the slot. Putting it simple, entry side bus determines the interest rate of memory access. The larger the speed of the front side bus, the faster the processor can access information.

RAM/Memory
Another significant factor on the HP Omni 200-5250 is it's RAM or random access memory. RAM can be another contributing factor behind the rate with the PC. The 200-5250 has 2 slots of 4GB(gigabytes) of PC3-6400 DDR3 SDRAM memory, that may be upgraded to 8GB total if you choose to purchase 2 more RAM cards. Okay, what did I say, you ask? Let's put it essentially, again.

SDRAM is short for synchronous dynamic random access memory. They run at better clock speeds than regular memory. SDRAM will synchronize itself using the cpu's bus thus turning it into manage a lot faster. And DDR3 is simply the Double Data Rate 3. It is only another factor for producing the PC faster. This is certainly already replacing most of the original DDR and DDR2 memory RAMs.

Hard Drive
After all people. This is a new decade in the computer world. Most computers right now need to have a great deal of harddrive space to hold on to movie files, numerous pictures, video tutorials, and multitude of other large files. That measly 32 gigabyte harddisk that has been 'enough' during the old days won't make the grade anymore. That is where HP keeps plan today's demanded harddrive standards.

The HP Omni 200-5250 has a 750GB, 7200 RPM, Serial ATA hard drive. I understand, another mouthful. I'll break that down into bit size chunks. Now, I would assume you are sure that how the larger the quality of hard disk space, the greater it is possible to fit files into one drive. 750 gigabytes of harddisk space is pretty massive, even for today's standards. Most PCs feature the ordinary volume of 250GB of harddisk space, and that means you are obtaining an adequate amount here.

The 7200 revolutions each and every minute is simply the speed of the disk into the hard drive's case. The faster it spins, better data it might be transferred to the job being carried out. But be aware, the faster a hardcore drives speed, greater heat has produce. When it is the first thing that can kill a difficult drive the fastest way you can, it may be heat. Though the air conditioning of many modern computers help dissipate this matter.

Serial ATA symbolizes Serial Advanced Technology Attachment. It's the faster means of transferring data between hard drive as well as the motherboard in the computer. All new computers today have SATA wires.

Operating System
It's not possible to run your HP Omni 200-5250 with no os. The Omni 200-5250 is included with Windows 7 64-bit preinstalled. Let's not turn off topic with this one. Windows 7 is among the recommended and praised os in this handset in the Windows world. Function searching on the internet you will definitely get why lots of people love this computer.

The Monitor
The HP Omni 200-5250 comes with a respectable 21.5 inch full HD 1080p widescreen monitor with LED backlighting. 1080p(p means for progressive scan) is much better across the old 1080i(i opportinity for interlacing), the image on screen will be a much more rich, sharp, and detailed. The only real difference between this monitor and it will be that fact that this weighs twice as much. This is because many of the cpu's components are situated around the monitor.

The Graphics
Another fact of computer life's that you have to have good graphics. Now I am honest in regards to the HP Omni 200-5250. It only has a graphic card, called the Intel GMA X4500 HD. Normally, integrated graphics will not be practically those accustomed to enter the PCI slot in a very CPU. But for precisely the 200-5250, it's still the best quality. Besides, this may not be a gaming PC, it is really an all-in-one. Mind you, a graphics card is really a graphics card internal the motherboard of your computer, if some you out of trouble there have been wondering.

Internal DVD Drive
The HP Omni 200-5250 includes a slot-load SuperMulti DVD Burner DVD drive with LightScribe ability. This is an excellent disk drive, pretty reliable in most computers involving it. LightScribe is often a program that permits one to execute a custom laser burn design on any CD or DVD disk that is etch. So, if you want to create a cool design or possibly a custom label, you are able to with this particular feature.

High Performance Speakers
When you get the HP Omni 200-5250, the all-in-one desktop PC comes with high performing 2.0 speakers. These speakers are crisp and has some bass effect. They aren't a top end sound system, but they do a pretty good job at audio levels in any room.

Other Features
To bring this review to a close, let's give you the other features the HP Omni 200-5250 comes with. This desktop comes with a wireless keyboard and optical mouse. There is also an integrated webcam and a built-in microphone. It comes with 7 USB ports because you can never have enough USB ports.

Some Other Specs
The size of the unit is 21.5 inches in length, 8.7 inches in width, and 16.8 inches in height. The total weight of the desktop is 19.8 pounds. And that is basically it in this review. Well, hopefully this review has convinced you to go ahead and purchase this fine machine.

I'm wondering about mineral cooling your pc?

How would you add video cards or sound cards to your PC?? If I wanted to later on add something to my PC, would I have to clean the oil out of the PCI slots, or can you just stick the cards straight in??? Also if you had a regular water cooling system in your pc, could you just fill it with mineral oil??

you should just be able to add new cards as you wish. the oil wont impede the connection. if you have water cooling then i guess you could dunk it all in oil, the cpu wont be any cooler tho as the oil cant carry the heat away as the water will be doing that. prob best to keep the rads out the oil too.
this is something i've looked into doing, let me know how you get on!!

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