Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z87 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip has six SATA-600 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5). This motherboard has two additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by a Marvell 88SE9172 chip, supporting RAID 0 and 1. These two additional ports are shared with the two eSATA-600 ports available, so they cannot be used simultaneously.

The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards won’t block them.

Figure 4: The two SATA-600 ports controlled by the Marvell chip (gray) and the six SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (black)

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H offers six USB 2.0 ports through three headers located on the motherboard. From the six USB 3.0 ports provided by the chipset, two are available on a USB 3.0 header and two are connected to two Renesas µPD720210 hub chips, expanding each port to four, for a total of eight USB 3.0 ports. This way, the Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H has a total of 10 USB 3.0 ports, four available through two headers on the motherboard and six available on the motherboard’s rear panel.

The Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H doesn’t support FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC898 codec, which is an outstanding solution, providing an impressive 110 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. This means you are able to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) with this motherboard without adding any background noise.

The analog audio outputs are independent and the motherboard also comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output. It also has a two-pin header labeled “SPDIF_O”, where you can install an adapter to have a coaxial SPDIF output or to connect a cable to older video cards that required a physical connection to have audio on their HDMI outputs.

One interesting feature available on this motherboard is an audio amplifier for analog headphones, which is provided by a Texas Instruments DRV632 chip.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel I217-V chip.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with a shared PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse, six USB 3.0 ports, VGA output, DVI-D output, optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, two eSATA-600 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel