Gigabyte SKT-AM3+ 990FXA-UD7 Motherboard (Rev 1.0)

This is the first AM3/AM3+ motherboard I have purchased. Of all the other manufactuers out their, I have decided on Gigabyte because I have tried Asus, ECS and Foxconn (all of them S939 platforms) in the past but were pretty average bordering on disappointing in the past.

The motherboard is standard ATX so swapping out by old mATX board in my P180 case was very straight forward. The board is very well laid out and installing everything I had was very easy. Turning it on for the first time is where the fun (in a hair pulling kind of way) begins. Like most people nowadays I use a USB keyboard. So failing to get into the BIOS by hitting the [DEL] key stumped me completely. It turns out that USB keyboard support is very flaky on the inital BIOS revision. Gigabyte have since released a beta BIOS that resolves this problem. The only way I could get round this was to dig out an old PS2 keyboard and set my system up this way. I updated the BIOS via windows and this seemed the most straight forward for me and everything is working like it should. I am running windows 7 (64 bit) and it has been rock solid.

There is one thing of note though. I have installed 16GB of RAM which comprised of 4x 4GB sticks (it's overkill I know, but RAM seems to be cheap at the moment). The RAM I selected was Corsair's new Vengeance series. This RAM has very tall fins, so if you are using an aftermarket cooler it may not fit. The stock AMD coolers fit with only a couple mm clearance from the RAM. I am using a Zalman CNPS9900 which fits very well and has ample clearance from the RAM. Just something to keep in mind.

Also, I have noticed that the northbridge heatsinks can get a bit warm. If you are using a traditional tower case that has a rear case fan next to the rear motherboard ports then you'll be fine as it can cool them very well. If you're going to install the motherboard in any other type of case, make sure you can cool those heatsinks!

With my setup, an Antec P180 case, Phenom II X4 955 (running at stock speed of 3.2GHz) and Zalman CNPS9900 CPU cooler my temperatures at load are as follows;

CPU = 38°C
North bridge = 45°C
System = 32°C

All in all, a highly recommended motherboard with a few niggles that are easily resolved.

This is the 2nd motherboard of the 990FXA series I have bought. The 1st was the `little brother' of this board the 990FXA-UD3 and even though the UD3 is an excellent board the PCIE16x16 slots were too close together for my Crossfire setup of 2 x Radeon HD5870s with Artic Twin Coolers attached (each card takes up 3 slots). So this UD7 was the only board in the 990FXA series which had good spacing between the 16x16 slots.
The motherboard comes packaged, IMO, like a child's toy. It is a huge box with a plastic carrying handle. The front of the box actually opens like the cover of a book to reveal a cellophane window through which you can see the motherboard inside, all very glam. After opening the box, then another box, removing a cardboard section and motherboard you get to the accessories. Plenty of stuff here. You get 2 x SATA data cables, 2 x Crossfire/SLI bridges (long, black), an IDE cable, manuals and driver disc. Time to build...
This board is an eATX (extended ATX) which is 2cm wider than a standard ATX, this should pose no problems to the average ATX case. Plenty of securing holes, 9 in all. I recommend building in a well lit room because the board is black and the screws are black (+ my case is black) it can be a hit and miss sometimes when trying to screw things down. I found myself reaching for a torch every now and again. I always try, not always possible depends on case, to attach the front panel connecters (i.e. power switch, reset switch, etc), before putting the board inside the case as it is much easier to manage, which I did. All components installed and wired up time to power up...this part I hate but thankfully hardware has come a long way since Win95.
Success! Straight into BIOS to set up my RAM timings, 1866mhz for me. If you're into OCing then this is a good BIOS for you. All clocks can be altered AT YOUR OWN RISK. Other reviewers have said that their USB keyboards didn't work when first powering up the board, mine did. I don't know what BIOS they had on their boards but mine came with F5. The BIOS does need updating anyway especially if you're using a Bulldozer CPU. I use the FX6100. I installed the `@bios' utility from the driver disc and it found the latest BIOS which is F7. There is an F8 but it is beta and requires that you download it directly from Gigabyte site. One thing which was not normal, even after installing Win7 64 bit is that no drivers are installed for the Ethernet. These you have to install off the driver disc to get online but funnily enough sound drivers are loaded by Windows. This was completely the reverse with the UD3, I had Ethernet connection but no sound? Anyway minor things easily solved.
This board needs a good PSU as it draws a lot of power especially with Crossfire or SLI setups. The board actually has an extra power connection specifically for the PCIE16 slots. It's a SATA power connection which is on the right side of the board and it is recommended that if you're using both the 16x16 slots that you connect it to the PSU. So bear in mind you're probably going to need an extra SATA power cable or at least a splitter.
So far all is stable with this board. I've got good temps. which I expect to drop as paste settles. I haven't had it on `full whack' yet as I have a lot of stuff to install. If I come across any problems I'll update this review.
So far a very happy customer.

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD7 AM3+ ATX, GA-990FXA-UD7 i have been very pleased with my motherboard i too have had to use a non usb keyboard to get into the bios
i also down loadid bios update my last motherboard was a gigabyte very reliable board have it in my spare pc
carnt fault this board and it looks cool with the black and gold