IDF 2011 - Gigabyte have shown off their high-end X79-based motherboards at IDF, with the following models on show: GA-X79-UD5, GA-X79-UD7 and the G1.Assassin 2. There is a difference between the UD5 and UD7 this time round, though. Usually the UD7 is jut a beefed-up UD5 with added features and better cooling. This time the two boards are totally different from the PCB to the features they offer.

The UD5 model targets the premium user, with eight DDR3 DIMM slots, and suited to 3-way SLI/CrossFire. The UD7 on the other hand is bleeding-edge with just four DDR3 DIMM slots and support for 4-way SLI/CrossFire with a bunch of overclocking features to boot. Finally there's the G1.Assassin 2 which targets the gamer-overclocker market with features such as hardware-accelerated Creative X-Fi audio, a Bigfoot Killer NIC and support for [only] 3-way SLI/CrossFire.

The above pic is of the GA-X79-UD5 which sports 14-phase CPU VRM, eight DDR3 DIMMS with support for up to 64GB of quad-channel memory. Expansion slots include three PCI-e 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x8 or x16/NC/x16), two PCI-e 3.0 x1, and a legacy PCI. 12 SATA ports are on the board, 8-channel HD audio, one GbE, four USB 3.0 ports and power-eSATA.

The GA-X79-UD7 is a fusion between the traditional high-end connectivity and features of the UD7 and the new "Gigabyte OC" line the company released with the X58A-OC motherboard. It keeps the cool looking black and orange scheme. Hardware wise we see four DDR3 DIMM slots that can take 32GB of quad-channel memory, 22-phase CPU VRM which overclockers should be quite happy about. PCI-e 3.0 x16 (x16/NC/x16/NC or x8/x8/x8/x8), 14 (!!) SATA ports and high-grade connectivity. The board draws power from not only the 24-pin ATX connector, but two 8-pin EPS connectors.

Last we have the G1.Assassin 2 which features just four DDR3 DIMM slots - something that Gigabyte have done to keep room on the board for more features. First up we have a Bigfoot Killer NIC PCI-Express hardware-accelerated network controller, a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi hardware-accelerated audio processor (CA-20K2) with its own set of audiophile-grade capacitors to the OPAMP circuit. Lastly it features three PCI-e 3.0 slots (x16/NC/x16 or x16/x8/x8), 12 SATA ports and a bunch of other connectivity.