Introduction

On March 10th Intel lifted the lid on the Core i7 980X. This is a 32nm, six-core, twelve-thread CPU that handily eats up the competition in threaded (and some non-threaded) applications. This CPU is almost drop-in compatible with existing X58 based motherboards (all you need is a BIOS flash). But is the current crop of X58 boards optimized for this new CPU?

We decided to take a look at GIGABYTE's high-end offering, the X58A-UD7. This board features advanced cooling for the chipset and power regulation areas. It also has built in support for SATA 3.0, including RAID support as well as USB 3.0 and Tri-SLI.

At a whisper under $350 on NewEgg.com, this is not an inexpensive product; but then again, when you are planning to potentially drop $1000 on a CPU, you are going to want to have the best board you can get a hold of.

So let's dive in and see how well the GIGABYTE X58A-UD7 performs with the new Gulftown at stock speeds and what you can reasonably expect out of it when you do a little overclocking.