GIGABYTE Z68X-UD3H-B3 (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review (Page 4)

BIOS and Touch BIOS

When it comes to the BIOS of the Z68X-UD3H-B3, it's near identical to that of the Z68X-UD7-B3. The main difference is that we've got some options to adjust voltage in regards to the onboard video. Apart from that, the traditional BIOS and Touch BIOS information below has been taken from our Z68X-UD7-B3 review.

BIOS

If you've been reading a lot of P67 or Z68 reviews of the past few months and seen all those flashy BIOS pictures, you may find yourself a little let down by the "traditional" BIOS setup. Using the Award lay out we've grown to know, you're not going to find anything too out of the ordinary when it comes to the whole BIOS.

Really, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the BIOS, but over the last few months it's been nice to see a bit of color in what has traditionally been a pretty boring part of a motherboard.

The thing is, GIGABYTE has taken a bit of a different approach to the whole colorful BIOS thing, introducing "Touch BIOS" not that long ago.

Touch BIOS

To be completely honest, I found myself a little skeptical about Touch BIOS. Initially I didn't do a lot of research on it and thought that I'd just wait till I had my hands on a board that could make use of it. I wasn't sure where the "Touch BIOS" was going to be instituted; in Windows or at the actual BIOS level. Also, the "Touch" bit makes you think it's really only designed for "Touch" Screens.

When I finally setup the Z68X-UD7-B3 and installed all the usual stuff along with the latest version of "Touch BIOS", I discovered it's done in Windows. Instantly I thought to myself it was just another halfhearted piece of software that would let you adjust some things that can be done in the BIOS.....how wrong I was, though!

"Touch BIOS" is essentially your BIOS in Windows, and not just your BCLK / Multiplier / Core Voltage, but everything that's in the BIOS. The integration into Windows also means that the mouse is extremely easy to use; the mouse in your standard EFI BIOS just never feels as smooth. Of course, in Windows you've got drivers installed, mouse sensitivity set correctly and all that jazz.

We've seen a lot of companies integrate the EFI BIOS system in many ways. The "Touch BIOS" system is kind of the best of both worlds as you can opt for that traditional BIOS that you've become so accustomed to if you want, or you can opt for this full on graphical interface within Windows.

Something else I like is that GIGABYTE are listening to feedback. My understanding is that initially there was just text at the main screen. A few people said it would be nice to have words corresponding to what each section is; "Overclock", "Boot Disk" and etc. So what did GIGABYTE do? They added it to the latest version.

For me the only thing I can really think that I'd like to see is to have the ability to make the window longer and not have the need to scroll if you're on a monitor with a higher resolution. Apart from that, though, "Touch BIOS" does a good job at offering us a new way to edit our BIOS options.