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Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £80
inc VAT

An mSATA port could be useful for some, but if you own an SSD there are better boards out there

Specifications

LGA1155, ATX, Intel Z68 Express chipset, supports: Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 (Sandy Bridge)

http://www.ebuyer.com

Gigabyte’s mid-range Z68 offering has all the features we’d expect from a sub-£100 motherboard, plus the addition of an mSATA SSD port. This lets you install a small SSD alongside a traditional hard disk to get the benefits of faster file access and transfer times without the costly expense of larger solid-state storage thanks to Intel Smart Response caching technology.

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3

MSata ports aren’t very big, so Gigabyte has still managed to squeeze in four memory slots capable of holding up to 32GB of DDR3 RAM, two PCI-Express x16 slots, three PCI-Express x1 slots and two PCI slots. The second PCI-E x16 slot operates in x4 mode if you install two graphics cards and x1 mode if both PCI-E x1 slots are filled.

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3

SATA connectivity is decent, with three SATA2 ports and two faster SATA3 ports. This should still be fine for the vast majority of people. USB connectivity is much better, with four ports on the rear I/O panel and three headers on the motherboard. There are also two USB3 ports, but no motherboard headers for connecting a case I/O panel.

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3

The mSATA port is a neat addition to the motherboard that makes giving your computer a speed boost easy, without having to manually reconfigure your storage to use an SSD for booting an a hard disk for storage. Give its low price and excellent performance, the Z68AP-D3 wins a Best Buy award.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor socket LGA1155
Form factor ATX
Size 305x215mm
Processor support Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 (Sandy Bridge)
Processor external bus 200MHz (DMI)
Chipset north bridge Intel Z68 Express
Chipset south bridge Intel Z68 Express
Integrated graphics No
Supported memory type DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600(OC)/1800(OC)/2133(OC)
Maximum memory speed PC3-17000
Memory slots 4
Maximum memory 32GB
Dual-channel support yes

Buying Information

Price £80
Supplier http://www.ebuyer.com
Details www.gigabyte.com

Internal Ports

Power connectors 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 4-pin ATX
PCI-E x16 slots 2
Dual graphics architecture SLI
PCI-E x4 slots 0
PCI-E x1 slots 3
PCI slots 2
Fan headers 4
Floppy ports 0
IDE ports 0
Serial ATA ports 6
RAID chipset (max disks) Intel Z68 Express (RAID 0, 1, 10, 5)

Features

Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Sound (ports) Realtek ALC892 (3x analogue out, optical S/PDIF)
USB2 ports / headers 4/3
Firewire ports / headers 0/0
Legacy ports 1x PS/2, serial port, parallel port
Other ports 2x USB3, 2x SATA3, HDMI
Cables included 4x SATA
Brackets included none
Software included Norton Internet Security 2011

Setup and Overclocking

Voltage adjustment CPU/RAM/chipset
CPU clock max adjustment 200MHz

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