GIGABYTE Z87X-UD3H Motherboard Review

At its $160 price-point, GIGABYTE’s Z87X-UD3H brings a fair bit to the table. It offers a plethora of SATA and USB ports, for starters, even going as far as to include two internal USB 3.0 headers. Past that, it has a solid layout, and perhaps best of all, features one of the best EFI implementations we’ve ever seen.

What’s this? A look at a second Z87-based board in a single week? Indeed – I’ve been a bit slack on our motherboard content as of late, but I’ve found a rhythm and plan to make it a regular feature on the site again. It helps that I genuinely enjoy taking a look at different motherboards, because once you delve a bit deeper into what differentiates one from another – especially at the vendor level – things can get quite interesting.

Last week, I posted a look at ASUS’ excellent Z87-EXPERT. Ultimately, that became one of the best motherboards I ever had the pleasure of examining, thanks to its robust feature-set, easy-to-use EFI and the fantastic AiSuite III software. While it was priced a bit high at $240, Thunderbolt was to blame, and thankfully, for those who don’t need that, the similarly-spec’d Z87-PRO at $40 less would make for a great choice at that $200 price-point.

The board I’m taking a look at here goes even lower, settling in at ~$160. It’s called the Z87X-UD3H, comes from GIGABYTE, and packs some serious promises. At this price-point, it’s clear that the UD3H might not be as stacked as the ASUS model I tackled last week, but it does look to offer a lot for that $160.

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