GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

It’s not very often that something throws me for a loop, at least not when it comes to motherboards any more. That’s exactly what happened when I first heard about the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD! My first thoughts were that it’s a great idea, followed by that boards has to cost a pretty penny! After today’s testing, I will stand by my initial though of that’s a great idea. What truly blew my mind was the price. As I said above, I thought the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD was going to cost a pretty penny, somewhere in the $350-$400. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Z68XP-UD7-iSSD retails for only $239.99! Needless to say I was a bit shocked!

When we took a look at the gaming performance of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD7-iSSD, it did a fine job of keeping up with the pair of “high end” motherboards we compared it to. Admittedly though, gaming performance isn’t the key point of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD. If you are looking at the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD for a gaming rig, you wont be let down. While there were some differences, the differences we saw in our benchmarks today were nothing that should stop you from picking up your very own GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD!

As I stated above the gaming performance of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD isn’t the key selling point, the integrated Intel Series 311 20GB SSD is! While it isn’t the worlds fastest SSD out there, it is rated for a respectable 200MB/s read and 105MB/s write. Once we paired it with our Western Digital Green hard drive we saw the overall hard drive performance of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD improve dramatically. When we tested the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD with CrystalDiskMark we saw the sequential read go from 90.39MB/s with only the WD Greed Drive up to 173.9MB/s! That is a gain of 92.4%! You can check out all of the results on the Smart Response technology testing page.

Once again I can’t state enough how much the price of the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD shocked me. At only $239.99 you are getting a GIGABYTE Z68 motherboard, and an Intel Series 311 SSD already bundled together. Throw in the three year warranty from GIGABYTE for a little bit of piece of mind, and you have one great combination of products.

Legit Bottom Line: If you are looking for a motherboard and are planning on taking advantage of Intel Smart Response Technology, the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD ready to rock. Coming equipped with an Intel 20GB SLC SSD and plenty of performance across the board, the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD is a unique motherboard that should be on the top of your short list if it fits your needs!