How to choose a motherboard? Step-by-step instruction. Chipset and processor socket
Motherboards with an LGA 1155 socket are used to support Sandy Bridge (second generation) central processing units (CPUs) made using 32 nm technology. These motherboards (MP) were developed in 2009-2011 and are currently somewhat outdated. However, there are still similar solutions on the market, since the Sandy Bridge CPU performance currently satisfies many buyers.
Socket 1155 was designed to replace the first generation of similar systems based on LGA1156. Like its predecessor, it is capable of supporting a bus PCI Express version 2.0 on 16 channels.
Motherboards of this type are capable of working with DDR3 memory, the maximum capacity of which is 32 GB. The type of memory used is formally stated as PC3-17000, however, in practice, PC3-19200 modules are also successfully used.
Attention! Since DDR3 models are compatible from top to bottom, we can actually say that MPs with LGA1155 can use any type of memory of this form factor.
Supported CPUs for similar solutions:
- Core i7 from 2700K to 3770T;
- i5 – from 2550K to 3330S;
- i3 – from 2130 to 3210.
Built-in implementation of USB 3.0 is present only in the latest motherboard models released since 2012.
Motherboard segment
Currently, MPs with the LGA 1155 socket are presented in the mid-range and budget price segment; the top segment is missing due to the obsolescence of Sandy Bridge technology.
Budget
The budget MP series is represented by the H61 chipset. All such motherboards have one PCIE-16 slot and can use two DDR3 memory modules. Built-in USB support They don’t have 3.0; they use additional peripheral chips for this. Mostly these solutions are made in microATX format.
An example of such a MP is the AFOX IH-61, which has one PCIE-16 slot and one PCIE-1 slot. It addresses up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM in two 4 GB modules.
CPUs used: Core i3, i5, i7 second generation.
The price of such an MP is currently about 60 US dollars.
Average
The mid-segment can be based on one of the following chipsets:
All of these chipsets are capable of understanding Sandy Bridge technology, and the last two are also capable of understanding Ivy Bridge.
In addition, these chipsets can have not only 1 PCIE-16 channel, but also an alternative expansion option: 2 PCIE-8. All such motherboards support 4 DDR3 memory modules.
Additional expansion connectors in this segment are presented much more widely than in the budget segment. The maximum number of PCIE-1 buses can be up to 8.
Attention! With the advent of newer CPUs, other chipsets have emerged that support them. At the same time, the old ones were taken as a basis and minor changes were made to them. These changes were also reflected in the names of the chipsets. So the new generation Q65 became known as Q75, Q67 was renamed Q77, and so on.
All socket 1155 motherboards in this segment have USB 3.0 at the chipset level and do not require any additional hardware.
All such MPs, except those created on the basis of the P67, have support for the built-in graphics core.
Examples of such boards include the Gigabyte B75-3DV, created on the basis of a modified Q65. It has two PCIE-16 slots, 3 PCIE-1 and 2 PCI.
The maximum addressable memory capacity is 16 GB in 4 DDR3 sticks.
The board has built-in support for two USB 3.0 channels.
The price of such an MP is about 70 US dollars.
Best 1155 Motherboards
Currently, the choice of such motherboards is small, so the best motherboard on socket 1155 can be called ASUS P8Z77, made on the basis of a modified Z68 chipset, numbered Z77.
It has two PCIE-16 expansion channels, and two PCI and PCIE-1 slots. Maximum volume RAM is 32 GB DDR3 in four 8 GB modules.
Form factor motherboard ATX. She has 4 USB connector 3.0, provides support for two SATA-3 devices and three SATA-2 devices.
The board has high-quality power supplies for the CPU voltage and buses (voltage stabilizers), as well as high-reliability capacitors that guarantee stable operation of the entire system as a whole. MP is capable of supporting all CPU models Core generation Ivy Bridge.
This board currently costs around $80.
ZedBoardZynq-7000 - budget development board for the XILINX Zynq-7000 SoC family. The board contains everything you need to create basic projects based on operating Linux systems®, Android ®, Windows ® or other OS/RTOS. To simplify user access to the processing system and to the I/O programmable logic, several expansion connectors are installed on the board. The Zynq-7000 family SoC combines an ARM-based processing system and seventh series programmable logic. Target applications of the ZedBoard Zynq-7000 based on the XC7Z020-CLG484 SoC include video processing, motor control, software accelerators, Linux/Android/RTOS based systems, embedded processing systems. The product can also be used to solve general prototyping problems. The ZedBoard Zynq-7000 kit is supported by the www.zedboard.org community, where users can collaborate with other engineers also working on Zynq projects.
Fig.1. Development board ZedBoard Zynq-7000. View from above
Rice. 2. Development board ZedBoard Zynq-7000. Bottom view
Rice. 3. ZedBoard Zynq-7000 development board. General form
Rice. 4. General view of the ZedBoard Zynq-7000 kit
Distinctive features:
- Ethernet 10/100/1000;
- 256 MB Quad-SPI Flash;
- 4 GB SD card;
- 512 MB DDR3;
- AnalogDevicesADAU1761 SigmaDSP® Stereo, low power, 96 kHz, 24-Bit Audio Codec;
- AnalogDevicesADV7511 high-performance 225 MHzHDMI transmitter (1080pHDMI, 8-bitVGA, 128x32 OLED);
- Dual ARM Cortex™-A9 cores;
- Common prototyping tasks for Zynq-7000 AP SoC;
- Development of projects based on Linux/Android/RTOS;
- Engine control;
- USB-JTAG programmer on board;
- PS & PLI/O extension (FMC, Pmod, XADC);
- Software accelerators;
- USB OTG 2.0 and USB-UART;
- Video processing;
- Xilinx Zynq-7000 AP SoC XC7Z020-CLG484.
Product documentation can be found on the manufacturer's website.
The announcement was compiled and prepared
Shraga Alexander,
a.
Part 2. World of Intel (Altera)
We continue our review of development boards based on SoCs with an ARM core. This time we will look at boards based on the Cyclone V SoC. This is not the only SoC from Intel, there are also Arria V, Arria 10 and Stratix 10, but the price of boards based on them will definitely not please you.
Unfortunately, there are far fewer Cyclone V-based boards than Xilinx Zynq-based ones, and they are mostly made by one company, Terasic. There is also an Arrow SocKit board, but it is completely equivalent to the Terasic SoCKit board. Basic information on Terasic boards is concentrated on the website rocketboards.org. There you can download various useful materials, images Linux distributions, there is also a forum there. The forum is pretty sluggish and I wouldn't count on getting any support there, but something is better than nothing.
Terasic also sells some boards at a reduced price if you have a student card (“academic price”). I don’t know how realistic this is for Russian students, but if anyone has had experience with such a purchase, it would be interesting to know. They write that, for example, Digilent, when requesting a purchase at an academic price, refers to Russian distributors whose prices are 2-3 times higher. Maybe Terasic does things differently.
In addition to Terasic products, we will also look at two boards manufactured by EBV. Other companies that produce products based on Cyclone V mainly make SoM modules, not devboards, and were not included in the review.
Software
As mentioned in the previous part, for Intel SoCs the FPGA project development environment is Quartus Prime, and the software development environment is DS-5 Altera Edition. It allows (in the free version) the development of applications for Linux, the development of Bare Metal applications that work without operating system, requires a commercial version of the DS-5. Both Quartus Prime and DS-5 come in Windows and Linux versions.Terasic
So, let's start reviewing the boards themselves. I will not list here the entire catalog of Terasic boards, limiting myself to only a few boards that I chose according to my own subjective criteria.A great convenience is that all Terasic boards have USB JTAG.
Block diagram of the board
SoC: SE 5CSEMA4U23C6N
RAM: 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
Flash: no
Ethernet: 10/100/1000
HDMI: no
Size: 69x96 mm
Arduino hesder: yes
Price: $99 (academic price $90)
Other options:
- G-sensor (accelerometer)
Block diagram of the board
SoC: 5CSEMA5F31C6N
RAM: 1GB DDR3 SDRAM (HPS) + 64MB SDRAM (FPGA)
Flash: no
HDMI: no
Ethernet: 10/100/1000
Size: 354 x 130 mm
Price: $249 (academic price $175)
Other options:
- 24-bit VGA DAC
- Audio 24-bit CODEC
- TV decoder (NTSC/PAL/SECAM)
Block diagram of the board
SoC: GX 5CGXFC5C6F27C7N
RAM: 4Gb LPDDR2 (HPS), 4Mb SRAM SDRAM (FPGA)
Ethernet: no
Flash: no
HDMI: yes
Arduino header: yes
Size: 150 x 116 mm
Price: $179
Other options:
- Audio 24-bit CODEC
- ADC 500 KSPS x 12 bits x 8 channels
- G-sensor (accelerometer)
The motherboard is one of the most important components of a computer. In fact, it is the connecting link between the other elements of the PC and laptop. Literally all equipment is connected to it: hard disks, video cards, RAM, sound card, processor, etc.
By the way, about the processor - in order to replace it if it fails or with a more powerful version, you need to find out the motherboard socket. That is why we decided to tell you about this in one rather informative article. From it you will learn not only how to understand which version of the socket you have, but also what it is all about.
There are plenty of ways to determine a socket - there are both hardware and software methods. But more on that later.
What is a socket
Yes, we decided to start from the very beginning so that you are savvy in literally everything related to the device of your personal computer.Socket- this is the interface for connecting the CPU (our processor) to the board itself. As mentioned above, the mother is a special platform that connects a number of other printed circuit boards and devices.
The processors are very similar to each other only in appearance. However, in reality they are very different from each other. That is why knowing the socket makes it possible to purchase the “correct” processor and its subsequent installation.
Remember: processors are not universal, and therefore are not suitable for all types of boards. In this regard, if you want to change the processor for one of the reasons, it is better to take care of the socket version in advance so as not to tempt fate.
Conventionally, sockets can be divided into two types - according to manufacturers:
From Intel;
From AMD.
He won’t say whose processors are more powerful - we’ll leave this question to the geeks. Let's go over the differences: 
As you can see, sockets different companies may not be compatible with your motherboard at all. Therefore, if you had a processor from Intel, and you are going to install a chip from AMD in its place, you can be sure that nothing will work out.
How to determine my motherboard socket
It was already noted above that there are plenty of ways. And the first is determination using the documentation that comes with your computer. If you haven't lost it, of course.So, the socket number looks like this: “Socket...”, where instead of an ellipsis its version will be indicated. In the same place where you found information on the socket, you can also find the types of processors recommended for your motherboard. This information is extremely important and will certainly be useful to inexperienced users who are encountering a similar problem for the first time.
Socket number on the motherboard itself
Almost every motherboard - with the exception of some instances - has information about the socket, but to find it, you need to try and disassemble your computer a little. The method is not the easiest, but very interesting if you have never done anything similar before.
Now you know which processor will suit your motherboard and you can safely go shopping. If the socket is not there, we can find it in other ways. Everest and CPU-Z programs
Most likely, you have already come across the names of these programs many times before. Or maybe they even worked with them. In any case, we will once again turn to them for help. Let's start with the most sophisticated one - Everest. This utility is where you can find literally any information related to your system in one way or another. All possible characteristics will become available after automatic scanning. By appearance it is extremely similar to the standard Explorer built into Windows system. So, what do we need to do to find out the motherboard socket:
And just in case, we’ll tell you how to use it free utility CPU-Z for the same purposes: 
As you can see, everything is extremely simple. Take a few minutes to avoid wasting your money by buying the wrong processor. Gigabyte's product range currently includes 13 boards based on the Intel X99 chipset. In this article we will look at Gigabyte model X99-SOC Champion, which is aimed at fans of extreme overclocking of the processor and memory.
Options and packaging
Despite the proud name Champion, the equipment Gigabyte boards X99-SOC Champion is quite modest. The board comes in a small box with all its advantages listed.
In addition to the board itself, the box contains a user manual, a DVD with software and drivers, four SATA cables (all connectors with latches, two cables have an angled connector on one side), SLI bridges for two, three and four video cards, an AMD CrossFireX bridge for two video cards and a blanking plate for the rear panel of the board.
Board configuration and features
A summary table of the characteristics of the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is given below, and further in the text we will look at all its features and functionality.
| Supported processors | |
| CPU socket | |
| Chipset | |
| Memory | 4 × DDR4 (up to 32 GB) |
| Audio subsystem | |
| Network Controller | |
| Expansion slots | 2 × PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/x8 operating mode) |
| SATA connectors | 10 × SATA 6 Gb/s (chipset) |
| USB ports | 6 × USB 3.0 |
| Rear Connectors | 4 × USB 3.0 |
| Internal connectors | 24-pin connector ATX power supply |
| Form factor | ATX (305×264 mm) |
| average price | T-11899237 |
| Retail offers | L-11899237-10 |
Form factor
The Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is made in the ATX form factor (305x264 mm), and nine standard holes are provided for its installation.
Chipset and processor socket
The Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is based on the top Intel chipset X99 and only supports processors codenamed Haswell-E with LGA2011-v3 socket.
Moreover, according to the manufacturer, the processor socket uses gold plating on the contacts. But that's not all. The processor socket on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board, although called LGA2011-v3, is not quite ordinary. Let us remember that at one time, Asus created the OC Socket, which is used on all Asus boards with the Intel X99 chipset. This connector has more pins compared to the regular LGA2011-v3 and uses processor pins reserved for service purposes. All this made it possible to supply additional power lines from the FIVR to the processor and thereby increase the stability of the processor supply voltage and prevent it from sagging under high load.
In principle, the same thing is implemented on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board. Instead of 2011 contacts, the socket has 2083 contacts, and, accordingly, the processor contacts reserved for service purposes are used, which makes it possible to increase the stability of the processor supply voltage. That is, we do not claim that everything is implemented on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board in exactly the same way as on Asus boards, but the idea is the same.
Since the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is focused on overclocking, the presence of such a non-standard connector will not be superfluous.
Memory
To install memory modules, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board has four DIMM slots, which allows you to install one DDR4 module on each of the four memory channels with a maximum capacity of up to 32 GB (when using 8 GB memory modules). Note also that the board supports memory with XMP profiles.
Well, just like in the processor socket, the contacts in the DIMM memory slots are gold-plated.
It would seem why the board has only four, and not eight (as usual) memory slots? The answer is simple. Since the board is focused on overclocking (including memory), a single slot per memory channel design is used. It's just easier to overclock in this case.
Expansion slots
To install video cards or expansion cards, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion motherboard has four PCI Express 3.0 slots with the PCI Express x16 form factor, three PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and an M.2 connector, which allows you to install drives of size 2242/2260/ 2280. The M.2 connector only supports PCI Express 2.0 devices with an M key and is implemented on the basis of four PCI Express 2.0 ports (bandwidth 20 GT/s). Note that most M.2 connectors existing on boards are implemented on the basis of only two PCI Express 2.0 ports and have a throughput half as low - 10 GT/s (billions of transfers per second). But, in fairness, we note that some boards with the Intel X99 chipset have new generation M.2 connectors, which are implemented on the basis of four PCI Express 3.0 ports. These connectors provide a throughput of 32 GT/s.
Three PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots are implemented using three chipset PCI Express 2.0 ports. But the operating modes of PCI Express 3.0 slots with the PCI Express x16 form factor depend on which processor is installed on the board.
Let us recall that at the moment there are three models of the Haswell-E family of processors: Intel Core i7-5960X, Core i7-5930K and Core i7-5820K. The first two models (Core i7-5960X and Core i7-5930K) have a built-in controller with 40 PCI Express 3.0 ports (lanes), but in the Core i7-5820K processor the controller has only 28 PCI Express 3.0 ports. Accordingly, the operating modes of slots with the PCI Express 3.0 x16 form factor depend on how many PCI Express 3.0 ports are in the processor.
If we count from the processor socket, then the first slot of the PCI Express 3.0 standard (PCIe 3.0 x16_1) operates in x16 or x8 mode. The second slot (PCIe 3.0 x16_2), which will be the third slot from the processor socket, is also switchable and operates in x16 or x8 modes. But the third (PCIe 3.0 x8_3) slot, which will be the second from the processor socket, as well as the fourth PCIe 3.0 x8_4 slot operate in x8 or x4 modes.
It is important to emphasize here that the fourth PCIe 3.0 x8_4 slot is shared with the first PCIe 3.0 x16_1 slot. And when the fourth PCIe 3.0 x8_4 slot is enabled, the first slot switches to x8 operating mode. That is, the first and fourth slots together account for 16 PCI Express 3.0 ports.
Thus, if a Haswell-E processor with 40 PCI Express 3.0 ports is installed on the board, then the first and fourth slots together account for 16 PCI Express 3.0 ports, the second PCIe 3.0 x16_2 slot operates in x16 mode, and the third PCIe 3.0 x8_3 slot operates in x16 mode. in x8 mode.
If a processor with 28 PCI Express 3.0 ports is installed on the board, then the operating mode of the slots changes. In this case, the second PCIe 3.0 x16_2 slot will operate in x8 mode, and the fourth slot and third PCIe 3.0 x8_3 slot will operate in x4 mode. Well, the first PCIe 3.0 x16_1 and the fourth PCIe 3.0 x8_4 slot together again account for 16 PCI Express 3.0 ports.
Naturally, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is supported Nvidia technologies SLI and AMD CrossFireX. Moreover, you can install up to four video cards.
Note that a similar operating scheme (and even such a strange numbering) of slots with the PCI Express x16 form factor is used on other Gigabyte boards with the Intel X99 chipset. In particular, on the Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 board WIFI scheme absolutely the same.
SATA ports, SATA Express connector
To connect storage devices or optical drives The board provides a total of ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. These are eight separate SATA 6 Gb/s ports and two more SATA 6 Gb/s ports as part of the SATA Express connector. Eight separate SATA 6 Gb/s ports are implemented based on a controller integrated into the Intel X99 chipset. Two more SATA 6 Gb/s ports, included in the SATA Express connector, are also implemented on the basis of a controller integrated into the chipset (naturally, these two ports can be used not only as part of the SATA Express connector, but also separately). Six of the ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, implemented on the chipset, support the ability to create RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5, 10 (this is a feature of the Intel X99 chipset).
Note that in the SATA Express connector, in addition to two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two PCI Express 2.0 chipset ports are also used.
USB connectors
To connect various peripheral devices, the board provides six USB 3.0 ports and eight USB 2.0 ports. Note that the Intel X99 chipset itself only supports up to 14 USB ports, of which up to 6 ports can be USB ports 3.0. However, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board uses an additional USB hub to implement USB 3.0 ports.
Two USB port 3.0 are implemented on the basis of a controller integrated into the chipset (these ports are connected via a connector on the board). Eight USB 2.0 ports are also implemented on the basis of a controller integrated into the chipset. Moreover, four USB 2.0 ports are connected to back panel board, and to connect other ports, the board has two connectors (two ports per connector).
Well, the remaining four USB 3.0 ports, located on the rear panel of the board, are implemented based on the Renesas uPD720210 USB hub, which is connected to one chipset USB port 3.0 and outputs four USB 3.0 ports. Thus, to implement all six USB 3.0 ports on the board, only three chipset USB 3.0 ports are used.
It would seem, why use an additional USB hub if six USB 3.0 ports can be implemented at the chipset level? The answer to this question lies in the limitation of the number of high-speed ports on the Intel X99 chipset, which we will look at next.
Network interface
To connect to the network, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board implements gigabit network interface based on PHY controller (controller physical level) Intel I218-V (uses a MAC-level controller integrated into the chipset). This controller uses one PCI Express 2.0 chipset port for connection.
How it works
If you count the number of controllers, connectors and slots on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board that use the PCI Express 2.0 ports of the Intel X99 chipset, you will get the following picture. Three PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots require three PCI Express 2.0 ports. Another PCI Express 2.0 port uses the Intel I218-V network controller. The M.2 connector requires four more PCI Express 2.0 ports. Well, the SATA Express connector is two more PCI Express 2.0 ports. As a result, we find that a total of 10 PCI Express 2.0 ports are required. But in the Intel X99 chipset, the total number of PCI Express 2.0 ports cannot exceed eight.
The problem of the lack of PCI Express 2.0 ports is solved in this case very simply. The fact is that the M.2 connector (4×PCIe 2.0) and the SATA Express connector are made separate from each other. That is, if a SATA Express connector is used, the M.2 connector will not be available and vice versa. However, it should be noted that if the M.2 connector is used, then the SATA 6 Gb/s connectors included in the SATA Express connector will be available for use. Thus, the M.2 and SATA Express connectors together account for only four PCI Express 2.0 ports.
Well, taking this into account, in total you will need not ten, but only eight PCI Express 2.0 ports, that is, exactly as many as the Intel X99 chipset is available.
The connection diagram for connecting controllers and slots to the Intel X99 chipset is shown in the figure.
Let us remind you that the presence of only eight PCI Express 2.0 ports is not the only limitation of the Intel X99 chipset. In total, the chipset can have no more than 22 high-speed I/O ports (PCI Express 2.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, USB 3.0) and no more than ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, no more than six USB 3.0 ports and no more than eight PCI Express 2.0 ports.
Well, now, let's see how the rule of 22 high-speed ports is implemented on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board. In principle, everything is as simple as possible here and there is no need to reconfigure the ports using Flexible I/O technology. The board has kept the number of USB 3.0 ports to a minimum (three in total). It is due to this that the limitation on the number of high-speed ports is met without the need to reconfigure them. While the number of USB 3.0 ports is minimal, the board has ten SATA 6 Gb/s chipset ports and eight PCI Express 2.0 ports. That is, in total we get less than 22 high-speed ports. However, as we already noted, the M.2 and SATA Express connectors are shared with each other.
In this case, the following options are possible:
- SATA 6 Gb/s ports are used, which are part of the SATA Express connector;
- a SATA Express connector is used and a SATA device is connected to it;
- a SATA Express connector is used and a PCIe device is connected to it;
- The M.2 connector is used and a PCIe device is connected to it.
In the first case (using the SATA 6 Gb/s ports included in the SATA Express connector), the M.2 connector remains accessible. The result is three USB 3.0 chipset ports, ten SATA 6 Gb/s chipset ports and eight PCI Express 2.0 ports, for a total of 21 high-speed ports.
The second case is similar to the first; accordingly, we get a total of 21 high-speed ports.
In the third case, the M.2 connector is blocked, as well as two SATA 6 Gb/s ports included in the SATA Express connector. As a result, we get three USB 3.0 chipset ports, eight SATA 6 Gb/s chipset ports and six PCI Express 2.0 ports, for a total of 17 high-speed ports.
In the fourth case, the SATA Express connector will be unavailable, but two SATA 6 Gb/s ports included in this connector will be available. Actually, this case is similar to the first, that is, in total we get 21 high-speed ports.
Additional features
As already noted, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is focused on overclocking and, accordingly, it has a lot of additional features specific to such boards.
Let's start with the fact that the board has power, reset and ClearCMOS reset buttons BIOS settings, which is very convenient when the board is installed not in a PC case, but in an open stand.
There is also a traditional POST code indicator for top solutions.
Next, it is necessary to mention the presence of control switches and BIOS. The Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board has two BIOS chips and the BIOS_SW switch allows you to select a specific chip to boot (Main BIOS or BackUp BIOS). In addition, there is also an SB switch that allows you to set the mode of using two BIOS chips (Dual BIOS) or the mode of using only one chip (Single BIOS).
The next feature of the board is the presence of contact pads for measuring voltages, which is used when overclocking the system.
There are two more switches specific to overclocker boards. These are OC Trigger (TGR) and CPU Mode.
The OC Trigger switch (also called LN2) is used in order to be able to force the processor to operate at the lowest possible frequency. This mode is used, for example, to boot the operating system. Well, then, using the OC Trigger switch, you can switch the processor to normal (overclocking) mode.
As the description says, the CPU Mode switch allows you to switch between normal processor mode and overclocking mode. Actually, it’s difficult to come up with a more vague explanation. But, judging by the inscription next to this switch, we are talking about the fact that it allows you to switch between the normal mode of operation of the processor socket, when only 2011 pins are used, and the mode of using 2083 pins.
Well, the last thing worth mentioning is the presence of two PS/2 connectors. The presence of such a connector is typical for overclocking-oriented boards, however, the presence of two connectors at once is very rare.
Supply system
Like most boards, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion model has 24-pin and 8-pin connectors for connecting the power supply. In addition to this, there is also a 4-pin power connector (ATX_12V). Well, in addition, there is an additional 6-pin PCIe Power Connector, which is used if several powerful video cards are installed on the board.
The processor supply voltage regulator on the board is 8-channel and is based on an 8-phase International Rectifier IR3580 PWM controller, and the power channels themselves are built on International Rectifier IR3556 DrMOS chips, which combine two MOSFET transistors and a control MOSFET driver.
Cooling system
The cooling system of the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is a single composite radiator consisting of four parts connected to each other by heat pipes. One heatsink covers the DrMOS chips of the processor voltage regulator. Another radiator covers the chipset itself, and the remaining two radiators are used simply as an addition to the first two to increase the efficiency of heat dissipation.
In addition, to create an effective heat dissipation system, the board has two four-pin connectors (CPU_FAN, CPU_OPT) for connecting processor cooler fans and three four-pin connectors for connecting additional case fans.
Audio subsystem
The audio subsystem on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is based on the Raeltek ALC1150 audio codec. To prevent the occurrence of electrical noise, all elements of the audio subsystem are isolated at the level of PCB layers (located separately) from other components of the board. The area on the PCB where the audio components are located is indicated by an LED-backlit outline that lights up when power is applied to the board.
To test the output audio path intended for connecting headphones or external acoustics, we used an external audio Creative card E-MU 0204 USB in combination with the Right Mark Audio Analyzer 6.3.0 utility. Testing was carried out in stereo mode, 24-bit/44.1 kHz. According to the test results, the audio path on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board received a “Good” rating. Moreover, no matter how hard we tried, we were unable to get a better test result. In principle, despite the “Good” rating, the result, to put it mildly, is so-so.
The full report with testing results in the RMAA 6.3.0 program is posted on a separate page, followed by a short report.
| Frequency response unevenness (in the range 40 Hz - 15 kHz), dB | Very good |
|
| Noise level, dB (A) | Mediocre |
|
| Dynamic range, dB (A) | Mediocre |
|
| Harmonic distortion, % | Very good |
|
| Harmonic distortion + noise, dB (A) | Mediocre |
|
| Intermodulation distortion + noise, % | ||
| Interpenetration of channels, dB | ||
| Intermodulation at 10 kHz, % | ||
| Overall rating | Fine |
|
UEFI BIOS and proprietary utilities
In terms of system configuration capabilities via UEFI BIOS, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is not much different from other Gigabyte boards based on the Intel X99 chipset. In fact, the UEFI BIOS on the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is no different in interface and capabilities from the UEFI BIOS on the Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 WIFI board, which we already wrote about. Therefore, we will only briefly consider the UEFI BIOS capabilities of the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board, which relate to system overclocking.
Overclocking the processor is done on the M.I.T.Advanсed Frequency Settings tab.
On this tab you can change the reference frequency of the BCLK clock generator in 0.01 MHz steps. To change the reference frequency, the CPU Base Clock parameter is used, the value of which determines the reference frequency for the processor cores (Host Clock Value). That is, the clock frequency of the processor cores (CPU Frequency) is obtained by multiplying the CPU Base Clock by the multiplication factor (Host Clock Ratio).
For the CPU Base Clock parameter, you can select a specific frequency value or set it to Auto. If Auto is selected (this is the default), the CPU Base Clock is 100 MHz.
The Advanced Frequency Settings tab also displays parameters such as Host/PCIe Clock Frequency, Processor Base Clock (Gear Ratio) and Host Clock Value. These parameters cannot be changed directly and their meaning depends on the values of the CPU Base Clock parameter.
The Processor Base Clock (Gear Ratio) parameter is a frequency multiplier for the BCLK frequency, which can take values of 1.00, 1.25, 1.66 and 2.50. Well, the Host/PCIe Clock Frequency parameter sets the value of the reference frequency for Uncore Logic elements (PEG and DMI controllers). The reference frequency value for the processor cores (Host Clock Value) is obtained by simply multiplying the Host/PCIe Clock Frequency by the Processor Base Clock frequency multiplier (Gear Ratio).
If you set the value of the CPU Base Clock parameter manually, then simultaneously with the change in the CPU Base Clock, both the Host Clock Value and the Host/PCIe Clock Frequency will change. However, with such a change CPU frequencies Base Clock will also trigger the frequency multiplier. For example, if you set the CPU Base Clock to 125 MHz, the Processor Base Clock (Gear Ratio) frequency multiplier will automatically take the value 1.25. In this case, Host Clock Value will be 125 MHz, and Host/PCIe Clock Frequency will be 100 MHz.
In addition to the described overclocking options, the Advanced Frequency Settings tab also has such a parameter as CPU Upgrade, which allows you to overclock the processor using various presets.
Also in the UEFI BIOS of the board it is possible to configure the mode Intel Turbo Boost (Advanced CPU Core Settings tab). You can set the multiplication factor for each case of the number of loaded processor cores.
It is also possible to configure Intel modes Turbo Boost by maximum power consumption and current. And set the multiplication factor Uncore Ratio (multiplying factor of the ring bus and L3 cache).
As for memory, in the UEFI BIOS you can either activate the XMP profile or set the memory frequency (by setting the multiplier). It is possible to set the memory multiplier up to 40 at a reference frequency of 100 MHz. The inconvenience is that the multiplication coefficient must be set manually, and not selected from a list of valid values.
Naturally, you can adjust memory timings and set the memory supply voltage.
Let us emphasize once again that all of the listed overclocking capabilities are also implemented on other Gigabyte boards based on the Intel X99 chipset. In particular, absolutely identical settings are available in the UEFI BIOS of the Gigabyte X99-Gaming G1 WIFI board. That is, in this case we did not find any special settings for overclocking that would set this board apart from the general series and make it unique. The most common board with typical overclocking capabilities.
Perhaps the only difference is that this fee allows you to work with DDR4-4000 memory. But this can hardly be considered a significant advantage, since such memory does not exist yet, and when it appears (if it appears), the corresponding support will be solved by updating the UEFI BIOS version.
However, from experience, we know very well that despite the same overclocking capabilities implemented in the UEFI BIOS, different motherboards overclock the processor differently. We test boards based on the Intel X99 chipset for overclocking capabilities using the same instance Intel processor Core i7-5960X. On some boards, the maximum frequency to which this processor can be overclocked is only 3.9 GHz, but for most boards this processor can be overclocked to 4.2 GHz. But in the case of the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board, the Intel Core i7-5960X processor was overclocked to a frequency of 4.4 GHz (using air cooling). Overclocking was carried out only by changing the processor multiplier at a reference frequency of 100 MHz. At the same time, the supply voltage of the processor core is automatic mode was set to 1.249 V, which, in our opinion, is a little too low for such a frequency. And indeed, at such a processor supply voltage, the system sometimes froze.
By increasing the supply voltage to 1.3 V, we obtained stable operation of the processor at a frequency of 4.4 GHz. Note that in the AIDA 64 stress test (Stress CPU), the temperature of the processor cores did not exceed 72°C.
In principle, the overclocking result is really very good. This is the first board on which we managed to overclock our instance of the Intel Core i7-5960X processor to such clock frequency when using air cooling.
Well, in conclusion, let's talk about proprietary utilities, which can be found on the manufacturer's website for this board. Naturally, there are a lot of utilities, but we will consider only those that are designed for overclocking and monitoring the system. Most of these utilities (V-Tuner, Fast Boot, EasyTune) are united by a single APP Center interface, but there are also separate utilities (for example, Gigabyte TweakLauncher). Moreover, the most functional, in our opinion, is the Gigabyte TweakLauncher utility, which allows you to change the multiplication factor for processor cores, BCLK frequency, multiplication factor for Uncore Logic, as well as change the supply voltage of the processor and memory, without rebooting the system. The only thing that cannot be done using this utility is overclocking the memory. Nevertheless, it is a very functional and useful utility.
By the way, we note in passing that when installing the Gigabyte TweakLauncher utility, a corresponding shortcut on the desktop is not created, which, of course, is inconvenient.
But the utilities included in the APP Center package are a little disappointing. V-Tuner utility for overclocking a video card in our case it turned out to be useless, since it does not support all video cards.
The EasyTune utility allows you to overclock the processor (change the multiplication factor, frequency system bus, adjust the supply voltage), as well as adjust the memory operation (change the memory frequency and adjust the timings). However, changing most parameters requires a system reboot. Also note that on the processor overclocking tab it is possible to configure the power consumption limit. Moreover, the range of changes in energy consumption is from 37 W to 4095.75 W. Here we have questions for the developers of this utility. Still, to assume that the processor will consume more than 4 kW is somehow far beyond reality.
The only thing that does not require a reboot in the EasyTune utility is changing memory timings, but setting memory timings using this utility is extremely inconvenient, since you have to do it manually for each of the four channels. And the standard sequence of recording timings in this utility has been slightly changed. In a word, for such settings it is more convenient to use UEFI BIOS.
conclusions
So let's summarize. First of all, we note that, like most boards based on the Intel X99 chipset, the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board is a niche product, not aimed at the mass user. It is positioned as a solution for overclocking enthusiasts. Indeed, despite the seemingly standard overclocking capabilities (as on all boards with the Intel X99 chipset), the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion board allows you to overclock the processor a little better than other boards on the Intel X99 chipset.
It is also worth noting that the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion does not have any unnecessary “sophistication” typical of top solutions. It is, so to speak, simplified as much as possible, and this has a positive effect on its cost. On the other hand, you can find a board based on the Intel X99 chipset cheaper, and at functionality(number of different connectors and slots) these cheaper options may even outperform the Gigabyte X99-SOC Champion. Therefore, we note once again that the main “trick” of the reviewed Gigabyte board is not in the connectors and slots, but in the overclocking capabilities.
The board was provided for testing by the manufacturer
