It is fair to say we are currently inundated with motherboards for socket 939 CPUs which cover every possible market sector. Quite often hardware sites just focus on the most expensive and overclockable boards which price themselves out of the market for the majority of end users, so with that in mind today we are looking at.the Gigabyte K8U-939 which retails for a very competitive $55.

The Gigabyte K8U-939 is a socket 939 motherboard, based on the ULi M1689 chipset. It has an AGP slot instead of a PCI-E one and works with DDR RAM, so users with older socket A/478 motherboards can upgrade to it without having to upgrade their RAM and GFX as well. It also features Dual Channel DDR, can support the newest X2 Dual Core processors and 64-bit technology so it is striving to be a competitive solution for those who are thinking about upgrading without spending a fortune. The low price of the motherboard certainly adds to that, but can it compete at all with high-end motherboards in regards to performance? We are about to find out.

Packaging and bundle

The packaging and bundle of the K8U-939 are very basic, obviously to keep the cost down. The motherboard comes in a standard cardboard box, which is nicely designed but nothing special. You only get: a SATA, an IDE and a floppy cable. All 3 of them are entirely standard. There is a basic user’s manual and a quick start guide, along with a drivers/utilities CD. Finally, there are two nice case badges included. A respectable showing for a budget offering.

The motherboard layout

The first look at the motherboard allows the adept to recognize a typical, middle range Gigabyte motherboard. The motherboard is built to ATX specifications, but it is not as wide as a full ATX motherboard, measuring only 21cm wide. It is built on a blue PCB, typical for Gigabyte motherboards. ULi’s chipset is hidden beneath a small aluminium heatsink. There are not many ports or room for expansion with this design.

The DDR RAM slots are present on top of the motherboard, 4 of them in total. 2 are orange while the other 2 are purple, coloured in order to help the user recognize which he/she has to use to enable dual channel DDR.

The CPU socket is directly beneath the RAM slots, towards the centre of the motherboard. Right beside the CPU socket are the IDE connectors and the ATX power connector. The ATX connector is 20-pin, so you will not need to upgrade your older power supply unit or use a 20-pin to 24-pin adapter in order to use this motherboard. All of the 3-pin fan connectors are placed close to each other. One is right beneath the CPU socket while the other 2 are beside the IDE slots. The CPU cooler retention bracket is different from the commonly used brackets which are mounted by two long screws. This one is mounted by two plastic push-pins. I did not find this good at all, as this bracket is harder to remove and will also forbid the mounting of any heatsink which depends on the screws of the standard retention bracket, if it does not provide one in its own package.

The 4-pin 12V power connector is the only connector which is at a very bizarre location. It is placed at the right side of the CPU socket, completely surrounded by tall capacitors. Sure enough there is no problem concerning the connection of the 12V power cable, but the connector is virtually hidden in that place. I see no reason for this tight fit. At the lower part of the motherboard you will find most internal connectors. The front LED and button connectors are placed at the lowest right part of the motherboard. They are all coloured to help the user during the installation. Moving to the left, you will see the internal USB connectors right beneath the BIOS chip, providing 4 extra USB ports in total. The game port is at the lowest left part of the motherboard, beside the last PCI slot. The rear of the I/O panel is rather standard. Besides the basic PS/2, Serial and Parallel ports there are also 4 USB ports, the LAN connector and the typical sound connectors (speaker out, microphone, and line-in).