Gigabyte Z77X UD4H Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Conclusion
A large market for any motherboard maker is the midrange and industrial sectors. These sectors concern themselves less with overclocking features and more about getting the best bang for their buck. This market is also extremely fierce with big money deals going to whoever can deliver with the best price. Features like the onboard mSATA and a full array of USB 3.0 ports are great selling points however; power users demand more and are willing to pay for these additional features.
The GA-Z77X-UD4H features some great benchtop features like voltage test points, onboard buttons for power and reset and a sizeable PWM for better stability. There is no doubt that a properly cooled "K" edition processor can run 5Ghz+ on this board and there are plenty of heatsinks to ensure it can maintain that level for quite some time.
Motherboard layout is quite good and follows a design that we have seen before in the Z68X-UD3H-B3 review. The design will support up to three graphics cards but is clearly optimized for dual card operation and supports the new PCI Express 3.0 standard which is native to the Ivy Bridge processor. In an attempt to make the board stand out Gigabyte has included a VIA VL800 controller chip giving you more USB 3.0 ports on I/O panel. You also get an additional Marvell SATA controller chip for more SATA6 ports and a few eSATA connections on the I/O panel.
Overclocking the GA- Z77X-UD4H was pretty straight forward due in part to the familiar Gigabyte UEFI. The larger PWM really helped stabilize the system at higher speeds and seemed to lower the PWM load temperatures. It should be noted that memory overclocking on this motherboard is quite good. As Gigabyte explains it motherboards with less complex circuitry, like the UD4H, offer better signal integrity which, in turn, allows for higher memory frequencies than, say a ultra high end motherboard like the Z77X-UP7.
The GA-Z77X-UD4H features some great benchtop features like voltage test points, onboard buttons for power and reset and a sizeable PWM for better stability. There is no doubt that a properly cooled "K" edition processor can run 5Ghz+ on this board and there are plenty of heatsinks to ensure it can maintain that level for quite some time.
Motherboard layout is quite good and follows a design that we have seen before in the Z68X-UD3H-B3 review. The design will support up to three graphics cards but is clearly optimized for dual card operation and supports the new PCI Express 3.0 standard which is native to the Ivy Bridge processor. In an attempt to make the board stand out Gigabyte has included a VIA VL800 controller chip giving you more USB 3.0 ports on I/O panel. You also get an additional Marvell SATA controller chip for more SATA6 ports and a few eSATA connections on the I/O panel.
Overclocking the GA- Z77X-UD4H was pretty straight forward due in part to the familiar Gigabyte UEFI. The larger PWM really helped stabilize the system at higher speeds and seemed to lower the PWM load temperatures. It should be noted that memory overclocking on this motherboard is quite good. As Gigabyte explains it motherboards with less complex circuitry, like the UD4H, offer better signal integrity which, in turn, allows for higher memory frequencies than, say a ultra high end motherboard like the Z77X-UP7.
Good Things
Dual Card SLI Support
Extra space between video card slots
Onboard TPM for Security
SATA 6
Onboard Video
Larger PWM
Extra space between video card slots
Onboard TPM for Security
SATA 6
Onboard Video
Larger PWM
Bad Things
VIA controller doesn't like BCLK
mSATA isn't featured
mSATA isn't featured
Ninjalane Rating
Gigabyte Z77X UD4H Motherboard Review
Furious 5 of 5
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