Motherboards

Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Motherboard Review

by Ed Smith01327

 

Features and Specifications

Direct from Gigabyte.us’s product page for the Z77X-UD5H. This isn’t the full features list as that is a very long list indeed.

 

z77ud5h-box-innerbox-open3accessories

 

GIGABYTE Z77 Series Motherboards

GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards combine a host of new and exciting technologies with the latest Intel Z77 Express Chipset, creating a unique range of motherboard designs that harness the outstanding performance of the new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors. With an exclusive ‘Digital’ VRM design, GIGABYTE 3D Power and GIGABYTE 3D BIOS (Dual UEFI), GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards ensure exceptional power delivery and absolute control, with additional features that ensure an unrivalled experience on your next PC build.

 

 
GIGABYTE All Digital Power Engine

GIGABYTE Z77 series motherboards take advantage of an exclusive All Digital PWM controller array, to deliver power to the board’s 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processor. Using entirely digital controllers means that more precise power delivery to the motherboard’s most power hungry and energy sensitive components is possible. These components include the CPU, VTT, processor graphics and memory, without doubt the most important components on your motherboard. This All Digital Power system, with Precise Auto Voltage Compensation, provides you with exceptional control over the component power delivery on your GIGABYTE 7 series motherboard.


GIGABYTE 3D Power: Digital Voltage, Frequency and Phase Control

Utilizing an exclusive All Digital controller array, GIGABYTE’s 3D Power features precise Auto Voltage Compensation to deliver a steady flow of power to the system, no matter the loading. With digital controllers for the CPU (Vcore), VTT, processor graphics and memory (DDR), users can make real-time adjustments with the exclusive GIGABYTE 3D Power Utility, that include settings such as OVP (Over Voltage Protection), Load-line Calibration and on-the-fly PWM frequency adjustment.

 

 
 
GIGABYTE 3D Power (patent pending) Utility

Users can enjoy a fully interactive 3D utility that facilitates adjustment of the 3 dimensions that control the power delivery to your CPU and Memory: Voltage, Phase and Frequency. These parameters are crucial to how the digital PWM supplies power to critical areas of the motherboard and can help users quickly obtain the highest, most stable overclock.
   
3D Power: Voltage Control
Voltage parameters can be modified within 3D Power, including load line calibration of the CPU. By adjusting load line calibration, Vdroop can be avoided, maintaining optimal voltages levels despite increasing current levels. OVP (over voltage protection) can also be adjusted to change default protection range of the CPU, IGP, VTT and system memory.
   

3D Power: Phase Control
Users can calibrate OCP (Over Current Protection) for the CPU, integrated memory controller and system memory power levels. This allows the Phase control to deliver even more power to the system when needed.

 
   

3D Power: Frequency Control
GIGABYTE’s all digital PWM allows for adjustable frequency control via the International Rectifier PWM controller. 3D Power frequency control allows users to change the PWM controller frequency so that the CPU VRM can adjust power delivery speeds more quickly. Users can also adjust the PWM spectrum or maximum and minimum overall frequencies.
 
 
 

 

GIGABYTE 3D BIOS (patent pending)

The revolutionary GIGABYTE 3D BIOS application is based on GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ technology and is available to consumers in two exclusive modes of interaction, providing enthusiast and mainstream users with a choice of unique and powerful graphical interfaces.

UEFI DualBIOS™ Technology

At the heart of this exciting 3D BIOS technology is a pair of physical BIOS ROMs containing GIGABYTE’s exclusive in-house designed UEFI BIOS technology. With a superior graphical interface capable of 32-bit color imaging and fluid user-friendly mouse navigation, UEFI DualBIOS™ makes BIOS configuration a new and exciting experience for novice and experienced users alike. UEFI BIOS also brings native support for large hard drives on 64-bit operating systems.

 

Onboard OC Features

GIGABYTE Z77 motherboards add special onboard features that assist DIY builders and overclockers in getting the absolute maximum control from their new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors.

Onboard Power and Reset buttons are accompanied by a LED Debug Display that puts users in the driving seat when experimenting with different hardware configurations.

Overclockers will appreciate having Onboard Voltage Read Points, which have been added to allow for accurate real-time voltage reading when pushing your processor and memory to absolute extremes. OC-PEG provides two onboard SATA power connectors for more stable PCIe power when using 3-way and 4-way graphics configurations.

An exclusive Onboard BIOS Switcher is also included which allows users to easily switch between the motherboard’s Dual UEFI BIOS ROMs. This makes it easier to switch between overclocking and regular BIOS settings and also to try a new BIOS revision without losing your original settings. An Onboard Clear CMOS buttons makes it easier than ever to reset your BIOS to its factory defaults.

 

 

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 4 – Insist on an Ultra Durable Motherboard

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 4 motherboards embrace a range of exclusive technologies that guarantee DIY PC builders the absolute best protection for their PC, with built-in features that prevent common malfunction threats…more

This board fully supports all the features of Ultra Durable™ 4. A PCB printing error occurred and it was labeled incorrectly as Ultra Durable™ 3.

Ultra Durable 4

 

I’m all for OC features, they’re a major part of how I select a board. The UD4 bits are nice too. I’m very happy to see that Gigabyte finally gives you a BIOS selection switch, that’s a very useful switch for extreme overclocking.

 

 

Onboard mSATA Support

GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards feature an onboard mSATA slot allowing users to easily take advantage of advanced SSD-based technologies like Intel® Smart Response and Intel® Rapid Start. Mounting an affordable, low capacity mSATA SSD directly onto your motherboard can enhance your PC’s performance with better overall desktop responsiveness, faster boot times and faster system resume from ‘Suspend to Disk’ and ‘Standby’ modes.

Download : Intel Smart Response SSD Available Vender List

 

 

 

GIGABYTE 333 Onboard Acceleration

GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards feature GIGABYTE 333 Onboard Acceleration , a range of the latest technologies that are designed help speed up data transfer, including SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology, SATA Revision 3.0 (6Gbps) technology and an unprecedented 3x USB power boost on all USB ports for more power hungry USB devices.

 

 

 

Onward to Specifications!

CPU
  1. Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package
  2. L3 cache varies with CPU

(Some Intel® Core™ processors require a graphic card, please refer “CPU support List” for more information.)
Chipset
  1. Intel® Z77 Express Chipset
Memory
  1. 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
    * Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR3 2400(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
  4. Support for non-ECC memory modules
  5. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

(Please refer “Memory Support List” for more information.)
Onboard Graphics Integrated Graphics Processor:

  1. 1 x D-Sub port
  2. 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
    * The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
  3. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
  4. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600p
Audio
  1. Realtek ALC898 codec
  2. Support for X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity® and EAX® Advanced HD™ 5.0 technologies
  3. High Definition Audio
  4. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
  5. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  1. 1 x Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)
  2. 1 x Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)
Expansion Slots
    1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
      * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

    1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
      * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

    1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
      * The PCIEX4 slot is available only when an Intel 22nm (Ivy Bridge) CPU is installed.
      * The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX8 and PCIEX16 slots. When the PCIEX4 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 will operate at up to x4 mode.
      (The PCIEX16, PCIEX8 and PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
      * PCIE Gen.3 is dependent on CPU and expansion card compatibility.

    1. 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
      (All PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

  1. 1 x PCI slot
Multi-Graphics Technology
  1. Support for AMD CrossFireX™ / NVIDIA SLI technology
Storage Interface Chipset:

  1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
  3. 1 x mSATA connector
    * The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
  4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
    * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.

2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:

  1. 3 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7/8) supporting up to 3 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
  3. Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1
USB Chipset:

  1. Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB headers)
  2. Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset + 2 VIA VL810 Hubs:

  1. Up to 8 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
    * In Windows XP, the Intel USB 3.0 ports and VIA VL810 HUB can support up to USB 2.0 transfer speed.
    * Due to a Windows 7 limitation, please connect your USB device(s) to the USB 2.0/1.1 port(s) before the Intel USB 3.0 controller driver is installed.
IEEE 1394 VIA VT6308 chip:

  1. Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 1 x PCIe power connector
  4. 5 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  5. 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
  6. 1 x mSATA connector
  7. 1 x CPU fan header
  8. 4 x system fan headers
  9. 1 x front panel header
  10. 1 x front panel audio header
  11. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
  12. 3 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
  13. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  14. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  15. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
  16. 1 x power button
  17. 1 x reset button
  18. 1 x Clear CMOS button
  19. 1 x heatsink LED power connector
  20. 1 x BIOS Switch
  21. Voltage Measurement Points
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x D-Sub port
  2. 1 x DVI-D port
  3. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  4. 1 x HDMI port
  5. 1 x DisplayPort
  6. 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector
  7. 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  8. 2 x USB 2.0/1.0 ports
  9. 1 x IEEE 1394a port
  10. 2 x RJ-45 ports
  11. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System temperature detection
  3. CPU/System fan speed detection
  4. CPU overheating warning
  5. CPU/System fan fail warning
  6. CPU/System fan speed control
    * Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.
BIOS
  1. 2 x 64 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS
  3. Support for DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a
Unique Features
  1. Support for @BIOS
  2. Support for Q-Flash
  3. Support for Xpress Install
  4. Support for Xpress Recovery2
  5. Support for EasyTune
    * Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
  6. Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)
  7. Support for Auto Green
  8. Support for ON/OFF Charge
  9. Support for Q-Share
  10. Support for 3D Power
  11. Support for EZ Setup
  12. Support for LAN Optimizer (Intelligent optimization network management tool)
Bundle Software
  1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
  2. Intel® Rapid Start Technology
  3. Intel® Smart Connect Technology
  4. Intel® Smart Response Technology
  5. LucidLogix Virtu MVP
    * Make sure the monitor cable has been connected to the integrated graphics port on the back panel.
Operating System
  1. Support for Microsoft® Windows 7/XP
Form Factor
  1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Remark
  1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
  2. Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP SP1/SP2. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.

 

Pretty huge list, really. The mSATA I’m excited about as I have a Crucial M4 256GB mSATA SSD (review coming soon!) to use with it, I was hoping it would be SATA3 6Gbps as that is what the SSD is, but it’s only SATA2. I’m hoping that Easytune actually works decently with this board, its track record for me in the past is best described as “poor”. It looks like we get ten USB3 ports if we use all the plugs on the motherboard, that’s far more than usual. Those are the bits that stick out at me.

Let’s look at the box!

 

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