We can’t forget ASRock’s overclocking and hardware monitoring utility, which allows users unfamiliar with or scared of UEFI changes to attempt an overclock within Windows. More hardware overclockers occasionally use the same type of software to make minor adjustments beyond what they’ve already set in a board's UEFI.
ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility opens to its hardware monitoring page, showing most of the voltage, fan, and temperature readings also found in the UEFI, without needing to exit Windows.
AXTU provides temperature-based fan control only for the CPU fans and one chassis fan header. Manual adjustment is available for the two CPU and three chassis fan headers, and our tests demonstrate that feature to work as advertised.
We slid the clock and voltage controls all the way up under AXTU’s Overclocking tab to show how far these scale. Although we didn't apply those extreme settings to our delicate hardware, we did find smaller changes in BCLK, CPU ratio, and CPU voltage reflected in CPU-Z.
UEFI overclocking profiles are repeated into AXTU’s OC DNA menu.
ASRock Inteligent Energy Saver gets a tab, but we didn’t find settings beyond On and Off.
XFast RAM is ASRock’s RAM drive utitility. RAM disks provide a super-fast place to temporarily store files while working with them, such as large images that are being manipulated in Photoshop. The capacity of any RAM-based drive is subtracted from total available system memory. ASRock points out that putting temporary files on the RAM drive minimizes strain on SSDs, and the firm even has a video that shows XFast RAM using unavailable memory (installed memory beyond the 4 GB limit) within a 32-bit operating system.
- Seven Affordable Z77 Express-Based Motherboards Get Dissected
- ASRock Z77 Extreme4
- Z77 Extreme4 Applications
- Overclocking With ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility
- Z77 Extreme4 UEFI
- Asus P8Z77-V LX
- P8Z77-V LX Applications
- Overclocking With Asus TurboV
- P8Z77-V LX UEFI
- Biostar TZ77XE3
- TZ77XE3 Applications
- Overclocking With Biostar Toverclocker
- TZ77XE3 UEFI
- ECS Z77H2-A2X Deluxe
- Z77H2-A2X Deluxe Applications
- Overclocking With ECS eOC
- Z77H2-A2X Deluxe UEFI
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
- Z77X-D3H Applications
- Overclocking With Easy Tune6
- Z77X-D3H UEFI
- Intel DZ77SL-50K
- DZ77SL-50K Applications
- Overclocking With Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
- DZ77SL-50K UEFI
- MSI Z77A-G45
- Z77A-G45 Applications
- Overclocking With MSI Control Center
- Z77A-G45 UEFI
- Benchmark Settings And Peripheral Compatibility Testing
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: PCMark And Sandra
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Three Sub-$160 Motherboards Rise To The Top






The things that actually get screwed-up are typically related to the clock generator, multiplier control, memory timings and power options.
Nice review.
You're kidding - Biostar. I guess this article is not about the 'Best Sub-$160 Z77' MOBO's but about the best manufacturers sent you. The cheapest MOBO I recommend for the SB/IB (K) is the ASUS P8Z77-V which pops your 'unique' budget cap depending where you shop; found it here for $159.99 - http://www.gadgetneeds.net/asus-p8z77-v-atx-intel-motherboard/
Interesting you didn't get an ASUS P8Z77-V LK ~$120 which offers SLI. The ASRock Z77 Extreme4 and Gigabyte Z77X-D3H for the price aren't bad.
There's NO WAY I'm recommending Biostar in the forum, folks and myself would thing I've lost my mind.
Would really like to see how the UD3X Atheros Ethernet controller fares against the Intel and broadcom ones.
Thank you!
This is what differentiates them performance wise.
Also, I love the True Studio Pro software, if you are running digital audio it really makes any idea of a dedicated sound card a thing of the past. Every computer I build now either has True Studio Pro with the mobo, or I purchase the MB2 software suite, it makes such a difference if using headphones or quality speakers, and much less buggy that Creative's sound cards and driver issues that we all know and love.