Gigabyte’s Z77X-UD3H offers a surprisingly broad feature set for its $160 price, adding a four-port USB 3.0 and separate eSATA 6Gb/s controller to the chipset’s integrated capabilities. Gigabyte’s familiar mSATA connector is also found mid-board, borrowing one of the chipset’s four SATA 3Gb/s ports when desired for SSD caching.
Familiarity in layout is a matter of form following function, with three spaces separating the two PCIe 3.0 graphics card slots to add cooling and/or allow thicker cards. LGA 1155 platform limits still apply, meaning that the CPU’s sixteen lanes can go to either a single card (x16 mode) or two cards (x8/x8 mode). Automatic switching takes care of that change whenever a card is installed in the second x16-length slot. The third x16-length slot is still limited to four of the Z77 PCH's PCIe 2.0 lanes.
The Z77X-UD3H keeps the power, reset, and CLR_CMOS buttons of its competitors, along with the Port 80-style diagnostics display. Gigabyte differentiates Z77X-UD3H overclocking with a row of voltage detection points along the top of its front edge, however. More importantly, it's the least-expensive product to include manually-selectable dual firmware ROMs.
With a front-panel USB 3.0 header handily located behind the bottom edge of memory slots, layout complaints are minor. First of all, the only two USB 3.0 ports derived from Intel's Z77 on the I/O panel must be used for a keyboard and mouse during O/S installation on most systems, since the other four VIA-based ports require a special driver to function. Second, all four VIA-based I/O panel ports share a single 5 Gb/s PCIe link to the chipset. Third (and more trivial) is the bottom-rear corner front-panel audio connector, which is around half of an inch too far of a reach for the cables of some cases. Fourth (and least significant) is the upward-facing latch of the eight-pin CPU power connector, which can be difficult to disconnect on systems that have bottom-mounted power supplies with the cable routed behind the motherboard tray.
For most users, the Z77X-UD3H’s positives far outweigh its negatives. That’s especially significant at its low price point.

Four SATA cables and a flexible SLI bridge make a sparse installation package for the Z77X-UD3H, though it should be adequate for most builders.
- Z77 Express: The Perfect Replacement For Older Machines
- ASRock Z77 Extreme6
- Z77 Extreme6 Firmware
- Asus P8Z77-V Pro
- P8Z77-V Pro Firmware
- Biostar TZ77XE4
- TZ77XE4 Firmware
- ECS Golden Z77H2-A2X
- Z77H2-A2X Firmware
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
- Z77X-UD3H Firmware
- MSI Z77A-GD65
- Z77A-GD65 Firmware
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 3
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Which Mid-Range Z77 Board Should You Buy?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820
Something's gotta be pooched with the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro BIOS (UEFI) -- hopefully. In the past the ASUS Pro line has been the meat & potatoes for my recommendations, and this is not the only review with similar performance numbers.
Voltages, I am going to have a hard time recommending a vCore >1.2Xv, VCCSA and CPU VTT of 1.20v on the IB. I still need to see otherwise. From what I've seen the IB is more 'girlish' with voltages than the SB or SB-E, and there's little point having the fans spinning 'through' the case and creating high dBA with a high vCore. RAM (voltage), it goes back to my feelings that 1.50v DIMM was a bunch of Urban Myths especially since the SB-E and seemingly the IB can handle 1.65v DIMM RAM.
Yeah, I noticed the XMP tried to set 1.25v VCCSA, or at least the set is encoded that way. Further, I don't wan to debate the OC until I get my hands on an IB, it should be any day now.
Further, either the Engineers were dead wrong on the SB (1.50) or IB (1.65) they're wrong in both instances. I 'get' ultra fast kits (today) >DDR3-2133 e.g. DDR-2400 or faster are 1.65v kits, but only a few months ago IF 'I' recommended SB + 1.65v I'd have 20+ negative comments in the Forum. Seems counter intuitive step in DRAM voltage.
Also, I am assuming you're testing the IB ES and I wonder how much of an impact that has in that the CPUID are geared towards the Retail. I remember all of the E5 (ES) problems and drops in performance compared to the Retail sisters.
OC observation only, you seemed 'wimpish' with the SB-E compared to the IB - interesting?!
A chose this board as it has a better Audio Chipset then the Competitors. This board comes with ALC898, while the other ones come with ALC892. Apparently ALC898 is far better than ALC892.
So far i am quite happy with the board.
Just 1 note, if overclocking do not disable "Power technologies", it will prevent overclocking. If i disabled the power saving features 1 by 1 i had no problems.
I have always loved ECS for cheap 'value' builds (in fact I am using a 6 year old ECS board in a little htpc I am throwing together, it doesn't do much, but it has never let me down either), it is wierd seeing them in the 'high end' market like this, and (unlike previous boards they have produced) it looks stunning!
The first time I saw the gold on black look was with my ex3 gen3 board, which looked odd in pictures, but great in real life, and this new ECS board looks absolutely gorgeous in pics, so I am sure it looks great in real life as well.
Still, at the end of the day I am not sure that I would go for ECS on a high end build, but it is good to see that they are getting somewhere.
Also, it is good to see that ASRock is still doing OK now that they are no longer under the ASUS umbrella.
As for the review: Why even do the program benchmarks? We all know that the mobo is merely for the feature set, parts cooling, and power management quality for OCing (and truth be told aesthetics as well), and has next to no bearing on how fast things get processed at any specific frequency. All that I personally care about is the feature set, OC ability, and subjective ease of use for the UEFI and keeping it updated, vs the overall cost of the board.