Available for around $150, we had to search for the highest-priced vendors just to keep Biostar’s entry in today’s round-up. That is to say, it's priced low enough elsewhere that it could have been included in a follow-up story on even more affordable Z77-based models. This is where Biostar wants to compete, though, confident enough that it's willing to put the TZ77XE4 up against higher-priced parts from competing companies.
The TZ77XE4 looks fairly basic by the standards of its $160 competition, relying solely upon the chipset’s four ports for USB 3.0, and sharing eSATA with one of its internal ports. Apart from a lack of additional USB 3.0 controllers, that pits Biostar directly against ASRock’s $165 model.
Both manufacturers offer internal power and reset switches. Both have Port 80 diagnostics displays. Both have replaceable firmware ROMs. And the CLR_CMOS switch on ASRock’s I/O panel CLR_CMOS is found internally on the Biostar TZ77XE4. The TZ77XE4 physically supports three-way graphics arrays more logically by placing its trio of x16-length slots at triple-slot spacing, but its third slot is still limited to four PCIe 2.0 lanes from the Z77 controller.
Biostar’s novel approach to moving its top x16 slot as high as possible is to place DIMM connectors between mounting holes so that they can be moved closer to the board’s top edge. This removes much of the conflict between graphics cards and DIMM latches, though the CPU interface is not moved northward in a similar fashion. This limits the width of most CPU coolers to around 135 mm, and off-center DIMMS could affect memory overclocking. While we couldn’t check every cooler on the market to determine which ones fit, our overclocking tests will reveal whether offset DIMMs create a problem.
Other unusual features include a front-panel audio connector above the second graphics card slot and a front-panel USB 3.0 connector above the third graphics card slot. These won't be affected by graphics coolers, but whether they block the PCIe x1 or PCI slots depends heavily on where components are located on those cards.

The TZ77XE4’s installation kit includes four SATA cables, CrossFire and SLI two-way bridges, and an I/O shield. Though it’s not stuffed with fluff, this selection of parts should be more than adequate for the needs of 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.