We discussed our firmware problem on the software page, if only to say that recovering from bad overclocking settings is easier to do from software. But part of the problem was that we are testing this board with old firmware.
The firmware shipping with current Z77H2-AX samples was developed way back in June. But that’s not the version we used. Our motherboard round-up invitation specifically states that, in order to keep things fair, we use the most recent firmware version published on each vendor's support page. This is to avoid special optimizations for review sites. This stuff does happen, folks. ECS didn’t publish its June firmware, though, and the only version found on its support page is from March. This is particularly problematic for an ECS board, because the company's infamous stuck-BIOS issues are often solved in its later firmware updates.
Giving ECS the opportunity to update its site after our deadline wouldn't have been fair to the vendors who submitted their products with official firmware versions right out of the gate.

A CPU Voltage setting of 1.150 V got us to a little over 1.2 V at idle, and changing the CPU Vdroop setting to Disable allowed voltage to climb to 1.25 V under load. This was the only way we could get to our target load voltage without running an excessively-high idle voltage.

In spite of our relatively low idle voltage, the board was still able to run our CPU at its 47 x 100 MHz setting. That’s not quite 4.7 GHz however, since the board’s actual base clock is 99.78 MHz.

We had to leave Intel's Turbo Boost technology enabled to reach a higher multiplier. But setting the ratio to 47x caused the CPU to jump from 1.6 GHz at idle to 4.7 GHz under load.


The Z77H2-AX doesn’t let you fine-tune memory from XMP mode, but the board retains previously-set timings when entering manual mode. Entering Manual mode from Auto mode makes SPD values your baseline, while entering Manual mode from XMP mode makes those timings stick as well. Because of that, we were able to start our DRAM overclocking effort without configuring primary, secondary, and tertiary controls by hand.
- Intel's Mainstream Z77 Express Goes High-End
- Panther Point's Thunderbolt Connection
- ASRock Z77 OC Formula
- Z77 OC Formula Software
- Z77 OC Formula Firmware
- Asus Sabertooth Z77
- Sabertooth Z77 Software
- Sabertooth Z77 Firmware
- ECS "Golden Board" Z77H2-AX
- Z77H2-AX Software
- Z77H2-AX Firmware
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH
- GA-Z77X-UP5 TH Software
- GA-Z77X-UP5 TH Firmware
- Intel DZ77RE-75K
- DZ77RE-75K Software And Firmware
- MSI Z77A-GD80
- Z77A-GD80 Software
- Z77A-GD80 Firmware
- Test Settings And Compatibility
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark 11
- Benchmark Results: PCMark And SiSoftware Sandra
- Power And Heat
- Overclocking
- Picking The Right High-End Z77 Board
"Six $220-280 Z77 Express-Based Motherboards, Reviewed"
Also, the time taken to show the windows loading screen/ BIOS page..
you really liked the black/grey dimms and PCI slots of the gigabyte better than the blue/black of the MSI!
Andrew Ku tests drive controllers. I'm trying to get him to "write the book" on controller performance, since dozens of boards use only a few different controllers. As for testing things like Z77 controller performance on board A vs Z77 controller performance on board B, it's a waste of time unless something is broken. So the article looked for "broken stuff". See the red bar on the first chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77x-up5-th-z77a-gd80-z77-oc-formula,3305-22.html
With nothing broken, there's no excuse to test the Z77 controller six times. Back to me begging Andrew Ku for a comprehensive comparison of every SATA controller currently available on mainstream-brand enthusiast boards.
This allows ocer's to achieve higher overclocks while still retaining the power saving functions, instead of being forced to either reduce the overclock, or be forced to run high voltage 24/7.
MSI doesn't have this key feature.
Overclocking the BLCK is very unlikely to cause any damage, it's just likely to not give much of a stable overclock.
And as much as I like ASRock, I realy wish they'd put more PWM headers on their boards.
On a side note, in a future I would love to see a comparison including boards like the Z77X-UP7 from Gigabyte, haven't got a chance to see that one in action
The problem isn't the review, the problem is that only two people didn't realize that the performance is supposed to be identical. Those two people are you, and the person who gave you the "thumbs up".