Six $160-220 Z77 Motherboards, Benchmarked And Reviewed

Z77X-UD3H Firmware

Gigabyte produces stable firmware for solid overclocking, yet manages to annoy some of us by spreading its settings over the broadest number of submenus we’ve encountered. It’s main M.I.T. menu shows nothing but system status and a list of these submenus.

The Advanced Frequency Settings submenu, for example, shows nothing more than CPU base clock, CPU multiplier, and DRAM multiplier. Jumping in one more submenu brings CPU power and per-active-core controls.

We reached a stable 4.76 GHz at 1.30 V using 47 x 101.32 MHz.

Intel XMP modes work well in the Advanced Memory Settings submenu, but an additional level of submenus is required to change timings. Changing DRAM Timing Selectable to Quick ties both channels to the same settings, while Expert mode allows per-channel timing manipulation.

Our best efforts pushed a pair of G.Skill’s DDR3-2666 to DDR3-2721 using its rated voltage and timings.

The Z77X-UD3H’s Advanced Voltage Settings submenu brings up another list of submenus that, for most purposes, could have been combined. A 1.305 V setting got us to an actual 1.30 V, and setting VCore Load Line Calibration to Turbo kept our CPU voltage consistent under changing loads.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • TekN9Ne
    Great review! At the end of day, it comes down to brand loyalty.
    Reply
  • do you mean nvidia and intel gets news during weekends not only news but featured articles?
    Reply
  • yougotjaked
    There's a typo on the last page. It says X77H2-A2X instead of Z77H2-A2X :P It's on the second to last paragraph...
    Reply
  • HMSvictory
    I am surprised that you guys did not include the Asus z77-V

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131820
    Reply
  • rickrents
    why not with Pci-e 3.0?
    Reply
  • confish21
    Nice article thank you!
    Reply
  • confish21
    One thing i was looking for was the part about asrock not having true "digital" PWM and going with an analog PWM. Does this really matter?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    TekN9NeGreat review! At the end of day, it comes down to brand loyalty.I don't think the article stated anything like that. It comes down to the features you want and the cards you plan to use. In the MSI vs ASRock debate, it's x8-x4-x4 with all three slots in PCIe 3.0 mode, or x8-x8-x4 with x4 in PCIe 2.0 mode, and you're definitely wiser to pick between them based on WHAT you plan to use in the third slot.simone saysdo you mean nvidia and intel gets news during weekends not only news but featured articles?It's Monday here, and editorial has very little contact with news.HMSvictoryI am surprised that you guys did not include the Asus z77-Vhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod 6813131820Tom's Hardware didn't "include" anything in the review. A couple boards were excluded based on price, and everything else was let in. The P8Z77-V Pro was the cheapest board Asus sent.rickrentswhy not with Pci-e 3.0?Editor had no PCIe 3.0 cards. And the reason he didn't get one yet is because it didn't matter. The only thing that really mattered in a single-GPU MOTHERBOARD comparison was to use the same card on all platforms.confish21One thing i was looking for was the part about asrock not having true "digital" PWM and going with an analog PWM. Does this really matter?Some digital voltage regulators have been garbage, take a look at a few of the older reviews to see this. Very few have been very good. And many more analog voltage regulators have been garbage, while many more analog voltage regulators have been very good. Quality of execution is more important than the underlying technology.

    Reply
  • hellfire24
    UD3H seems to be an excellent value board.
    Reply
  • HMSvictory
    would it be possible to review the asus z77 and gigabyte ud5h in a future review.
    Reply