Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H Review – Z77 and MicroATX
by Ian Cutress on May 24, 2012 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
USB Speed
For this benchmark, we run CrystalDiskMark to determine the ideal sequential read and write speeds for the USB port using our 240 GB OCZ Vertex3 SSD with a SATA 6 Gbps to USB 3.0 converter. Then we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are the videos used in the Sorenson Squeeze test.
USB 2.0 performance is reasonable; the ASUS models in our copy test edge out the Z77MX-D3H.
The Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H does reasonably well in USB 3.0, beating out many other boards in our copy test.
SATA Testing
We also use CrystalDiskMark for SATA port testing on a C300 drive. The sequential test (incompressible data) is run at the 5 x 1000 MB level. This test probes the efficiency of the data delivery system between the chipset and the drive, or in the case of additional SATA ports provided by a third party controller, the efficiency between the controller, the chipset and the drive.
SATA 6 Gbps read performance on the Z77MX-D3H matches that of the MSI board, which is almost 10% slower than our other products tested. This isn't seen in the write tests, where the MSI still takes home the wooden spoon.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests, such as audio, will be further down the line. So if the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled. If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time, resulting in an empty audio buffer – this leads to characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. Having a bigger buffer and correctly implemented system drivers obviously helps in this regard. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is processing DPCs from driver invocation – the lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds and taken as the peak latency while cycling through a series of short HD videos - under 500 microseconds usually gets the green light, but the lower the better.
The Z77MX-D3H does very well to achieve a time less than 100 microseconds in our DPC latency test.
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SixOfSeven - Friday, May 25, 2012 - link
Great review, great board. However:Case Open Test Bed - CoolerMaster Lab V1.0
There are a few microATX chassis worth considering but it's still pretty slim pickings out there.
kenyee - Friday, May 25, 2012 - link
Probably something that would be worth mentioning, but they've figured out how to set up the DSDT tables in the UEFI BIOS better than other motherboard makers if you're trying to set up a Hackintosh...MadAd - Sunday, May 27, 2012 - link
Thanks for the review of a more 'normal' board instead of these 4x16 pcie monsters - not all of us have multiple graphics cards (mines full of disks) and simply dont need more than a uATX but do still want good overclocking, sata 6 and the best bolt onsStefanM - Sunday, May 27, 2012 - link
Excellent review,I have this board paired to a i5-3570K under a thermalright venomous X and 16GBs of corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 RAM.
I'm @ 4.4GHz, LLC extreme, 44x, stock voltage (1.2v) and DDR3-1600... the board refuses to complete POST if I raise the BCLK over 101 and the multiplier above 44x despite voltage increases to the ram/cpu - I'm also using the F11 Bios.
najames - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Does this board have the ability to enable VT-d for vurtualization? It would also be nice to have a normal sized PSU and test power on an on-CPU Intel graphics system.