Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Review: Functionality meets Competitive Pricing
by Ian Cutress on July 25, 2012 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized) determine POST boot time. As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading, as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
POST time on the UD5H is not the best, clearly beaten by any ASRock product, but comes on par with several ASUS motherboards at default.
Overclocks
Here at AnandTech we want to provide quick and easy ways to determine if a board is good for you (with in-depth analysis of course). Therefore here is a quick round up of our overclocking results. Overclocks are tested for stability with PovRay and OCCT - while these may not be the most strenuous of stability tests, it does offer a quick check for memory errors under high load (and balances testing time with getting the next board on for review!).
|
CPU Speed (MHz) |
Voltage (Volts) |
PovRay Peak Temp (ºC) |
OCCT Peak Temp (ºC) |
Notes | |
|
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional |
4700 | 1.200 | 89 | 89 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 |
4700 | 1.175 | 86 | 86 | LLC Level 1 |
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme6 |
4700 | 1.175 | 81 | 82 | LLC Level 1 |
|
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe |
4700 | 1.225 | 89 | 84 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro |
4700 | 1.200 | 83 | 86 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
Biostar TZ77XE4 |
4700 | 1.180 | 84 | 85 | None |
|
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H |
4700 | 1.225 | 88 | 88 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H |
4700 | 1.200 | 82 | 86 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H |
4700 | 1.200 | 80 | 84 | LLC Extreme |
|
MSI Z77A-GD65 |
4700 | 1.250 | 90 | - | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
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IanCutress - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
Please note that even if you have purchased a '6Gbit/s' SSD, it will never run at that speed. If you look at our SATA and USB testing, none of the peak speeds we see in our benchmarking ever reach the peak advertised by the port due to the limitations of the hardware. They more often than not do not even reach the peaks of the hardware due to latency or real-world situations. Most rated speeds are for compressible continuous data with a high queue-depth - not ever a realistic scenario.Testing every 3rd party controller adds testing time. Going from 2-3 boards a month do maybe one and a bit. Especially if they're all connected differently on the board (which we don't always know without specific chipset diagrams for the specific product, which are not always available). After all, peak tests are limited in their understanding anyway - take the new USB boost technologies from ASUS and ASRock. ASUS' implementation affects mainly short size block transfers by several order of magnitudes (as found out in our testing), rather than peak by any significant amount.
I am quite astounded by your insistence that if you have many ports that they must all run at their peak speed in conjunction with each other at the same time. It just doesn't work that way. Have a gander at the chipset diagrams in our first Z77 reviews to understand this. Bandwidth is delivered to what needs it at the right time - the usage model for hammering all the ports at once is almost non-existent.
Ideally we'd love to test everything at the peak, but we do not have an unlimited amount of cash to go and buy equipment. We're independent freelance reviewers making do with what kit we can get together or are offered.
iCrunch - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
I've become so spoiled by how incredibly seamlessly, fast, and consistent Thunderbolt works. Add to that the fact that I can probably get most of the specs in an external Thunderbolt enclosure/dock solution fairly soon...albeit for a tad more money.Scootiep7 - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
Wow, so Gigabyte finally took my complaints to heart and started releasing boards with something other than that ALC887 miserable excuse for an audio codec. Bravo good sirs, better late than never. Now get it done on more of your boards!Questor - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
I have this motherboard with an Ivy Bridge i5 3570K, currently at a stock speed, with a Plextor 128 GB SATA III SSD as the OS drive. Even with the post logo screen enabled, I get to desktop log-in in about 7 seconds. Excluding the "artificially" added time to type my password, full desktop is an average of 2.5 seconds from there. Not bad considering the programs I have that load versus Anantech testing.I have had my board since its early retail release and this has not changed much; even after replacing the original i5 2500K and Samsung SATA II 128 GB SSD for the above mentioned components.
Questor - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
In addition to the boot time being misleading commentary and the response to the USB vs PS/2 keyboard, my present computer build with this Gigabyte board is one of the best/favorite rigs in my 14 years of building and tweaking computers.The other few are ASUS P8P67-PRO, Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H (X2 with two cores unlocked to quad and STILL running stable), EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra, ASUS P5A with AMD K6-350 (severe electrical spike took it out after years of OCing - jumped the surge protector)!
Questor - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 - link
In addition to the boot time being misleading commentary and the response to the USB vs PS/2 keyboard, my present computer build with this Gigabyte board is one of the best/favorite rigs in my 14 years of building and tweaking computers. The other few are ASUS P8P67-PRO, Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H (X2 with two cores unlocked to quad and STILL running stable), EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra, ASUS P5A with AMD K6-350 (severe electrical spike took it out after years of OCing - jumped the surge protector)!minlian - Sunday, August 12, 2012 - link
Is the reaction time DPC Latency error fixed on the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H-WB-WiFi version or are they just the same motherboard with just a wifi difference?Triniman - Sunday, August 12, 2012 - link
Ian Cutress wrote, "...a total of 10 USB 3.0 ports available (if you have enough USB 3.0 panels)."Does anyone know of any cases that will would allow you to use the 3 onboard USB 3.0 headers?
Also, is it correct that the Gigabyte doesn't include drivers for these VIA controllers?
ETruett - Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - link
Hay. I am wondering if the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Motherboard will fit in the Dell E510 Case? Or which Case can i get? I would like to build a nice gaming pc that whill not break me. I dont have much money. My eMail is: etruett9@gmail.com..... :-))gkatsanos - Monday, November 26, 2012 - link
Hi, It's weird how in any of the reviews there was a word for the problems (bugs) this M/B has. I ordered it a week ago and even if I upgraded my BIOS to the latest version, it still suffers from problems.. I had for example to disable the Marvell sata controller and connect my drive to the intel chipset one for the system to shutdown properly... Other folks have had freezes etc. Google the model + problems and you'll see. I am thinking of changing it with an Intel m/b or something more stable..