First Look: Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH - A Real Bargain @ US$249, comes with dual Thunderbolt

[siopao1984]

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Back during the initial Ivy Bridge platform launch some months ago, Gigabyte rolled out their initial wave of Z77X and Sniper3 motherboards, with very aggressive pricing coupled with comprehensive feature sets earning them considerable market share among DIY system builders and enthusiasts. Gigabyte then followed up at Computex with a new UP range of boards featuring their upgraded "Ultra Durable 5" set of technologies and (belated) native Thunderbolt support. Today we look at the Z77X-UP5 TH, which is a middle of the road offering positioned just below the 32-phase UP7 monstrousity that we saw during Computex.

The box of the motherboard is adorned with logos and marketing messages, designed to inform prospective buyers of what they will be getting. One of the exciting new features on Ultra Durable 5 boards is the use of Glass Fabric PCB, purportedly offering some measure of humidity protection which should please subzero users facing condensation issues.

Usual set of documentation and accessories. Only 1 SLi bridge was included as Nvidia does not allow the use of x4 slots (Ivy Bridge can do x8+x8 or x8+x4+x4 multi-GPU) for SLi without an additional lane multiplexer.

A PCIe x1 expansion card containing a dual antenna Atheros 802.11 abgn + BT Module is provided for modern wireless connectivity.

Read more: First Look: Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH - A Real Bargain @ US$249, comes with dual Thunderbolt by VR-Zone.com

[siopao1984]

Here at the I/O panel, we see that Gigabyte have made some interesting and profound choices. Display wise we get legacy analog/DVI as well as a HDMI connector, although the dual Thunderbolt ports can carry DisplayPort signals from the IGP too. Six USB ports are present (four of them USB 3.0), and is joined by a single eSATA and Gigabit Ethernet interface. Finally there are audio jacks for the onboard 7.1 channel sound system.



Gigabyte is the first motherboard vendor to integrate the Intel DSL3510L Cactus Ridge 4C host router, which offers two instead of one Thunderbolt port that we see on early offerings from ASUS and MSI.





The common trend on Z77 motherboards nowadays is to use the Intel 82579V PHY, considered by many to be streets ahead of junk from Realtek and Marvell.





Yet another common appearance is Realtek's ALC898 audio codec, which depending on electrical implementation can sound borderline acceptable or great.





A VIA VL810 USB 3.0 hub is used to split the bandwidth of one upstream port (presumably of the native Z77 PCH) to four downstream ports.





At the other end of the board we see six SATA ports (white ones are 6Gb/s) serviced by the Z77 PCH, although one of the 3Gb/s ports will be disabled when the mSATA port is in use.







To provide for eSATA at the I/O panel and one more grey SATA port at the bottom of the board, a Marvell 88SE9172 controller is used.





Slots layout on the Z77X-UP5 TH is fairly typical, with three PCIe x16 slots augmented by three PCIe x1 slots and a single legacy PCI slot. One area of concern is the positioning of the headers for the system casing, which will not go down well if a graphics card is installed in the last x16 slot.





There is even a VIA VT6308P Firewire host controller to provide IEEE1394 support, which should please fans of the increasingly decadent standard.





A PLX PEX8505 switch is used provide enough lanes for the large number of controllers used on the motherboard.





When we look behind the board, we confirm that the three PCIe x16 slots are electrically capable of up to x16, x8 and x4. The back of the CPU socket area is free of any I/Cs or soldering, which is a good thing to prevent any accidental shorts when installing heatsink retention brackets. One fact that we should commend Gigabyte for is that the PCB felt exceptionally thick, and it doesn't warp like other boards.

[siopao1984]

In this section we will explore the area around the Foxconn CPU socket.



A long heatpipe is used to link the heatsinks of the PCH and VRMs together, although we would have preferred them to be separate as the Z77 PCH only has a relatively small TDP of 6.7W.







A sensible 12-phase design is used for CPU power regulation, featuring Ferrite Core Chokes that we usually see on higher end motherboard offerings.





The new International Rectifer IR3550M DrMOS, rated at 60A each in a space saving form factor, is touted to have less electrical leakage over traditional MOSFET implementations thus attaining higher efficiencies and output.







Formerly CHiL's, the IR3563A is a digital PWM that controls up to six power phases at high 1MHz+ switching frequencies.





Down at the memory slots, we see sensibly placed buttons for Power/Reset/Clear CMOS and the inclusion of a PORT-80 diagnostic LED. Voltage probe points for the common overclocking parameters are available as well, although a bit tiny for the average multi-meter probe.





Stay tuned for our full review of the Z77X-UP5 TH!

[ryan101@yahoo.com]

wow ka nindot jud ane na board dili ta ka afford ane.

[Fafnir]

10k ang price sa us, inig abot sa ato +4k hahah. curse you customs!

[godsendxy]

kanus a man ni maavailable sa pinas?