Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH: Packaging and Bundle3. Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH: Layout and Features4. Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH: BIOS and Overclocking5. Testing Methodology6. Synthetic: 3DMark 117. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage8. Synthetic: PCMark 79. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven Benchmark10. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra 201211. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.512. Synthetic: Super Pi13. Synthetic: CrystalDiskMark14. Real World: Media Encoding15. Real World: MKV Playback16. Gaming: DiRT 317. Gaming: Grand Theft Auto 4 EFLC18. Technical: Power Consumption19. Closing Thoughts20. View All Pages

Last month we saw some of Gigabyte's upcoming Z77 motherboards at Computex which feature their latest Ultra Durable 5 technology.  We have been very impressed by all the existing Gigabyte Z77 motherboards we've tested so we are quite excited to see what the new range has to offer.

Today we are going to look at the Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH which is aimed at the mainstream market.  It boasts an impressive feature set which includes dual thunderbolt connectors and Gigabyte's latest Ultra Durable 5 technology.  The ‘P' in the model number tells us that it features the Ultra Durable 5 technology which differs from the ‘D' used for Ultra Durable 4.

Other interesting features include a full complement of USB 3.0 ports, PCI Express 3.0 and various overclocking technologies that should let us squeeze a lot more power out of the i7-3770K that we'll be using for testing today.

Features

• Supports Intel 3rd Generation CPU's – Socket 1155
• Ultra Durable 5 – Super high rated Ferrite Core Chokes (60A). 2x Copper PCB and IR3550 IC's in the CPU power zone for the coolest temperatures ever.
• Lucid Virtu MVP – Producing faster frame rates, with sharper visuals and reduced tearing.
• nVidia SLI and AMD CrossfireX – For multi display or ultimate performance gaming.
• UEFI DualBIOS – A superior graphical BIOS interface, based on the trusted and secure GIGABYTE Dual BIOS technology.
• Onboard mSATA Connector – Mount a low capacity mSATA SSD onto your motherboard to take advantage of INTEL SRT and RAPID START.
• USB 3x Power Boost – Delivering greater device compatibility and faster charge times
• Super Speed USB3.0 – Super fast transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps, 10x faster than USB2.0
• Super SATA3 Native Support – Supporting super fast 6 Gbps link speeds
• PCIe GEN 3 – Designed to take full advantage of the next generation high bandwidth graphic card solutions
• ON/OFF Charge Technology – Allows you to charge your iPad, iPHone, or iPod even if your PC is off
• Dual Thunderbolt – Dasiy chain up to 12 devices + 2 display monitors and transfer 1 TB of data in just 5 minutes!

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