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We received an email today from an industry source who claimed that the Gigabyte Z77X-US5H had V-Core problems. The claims were made that this would hinder overclocking and perhaps even potentially reduce reliability long term.
We had no problems getting the board to 4.8ghz with a £20 cooler when we reviewed it, however we wanted to poke into this a bit further.
We received some pictures showing pictures of various Z77 boards from Asrock, MSI, Asus and Gigabyte.
It would appear that all other boards have populated the rear of the CPU socket with capacitors.
We spoke to an engineer in the Far East who wanted to remain nameless, but he made a comment.
He said “Those chips are 22uF capacitors (MLCC package) that used to follow Intel load line (spec of CPU voltage and current).
Those are most populated on back and front side of central CPU SKT. The quantity of capacitors would depend on each board maker’s design but the less quantity of Capacitors would impact some item as below:
1) Impact the stability of CPU under high loading (overclocking).
2) Impact the voltage recovery speed while CPU needs huge power (Vdroop feature).
3) CPU compatibility.
Component spec: CAP MLCC,22uF,6.3V,X5R,0805,20%,1.25mm.”
We called Gigabyte today and explained the rumours and concerns. They wanted to liase with their engineering team and replied after a few hours, sending us the following statement.
- The Vcore chip mentioned are actually ceramic capacitors.
- Our boards have an advanced power design that includes an industry-leading digital PWM and a 2x copper PCB that is exclusive to Gigabyte. None of our competitors use the same designs and technology. We have no idea what the capacitor ratings are on competitor boards and don’t wish to comment as that would be unprofessional, but it seems that they possibly need additional capacitors on the underside of their board designs and according to our testing and validation processes, Gigabyte do not.
- We are possibly being attacked by our competitors with pictures that are essentially meaningless. Other than showing these pictures, they haven’t so much as indicated what possible problem there might be or produced stats to prove there is a performance issue with the product.
- We are completely confident in our design and back it up with a comprehensive warranty on all our boards.
- Third party media reviewers have looked at the product and given it top marks for performance and design these media do not work for Gigabyte and are independent, we feel these reviews reflect our commitment to product quality and speak volume in regard to the Z77X-UD5H itself.
Gigabyte seem confident in the design of their board and the reviews so far seem positive, from sites such as eTeknix, Tech Radar, Bit Tech, Overclock3D and Kitguru.
Kitguru says: Gigabyte have addressed the rumours.
No source to the place that seemed to have found the issue first?
http://www.eteknix.com/news/gigabyte-claim-that-missing-capacitors-cause-no-issue/
Actually that wasn’t the source – perhaps the original source also emailed Andy at eteknix?. our source was an industry source as explained in the article – the word has been spreading all day (we were emailed last night about it). eTeknix were mentioned as handling one of the reviews for Gigabyte. Did you actually read it ? Gigabyte seem to have issued the same statement to multiple sources as this is circulating in the industry.
We did chat with an engineer today as shown in the middle of the article, to explain the concerns. This is why we posted later as we wanted as many facts as possible.
It looks bad to me, the engineer response seems logical. all boards seem to have them. do gigabyte say where they have put the capacitors that are normally there?
Frank have you even read the story?!? Seems to me that Gigabyte have addressed the issue by explaining they use a different solution… Looking at the the reviews on this board Gigabyte seems to have a good product and their competition are just slinging mud…
yeah I read it, but you mean they are doing something better that no one else does? even if its outside Intel specs? they haven’t really said why its ok. seems like a fob off to me.
Its interesting. Kitguru spoke to an engineer and he said it could affect overclocking, but kitguru tested it and it didnt’
I dont see the big deal, unless im missing something key long term or something else.
I bet the source was MSI or Asus. had to be 🙂 it looks bad to me tbh, but if the board is tested and its running well it looks like a lot of smoke.
If its an intel set guideline and the removal of them could cause issues it might be a problem, but why are they the only one to remove them from there? maybe they have a better way to do it?
It means gigabyte is not professional. I have two friends in brazil who had their motherboards died (gigabyte) until 3 years. I particulary dont use gigabyte. I’d like to buy some gigabyte mobo, but i’m afraid to do that due to bad rumours about that and few pins… and ig you guys remember, gigabyte had cheated us about their first usb 3.0. did u remember? for me this company is unreliable. i have an intel mobo, but i’m planing to buy another to biuld my pc. i’m really getting crazy to decide each ones…