GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi Review

GIGABYTE’s flagship Intel Z77 motherboard is in the spotlight – GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WIFI. Is this the best Intel Ivy Bridge ready motherboard to date?

Product on Review: Z77X-UD5H WiFi
Manufacturer and Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £170inc. VAT (At time of review)

It was back in January 2011 when GIGABYTE first introduced their wave of black motherboards. Enthusiasts rejoiced; finally those ghastly, garish colours had been moved aside for a fresh design. It’s fair to say that aesthetics are an important decider in the buyer’s mind; of course all the other aspects such as features, performance and functionality all play their role but if something looks ugly the consumer will simply not buy it.

With Intel’s Z77 chipset, GIGABYTE are now onto their 3rd design rendition with a fresh lineup of products that are very pleasing to the eye. Today we shall be taking a look at the Z77X-UD5H WiFi; GIGABYTE’s high-end enthusiast motherboard featuring a PCI-E WiFi card for Bluetooth and Wireless functionality.

We know the looks are all there but can GIGABYTE rival competitor’s offerings in the Z77 onslaught? Let’s find out!

GIGABYTE on 7 Series motherboards

GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards combine a host of new and exciting technologies with the latest Intel Z77 Express Chipset, creating a unique range of motherboard designs that harness the outstanding performance of the new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors. With an exclusive ‘Digital’ VRM design, GIGABYTE 3D Power and GIGABYTE 3D BIOS (Dual UEFI), GIGABYTE 7 series motherboards ensure exceptional power delivery and absolute control, with additional features that ensure an unrivalled experience on your next PC build.

Technical Specifications

CPU
• Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package
• L3 cache varies with CPU

Chipset
• Intel® Z77 Express Chipset

Memory
• 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Support for DDR3 2400(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
• Support for non-ECC memory modules
• Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

Onboard Graphics Chipset
• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
• 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
• 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600p

Audio
• Realtek ALC898 codec
• Support for X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity® and EAX® Advanced HD™ 5.0 technologies
• High Definition Audio
• 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
• Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN
• 1 x Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)
• 1 x Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)

Expansion Slots
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
• 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
• 1 x PCI slot

Multi-Graphics Technology
• Support for AMD CrossFireX™ / NVIDIA SLI technology

Storage Interface Chipset
• 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
• 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
• 1 x mSATA connector
• Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10

2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
• 3 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6/7/8) supporting up to 3 SATA 6Gb/s devices
• 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
• Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1

USB Chipset
• Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB headers)
• Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset + 2 VIA VL810 Hubs
• Up to 8 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

IEEE 1394 VIA VT6308 chip
• Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal IEEE 1394a header)

Internal I/O Connectors
• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 1 x PCIe power connector
• 5 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
• 1 x mSATA connector
• 1 x CPU fan header
• 4 x system fan headers
• 1 x front panel header
• 1 x front panel audio header
• 1 x S/PDIF Out header
• 3 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
• 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
• 1 x power button
• 1 x reset button
• 1 x Clear CMOS button
• 1 x heatsink LED power connector
• 1 x BIOS Switch
• Voltage Measurement Points

Back Panel Connectors
• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector
• 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.0 ports
• 1 x IEEE 1394a port
• 2 x RJ-45 ports
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)

I/O Controller
• iTE I/O Controller Chip

H/W Monitoring
• System voltage detection
• CPU/System temperature detection
• CPU/System fan speed detection
• CPU overheating warning
• CPU/System fan fail warning
• CPU/System fan speed control

BIOS
• 2 x 64 Mbit flash
• Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS
• Support for DualBIOS™
• PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a

Unique Features
• Support for @BIOS
• Support for Q-Flash
• Support for Xpress Install
• Support for Xpress Recovery2
• Support for EasyTune
• Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)
• Support for Auto Green
• Support for ON/OFF Charge
• Support for Q-Share
• Support for 3D Power
• Support for EZ Setup
• Support for LAN Optimizer (Intelligent optimization network management tool)

Bundle Software
• Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
• Intel® Rapid Start Technology
• Intel® Smart Connect Technology
• Intel® Smart Response Technology
• LucidLogix Virtu MVP

Operating System
• Support for Microsoft® Windows 7/XP

Form Factor
• ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

Packaging & First Look

The packaging for Z77X-UD5H WiFi is very busy. On the front there are various logos to signify this motherboards makeup, including – 3D Power/BIOS. Ultra Durable 4, PCI-E Gen3, NVIDIA SLI. There are Intel logos printed on the front also to notify users that this motherboard supports Intel’s 3rd generation of CPUs (Ivy Bridge).

GIGABYTE are keen to show that this motherboard incorporates glass fabric PCB for humidity protection.

On the back of the box, all of the features are broken down and given further explanation.

Packaging for Z77X-UD5H WiFi

Inside the box, GIGABYTE have given the Z77X-UD5H WiFi an assortment of items which consist of the following:

• 4x SATA cables (2x6GB/s 2x3GB/s)
• NVIDIA SLI bridge (flexible)
• Rear IO shield
• Front panel USB 3.0 adapter
• Documentation – User manual and multi-lingual guidebook
• Software CD
• GIGABYTE sticker

The Front panel USB 3.0 adapter is 3.5” and provides an additional 2x USB 3.0 ports but requires the internal motherboard header for such delivery.

Bundled accessories with Z77X-UD5H WiFi

Of course, being the WiFi edition of the UD5H, GIGABYTE have bundled a WiFi card with this motherboard. The exact model is: GC-WB300D. This provides up to 300Mbps dual band WiFi plus Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. The card is PCI-E and has support for 802.11 a/b/g/n. Antennas are provided and simply screw into the back.

GC-WB300D – WiFi/Bluetooth PCI-E card

Although GIGABYTE have continued with the delights of the matt black PCB, they have chosen to add some colour to their wave of Z77 motherboards and even more so with UD5H. If awards were given out just for visual appearance this motherboard would take the crown. Aesthetically GIGABYTE have created a master-piece in the UD5H.

There are two versions of the UD5H – one with WiFi and one without. This WiFi version comes with a Bluetooth 4.0 + WiFi codenamed GC-WB300D which is a PCI-E card offering support for Bluetooth and 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi connectivity (up to 300 Mbps).

An overview of the Z77X-UD5H WiFi

Over on the next page we will take a closer look at all of the vital areas of Z77X-UD5H WiFi.

Closer Look

The first area to focus on is the CPU socket. Being laden with the Intel Z77 chipset the UD5H is LGA1155 and has support for Intel’s 2nd and 3rd generation of processors (Sandy and Ivy Bridge). The thermal heatsink design is interesting; for the VRMs it consists of two large aluminium heatsinks with a single heatpipe that runs directly to the heatsink covering the Intel Z77 chip.

Behind the heatsinks is an 8-pin EPS/CPU power socket. Those with a desire for the finer specifications should know that this board has a digital phase power design; the CPU having: 12+2+1, PCH: 1 and memory: 2.

An eye-catching heatsink design covering MOSFETs

Next on the agenda is the memory. Here there is support for dual channel DDR3 from 1066MHz up to 2400MHz (OC) and a maximum capacity of 32GB. There is also support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP).

The memory region also contains some interesting features. In the corner GIGABYTE have mounted a large power button along with smaller reset button (green) and a reset CMOS (black). These controls are only really useable if you have the system on a test bench, ideally I would have liked to see the reset CMOS towards the back of the motherboard; on the rear IO section for example, as at least here its accessible for the vast majority of folk who have their system inside a computer chassis. GIGABYTE have also included LED debug – which allows the user to identify problems on POST. This is a useful feature and a good choice to include. Beneath this there are voltage check-in points for the more advanced users.

A plethora of functions around the memory slots

Moving along the motherboard UD5H has a variety of SATA storage ports covering SATA 2 and SATA 3. The 4x black ports are SATA 2; the 2x white ports are SATA 3 (via Intel Z77) and the 2x grey ports are SATA 3 (via Marvell 88SE9172).

Those with an eye for detail will notice there is a strange looking port next to the HDD storage – this is a PCI-E power connector and it provides auxiliary power to the PCI-E x16 slots. If a user is going down the multi-GPU route and adding more than one graphics card it’s recommended to take advantage of this power to sustain and stabilise overall power. Simply attach a SATA power cable from the PSU to this port. This is a handy feature to have and it doesn’t take up unnecessary space.

SATA storage ports and auxiliary PCI-E power support

At the bottom of the motherboard there are a number of USB 3.0 headers meaning that you can populate the front of your computer chassis with the provided adapter and use your computer cases’ USB 3.0 ports too. GIGABYTE have put another SATA 3 port at the bottom, and as the colour signifies this is delivered via Marvell.

The large heatsink in the very middle of the picture below shows the gigantic thermal solution for Intel’s Z77 chip. Although this heatsink covers a large area its actually fairly short because it needs to be due to graphics card clearance.

The largest Z77 heatsink ever seen

Turning our attention to the PCI-E slots there are numerous options here to satisfy all users. Available in this area are:

• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
• 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
• 1 x PCI slot

Those who do go for a multi-GPU configuration will have the bandwidth drop to x8 or x4 respectively.

Plenty of options for PCI-E

Some of you may have already noticed the mSATA feature on this motherboard – GIGABYTE have integrated a connector for mSATA (Solid State Drive). This is controlled by Intel Z77 and allows for SATA 3GB/s mSATA drives to be connected.

Integrated mSATA support

Finally onto the rear IO ports. Again, here there are a pleasant assortment of features and connectivity. From left to right there is:

• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector
• 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.0 ports
• 1 x IEEE 1394a port
• 2 x RJ-45 ports
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)

Plenty of options at the rear IO

Ultra Durable 4 – Features

Continuing their series of “Ultra Durable” components and features, GIGABYTE offer Ultra Durable 4 with their Intel Z77 motherboards. This encompasses the following feartures:

Humidity Protection

Those in certain climates will have to deal with humidity on a daily basis. As a result this can damage components and cause electrical shorts. GIGABYTE have implemented a Glass Fabric PCB which is designed to combat this problem, by using this material there are less gaps between the spaces on the PCB filaments and this in-turn prevents humidity causing problems.

Electrostatic Protection

The next feature is Electostatic Protection. GIGABYTE have armed their Z77 motherboards with High Resistance ICs. Put simply, these help protect against electrostatic discharge!

Power Failure Protection

On GIGABYTE Intel Z77 motherboards, GIGABYTE have implemented dual BIOS so that even if there is a power surge or another type of fault – the secondary BIOS is used and avoids having a complete system shutdown. Anti-surge ICs have also been included to prevent power surges from taking place.

High Temperature Protection

The last feature concerns high temperatures. There are solid CAPs used throughout GIGABYTE’s Z77 motherboards and low RDS(on) MOSFETs work well with high-temperatures. This provides added high-temperature protection and up to 50K hours of component lifespan.

GIGABYTE 3D BIOS

At the tail-end of last year (2011) GIGABYTE displayed their new 3D BIOS. GIGABYTE were late to the UEFI party this 3D BIOS hopes to satisfy GIGABYTE fans who thought they were missing out.

For those who want to see a working version of this BIOS, check out GIGABYTE’s video tour of 3D BIOS below:

GIGABYTE 3D BIOS have two different modes which you can switch between. The first mode is below with an illustration of the BIOS which requires you to move your mouse over various parts to get more info and tweak settings.

The second mode is what most will be familiar with. In this mode you can alter various settings and there is a great BIOS update tool for flashing to the latest version as well as a feature that allows you to screenshot (these images were taken using this feature) to a USB stick.

I’ll be honest with you, after using other vendor’s BIOS and then coming to 3D BIOS I was a little underwhelmed. The illustration of the motherboard in the first mode feels like a gimmick. Moving into the second mode the navigation has been improved I am pleased to report. This is the 3rd Z77 motherboard I have reviewed and navigation on those previous motherboards was certainly different.

Lucid Virtu MVP

An interesting feature that first appeared on the desktop environment with the Sandy Bridge architecture was the integrated graphics on the CPU. This meant that regardless of if you had a discreet graphics solution you always had the ability to use “Built in” processing power to watch movies, view 3D content and take part in some casual gaming.

With Ivy Bridge, Intel have stepped up with new graphics architecture by delivering full DX11 functionality. With HD-4000 there is a significant increase in execution units which mean even greater performance enhancements when compared to HD 2000/3000 – found on Sandy Bridge CPUs. To the end user this should translate to being able to handle 1080p movies, more complex gaming titles and even more intense 3D renders.

This motherboard has HDMI/VGA/DVI ports to allow connectivity to Intel’s IGP with support via Lucid VIRTU MVP. What VIRTU does is – it allows the user to utilise both discrete GPU and Intel’s IGP (built in graphics on the CPU) without the need to change hardware or switch the outputs.

VIRTU brings in many unique features, a great deal of them are associated with power management – relating to heat, fan speed, and other useful elements. There are two different modes to use when considering VIRTU:

i-Mode
This provides the user with Intel features and power saving options when not being used for 3D gaming. Display must be connected to video output on the motherboard to use this feature.

d-Mode
This mode allows gamers to enhance their 3D experience and performance – combining a discrete graphics solution and the iGPU. In this mode we can use VIRTU to assist with things like transcoding and media encoding in general. The overriding thought on this is that even entry level AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards have their own technologies for handling media encoding such as AMD Stream and NVIDIA CUDA – both of these technologies are deemed as being exceptional alternatives and don’t offer any real advantage over VIRTU using IGP for these types of task.

Display drivers for discreet graphics card must be installed prior to VIRTU drivers.

For more information on VIRTU please go to: Lucidlogix Virtu MVP

Test Setup & Overclocking

CPUs Intel Core i5 3570K (3.40GHz) Ivy Bridge
Cooling Alpenfohn K2 – Mount Doom
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H WiFi
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz CL11 DDR
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

Benchmarks

Cinebench 11.5 – CPU Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2012 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
3DMark 11 – DX11 3D Performance and Extreme preset
Games – DIRT 3, Skyrim and Battlefield 3

Other Software
Core Temp
LinX stress Test
CPU-Z

Overclocking

As previously mentioned in our Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge Roundup – overclocking with Ivy Bridge is identical to Sandy Bridge. It is achieved by altering the multiplier rather than the BCLK. So the BCLK stays at 100MHz and the multiplier is modified. So if we have 100MHz on the BCLK and 40 for the multiplier this will obviously output 4GHz.

For this section of the review the maximum overclock was achieved by using the Intel Core i5 3750K and monolith CPU cooler – Alpenfohn K2 with 2x 120mm and 1x 140mm fans. We’ve seen in previous reviews how the 3570K usually responds well to a vcore of 1.40v so instead of starting at a lower frequency I pushed the Z77X-UD5H WiFi to establish the best results. 4.8GHz is the best overclock we have had with this chip and to make things realistic we never push the 3570K beyond 1.40v since this will reduce the longevity of the chip. With 48 (4.8GHz) and 1.40v the system would POST but on entry into Windows certain processes would fail, indicating instability. So against my better nature I pushed the vcore up to 1.42v in an attempt to reach the milestone but this did not alter anything. So I then nudged the frequency back to 47 (4.7GHz) and this booted no problem and was stable after a thorough test using LinX. So establishing that 4.7GHz was possible I then began nudging the voltage back until I hit a brick wall at 1.38v – the temperatures at full load with these settings, using LinX revealed temperatures of around 73-78C.

This maximum overclock will be used throughout our benchmarks – as well as stock 3570K frequency with turbo boost enabled.

Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using P67 and Z68 chipsets, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark 11 – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Benchmarks: X264 HD

Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.

x264 HD gives results for 2 passes when compressing an MPEG-2 clip into x264. It presents 4 separate results for each pass giving a total of 8 – all results are given in FPS. For each pass I have averaged out the results.

Benchmarks: AIDA64

Get your copy of AIDA64 here!

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.

Benchmarks: Cinebench

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2012

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.

Benchmarks: 3DMARK 11

Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

3DMark 11 is a very popular 3D performance benchmark suite and needs little introduction. For the test settings both Performance and Extreme presets are run with ‘benchmark only’ being selected. This provides good analysis. Many will only test the performance preset, using the extreme mode we can examine the board under much more severe stressing – at 720p and 1080p.

Benchmarks: DIRT 3, Skyrim & Battlefield 3

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.

Settings
DIRT 3
– 1680×1050 4xMSAA – Ultra Quality *Benchmark tool*
Skyrim
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Very High Quality *FRAPS – 1st episode*
Battlefield 3
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Ultra Quality *FRAPS – Sepur Fedelis*

The gaming titles selected demand GPU power over CPU power – in each test the difference is rather marginal.

Conclusion

In our venture with the Intel Z77 motherboards we have taken a look at quite a selection of motherboards since launch. We’ve already sampled two GIGABYTE offerings and now we come to the third. The Z77X-UD5H has been one that I have personally been keen to take a look at and I know many of our readers have been intrigued as to know our thoughts on it.

Gone are the days when aesthetics were of no importance. GIGABYTE have paid careful attention with how Z77X-UD5H is presented; a matt black PCB with black connectors, ports, lanes and an aggressive looking heatsink design that has been given a striking blue colour to capture the eye. Z77X-UD5H is a sight for sore eyes, of that there can be no mistake but how does this motherboard perform? What are the features like?

Visual appearance is important with computer kit nowadays but performance and features are paramount. This motherboard performed well in our benchmark tests, it demonstrated its verstiility against other flagships from popular brands and overclocking revealed a significant boost over stock performance.

Though I’m not a huge fan of the BIOS, using it to overclock was very easy. Z77X-UD5H managed to reach a 4.7GHz overclock with our Intel Core i5-3570K. This achievement was just short of our best overclock with the Intel Z77 chipset – 4.8GHz.

Pricing for Z77X-UD5H (WiFi) means this motherboard sits around the £170 mark. Whilst the non-WiFi version is priced more competitively at £150. Rival flagships are priced around the £150 mark and so the WiFi version of this motherboard pushes it above the threshold. It all depends on whether or not having the wireless functionality is a necessity. In terms of value for money you are getting a fantastic offering in the Z77X-UD5H because you are getting supplementary features like additional USB 3.0 headers, mSATA and dual gigabit LAN ports.

Having used previous versions of GIGABYTE’s BIOS and being unhappy with performance it’s pleasing to see that improvements have been made. Movement and navigation is now fluid and getting the intended task performed is much easier. I’m still not a fan of the 3D BIOS though and I would rather GIGABYTE redesign their UEFI (Advanced Mode) – putting effort into making this arena look as good as the board does.

Z77X-UD5H has every conceivable feature for those wanting mid-high end performance with Intel Z77. At stock there is decent performance to be had and overclocking only helps to enhance this. This motherboard is simply one of the best looking offerings out there and I am happy to give Z77X-UD5H WiFi our Gold award.

Pros
+ Visually stunning
+ Top performance
+ Overclocks well
+ mSATA functionality
+ Additional USB 3.0 headers
+ Ultra Durable 4 feature-set

Cons
– Of the most costly flagships
– 3D BIOS could do with a refresh