GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5TH Review

At the eye of the storm GIGABYTE’s new Thunderbolt ready motherboard is in the spotlight. Featuring Ultra Durable 5, what will this LGA1155 Intel Z77 offering bring?

Product on Review: Z77X-UP5TH
Manufacturer and Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £250inc. VAT (At time of review)

Back in June at Computex 2012 GIGABYTE announced Ultra Durable 5 (UD5) – their next phase of the Ultra Durable standard. Along with this extensive lineup of high-quality components came a new range of motherboards equipped with UD5. This new ‘UP’ range covers the Intel X79 and Intel Z77 chipsets, the Intel Z77 lineup sporting dual 10GBps ThunderBolt ports.

Today we are on hand to deliver a review of the high-end Z77X-UP5TH. This will be the successor to UD5H, equipped with a similar feature-pack but even better – WiFi/BT out of the box, dual Thunderbolt ports, Ultra Durable 5 and visual eye-candy that is so stunning it might even take off the cornea. Stay with us as we thoroughly examine the new Z77X-UP5TH.

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 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
• 2 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
• 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200
• 2 x Thunderbolt ports (MDP1/MDP2) support for Mini-Display Port and Thunderbolt monitors. Supporting a maximum resolution of 2560×1600

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 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

Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
• 1 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 /

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 1 IEEE 1394a ports (1 port on the back panel, 1 port available through the internal IEEE 1394a header)

Thunderbolt
• 2 Thunderbolt ports on the back panel

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
• 3 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 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
• 2 x Thunderbolt ports
• 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
• 5 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-UP5TH is the same as other Z77 motherboards and is very busy. On the front there are various logos to inform as to what this motherboard includes such as – 3D Power/BIOS. Ultra Durable 5, 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 push their 5th generation of Ultra Durable 5 which includes even more features – more on this later!

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

Packaging for Z77X-UP5TH

Inside the box, GIGABYTE have given the Z77X-UP5TH an array 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
• WiFi/BT PCI-E card and Antennas
• Documentation – User manual, multi-lingual guidebook, WiFi/BT guide
• 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. The WiFi/BT card is PCI-E and has accompanying antennas. This card is Bluetooth 4.0 + WiFi ready and is codenamed GC-WB300D which is offers support for Bluetooth and 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi connectivity (up to 300 Mbps).

Lots included with Z77X-UP5TH

GIGABYTE have wowed us with their notorious stealthy matt black motherboards at the launch of Z77 but the new UP range has been given a facelift. The PCB is still matt black and much to our delight the ports and sockets are also still black but the heatsinks and DIMM slots have been redesigned to feature a much more neutral colour-tone of grey. Although I did like the Z77X-UD5H colour scheme the new Z77X-UP5TH is even more satisifying to the eye and will undoubtedly pair up with other devices much better since there is no primary colour featured.

An overview of the Z77X-UP5TH

Over on the next page we will take a closer look at each section of Z77X-UP5TH and reveal it’s feature-set.

Closer Look

The first area that takes our attention is the CPU socket. Being equipped with the Intel Z77 chipset the Z77X-UP5TH uses LGA1155 and has support for Intel’s 2nd and 3rd generation of processors (Sandy and Ivy Bridge). The thermal heatsinks design has been changed for Z77X-UP5TH when comparing to the Z77X-UD5H. Instead we have a much more aesthetically pleasing design that covers more surface area. This heatsink covers the VRMs and 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; 8 CPU phases, 2 for iGPU and another 2 for the memory configuration.

An attractive heatsink covers the MOSFETs

Next on the agenda is the memory. Here there is support for dual channel DDR3 from 1066MHz up to 1600MHz according to GIGABYTE’s website which is surprising as the previous ‘UD’ series had support for higher frequency, maybe this is a typo. Maximum capacity is up to 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/blue) 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 users who have their system inside a computer chassis. GIGABYTE have also included LED debug which merges into the design of the motherboard very well. It’s almost indistinguishable. This LED debug 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.

Also pictured just beside the memory slots and 24-pin ATX power socket is a USB 3.0 header. This header is part of a trio of USB 3.0 which are found on Z77X-UP5TH. Each header provides functionality for two ports.

A plethora of functions around the memory slots

Moving along the motherboard we arrive at the SATA storage ports on Z77X-UP5TH. There is actually less storage ports on Z77X-UP5TH compared to Z77X-UD5H with just six in total rather than eight. The black ports are SATA 2 (3GB/s) whilst the white ports are SATA 3 (6GB/s). Both are supplied via Intel Z77.

Those with an eye for detail will notice there is a strange looking port next to these ports – 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 additional USB 3.0 headers allowing you to 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 (6GB/s) port at the bottom, and as the colour is different to the other white SATA 3 ports this identifies that GSATA3 is supplied by Marvell instead of Intel Z77. Next to this port there is a switch allowing you to swap between the main BIOS and a backup BIOS.

Additional USB 3.0 headers

Behind all these ports is the chip that provides much of the functionality – Intel Z77. This chip is covered with a large heatsink that has been given asthetic excellence. As with the other heatsinks on Z77X-UP5TH; I really like what GIGABYTE have done, just when you couldn’t think it could get better, it does!

The Intel Z77 chip is covered with a smooth heatsink

Closer Look (Continued)

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

Having multiple PCI-E slots – there is NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossfireX support too. Those who do go for a multi-GPU configuration though will have the bandwidth drop to x8 or x4 respectively. PCI-E Gen3 is also supported.

Plenty of options for PCI-E

In the very centre of the 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 generous helping of features and connectivity. From left to right there is:

• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 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
• 1 x RJ-45 ports (Gigabit)
• 2 x Thunderbolt ports
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)

Dual Thunderbolt ports on the rear IO

What is Thunderbolt?

With the new UP range of motherboards from GIGABYTE the significant feature is without doubt dual Thunderbolt support. Many manufacturers, not just GIGABYTE are furnishing their motherboards with this new interface in order to pave the way for new technology and future proofing.

So what exactly is Thunderbolt? Thunderbolt is an interface designed by Intel for connecting peripheral devices to a computer. Those who have used Apple products will be well aware that Apple used Thunderbolt on their MacBook Pro – Intel and Apple actually collaborated in order to bring Thunderbolt to the market.

Taken from Wikipedia

Thunderbolt combines PCI Express and DisplayPort into a serial data interface that can be carried over longer and less costly cables. Thunderbolt driver chips multiplex the data from these two sources for transmission then de-multiplex them for consumption within the devices. This makes the system backward compatible with existing DisplayPort hardware upstream of the driver. A single Thunderbolt port supports hubs as well as a daisy chain of up to seven Thunderbolt devices; up to two of these devices may be displays using DisplayPort.[4] Existing Mini DisplayPort adapters for DVI, dual-link DVI, HDMI, and VGA are compatible with Thunderbolt, allowing backwards compatibility and no loss of functionality compared to Mini DisplayPort.

The interface was originally intended to run exclusively on an optical physical layer using components and flexible optical fiber cabling developed by Intel partners and at Intel’s Silicon Photonics lab. The Intel technology at the time was logically marketed under the name Light Peak, after 2011 referred to as Silicon Photonics Link.[6] However, it was discovered that conventional copper wiring could furnish the desired 10 Gbit/s Thunderbolt bandwidth per channel at lower cost. Optical Thunderbolt cables were introduced in mid April 2012 by Sumitomo.

Ultra Durable 5 – Features

Continuing their series of “Ultra Durable” components and features, GIGABYTE offer Ultra Durable 5 with their latest X79 and Intel Z77 motherboards (‘UP’ Range only). This encompasses the following features:

IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs
IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs feature greater power efficiency and are the highest rated Power Stage in the industry, able to provide up to 60A of power. This ensures the best power delivery to the CPU, for more stable operation and better overclocking performance. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 motherboards also use both IR digital PWM controllers and IR PowIRstage® ICs, for a uniquely seamless power delivery system.

Single Package Design
IR has leveraged its world class packaging technology developed for the DirectFET®, improving the thermal capability and layout of the PowIRstage® significantly over that of other MCM packages.

Driver IC Developed by International Rectifier
IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs feature a specialized MOSFET driver IC which is tuned perfectly for the MOSFET pair. Many Driver MOSFET companies use drivers from other companies, thus the drivers are not always optimized for the MOSFETs. With co-packaged Driver+MOSFETs, IR has designed this driver to optimize this module for greatest efficiency.

Industry Leading Peak Efficiency up to 95%
IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs are more efficient, with peak efficiency up to 95%, during normal operation. Even at higher Current levels, IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs are able to maintain lower power losses. Lower power loss also means less heat as a byproduct.

Cooler Temperatures = Higher Overclocks

High Efficiency = Low Power Loss = Less Heat = Longer Lifespan
IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs remain cooler than other MOSFET designs, allowing users to overclock to greater levels of performance. Each power component has a maximum thermal operational temperature, and once it is reached, adding more voltage will only result in a failed overclock. Since IR3550 PowIRstages® are able to operate at cooler temperatures at higher voltages than traditional designs, overclockers are able to have more headroom to increase voltages, resulting in higher potential overclocks.

High Capacity Ferrite Core Chokes and 2X Copper PCB
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 motherboards feature High Capacity Power Stages and Ferrite Core chokes rated up to 60A with GIGABYTE exclusive 2x Copper PCBs to provide the most stable power delivery.

GIGABYTE’s exclusive 2X Copper PCBs design provides sufficient power trace paths between components to handle greater than normal power loads and to remove heat from the critical CPU power delivery area. This is essential to ensure the motherboard is able to handle the increased power loading that is necessary when overclocking.

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

Test Setup

CPU Intel Core i5 3570K (3.40GHz) Ivy Bridge
Cooling Alpenfohn K2 – Mount Doom
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z77X-UP5TH
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 the system unfortunately locked up. I also tried altering the BLK to 102/3MHz and having the multiplier set to 47 but this resulted in a BSOD. 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 but 4.7GHz required 1.4v, anything lower would just BSOD – the temperatures at full load with these settings, using LinX revealed temperatures of around 80C.

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

Drawing our thoughts to a close then, what is the overall verdict on Z77X-UP5TH?

Well it’s certainly very similar in performance to its sibling (or even successor) the Z77X-UD5H which likewise offers strong results in a range of different arenas. Overclocking is easy and very fruitful – doing so boosts performance significantly in different areas of usage. Against other rivals the Z77X-UP5TH proved a worthy contender for the Z77 crown.

The differences come with the aesthetics. Whilst the Z77X-UD5H was very pleasing to the eye it was vibrant and quite gaudy but the Z77X-UP5TH is much more subtle. It’s difficult to imagine aesthetics getting any better but they do. Z77X-UP5TH is an aesthetic masterpiece, we love it!

Though I’m not a huge fan of the BIOS, using it to overclock was very easy. Z77X-UP5TH 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.

Priced at £250 the Z77X-UP5TH is a costly investment ramping up almost an extra £100 compared to Z77X-UD5H. Compared to its predecessor you get one less gigabit LAN port and absent are the stack of Marvell SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports but instead this motherboard is equipped with dual Thunderbolt ports which may not be mainstream now, but it won’t be long before they are, so in this aspect Z77X-UD5TH is a good route to future-proof. Ultra Durable 5 and its strong lineup of features are also included with the “UP” range of motherboards and understandably this carries with it some of the increase in cost too along with the included WiFi/BT card.

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). Aesthetically this motherboard is very pleasing to the eye, it would be nice to see the BIOS interface correspond to this.

VIDEO REVIEW – VORTEZ TV

Z77X-UP5TH is an aesthetic masterpiece and a very impressive motherboard. It will satisfy those seeking high-end performance with Intel Z77 and has the added bonus of being future-proofed with dual Thunderbolt ports. The quality is brilliant, the feature-set is extensive and the overclocking is great can you tell why we are impressed?

Pros
+ Visually stunning
+ Top performance
+ Overclocks well
+ mSATA functionality
+ Additional USB 3.0 headers
+ Ultra Durable 5 ready
+ Dual Thunderbolt ready
+ WiFi/BT ready

Cons
– Quite a bump in price to Z77X-UD5H
– 3D BIOS could do with a refresh