Gigabyte always bring its solid build quality motherboards in the market and they are famous because of their overclockability as well.We take a look at two of Gigabyte's first Intel Z77 motherboards featuring Thunderbolt connectors.Z77X-UP5 TH include dual Thunderbolt ports for support of up to twelve compatible devices and three monitors. Paired with Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 5 premium and you're looking at two boards for the performance enthusiast on top of the latest technologies. To enhance the value, the Z77X-UP5 TH also comes with a USB 3.0 module that offers additional ports via 3.5" drive bay as well as a bonus WiFi/Bluetooth wireless module kit.Gigabyte’s exclusive feature for today’s round-up is a dual-port Thunderbolt controller, which also supports two monitors as long as the DVI-D connector is empty. Of course, it also supports two chains of storage devices or whatever else affluent enthusiasts connect to the PCI Express-based external interface. Anyone who would rather hold off on $40 cables might be just as happy with the Z77X-UP5 TH’s selection of four back-panel USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DVI, and VGA outputs.The box of the motherboard is adorned with logos and marketing messages with the objective of informing 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 to offer some measure of humidity protection which should please subzero users facing the bane of condensation.Gigabyte have made some interesting choices here at the I/O panel. Display wise we get legacy analog VGA (seriously who uses this in 2012), DVI-D 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 are accompanied by a single eSATA and Gigabit Ethernet. Finally there are audio jacks for the onboard 7.1 channel sound system.Gigabyte certainly didn’t want to give up any bandwidth for discrete graphics cards, though we probably would have tolerated an 8732 bridge in exchange for more PCIe performance elsewhere. As it is, anyone who wants to populate the bottom x16 slot will find that doing so knocks the board into x8/x4/x4 mode. Don't even bother if you're trying to upgrade a machine with a Sandy Bridge-based CPU; you need an Ivy Bridge-based chip to support that kind of lane division.With those limitations in mind, PLX Technology's 8732 PCI Express switch looks like it would have been a better move for Gigabyte. And using it would have given the company's designers a lot more flexibility in choosing PCIe x1-based features.The Z77X-UP5 TH’s layout is good overall, with one of its two USB 3.0 internal headers found above the top graphics card slot where it won’t block anything.Slot layout on the Z77X-UP5 TH is fairly straightforward, 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 be a crisis of epic proportions if a graphics card is installed in the last x16 slot.
The top and middle PCIe x16 slots are also separated by three spaces to assist GPU cooling, and the Port 80 diagnostics display is located by the memory slots where it can’t get blocked by a processor or graphics card heat sink.On the other hand, the second USB 3.0 internal header is found below the bottom graphics slot, and using it would prevent the insertion of most performance-oriented graphics cards. A SATA 6Gb/s connector placed along the bottom edge seems even more wasteful in light of the fact that mSATA is shared with one of the more conveniently-located forward-facing ports.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 exposed I/Cs or soldering, which is a good thing to prevent any accidental shorts when installing heatsink retention brackets. One other thing we noted was that the PCB felt exceptionally thick, and it doesn't warp easily like most other boards.
Tech Specification:
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
(Some Intel® Core™ processors require a graphic card, please refer "CPU support List" for more information.)
Chipset
Intel® Z77 Express Chipset
Memory
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
* Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2800(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
(Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.)
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
Onboard Graphics
Integrated Graphics Processor:
1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
* Simultaneous output for DVI-D and the MDP2 Thunderbolt port is not supported.
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
Intel DSL3510L chip:
2 Thunderbolt ports (MDP1/MDP2) support for Mini-DisplayPort and Thunderbolt monitor(s), and supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600.
* When a monitor connected to the DVI-D port, the MDP2 Thunderbolt port can support Thunderbolt storage device(s) only.
* Due to PC architecture I/O resources limitation, the amount of the Thunderbolt devices can be used is dependent on the quantity of PCI Express and PCI devices be installed. (Refer to Chapter 1-7, "Back Panel Connectors", and Chapter 2, "Peripherals\Intel(R) Thunderbolt" for more information.)
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 In/Out
LAN
1 x Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Wireless Communication module
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Supports 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
Bluetooth 4.0, 3.0+HS, 2.1+EDR
Expansion Slots
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
* The PCIEX4 slot is available only when an Intel 22nm (Ivy Bridge) CPU is installed.
* The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX8 and PCIEX16 slots. When the PCIEX4 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 will operate at up to x4 mode.
(The PCIEX16, PCIEX8, and PCIEX4 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
* Whether PCI Express 3.0 is supported depends on CPU and graphics card compatibility.
3 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
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
* The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected.
Marvell 88SE9172 chip:
1 x SATA 6Gb/s connector (GSATA3 8) supporting up to 1 SATA 6Gb/s device
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 USB 3.0 Hubs:
Up to 8 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
* In Windows XP, the Intel USB 3.0 ports and VIA USB 3.0 HUB can support up to USB 2.0 transfer speed.
* Due to a Windows 7 limitation, please connect your USB device(s) to the USB 2.0/1.1 port(s) before the Intel USB 3.0 controller driver is installed.
IEEE 1394
VIA VT6308 chip:
Up to 1 IEEE 1394a port (available through the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Thunderbolt
Intel DSL3510L chip:
2 Thunderbolt ports on the back panel
Intel® Certified Thunderbolt™ Device
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
1 x S/PDIF In header
3 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x IEEE 1394a port
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 button
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 RJ-45 port
5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
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
* Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.
Unique Features
Support for @BIOS
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress Install
Support for Xpress Recovery2
Support for EasyTune
* Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
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
Bundle Software
Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
Intel® Rapid Start Technology
Intel® Smart Connect Technology
Intel® Smart Response Technology
LucidLogix Virtu MVP
* Make sure the monitor cable has been connected to the integrated graphics port on the back panel.
Operating System
Support for Microsoft® Windows 8/7/XP
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
- Solid build quality.
- Use of IR3550 Powerstages.
- 2x Thunderbolt Ports.
- Expansion and connectivity.
- Good Overclock Performance.
- Low Heat Produced while Load.
- Low Power Consumption while Overclocking.
- Audio Output quality is a bit shaky.
- BIOS interface is a bit poor.
