GIGABYTE GA-H77M-D3H LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: This board works flawlessly.
This was my first computer build and I was skeptical about all the stories of DOA motherboards from the various manufactures.
This Gigabyte board performs as advertised.
I am running a I3 3225 CPU paired with a Samsung 840 pro SSD and 4GB Kingston Hyperx blue with 64 bit Windows 8.
I couldn't be happier with this setup. I am a mild computer user mainly internet surfing. Computer boots up in about 20 seconds.
I also hooked it up to my 55 inch plasma TV with a 30 foot HDMI cable and 30 foot repeating usb cable for the mouse and keyboard receiver. Works great.(Nice having HDMI out on the motherboard).
I highly recommend this board to anyone.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Gigabyte has good customer service. I had a problem getting Windows disc to boot so I called customer service got somebody on the phone in less then a minute helped me figure that I was not booting it correctly my fault.
Newbe and all.

Pros: Fast. Paired this with a i5-3570 and a Samung 830 SSD. The system boots in less than 30 seconds.

Cons: A couple months ago the machine started to randomly drop USB connections and/or lock up. Sometimes it would reboot without warning. Installed the latest firmware for the hard drive and also upgraded the BIOS to the newest version and that only helped for a couple weeks. It's back to the same behavior.

Other Thoughts: This is the first Gigabyte motherboard I've had issues with. I'm a bit disappointed because it was a machine I put together for a friend to use for his business machine. I have un-installed and re-installed all drivers for the machine, so now it's got to be the MB itself.

Pros: Very, very good board for a HTPC or work station. Reliable, inexpensive, great flexibility, lots of SATA ports; just a good all around package to build a system with.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Had some issues at first which I thought was a problem with the board. This did not turn out to be the case. My issue was with a DoA SSD. Gigabyte email troubleshooting can take a very long time to resolve your issue, however they did not steer me wrong, and were able to identify the issue in a file I uploaded to them. My hat is off the Gigabyte tech support - they did a very good job at spotting the problem and giving me very detailed steps to take in order to identify a pretty complex problem. The issue in short was that Win7 was not recognizing the SSD as a location to install the OS, however when I put the SSD into another machine, the SSD Drive was able to be recognized and loaded. There was an error on the SSD which prevented a new install of Win7, but in a machine with Win7 already operating it only looked like a newly attached mass storage device.

Pros: None unfortunately

Cons: It did not work. System kept power cycling on and off.

Other Thoughts: This board was bought to replace an MSI with faulty power connector. Maybe it was bad luck on my part - I'm sending this back to newegg for a refund.

I did do troubleshooting such as disconnecting HDD, RAM, changing PSU, and checking system connections and power switches. Very disappointing.

I guess I will be getting a B75 and hope that does not fail.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

Please be sure your components are on our validated list:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4388#

Also, be sure to connect both the 24pin power and the ATX12V power cables.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013032502. Include your complete system configuration.

Please contact our Live Technical Support at 626-854-9338, option 3 if the matter is urgent.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: None

Cons: Many

Other Thoughts: I replaced this unit with a GA-B75M-HD3 (rev. 1.0) WOW, what a difference; night and day when compared with GA-H77M-D3H.

Pros: None at this time

Cons: Attempt to configure RAID,BIOS S/U CORRECT, CREATED VOLUME (ok), LOAD WIN 7 Pro, but gives error message 'can't load Windows on this computer hardware'. This error occurs at last step when configuring Windows.. Don't buy if want the RAID configuration/capability!
Has anyone else encountered this?

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product.

Before installing your OS (Windows7) on a RAID volume, you must create a "pre-install" SATA RAID setup driver. The easiest is to download the below file, and then uncompress to a USB flash drive. When installing Windows, reference your USB flash drive when asked to install drivers from another location.

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Driver/mb_driver_intel_bootdisk_irst_64_7series.exe

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013012206 in the subject line.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Great value for the money - super reliable, good quality hardware.

Cons: The audio on REV1.1 of this board is NOT natively supported in OSX Mountain Lion. Rev1.0 IS, so buyer beware. I bought a $7 USB sound dongle that worked right out of the box.

Other Thoughts: I'd buy another in a heartbeat. Only thing I wish it had was eSATA, but no big loss there.

Pros: Seems physically durable
Excellent audio
Fast Post

Cons: -H77, so the only thing you can overclock is Intel HD graphics.
-Had to update bios otherwise Windows 8 would not reboot reliably.
-CMOS jumper not easy to get to, would prefer a button
-Hates my USB wireless adapter, if plugged in post hangs 30 sec
-Not Windows 8 certified; has beta bios
-Sata 6gb connectors are sideways therefore prone to damage upon insert
-Various issues with the bios, specifically relating to 2+ TB hard drives and HDMI port.

Case and point, I interupted the format of a 2 terabyte drive (not the bootable one), because I was only formating one partition so I figured, Ill use darik's boot and nuke to clear everything, anyway, I reboot system, and HDMI got no signal, removed hard power cable and sata, no signal. Cleared CMOS with jumper first, then again by removing battery. Still no HDMI output. In another incident involving this same 2 TB drive, I let the system drain of all power overnight, and then hdmi worked. I'll bet you the same thing will happen as I let it sit overnight. Just very weird inconsistent bios (both the old one, and the new one) as well as inconsistent hdmi output.

Other Thoughts: The last I had was an MSI which I hated because it was fragile, the main power connector was flawed, long post time and few bios options. I didn't try this board with windows 8, but it was consistent. This Gigabyte board needs another revision, and the bios needs more work and to come out of beta. Sometimes it detected my 2TB hard drives, other times it didn't

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. Honest and constructive opinions are always welcome. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product. I will attempt to answer your comments:

1. This is a chipset limitation. The H77 platform is not meant for overclocking. I suggest the Z77 platform for more overclocking options.
2. This model was designed before Windows8 was released. A BIOS update to correct some Win8 issues was subsequently released.
3. This model does not have a clear CMOS button but a jumper block.
4. Try your USB Wireless addapter on another USB port.
5. This model was designed before Windows8 was released. A BIOS update to correct some Win8 issues was subsequently released.
6. Due to this mATX form factor the SATA ports are vertically placed. Our full ATX sized form factors have horizontally placed SATA ports.

If you require further assistance, please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyte-usa.com with the case number 2013011508 in the subject line.

Please contact our Live Technical Support at 626-854-9338, option 3 if the matter is urgent.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Using Intel G530, ADATA S510
HDMI and dual display: HDMI works from bios, but dual only works once OS Loaded. Due to backplate, you may need to wiggle cable to get hdmi fully inserted. Relevant bios settings
Peripherals -> Init Display First -> IGFX
Peripherals -> Internal Graphics-> enable.
Great bios, great sound, solid board, good post time with wireless mouse and keyboard. Memory will downclock to cpu FSB, for G530, 1066, so DDR3 1600 to 1066; but not Gigabytes fault, and no way of changing that. For i3 sandy it would be 1333, for ivy 1600. 10 USB 2.0 ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports, but these are slowed if using XP. Tested with Windows 8 64 bit, no problem. I don't believe those who say memory slots are dying. They either don't know how to install dual channel memory, or are hardcore ram overclocking. Includes instructions on how to get audio over HDMI. Recognizes ADATA SSD as samsung (so you know it ships with quality modules) Very fast start and restart. High Quality, High Endurance board. Love it.

Cons: None.

Pros: Generally, the motherboards works fine except for problems getting the USB 3 ports to work correctly with Windows 8

Cons: The USB 3 ports do not seem to work at the correct speed under Windows 8. They transfer at exactly the same speed as the USB 2 ports.
Also, the PS-2 port does not seem to be active under Win 8 although it does seem to get a key press to get into the BIOS. This is not a major problem for me.

Other Thoughts: It is not clear from the doc whether the 4 USB 3 ports are from the H77 chipset or if another chip (from Etron?) is used. If the latter, I cannot figure out if the rear or front ports are from Etron. In any event, the USB 3 ports work at the exact same speed as the USB 2 ports. This is a major problem as I need these to operate at faster USB 3 speeds. Again, it is not clear if different drivers or what need to be installed to make these work. Be forewarned.