GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Four 4 pin fan headers
3 year warranty
4 USB 3.0 ports and a USB 3.0 Header
Right angle SATA III connectors
Dual Bios that automatically takes over when failure occurs.
Has a temperature probe for their voltage regulators which is something I’ve never seen before.

Very durable features such as humidity protection, electrostatic protection, and surge protection.
Another interesting feature is the one fuse per USB port which is another way this board will protect itself from getting damaged as it prevents USB port failure by having a fuse for each port rather than one fuse for all of the ports.

3D Bios looks really cool and is a fairly intuitive way off going about changing settings in the bios. The only downside is that it is a little slow and lags along with the mouse cursor speed being way too slow and choppy.

The user’s manual has a helpful description of all of the RAID modes its supports, how they work, the benefits of each and how to set each of them up. Also features a very useful troubleshooting section at the back of the user’s manual for diagnosis hardware or boot related problems.

Cons: Gigabyte’s old ugly looking color scheme (New models don’t have this problem)
The SATA II connectors are not right angle

Poor USB 3.0 Read Performance:
Intel controller: Read = 213 MB/s Write = 145.7 MB/s
Etron controller: Read = 197 MB/s Write = 144.5 MB/s

USB device’s actual speed on different system:
Read = 247.7 MB/s Write = 143.2 MB/s

Mediocre built in audio with a tested dynamic range of 78.3 dB and a noise level (interference from surrounding parts) of -54.4 dB (Most motherboards I’ve tested get around -75 dB).

The Auto tuning feature is nice as it sets settings and then runs stability tests to ensure the system is stable but it tends to play it overly safe and overvolt the CPU. I would recommend using it as a starting point if you aren’t that good at overclocking and then take its number and just lower the voltage till it isn’t stable which I’m sure is a lot lower like mine was. CPU was an Intel 3770K.

• Auto Tuning OC @ 4.43 GHz
• Voltage: 1.38 volts on Vcore
• Load: 194 watts
• CPU Temperature: 180 °F
• Voltage Regulators: 136.4 °F

• Manual OC @ 4.5 GHz
• Voltage: 1.284 volts on Vcore
• Load: 171 watts
• CPU Temperature: 162 °F
• Voltage Regulators: 122 °F

Overall Review: There is a Beta bios and new audio driver that if both in place are supposed to improve the audio conditions but as the bios is a beta I did not test it but once they release a stable version hopefully the audio will improve.

I got the Revision 1.2 of this board in case any of it varies from others such as some getting an 8 pin supplemental CPU power connector whereas mine only has 4 pin.

Pros: The bios is solid, easy to use. So far no problem on stability issue.

Cons: This board has hard time to recognize a video card that is PCIE 2.0 or PCIE 2.1. I have tried to install a Radeon 6870 to the PCIE 16x slot which the manual says I can install it and it will still run at 2.0 mode, I could not get any image at all. The video signal still will be output to the on-board DVI. I went to the bios and try to set the "first display" to be PCIE, and I still would not have signal out of the video card. I will be trying to put a PCIE 3.0 card to the motherboard and see if it will fire up.

Overall Review: I like Gigabyte motherboard, but I this time it really make me confused. I might call gigabyte customer service.