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Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 11th October 2012 | Source: Gigabyte | Price: £310 | Author: Bryan Waters

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Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 Review  

Introduction

The top of the range 7 designation has been up in the air a lot in recent times. Although all the major LGA1155 chipsets have ended up with a UD7 model, they were never the first out the door. Normally a manufacturer will release their top end model first for the early adopters, then gradually trim the features down for the large volume models.  The Z77 chipset has been around for a little while and the first serious motherboard we saw from Gigabyte was the awesome Sniper 3. Now we're back in the world of their 'regular' models and we finally have a Z77 UP7 to whet our appetite.

After the problems of the Z77 UD5, and X79S UP5 it speaks volumes that Gigabyte have not only chosen to bring the UP7 to the table, but have given it the exclusive black and orange colour scheme last seen on the blazing fast X58 OC. This is no regular motherboard with a few extra bells and whistles, but a ground-up behemoth aimed squarely at dominating the world overclocking record table.

With the combination of the 7 moniker and the orange highlights this sets up lofty performance expectations for what Gigabyte are bringing to the table. Have we got a Maximus Extreme beater on our hands? Something that will make the mighty Sniper 3 seem inadequate? Let us get down to business.   

Technical Specifications

By now I'm sure you're all familiar with the regular Z77 feature set, so what does the UP7 add? Strictly speaking it's not about what it adds so much as what it doesn't take away. This is a feature rich motherboard right up there with the very best. Although few will use them we have all the possible iGPU outputs. For those seeking records there are five PCI Express 3.0 slots, with four of them controlled by a PLX8747, and one that goes directly to the CPU for those single card world record attempts. Add a plethora of USB ports and fan headers, and you wont want for places to plug things in.

Finally, as we will see on the following pages, the motherboard has BCLK and multiplier buttons alongside the regular power ones to enable those extreme overclocks once the niggly business of loading Windows has been dispensed with.

CPU
  1. Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package
  2. L3 cache varies with CPU
(Some Intel® Core™ processors require a graphic card, please refer "CPU support List" for more information.)
Chipset
  1. Intel® Z77 Express Chipset
Memory
  1. 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR3 2400+ (OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
  4. Support for non-ECC memory modules
  5. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
Onboard GraphicsIntegrated Graphics Processor:
  1. 1 x D-Sub port
  2. 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
  3. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
  4. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600
Audio
  1. Realtek ALC898 codec
  2. High Definition Audio
  3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
  4. Support for S/PDIF In
  5. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  1. 1 x Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)
  2. 1 x Intel GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)
Expansion Slots
    1. 3 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1~3)
      * For optimum performance, if only one expansion card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_2 slot.

    1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1~2)
      * The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_3. The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_3 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated.
      (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
      * Whether PCI Express 3.0 is supported depends on CPU and graphics card compatibility.
      * The PCIEX16_2 slot will become unavailable when an expansion card is installed in the orange PCI Express x16 slot.

  1. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
    (All PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
Multi-Graphics Technology
  1. Support for 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology
Storage InterfaceChipset:
  1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
  3. 1 x mSATA connector
    * The SATA2 5 connector will become unavailable when the mSATA connector is installed with a solid state drive.
  4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
  1. 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3 6~9) supporting up to 4 SATA 6Gb/s devices
  2. Support for RAID 0 and RAID 1
USBChipset:
  1. Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
  2. Up to 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (available through the internal USB headers)
VIA VL800 chip:
  1. Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel
    * Due to a Windows 7 limitation, please connect your USB device(s) to the Intel controlled USB port(s) (located below the PS/2 keyboard/mouse port) before the VIA USB 3.0 controller driver is installed.
Etron EJ168 chip:
  1. Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB header)
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connectors
  3. 1 x PCIe power connector
  4. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  5. 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
  6. 1 x mSATA connector
  7. 1 x CPU fan header
  8. 6 x system fan headers
  9. 1 x front panel header
  10. 1 x front panel audio header
  11. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
  12. 1 x S/PDIF In header
  13. 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
  14. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  15. 1 x serial port header
  16. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  17. 1 x power button
  18. 1 x reset button
  19. 1 x Clear CMOS button
  20. 1 x Gear button
  21. 1 x CPU BCLK Down button
  22. 1 x CPU BCLK Up button
  23. 1 x CPU Ratio Down button
  24. 1 x CPU Ratio Up button
  25. 1 x onboard voltage measurement module
  26. 2 x BIOS switches
  27. 1 x LN2 switch
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  2. 1 x D-Sub port
  3. 1 x DVI-D port
  4. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  5. 1 x HDMI port
  6. 1 x DisplayPort
  7. 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  8. 2 x RJ-45 ports
  9. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System temperature detection
  3. CPU/System fan speed detection
  4. CPU overheating warning
  5. CPU/System fan fail warning
  6. CPU/System fan speed control
    * Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.
BIOS
  1. 2 x 64 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS
  3. Support for DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a
Unique Features
  1. Support for @BIOS
  2. Support for Q-Flash
  3. Support for Xpress Install
  4. Support for Xpress Recovery2
  5. Support for EasyTune
    * Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
  6. Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D)
  7. Support for Auto Green
  8. Support for ON/OFF Charge
  9. Support for Q-Share
  10. Support for 3D Power
  11. Support for EZ Setup
Operating System
  1. Support for Microsoft® Windows 8/7/XP
Form Factor
  1. E-ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 26.4cm
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Most Recent Comments

11-10-2012, 16:46:54

tinytomlogan
http://www.overclock3d.net/gfx/artic...073512311l.jpg

Finally Gigabyte have reintroduced a "7 series" motherboard. Does the UP7 live up to its lofty predecessors...

Continue Reading

11-10-2012, 17:27:18

tezza192
Thanks Tom another great review ,, thoroughly enjoyed it.

11-10-2012, 17:54:21

Jeremy1998
Now if only they made it for X79... Like the X79-UD7, but with these new power stages. I would love it!

11-10-2012, 18:02:14

tinytomlogan
Quote:
Originally Posted by tezza192 View Post
Thanks Tom another great review ,, thoroughly enjoyed it.
VB did the review dude, he may of tested here but the words and thoughts are all his.

11-10-2012, 23:03:03

badtaylorx
songwriters all across the world put out genius works of art.....

but its the lead singer thats gett'n his duck sick!!!

12-10-2012, 14:51:37

toxic123
i am personally not a huge fan of the orange due to it not really matching any case other than the phantom nor any memory that i'm aware of other than black colored. but it still looks great and performs great.

12-10-2012, 17:48:57

Computer crazy
Great review as always, looks an amazing board, really like the aesthetics and the performance backs up its good looks.

13-10-2012, 01:34:40

StreekG
Nice review, beautiful board.

13-10-2012, 20:01:18

Maxx
Hi Tom,
I thought about what you said about leaving the cpu on auto ect, gave it some thought and i knew mine was on "offset" mode. i have the p67 sabertooth with a 2600k @ 4.5ghz .done via the "oc tuner" in bios. 103 frequency and 43 multiplyer i think. the voltage on cpuz shows it moves from 1.15 up to 1.36. is this okay? temps are 68 ish while running prime for 1hour with the h70.
Thanks

14-10-2012, 01:17:24

airdeano
maxx,
welcome to the forum.
great question, but you have it buried in a review that prolly wont get answered.
you get a better response making a new thread in the Mainboard & CPU discussion
group. or using the search function where you will find many other similar questions and
answers. there are many enthusiasts there that can give you a prompt response.
and when you make you question, you'll wanna include mobo make, chip, RAM
GPU and power supply.

airdeano

13-02-2013, 18:02:23

Arfur Schrunkunpecker
I'm looking to get this motherboard in my next build pretty soon.
I'm pleased to see that it got rave reviews here at
Overclock3D.
Reply

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