Gigabyte's basic black Z77X-UD4H

Subject: Motherboards | April 10, 2013 - 06:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: gigabyte, Z77X-UD4H, Intel Z77, lga1155

Like many Z77 boards, the Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H has a rather crowded socket area, if you are not going with a watercooling solution consider purchasing low profile DIMMs.  One thing it has that most other boards do not have is an auxiliary power plug next to the SATA ports which takes a SATA power plug, not a molex connector.  It also sports a significant number of slots, three PCIe 3.0 16x slots, three PCIe 1x slots and even a PCI slot.  [H]ard|OCP had an interesting time overclocking this board, you should familiarize yourself with their experiences if you plan on picking this board up and overclocking your CPU.

"It’s been awhile since we’ve looked at a motherboard from Gigabyte. We haven’t forgotten Gigabyte and decided to take the Z77X-UD4H for a little test drive. The Z77X-UD4H is a sub-$170 motherboard with a great look and a solid feature list for the price point that has the computer hardware enthusiast in mind."

Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:

Motherboards

• MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming @ Hardware.info
• MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming Motherboard Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD4H Intel Z77 Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
• GIGABYTE Z77X-UP4 TH @ Tweaktown
• ASUS P8Z77-V PREMIUM @ Tweaktown
• ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt @ Tweaktown
• MSI Z77 MPower @ eTeknix
• ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion @ Tweaktown
• GIGABYTE Z77-HD4 @ Tweaktown
• ASUS P9X79 PRO Motherboard Review @ Techgage
• BIOS Option Of The Week - R/W Queue Bypass @ TechARP

ASUS Officially Launches P9X79-E Workstation Motherboard With 4-Way SLI Support

Subject: Motherboards | April 2, 2013 - 11:27 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: asus, p9x79-e, workstation, Sandy Bridge E, quad sli, quad crossfire, lga 2011

Earlier this year at CES, ASUS showed off a high-end workstation board called the P9X79-E WS. The board is meant for Sandy Bridge-E processors, but will likely be compatible with Ivy Bridge-E as well. Unlike Wolverine and Zeus, the P9X79-E WS is a motherboard that will actually see the light of day and has been officially launched. It will be available sometime in May at an as-yet-unannounced price.

The P9X79-E hosts a single LGA 2011 processor, up to 64GB of 2400MHz DDR3, the Intel X79 PCH, and support for 4-Way SLI or CrossFire on four of its seven total PCI-E 3.0 slots. The workstation board uses a 10-layer PCB, ASUS DIGI+ with 10+2 power phases, DR Power PSU monitoring, ASUS SSD Caching II, solid capacitors, and fanless heatsinks connected via copper heatpipes.

Storage options include six SATA 6Gbps ports, four SATA II 3Gbps ports, and two eSATA ports coming from the front panel header. The rear IO has changed a bit since the board seen at CES, however. The now-official ASUS P9X79-E WS includes the following rear IO options:

• 1 x PS/2 combo port
• 10 x USB 2.0 ports (one can be used for BIOS flashing)
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports
• 2 x eSATA ports
• 2 x Gigabit Ethernet ports backed by Intel i210 GbE controller
• 6 x Analog audio ports
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF port

The board can accommodate up to four dual slot graphics cards or seven single slot expansion cards (like PCI-E SSDs and RAID controllers). As a workstation board, it is likely to be pricey, but for those that need 4-way SLI and LGA 2011 (possibly for Ivy Bridge-E though its hard to say for sure if that will work yet) it is shaping up to be a good option. As mentioned above, the P9X79-E WS will reportedly be available for purchase in about a month. Sometime in early May or late April, according to Slash Gear.

ASRock's Formula for success

Subject: Motherboards | March 19, 2013 - 01:36 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: asrock, Z77 OC Formula, Intel Z77X

If you are shopping for a Z77 motherboard you have a lot of choice in make and model as well as price, they range from sub-$100 models to high end boards like the $225 ASRock Z77 OC Formula.  For that extra price you get a motherboard built with 12+4 phase power, premium alloy chokes, dual-stack MOSFETs and 8 layers of copper.  It is not just high end components, you also get a pair of PCIe 16x slots, a single PCIe 4x slot and a pair of 1x slots for add-in cards as well as four SATA 6Gbps ports and two SATA 3G ports, 10 USB 2.0 ports and 8 USB 3.0 ports along with onboard audio from Realtec's ALC898.  [H]ard|OCP did some testing to see if this board lives up to the OC in its name, which it did rather handily.

"Generally speaking our ASRock experiences have been positive save for one or two minor complaints. We’ve looked inexpensive but very popular ASRock model motherboards. Today we are taking a look at a higher end more expensive ASRock offering. The Z77 OC Formula caught our eye and will hopefully perform as good as it looks."

Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:

Motherboards

• ASRock Z77 Pro4-M @ [H]ard|OCP
• Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H @ Funky Kit
• Gigabyte GA-H77N-WiFi Motherboard Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• ASUS P8Z77-V LK Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets
• GIGABYTE Z77N-WiFi @ Tweaktown
• MSI's Z77IA-E53 Mini-ITX @ The Tech Report
• BIOS Option Of The Week - SDRAM Tras Timing Value @ TechARP
• Biostar Hi-Fi A85W @ Kitguru
• ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN @ Tweaktown
• ECS A970M-A Deluxe Motherboard Review @ OCC

Intel's inventory undergoes some shrinkage

Subject: Motherboards | March 19, 2013 - 12:55 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Intel, qualcomm

The slowdown of PC sales has finally even impacted Intel's supply chain as they reduce the number of chips stocked in inventory.  Even after these years of domination over AMD on the desktop Intel has not been reducing their supplies of chips as they were still selling them at a brisk pace.  It is obvious that has changed over the past year as the lowering sales of PCs and laptops finally lead to Intel reducing the number of chips they have on hand.  They were not the only ones to make this move, with AMD and others also reducing their stocks somewhat.  One area The Register did not report on is GPUs, with the short lifespan of a GPU the stocks of new silicon are also goign to be quite reduced and you should see more discounts on lower end GPUs as resellers try to offload them.  As we have seen before people are still buying electronics, just smaller, more portable devices; Qualcomm's available stock has had to increase by 24% over the same time period.

"Bean counter iSuppli reckons the major manufacturers acted swiftly to prevent expensive backlogs of baked silicon forming: the average number of days between producing inventory and selling it declined five per cent. The value of the inventory piles also fell five per cent, or $600m, from Q3 to Q4 of 2012, we're told."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Tal k

• How Fusion-io redlined its PCIe flash motor to hit 9.6 MEEELION IOPS @ The Register
• EA Origin vuln puts players at risk @ The Register
• Oracle Virtual Box Virtual Machine Tips @ PCSTATS
• Win an Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti TOP Graphics Card @ eTeknix