Gigabyte Intel Z77 LGA 1155 AMD CrossFireX/NVIDIA SLI Dual LAN Dual UEFI BIOS ATX Motherboard GA-Z77X-UD5H
Excellent quality motherboard that has 99 percent of what most enthusiasts require for inputs and the power button switch on the motherboard is a great thing.
This is my 3rd board purchased, the first two were Asus x68's. Went with the best value for my dollar and purchased the Gigabyte x79 and can not be more pleased. The onboard graphics combined with the easiest features and straight forward bios makes this board an easy pick over the $200-$279 range boards. Very sturdy design, 6gb/s sata, 3.0 USB and a range of future proof features make this the best board for the money.
My build
Win 7
Cooler master haf 210
Gigabyte x79
Corsair vengeance 16gb 1600
Intel 2600k sandy bridge
Gtx 275 EVGA
Corsair pro series 750w
Cooler master CPU hs and fan
Samsung ssd 256 gb
First, the good:
* The board overclocks extremely well
* The board is extremely stable
* The layout is logical and easy to work with
* Plenty of ports
* Cooling is great
* The menu-driven UEFI is excellent.
I was extremely happy with this board until November 19, at which point the Intel NIC started giving me trouble. Gigabyte support is abysmal and they keep trying to point to software and have me cleanly reinstall, although I have made it abundantly clear that a) I have already done this b) I have fully reset the CMOS and c) it occurs in every OS I try, even LiveCD/LiveDVDs, which proved the problem was OS-independent and was not software related. However after three weeks of back and forth emails becoming increasingly frustrated and irate with Gigabyte's lousy support staff, I finally solved the problem on my own. The trick was to flash the EFI/BIOS firmware NOT clearing the DMI pool, then DO NOT reboot and immediately flash it AGAIN, and THEN power down, then power the system up. Since then I have had no problems with the board.
I will update this review later on with more detail on various aspects of the board. Because aside from the glitch with the NIC which was a firmware issue, I am increasing my rating of this board to five stars, with the qualifier that I did experience a frustrating issue with the board, but the issue is now resolved (again, no thanks to Gigabyte support).
Were do I start....This board has no issues with sandy bridge processors. Ivy bridge is a different story.
There is a reason why I am giving this item 5 stars.
With ivy bridge processors currently all versions of the Bios has issues. Even the Beta F8a version. However F8a is usable and stable though.
You have to call Gigabyte and ask for it to get it. This version is not available on their website.
Versions F5-F7 will cause BSOD when the computer goes into sleep mode with the ivy bridge family of processors.
Bios F7-F8a has a hard time to get into the Bios. You have to hit delete 50 times or so when you start the computer.
Sometimes you have to reset the cmos on the motherboard to get into the bios. Once you save changes to the bios that is when it becomes difficult to
enter the bios. The boot menu has the same problem. Hard to access.
However windows performance is excellent and gigabyte support is great. The engineers actually email you for tech support. They are very knowledgable.
When you call gigabyte they answer the phone in an average time of 2-3 minutes. They are very helpful and they do not read you script.
I am using core i7 3770k along with a gtx 480 gpu. 16gb ram.
They asked for the components of my system and are going to build my system in their lab to find out what is causing the issues.
I give a rating of 5 stars for the exceptional customer service. They release new versions of the bios in days not months.
Eventually all issues will be resolved. This is a very good company. Companys like ECS or ASUS you can not even contact.
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