Gigabyte Z77X-UP4-TH LGA1155 Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Gigabyte Z77X-UP4-TH LGA1155 Motherboard Review - Gigabyte brings us another Z77 Ivy Bridge motherboard, the Z77X-UP4-TH touts the Ultra-Durable 5 power system, solid overclocking performance, outstanding stability, multiple Thunderbolt ports and has enough heft to flatten small woodland creatures should you ever need to.
 
Price seems a little hefty indeed. At least it's not neon colored with military motifs.

Fixed - Kyle
 
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Good lord, 1.068v?!?! thats stupid low.

What was the limiting factor in pushing further than 4.8?
 
Im also curious as Ive seen it on other sites, that Gigabyte chose the red headed step child of USB 3 controllers and as such the ports connected to those controllers are many and not as good as other options. While USB 3 performance isnt a typical gamers benchmark, this is still something I would be concerned with and wish would be part of a wholistic review. cheers :)
 
hammerforged said:
Good lord, 1.068v?!?! thats stupid low.

What was the limiting factor in pushing further than 4.8?
Click to expand...

As I said in the article. CPU-Z does not report the voltage correctly. It is set for 1.22v. I actually got it up to 5.0GHz at 1.3v, but two workers always dropped out. So 4.81GHz was the highest stable overclock achieved and as far as I could take it in the time alloted. Given more time I might have been able to take it further.
 
archalien said:
Im also curious as Ive seen it on other sites, that Gigabyte chose the red headed step child of USB 3 controllers and as such the ports connected to those controllers are many and not as good as other options. While USB 3 performance isnt a typical gamers benchmark, this is still something I would be concerned with and wish would be part of a wholistic review. cheers :)
Click to expand...

Actually USB 3.0 performance is in there. The performance was roughly on par with that of other controllers I tested though there was no software for UAS protocol support or anything close to ASUS Turbo mode support. The UAS protocol is supported by the VIA VL800 USB 3.0 controller, but not actually implemented here, at least not via software.
 
Dan has any board hit 5Ghz stable with decent temps with that CPU?
 
I'm looking at building a new system in the near future & this Mobo is interesting but 1 thing seems to stand out to me. The memory allowed for this board is a max rating of 1600MHz which is what was used in testing. The 2 other boards in my consideration, the ASRock Z77 Extreme4, & the Asus P8Z77-V both allow higher rated memory. For OCing the CPU, wouldn't higher rated memory increase the CPU OCing potential? Given my current system with 1333 which I have to down clock a little, I think I could OC the CPU higher & stably with higher rated memory.

Why would they limit the memory to 1600 MHz?
 
Elios said:
Dan has any board hit 5Ghz stable with decent temps with that CPU?
Click to expand...

No, I'm afraid not. I've seen 5.0GHz on this CPU, but not with decent temps. I've gotten close though. 4.944GHz on the Maximus V Gene, 4.9GHz on the Sabertooth, and 4.9GHz on the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe. I've hovered around 4.9GHz on many other ASUS boards. I don't think I've achieved clock speeds that high on anything else. Though I believe the new Ultra-Durable 5 Gigabytes are more than capable. I've just got to spend more time tuning them. They don't behave quite like everything else does as you saw with how little voltage I needed on this one. In fact the Gigabyte boards won't behave quite right with the higher voltages on them. So they "balance" differently for lack of a better term.

This is an "ES" chip and despite the prevalent belief that they are monster overclockers, not all are. In fact on occasion you run into microcode issues with them and sometimes they require far more voltage, or run hotter than retail CPUs do. It really depends on what model they are and how new the silicon is.

PinchedNerve said:
I'm looking at building a new system in the near future & this Mobo is interesting but 1 thing seems to stand out to me. The memory allowed for this board is a max rating of 1600MHz which is what was used in testing. The 2 other boards in my consideration, the ASRock Z77 Extreme4, & the Asus P8Z77-V both allow higher rated memory. For OCing the CPU, wouldn't higher rated memory increase the CPU OCing potential? Given my current system with 1333 which I have to down clock a little, I think I could OC the CPU higher & stably with higher rated memory.

Why would they limit the memory to 1600 MHz?
Click to expand...

All Z77 Express chipset based boards officially top out at DDR3 1600MHz speeds. Through overclocking all enthusiast boards are capable of far more. Different companies advertise what they say their boards can do when it comes to memory clocks to different degrees. Gigabyte just doesn't plaster memory clocks all over the box and specs the way others might. I also do not have a set of higher rated modules on hand. These can be pushed a little bit further than DDR3 1600MHz, but it's not about memory overclocking. We are more concerned with factors that are up to the board. As we saw here, the voltages required are what truly separates one board from another. The CPU being the primary limiting factor when OC'ing.

Faster clocked modules will not impact your overclocking to any significant degree. This only effects BCLK overclocking as the BCLK directly alters the memory clock. The Z77 Express chipset can't really handle more than 5-7MHz of an overclock on the base clock anyway before things get squirley. Faster modules will be clocked higher through multiplier adjustment of the memory divider. The higher the divider the higher the clocks. It is also known as the DRAM ratio on a lot of boards or memory ratio. This must be set higher to get higher RAM clocks and again this is independant of the CPU and has no effect on what your CPU overclocking will look like. Again BCLK is the only thing that effects both. And if your memory limits your base clock adjustment all you have to do is reduce the divider so that the RAM runs under it's rated speeds so that base clock adjustments can't push the memory harder than intended.

That being said, again you are only looking at a 5-7MHz overclock on the base clock anyway. We mess with it a bit to see what the boards can do, but most of the time I wouldn't suggest messing with it a whole lot. Tuning that can cause a lot of issues and you rarely get large gains from doing so. At best you get some manuevering room when a CPU has hit a multiplier wall. So if your CPU only does 48x, then adjustment of the BCLK might give you somewhere around 4.9GHz. This is a way to split the difference when your CPU can't quite handle a 49x or greater multiplier. (Just as an example.) For whatever reason reaching those multipliers requires a ton of voltage and your temps may skyrocket when you tune it that high. In other words you may get away with less voltage using a 48x x 102MHz base clock or something like that.
 
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Dan,

I notice that the tested RAM is limited to 2x 4Gb modules. That 8Gb of RAM is far below the board's rated 32Gb, plus it leaves two slots open. What is the effect on the available overclock of filling the RAM to capacity, both physical and Gb? Would it use voltage/current or generate heat which would affect stability?

Thanks,
Ken
 
c3k said:
Dan,

I notice that the tested RAM is limited to 2x 4Gb modules. That 8Gb of RAM is far below the board's rated 32Gb, plus it leaves two slots open. What is the effect on the available overclock of filling the RAM to capacity, both physical and Gb? Would it use voltage/current or generate heat which would affect stability?

Thanks,
Ken
Click to expand...

I am not sure how filling all the RAM slots will effect the overclockability of a CPU on any Z77 or X79 board. I've never tried it. I haven't looked into that a whole lot either. As for hitting the memory capacity on Z77, you can't do one without the other. You will have to use 4 modules in all cases to reach 32GB. The Z77 Express chipset doesn't support module densities higher than that.

So unfortunately, I do not have an answer to your question. At least nothing first hand. I've heard people say it's fine and others say it isn't. I've heard that this is more of an issue on X79 but then again your talking about 8 memory modules each 8GB in size for a total of 64GB. Without using registered RAM, that's got to be taxing on the CPU's IMC.

Few people do it, so I don't hear about it a lot.
 
With all due apologies Dan!!! I made a poor assumption. Once again, motherboard reviews the Hard way!!!! Much appreciated.

Now I gotta track down the USB 3 differences between the UP4 and UP5 and see if the UP5 has any SCSI over USB support.
 
archalien said:
With all due apologies Dan!!! I made a poor assumption. Once again, motherboard reviews the Hard way!!!! Much appreciated.

Now I gotta track down the USB 3 differences between the UP4 and UP5 and see if the UP5 has any SCSI over USB support.
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Now that question I can answer. The Z77X-UP4-TH uses a VL800 controller in addition to the Intel controller rather than simple VL810 hubs. The VL800 does support the UAS protocol. Which in simple terms is SCSI over USB. That's not precisely accurate, but close enough. And Intel's USB 3.0 controller can support UASP. Unfortunately it is not enabled via firmware to do so at this time. You have to have a few things in place to make use of the feature. A USB 3.0 controller with support for it, a connecting device that supports it via firmware and software to manage it. In ASUS' case the AI Suite II handles this for you. It can also enable a turbo mode which is not quite as good as UASP, but similar with devices that do not support UASP and the gains are quite good. ASRock has an equivalent implementation but ASRock's version differs from ASUS'. I haven't been able to get the technical details on that. Fortunately ASUS was very forth coming with how their USB 3.0 implementation works on a technical level.

This is based off the published specifications on Gigabyte's website for both boards. I had to check the controllers out at VIA's website, but they indicate the VL800 is a controller, and the VL810 is a hub. (This is important as the Z77X-UP4-TH uses the VL800 and the Z77X-UP5-TH uses the VL810 hub.)

Now in comparison the Z77X-UP5-TH uses twin VIA VL810 hubs which multiplex the Intel ports. So essentially you use the Intel controller all around. Unfortunately when you hub things like that you run into the potential of over saturating the ports which are being multiplexed. At least theoretically. In practice this is somewhat hard to do. You'd need a lot of USB 3.0 devices and you'd need to use them all at once. Fortunately UASP has command queuing but the older BOT protocol does not. But again UASP isn't supported on the Intel controllers just yet.

It would seem that the UP5-TH takes a step backward from the UP4-TH in regard to USB implementation, but the UP4 uses the very unpopular VL800 controller. While I didn't see any problems with it in the testing I did, it's often regarded as a poor performer. The bandwidth is slightly below Intel's controller and I'm uncertain what UASP performance looks like on it, but I'd wager it may not be all that good. Certainly not compared to Intel's or ASMedia controllers.
 
thanks for the reply
what would be your go to board atm for an i7 then?
 
Elios said:
hmm any thing that fits in a 800D? and say 250ish
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Almost anything fits in an 800D. As for the board itself I'd probably go with the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Thunderbolt for that price. You can also find the Maximus V Extreme for around that price point and Newegg even has a rebate on them right now bringing them down to $219.99 not including shipping and taxes. And the board reviewed in this thread is cheaper than that. Around $200 and for around that price I really like it. Not as feature rich as some but I really like the power setup on it. Probably the most stable power I've ever seen. I'm curious as to how some of their higher end Z77's with the Ultra-Durable 5 power stack up.
 
the Gigabyte board im on now has been good P55A-UD4P i had good luck with it any way

any idea if you guys will get some of the Gigabyte top end stuff in to review?
 
Elios said:
the Gigabyte board im on now has been good P55A-UD4P i had good luck with it any way

any idea if you guys will get some of the Gigabyte top end stuff in to review?
Click to expand...

Nope. I never know what I'm going to be reviewing until I get it.
 
Dan_D said:
Now that question I can answer. The Z77X-UP4-TH uses a VL800 controller in addition to the Intel controller rather than simple VL810 hubs. The VL800 does support the UAS protocol. Which in simple terms is SCSI over USB. That's not precisely accurate, but close enough. And Intel's USB 3.0 controller can support UASP. Unfortunately it is not enabled via firmware to do so at this time. You have to have a few things in place to make use of the feature. A USB 3.0 controller with support for it, a connecting device that supports it via firmware and software to manage it. In ASUS' case the AI Suite II handles this for you. It can also enable a turbo mode which is not quite as good as UASP, but similar with devices that do not support UASP and the gains are quite good. ASRock has an equivalent implementation but ASRock's version differs from ASUS'. I haven't been able to get the technical details on that. Fortunately ASUS was very forth coming with how their USB 3.0 implementation works on a technical level.

This is based off the published specifications on Gigabyte's website for both boards. I had to check the controllers out at VIA's website, but they indicate the VL800 is a controller, and the VL810 is a hub. (This is important as the Z77X-UP4-TH uses the VL800 and the Z77X-UP5-TH uses the VL810 hub.)

Now in comparison the Z77X-UP5-TH uses twin VIA VL810 hubs which multiplex the Intel ports. So essentially you use the Intel controller all around. Unfortunately when you hub things like that you run into the potential of over saturating the ports which are being multiplexed. At least theoretically. In practice this is somewhat hard to do. You'd need a lot of USB 3.0 devices and you'd need to use them all at once. Fortunately UASP has command queuing but the older BOT protocol does not. But again UASP isn't supported on the Intel controllers just yet.

It would seem that the UP5-TH takes a step backward from the UP4-TH in regard to USB implementation, but the UP4 uses the very unpopular VL800 controller. While I didn't see any problems with it in the testing I did, it's often regarded as a poor performer. The bandwidth is slightly below Intel's controller and I'm uncertain what UASP performance looks like on it, but I'd wager it may not be all that good. Certainly not compared to Intel's or ASMedia controllers.
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One of the other drawbacks of the VL800 Controller is that it is currently unsupported it OSX (completely irrelevant for most of you), just saying. So real application this means that you only have TWO working USB ports from the back of the board - the two intel controlled ports directly beneath the Ethernet jack. I found this out as I was setting up Mountain Lion this past weekend - ended up having to run to microcenter and pick up a 4 port slot cover to get the rest of my peripherals plugged in.

Other than that though, I have had the board a month and a half now and its been rock solid with my very modestly OC'ed 3570k (4.8 while ramping up turboboost). Cooled by an H80 with one fan on rad, inside a 550D case with Xfired 7950, I have yet to cross over 75 degrees. Considering the cramped quarters and less than optimal setup with the H80's radiator - I am quite pleased. I'm waiting until I finalize this build before I push a little further (switching 7950's for 4GB 670's) but I'll keep you guys updated on any changes I experience in temps/stability if they occur.
 
OSX compatibility from the VL800 controller is probably a very rare concern.
 
I assumed as much, but Hackintosh users, albiet rare, will be steered to this board due to the built in Thunderbolt ports (which do indeed work in OSX)> In fact Its on the supported boards list over at Tonymacx86.

I just figured if anyone here DID ever consider it, might be worth a mention.
 
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cp_kirkley said:
I assumed as much, but Hackintosh users, albiet rare, will be steered to this board due to the built in Thunderbolt ports (which do indeed work in OSX)> In fact Its on the supported boards list over at Tonymacx86.

I just figured if anyone here DID ever consider it, might be worth a mention.
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I'd doubt the ASUS boards with Thunderbolt would be any better. Those use ASMedia 1042 USB 3.0 controllers. Your best bet for a build like that is probably an Intel branded board.
 
Youre right on both fronts. Unfortunately, for now, most of the time Intel boards dont see a whole bunch of support. Id go as far as to say the 90 percent of hackintosh- ready boards are Gigabytes.

I would expect that to change going forward, as the z77/h77 boards havent needed the custom DSDT's to enable basic chipset functions like before. Hackintoshing this build took my 30 minutes once I had a properly supported GPU installed (GT 640). Incredibly easy.
 
cp_kirkley said:
Youre right on both fronts. Unfortunately, for now, most of the time Intel boards dont see a whole bunch of support. Id go as far as to say the 90 percent of hackintosh- ready boards are Gigabytes.

I would expect that to change going forward, as the z77/h77 boards havent needed the custom DSDT's to enable basic chipset functions like before. Hackintoshing this build took my 30 minutes once I had a properly supported GPU installed (GT 640). Incredibly easy.
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I don't know why the Intel's wouldn't work. The Gigabyte boards will have everything they do and extra stuff. Almost everyone uses the same Marvell or ASMedia SATA controllers and everything else is practically built into the chipset itself. The audio is always some form of Realtek ALC892 or ALC898. This isn't any different on the Gigabyte's. The Intel boards will at least stick to their own native USB 3.0 ports while Gigabyte has chosen both a configuration using VL800 controllers and VL810 USB 3.0 hubs. Both of which could create issues in such a build.

So it doesn't make sense that the Gigabyte's would be more "Hackintosh ready" than the Intel boards are. Intel boards are generally more basic than others are with fewer integrated features to cause issues.
 
Here is the link showing which Mobo's are recommended for hackintosh use. Pretty crazy, but zero intel boards. I wonder if they just dont bother testing them.

You see the occasional Saberooth/Rampage/Maximus build, but its overwhelmingly Gigabyte
 
Dan_D said:
I don't know why the Intel's wouldn't work. The Gigabyte boards will have everything they do and extra stuff. Almost everyone uses the same Marvell or ASMedia SATA controllers and everything else is practically built into the chipset itself. The audio is always some form of Realtek ALC892 or ALC898. This isn't any different on the Gigabyte's. The Intel boards will at least stick to their own native USB 3.0 ports while Gigabyte has chosen both a configuration using VL800 controllers and VL810 USB 3.0 hubs. Both of which could create issues in such a build.

So it doesn't make sense that the Gigabyte's would be more "Hackintosh ready" than the Intel boards are. Intel boards are generally more basic than others are with fewer integrated features to cause issues.
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The big reason why Gigabyte is more common (and gets support first) is price compared to Intel or ASUS mobos. Let's be honest - neither Intel or ASUS has exactly been budget-oriented; also, Gigabyte's Z77 lineup is the largest of the top tier - in fact, it's as large as Intel and ASUS put together.

This particular Gigabyte motherboard is comparable in features to the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium, while barely more in price than the P8Z77-V (at MicroCenter, for example, the premium over the ASUS mobo is a scant $10) There *is* a trade-off; however, unless you are truly nitpicky about certain features (the ASUS has WiFi-GO support and the Intel gigabit controller; however, the ASUS lacks even basic Thunderbolt support - to even get the header, you have to go to the P8Z77V-Pro, which is $20 above the Gigabyte), the Gigabyte still makes for a nice alternative.
 
PGHammer said:
The big reason why Gigabyte is more common (and gets support first) is price compared to Intel or ASUS mobos. Let's be honest - neither Intel or ASUS has exactly been budget-oriented; also, Gigabyte's Z77 lineup is the largest of the top tier - in fact, it's as large as Intel and ASUS put together.

This particular Gigabyte motherboard is comparable in features to the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium, while barely more in price than the P8Z77-V (at MicroCenter, for example, the premium over the ASUS mobo is a scant $10) There *is* a trade-off; however, unless you are truly nitpicky about certain features (the ASUS has WiFi-GO support and the Intel gigabit controller; however, the ASUS lacks even basic Thunderbolt support - to even get the header, you have to go to the P8Z77V-Pro, which is $20 above the Gigabyte), the Gigabyte still makes for a nice alternative.
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If you are talking about the feature set of the Z77X-UP4-TH, it's feature set is no where near that of the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium. Not even close. Nor should they be given the vast price difference. The ASUS board has two additional RAID controllers, additional SSD caching, comes with an mSATA SSD, more dedicated USB 3.0 controllers, Intel Ethernet ports, WiFi GO, Bluetooth, etc. Just to name a few items. This board only has an additional Thunderbolt port over the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium and that's it. I'm fairly certain you meant a different board.

This board is a bit more than the regular ASUS P8Z77-V but doesn't pack anything more in the realm of features really. All it has is the Thunderbolt ports and that's it.
 
Dan_D said:
If you are talking about the feature set of the Z77X-UP4-TH, it's feature set is no where near that of the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium. Not even close. Nor should they be given the vast price difference. The ASUS board has two additional RAID controllers, additional SSD caching, comes with an mSATA SSD, more dedicated USB 3.0 controllers, Intel Ethernet ports, WiFi GO, Bluetooth, etc. Just to name a few items. This board only has an additional Thunderbolt port over the ASUS P8Z77-V Premium and that's it. I'm fairly certain you meant a different board.

This board is a bit more than the regular ASUS P8Z77-V but doesn't pack anything more in the realm of features really. All it has is the Thunderbolt ports and that's it.
Click to expand...

The P8Z77-V Premium and Maximus V Formula are the few ASUS motherboard lines with Thunderbolt as standard fare - the Pro comes with the header only, and the V lacks even that.

WiFi-GO and Bluetooth - while WiFI-GO may have a use on a desktop board, it's a niche use. That's even more the case with Bluetooth. (Yes - the same is true with Thunderbolt.)

Intel vs. Realtek - Intel's big advantage is peace of mind vs. Realtek for the average user; is it really worth the price premium you pay for Intel vs. Realtek (both being gigabit)?

And I was comparing the UP4-TH to the same-price P8Z77-V (and the V-Pro, which is $20 costlier).
 
PGHammer said:
The P8Z77-V Premium and Maximus V Formula are the few ASUS motherboard lines with Thunderbolt as standard fare - the Pro comes with the header only, and the V lacks even that.

WiFi-GO and Bluetooth - while WiFI-GO may have a use on a desktop board, it's a niche use. That's even more the case with Bluetooth. (Yes - the same is true with Thunderbolt.)

Intel vs. Realtek - Intel's big advantage is peace of mind vs. Realtek for the average user; is it really worth the price premium you pay for Intel vs. Realtek (both being gigabit)?

And I was comparing the UP4-TH to the same-price P8Z77-V (and the V-Pro, which is $20 costlier).
Click to expand...

The way you worded it, I got the impression you were comparing the Z77X-UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V Premium which doesn't make any sense. As there are far more advantages than the features you addressed. Namely the added RAID controllers, included 32GB SSD for caching, additional caching support, and so on. As for the networking, the Intel's typically give you better performance, though not enough for an end user to notice. But the Intel NIC goes further than that. You get less CPU usage and a lot more features. Again not anything the average user notices, but there are advantages to having one. These boards aren't reasonably comparable due to the P8Z77-V Premium being at least twice as expensive as the Z77X-UP4-TH.
 
can't compare a high-end Asus to any Gigabyte - I have both and the Gigabyte IS not a board to mess with, it's a setup and forget, great for non tech people who just want a PC that works and wont touch the bios, overclock or try to re-install an OS. The high-end Asus are built to mess with, make fukupz and be forgiven. The UEFI works, when you turn off a SATA port, it's actually off etc, etc...Giga make good boards but they can be a big PIA too, whether it's things like the aforementioned USB 3 stuff or SATA ports that don't switch off or unexplainable reboots..just my 2p worth, goodarti, thnx:rolleyes:;);)
 
I'll be looking forward to reading this tomorrow.

I'd like to try out a z77 build against my x79
 
fl0w3n said:
I'll be looking forward to reading this tomorrow.

I'd like to try out a z77 build against my x79
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Not much to compare. X79 gives you two more CPU cores and more memory bandwidth. They excel in certain applications, especially benchmarks but not so much in desktop applications. Beyond that the Z77 Express based systems run slightly cooler and offer QuickSync via the iGPU in the CPU. The CPUs themselves clock higher and run slightly cooler. Single threaded performance has nominal advantages over X79's Sandy Bridge-E parts, but nothing worth noting.

Some people like to try different things and I get that to some extent but if you already own an X79 setup there is absolutely zero reason to switch to Z77 Express and vice versa. In real world applications their performance will be virtually identical outside of very specific scenarios which effect very few people.
 
Great review. I think there's an extra "which" in the last sentence of page 4, but that's ok.

I've been wanting to upgrade now for some time, will be coming from a really ancient PC (C2D 9400, XFX 790i Ultra)... and I was hoping to get the UP5TH version... but all I've seen around here at our country are the UP4 TH...

The review just got me thinking of considering the UP4TH instead, thanks.
 
Dan_D said:
The way you worded it, I got the impression you were comparing the Z77X-UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V Premium which doesn't make any sense. As there are far more advantages than the features you addressed. Namely the added RAID controllers, included 32GB SSD for caching, additional caching support, and so on. As for the networking, the Intel's typically give you better performance, though not enough for an end user to notice. But the Intel NIC goes further than that. You get less CPU usage and a lot more features. Again not anything the average user notices, but there are advantages to having one. These boards aren't reasonably comparable due to the P8Z77-V Premium being at least twice as expensive as the Z77X-UP4-TH.
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mSATA SSD vs. SSD as OS drive - Had SSD pricing stayed higher, that would indeed still be the case. However, SATA 6.0/Gb SSDs are now no worse than $1.00USD/GB (SAMSUNG 830, Intel 330 or 520, Crucial m4), hence mSATA is pretty much obviated to a niche use.

Intel onboard gigabit - I have nothing *at all* against Intel onboard gigabit except the horrendous gouging involved price-wise compared to Realtek onboard gigabit. Yes - depending on the game, there *is* less CPU usage for an Intel gigabit NIC; however, even that *still* qualifies as a niche

And you're right - comparing the UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V Premium would be a mistake of horrible proportions on MY part, and I was not looking to give the impression I was doing so. However, would you say it WOULD be fair to compare the UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V or P8Z77-V Pro?
 
PGHammer said:
mSATA SSD vs. SSD as OS drive - Had SSD pricing stayed higher, that would indeed still be the case. However, SATA 6.0/Gb SSDs are now no worse than $1.00USD/GB (SAMSUNG 830, Intel 330 or 520, Crucial m4), hence mSATA is pretty much obviated to a niche use.

Intel onboard gigabit - I have nothing *at all* against Intel onboard gigabit except the horrendous gouging involved price-wise compared to Realtek onboard gigabit. Yes - depending on the game, there *is* less CPU usage for an Intel gigabit NIC; however, even that *still* qualifies as a niche

And you're right - comparing the UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V Premium would be a mistake of horrible proportions on MY part, and I was not looking to give the impression I was doing so. However, would you say it WOULD be fair to compare the UP4-TH to the P8Z77-V or P8Z77-V Pro?
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I think people often misunderstand the point of disk caching. I wouldn't use it instead of an SSD drive for the OS, but caching larger volumes is appealing as far as I'm concerned. And Intel network controllers have lower CPU usage in more than just games. They also tend to have more consistent through put. Not really noticable for internet use like browsing, but it can make a difference for large file transfers and other tasks.

But I agree that the P8Z77-V / P8Z77-V Pro are a more realistic comparison to this board.
 
Dan_D said:
I think people often misunderstand the point of disk caching. I wouldn't use it instead of an SSD drive for the OS, but caching larger volumes is appealing as far as I'm concerned. And Intel network controllers have lower CPU usage in more than just games. They also tend to have more consistent through put. Not really noticable for internet use like browsing, but it can make a difference for large file transfers and other tasks.

But I agree that the P8Z77-V / P8Z77-V Pro are a more realistic comparison to this board.
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The reason why mSATA (for desktops) isn't relevant has more to do with the fall in SSD prices on a per-GB basis than anything else - look at 128GB and 256GB SSD prices this week. The Samsung 830 256GB SSD (decidedly NOT *brand X*) is $154.99 at Amazon, and only $15 more at MicroCenter ($0.60/GB and $0.67/GB, respectively) - SATA-150 hard drives were pricier less than a decade ago. There's one major reason why I have to consider what would normally be overkill, even for an SSD, and surprisingly, Windows isn't it. (No - Windows 8 isn't it, either, as it's smaller than even Windows 7.)

The reason, naturally, is *Steam*.

I admit - even Thunderbolt is a niche use (as is desktop Wi-Fi and/or desktop Bluetooth); the one reason I'd actually have a USE for desktop Thunderbolt is if I go the "Hack" route again (which i5-3570K+pretty much most ATX Z77 motherboards makes darn viable, Thunderbolt or not). In the case of Z77X-UP4-TH vs. P8Z77-V (which are priced identically), it will come down to which features I'd be more likely to actually use - right now, I have to say, the jury is still deliberating.
 
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