Z77X-UD3H Review and OC Testing (Circuit Analysis, LN2 runs, Efficiency Comparison)

[Slavetonet]

Originally Posted by Sin0822

You extract the profile from the .rar and then put it on a USB drive formatted in FAT32. Then you goto the BIOS preferably F8E or G or whatever is the latest. Then you goto the last page, goto load profile, select USB and then navigate to the file and hit enter. It will load the profile, but it might not say anything. Then just go to the other pages and see if the settings are there. You have to hit F10 and save and reset for them to take affect.

Do you by chance have a sandy bridge CPU?

I don't have Sandy Bridgee CPU. It is IVY Bridge i5-3570k cpu.
I will follow your instructions and see if it fix the problem.
I am currently on F8 bios - officially from Gigabyte website. I presume the F8G you have mention must be beta bios.

Thanks again.

[NNNG]

I've had the board for a few days, here are my thoughts:

• BCLK defaults to 100.9 mhz even when set to 100 mhz, but this goes to 100.1 mhz with F9 BIOS.
• Some USB devices (like my >10 year old joystick) may cause BIOS to freeze. If so, just unplug them before you enter BIOS.
• Make sure to enable integrated graphics. Virtu MVP won't install if the setting is left on auto.
• The CPU turbo states seem to be messed up and go to 3.8 ghz across all cores if settings unrelated to turbo have been changed. DAFUQ.
• The cmos clear, power on, reset buttons, dual bios, bios switch, on the PCB are awesome.
• G.Skill Ares (with the blue heatsinks) match the Gigabyte heatsinks perfectly.
• Heatsinks are screwed to the motherboard. Quality.
• UEFI is beautiful with all the options you will ever need.
• The board will automatically adjust voltage settings like LLC and voltage if the option for them are left on Auto. Make sure to manually set those when overclocking unless you want it to control them.
• It runs extremely cool, even at 4.4 ghz. The VRM heatsink is barely warm after some stress testing.
• Flash with Q-FLASH, not @BIOS. If you don't have USB stick, with windows command prompt you can just create a FAT32 partition on a HDD and put the BIOS file on that.
• CPU fan control is perfect on default settings. <900 rpm at idle, 1500 rpm load.

Would recommend this board. Would definitely buy again.

[TamTam79]

I've had all kinds of weird issues with it my first week. Bios freezing, turning off before post screen....constant loop of this. No OC'ing even attempted yet.

Interesting that the freezing might be USB related though. My Tarantula and Lachiesis could be the issue?

[dinos22]

try to set vcore to 1.2v
LLC Turbo

and disable all power management in advanced CPU settings

see if it still does it

[Sin0822]

Originally Posted by TamTam79

I've had all kinds of weird issues with it my first week. Bios freezing, turning off before post screen....constant loop of this. No OC'ing even attempted yet.

Interesting that the freezing might be USB related though. My Tarantula and Lachiesis could be the issue?

did you load optimized defaults right after installing everything?

[TamTam79]

Originally Posted by Sin0822

did you load optimized defaults right after installing everything?

I had the build done @ IJK, but yes, it was done with optimized defaults on first boot at home by me.

Hasn't done it at all this week, but I have noticed that sometimes when the power is turned on, the PC might take 10 seconds before the power is actually engaged and fans spin up. Really odd behaviour on cold boot.

[Sin0822]

update your BIOS to the latest beta BIOS, see if that helps. You can find the latest BETA here: http://hwbot.org/forum/showthread.php?t=42040

[Djayness]

Originally Posted by TamTam79

I've had all kinds of weird issues with it my first week. Bios freezing, turning off before post screen....constant loop of this. No OC'ing even attempted yet.

Interesting that the freezing might be USB related though. My Tarantula and Lachiesis could be the issue?

Gigabyte has all their USB ports running through a single via chip so there it's either that or the BIOS. Are you running F8?

[dinos22]

I didnt realise ASUS employees get paid to do GIGABYTE support on forums (or is it support?)

you are also incorrectly quoting specifications of the board!

Z77X-UD3H :

2 front USB 3.0 ports onboard from Z77 chipset
2 rear USB 3.0 ports in back panel from Z77 chipset
4 rear USB 3.0 ports in back panel from Via VL800 (4 port host)

So total USB 3.0 ports = 8
2 in front, 6 in rear, some Intel native and some through VIA chipset native USB3.0

[Sin0822]

Originally Posted by Djayness

Gigabyte has all their USB ports running through a single via chip so there it's either that or the BIOS. Are you running F8?

Your lack of knowledge of how the GIGABYTE boards work is really frustrating, I mean i don't expect you to know, as you know you now work for ASUS ROG Australia and do YouTube video for them, that is your new job, isn't it? You posted that on OCN.

There are a few general configurations as intel's PCH only provides 4 USb 3.0 ports.

So GIGABYTE uses two types VLI/VIA chips(or or the other, VL810 (hub) or VL800(controller)) on all boards but the basic boards like the Sniper M3 which only has 4 USB 3.0 ports. So if any Z77 board has more than 4 USB 3.0 ports, including internal headers(1 header=2 ports) then they are using hubs or they are using controllers.

GIGABYTE uses for instance on the UD3H they don't use any hubs, instead they provide an internal header using two of intel's ports, as well as take the other two and directly hook them to the backpanel. Then there are 4 extra USB 3.0 ports ont he back panel, they all come from a VLI800, which is a 4-port USB 3.0 controller, not a hub. The controller actually outperforms native Intel USB 3.0.

So let's take a look at how it is done on the UD5H and the Sniper 3, GIGABYTE takes 2 of the Intel USB 3.0 ports and routes them to two hubs, which take 1 port each and provide 4 outputs. Then the other two ports are routed for back panel use and don't go into hubs. What is very interesting is that the hub is very good at what it does, I hooked up a USB3 to SATA driver converter to the hub and i got better scores than i did on native Intel on the same board. Funny.

ASUS uses the same things, or else their boards would only have a total of 4 USb 3.0 ports max. The VLI hub, FYI is one of a kind, I don't think anyone else makes something that takes 1 port and makes 4 and has USB 3.0 super speed certification.

[Marksman X]

Originally Posted by Djayness

Gigabyte has all their USB ports running through a single via chip so there it's either that or the BIOS. Are you running F8?

Pretty sure I'm offloading all of my ASUS gear, after the way I've seen you conduct yourself on the forums recently.

[kandrews]

Originally Posted by Marksman X

Pretty sure I'm offloading all of my ASUS gear, after the way I've seen you conduct yourself on the forums recently.

I have as well. Gigabyte have really done something quite good with their interpretation of the latest Z77 chipset.

It's good to see another company kick Asus's arse when it comes to making and selling decent hardware.

[Ezekill]

Originally Posted by Djayness

Gigabyte has all their USB ports running through a single via chip so there it's either that or the BIOS. Are you running F8?

Did you create this account just to post anti-Gigabyte comments and threads?
Were you worried your rep would be affected if you posted as EpicPcCases, Dan?

[starkers92]

Anybody have any thought on z77x-d3h vs z77x-ud3h? The only difference I can seem to spot is OC memory support????

[dexx]

I'm deciding between the Z77x-ud3h and G1 Sniper M3. They are similarly priced. I wont be running multiple video cards but i will be aiming for a 4.5GHz OC on air.