Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H - Unboxing - Large Pics!

[ZenEffect]

Hey guys, thought I would share this with you...

This arrived today, and though I cant post details about performance right now, I can show you the hardware itself

The Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H

Here is the box.

It features quite a few logos and advertisements showing off its features. Here we see a "New Glass Fabric PCB" that is supposed to resist humidity much better than traditional methods. Another interesting note are the mSATA Connector Onboard logo and VirtuMVP logo. In initial testing on another board... MVP actually works.



Inside the box, we can see a small bundle including the manual, installation manual behind it, case badge, blue and black SATA cables, sli bridge, and driver disc. Some may say this is pretty minimalistic, and they would be right... but in all honesty, what else do I really need?



And the motherboard. It feels heavier than it looks, maybe its the 2X copper PCB, or the new PCB material itself, but it feels really rugged. I held the board at one end to see if I could get it to flex under its own weight and it stood its ground... straight as an arrow.

I really dig the matte black color... and its actually matte black, not really really dark brown.



As I said before, here is an interesting feature on this board. I don't currently have a mSATA drive, but I will be reviewing the board with one in place a little later on.



Here we have some of the CPU power section. Even though these are not sinked, they don't get hot even under load. Using an IR thermometer, they were cruising right along at 34.5C. I will re-test later with more accurate readings, this was just a preliminary finding.



So I bet you are wondering... how about that heatsink then? how is it attached? I'm happy to say that they are screwed in. This was one thing that was concerning me as the photos I had seen of this board before showed push pins. I was very relived this was not the case.

note: Both Southbridge and PWM heatsinks are screwed in.



In case you didn't notice, there is "108db" silk screened on the motherboard. This is made possible by the VIA VT2021. According to VIA its capable of 24bit/192KHz output with a 110db signal to noise ratio. I haven't listened to any tunes yet but I plan to give this a good workout.



There are 2x SATA3 ports and 4x SATA2 ports... and some fun stuff. Right next to the SATA3 ports is a SATA power connector. This is used to provide additional PCIe power.



Moving to the left we have the POST code output display. VERY useful and much missed on my GA-Z68XP-UD4.



On to the REALLY fun bits! Power Button? Check! Reset Button? Check! Clear CMOS Button? CHECK! Voltage Readout Points?!?!?! WTOOFSLKJDSFOI



Of course, you cant see the whole motherboard without looking at the IO ports.

It consists of:

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
7.2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors
8.6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
9.1 x RJ-45 port
10.6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)



Hope you like the pics! This board really makes me think... can it REALLY be a UD3?!? It seems Gigabyte packed an incredible value into this board. Keep an eye out I will be posting up a full review on this board very soon!

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Very nice thanks for the pics!

[NHKS]

congrats & Thanks!!.. nice quality pics(u seem professional with ur cam)! that was very good mini-preview
UD3 seems very good in features.. power/reset/clear buttons & post code disp are very cool indeed for a UD3.. mSata inclusion is a big +

also like the video/display ports being protected by plugs..

[ZenEffect]

I thought the plugs were nice too. The only thing I don't like about the plugs is I've already lost one. As for the pics… I borrowed my girlfriend's camera, and it did all the work. I'm horrible with taking pictures so I left the camera on Auto and shut off the flash then clicked away. Its a Nikon D3000 if you are curious.

[NHKS]

hope u have lost the plug for the port u ll be using ...
i was guessing DSLR.. & Nikon D3000 is one of the natural choices for anyone considering DSLR...

a useful accessory i didn't notice are the 90-angled SATA connectors.. i am not sure if this is a common feature in other MBs but definitely has its purpose..

and do put forward ur views on the 3D bios feature..

[ZenEffect]

I jumped straight into advanced mode and it was just like asus or msi's user interface. the 3d bios part looked cool but I didn't really dig into it that much... but I guess I can do it now. At a glance, it seemed pretty rich in features and depth while providing a easy to navigate user interface.

*edit*

so I just ran through the 3D BIOS screen and all its featues + sub features and tis basically this. It has some critical info in the upper right like cpu frequency and dram speed... a clock in the upper left... and a motherboard in the middle with a few options at the bottom. so you can use the mouse or keyboard but certain sections of the motherboard light up and you enter a menu system that is similar to asus' ai tuner in its ease of use. click the pwm area and you get pwm stuff like switching freq etc. click the cpu for frequency options. click memory for memory etc. its very easy to navigate and the 3D bios screen gives you all the same options as the advanced menu... just in a prettier fashion I guess. I will find out if I can take pics of the bios screen or not. If I can, then I will post pics asap.

[brandonwh64]

That looks like the Z77 version of my Z68X UD3H Gen3

[coolhand411]

very nice MB i will be getting UD5H or G1 ,can you tell me how many LLC levels is there in Bios ?
Thanks
P.S. as for mSATA ,this looks like pretty good
ADATA XM13 AXM13S2-60GM-C mSATA 60GB SATA II MLC I...
love the OC-PEG for SLI

[daytoner]

thanks for sharing

[ZenEffect]

Originally Posted by coolhand411

very nice MB i will be getting UD5H or G1 ,can you tell me how many LLC levels is there in Bios ?
Thanks
P.S. as for mSATA ,this looks like pretty good
ADATA XM13 AXM13S2-60GM-C mSATA 60GB SATA II MLC I...
love the OC-PEG for SLI

Hey, I was looking at that exact mSATA drive last night! The only turn off for me is the price. I don't really need 60GB and the a-data 30gb looked just as good for slightly less. I already am running 2 Kingston hyperx 120GB SSD in raid0 .

There are 6 levels of LLC that work pretty well actually. Ive been ignoring software, mainly because I cant trust readings when coupled with Windows 8. I don't like leaving anything to chance or guessing so been using the voltage read-out points on board with my trusty DMM to get voltage readings.

[cadaveca]

I guess there's no reason for me to post my preview on the front page. Thanks for saving me the work.