Archive

Gigabyte GA-Z77-UP4 TH (Z77) @ eTeknix

“There are a number of boards out on the market that I would give a thumbs up to for one reason or another, but I feel that this board has earned its right to get the thumbs up in more than one for sure. Cost wise, the Z77X-UP4 TH will be found on the shelves at £159.98, which puts it right in the middle of the Z77 price range and easily in the budgets of the vast majority of buyers.”

Sapphire PURE Platinum Z77/K @Pure OC

“Sapphire is well known in the community primarily for graphics cards, but they have also been making solid motherboards for some time. We tested their last intro with the X79 platform and the product was good. Let’s see if Sapphire keeps this trend going with their latest release, the Pure Platinum Z77/K.”

ASRock Z77E-ITX @ Legit Reviews

“I can honestly say that I wasn’t sure what to expect from a mini-ITX motherboard like the ASRock Z77E-ITX. I was afraid that it wouldn’t be on par or as capable as a full ATX motherboard. Once all the benchmarking is said and done though, I have to say that I am really happy with the ASRock Z77E-ITX motherboard.”

Intel DZ77BH-55K @ X-Bit Labs

“So, there is hope that their model naming system will eventually be revised to something more descriptive and intuitive. But while we are waiting for that to happen, let’s take a closer look at our today’s main hero – Intel DZ77BH-55K mainboard.”

MSI Big Bang Z77 MPower @ Guru3D

“The Z77 MPower packs an improved 16-phase CPU VRM with optimized PCB for tweaking, the motherboard can actually draw power from a 6-pin PCIe power connector close by the regular 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS just to boost available ampage on your graphics cards.”

ASRock Z77 Extreme6 @ MadShrimps

“The Z77 Extreme6 motherboard from ASRock is aimed at the middle range and features a clean PCB, and many features that we have seen at the more expensive variants; the mini-PCIe slot is very welcome (placed underneath the first PCI-Express x16 slot) for installation of an Wi-Fi card or extra SSD. ASRock did also include the well-known Frontal USB 3.0 bay, which is a 2-in-1 device since it can house an extra 2.5’’ HDD or SSD (necessary screws are also provided).”

ASRock X79 Extreme11 @ TechPowerUp

“The ultra-high-end ASRock X79 Extreme11 is fitted with an onboard PCIe 3.0 LSI RAID controller, and not just one, but TWO PLX PEX8747 PCIE 3.0 switches. The ASRock X79 Extreme11 really does take it to the Extreme, offering functionality and capabilities no other motherboard can claim. But does it perform to the Extreme?”

ASUS Rampage IV Gene @ Au-Ja!

“The ASUS Rampage IV Gene is a micro ATX sized motherboard for Intel’s socket LGA2011. It features three slots for graphic cards (16+16+8 lanes), a full set of options for overclocking, an addittional SATA 6 Gbps controller, four USB 3.0 ports and Gbit LAN. And you can run Intels six core CPUs using up to twelve threads.”

MSI Big Bang-XPower II @ Au-Ja!

“The MSI Big Bang-XPower II is pure madness: A motherboard with seven PCIe slots for graphic cards, eight DIMM slots, 16 USB ports (6 x USB 3.0 plus 10 x USB 2.0), 10 SATA ports (6 x 6 Gbps plus 4 x 3 Gbps), dual Gbit-LAN and Firewire. This massiv set of features would not fit on a normal ATX sized PCB and so MSI decided to go XL-ATX. Suprisingly the monster is very tame when it comes to stability and power consumption.”

Sapphire and ECS X79 Motherboards @ OC Club

“After looking at the lack of a heat sink over half of the VRM package I was leery of pushing too hard on the ECS X79R-AX. But push it did and offered up a higher overclock than the Sapphire Pure Black X79N by over 100MHz. The ECS BIOS allows the user to adjust the voltages in positive or negative increments instead of a fixed value for the CPU.”