Month: October 2012

Gigabyte GA-F2A85X UP4 @ Guru3D

“The A85X FCH gives you eight SATA 6Gb/s-capable ports, RAID 5 support, and the ability to divide the APU’s 16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 into a pair of x8 links. That really is the big difference right there.”

ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe @ PC Perspective

“It’s been a couple months since we’ve had a chance to evaluate a Z77-based motherboard, so we are taking this opportunity to throw ASUS’s P8Z77-V Deluxe on our test bench to put it through our comprehensive real-world and synthetic benchmarks.”

Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 @ eTeknix

“Gigabyte have done exactly that with the F2A85X-UP4 as it’s sleek black styling really makes it a hit with me and I think others will see the appeal from it. With more and more consumers looking to watercooling and companies offering custom colour designs, you’ll be able to match this board up with whatever colour chassis and fluid you have on tap (see what we did there?).”

MSI Z77A-G43 @ MadShrimps

“For socket 1155 MSI offers the budget minded user the choice to be able to buy a motherboard, based on the high end socket 1155 Intel Z77 chipset, yet all at a very affordable price. That’s where the Z77A-G43 pops up, time to give the board a spin in the Madshrimps lab.”

MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 @ eTeknix

“The flagship chipset for the FM2 platform is the A85X chip which is featured on the MSI motherboard we’re looking at today, which is conveniently called the FM2-A85XA-G65 so you’ll be sure to know what socket and chipset it is, just from the name. Being called the “G65″ also means that it’s pretty high-end. Unless MSI release a Big Bang version, we can’t see anything topping this out of their own range.”

ASRock Z77 OC Formula @ Think Computers

“Geared towards overclockers and tweakers, the Z77 OC Formula sports both air and watercooled VRMs, 12 CPU power phases, an 8-layer Copper PCB, dual stack MOSFETs, Multi-Filter caps and a whole slew of other features and benefits, this new board promises to be the best performing board from ASRock that we’ve seen to date.”

Biostar Hi-Fi Z77X @ Benchmark Reviews

“The latest chipset from Intel, the Z77, has been around for a little while now and has certainly spurred a lot of interest by aftermarket motherboard manufacturers. Little actually changed between the Z68 chipset and the Z77 chipset. Z77 added Smart connect to let you receive emails while your computer is asleep and Rapid Start to speed up boot times.”

ASRock Z77 OC Formula @ Pure OC

“Also, we are intrigued by a new special feature in The Z77 OC Formula. It has a pseudo-hybrid watercooled heatsink option for the mosfet and VRM’s, which we will go into detail about later. Now, let’s fire this bad boy up to see if it lives up to ASRock’s new reputation, and if it unleashes a “can of whoop-ass” in overclocking prowess.”

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 Rev 1.1 @ OC Club

“They both are a bit baroque in both form and function to the quality of Gigabyte’s motherboards, and I would like to see the company go back to the drawing board with the AMD UEFI and overclocking software for an update that matches the tremendous quality of the motherboard itself. Other than this issue, the GA-990-FXA-UD7 is a top flight motherboard that will take your AMD setup just about as far a you want it to.”

Sapphire Pure Black 990FX @ Neoseeker

“Sapphire’s Pure Black 990FX is a socket AM3+ motherboard which supports AMD’s Bulldozer FX lineup of processors, meaning it’s geared toward enthusiasts with an eye for the higher end of 8-core AMD CPUs.  It also boasts loads of connectivity and expansion options.  Hit our review to see if Sapphire’s Pure Black 990FX bulldozes with Bulldozer.”