Supports 3rd Gen. Intel 22nm CPUs and 2nd Gen. Intel Core CPUs (LGA1155 socket). GIGABYTE 3D BIOS (Dual UEFI). Onboard mSATA slot for mSATA SSDs. PCI Express Gen 3.0 support. 2-way CrossFireX multi-GPU support. HDMI, DVI, RGB. High quality 108dB SNR HD audio. GIGABYTE 333 Onboard Acceleration (USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 & 3x USB Power). GIGABYTE On/Off Charge for USB devices
$ 103.49
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It works, good manual,
Bottom line: It works.
I upgraded from a core2 system to a new Ivy Bridge Core i5 3570K with this motherboard. System components include two 4GB DDR3 sticks, three SATA hard drves (one of which is a SSD), and one SSD CD Drive. That’s all I need because everything else is built into the motherboard (or CPU). The most difficult part about my upgrade is plugging in all the connectors for my case’s front panel, a pain because many of them are broken out into single pins. Thankfully Gigabyte does a great job with the manual identifying everything so the hard part is getting my fingers into place. Everything worked the first time!
My only complaint has nothing to do with this motherboard: the heatsink mounts changed ever so slightly from LGA 775’s. It seems completely unnecessary, they’re only about 1/8″ different spacing, just enough that I can’t use my old heatsink/fan.
I guess I could complain about the graphical BIOS, it’s a bit clunky and I’d prefer a text based interface over this one’s GUI… but how often do you have to edit BIOS settings? No big deal.
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|You get what you expect for $110,
I give this board 3/5 stars, because of poor overclocking compatibility with my i5-2500K Sandy Bridge CPU.
The principle reason why you would want to purchase a motherboard with an Intel Z77 express chipset is because Intel promises CPU overclocking performance; however, this entry-level Gigabyte motherboard does not provide full overclocking capability. For example, you may increase the multiplier on your CPU, but you may not manually adjust the core voltage. I deducted a star, because Gigabyte did not document this in their technical specifications.
I deducted a second star, because this motherboard is supposed to be compatible with both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors. However, the overclocking compatability with my Sandy Bridge CPU is very poor, even after upgrading the bios from F2 to F6; these bios updates promise improved compatibility.
The i5-2500K Sandy Bridge is famous for being overclock friendly. For example, systems have been reported to achieve stable clock frequencies between 4.0 and 4.5 GHz without adjustments to the core voltage. I measured system performance and stability using the popular linpack and prime95 benchmarks. I found my system to be stable at 4.3 GHz (a modest overclock) with the F2 bios. However, I noticed that my system was no longer stable at the same clock frequency with the F6 bios. I have to blame Gigabyte for this loss in performance capability.
With all that being said, this is a fine motherboard for those who are not interested in overclocking and are in search for an entry-level board with the capability to make a few adjustments to their system. Otherwise if this does not describe you, I suggest spending a few more dollars to buy into their higher-level boards.
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|Nothing but GREAT things so far,
I like to keep my reviews short and sweet so please let me know if this was helpfull.
This Motherboard when coupled with the right hardware is a real screaming deal! Literaly such a good price and so much to offer.
Pros : Great compact size, not exactly MicroATX but very close it is atx but less width.
Has all the connections the average and some power users need!
Looks beautifull I LOVE BLUE!
The 3d bios is really too futureistic for some but i really love it, its like playing a video game. It is very informative and easy to use in my opinon.
Overclocks well.
Comes with 3 yr Warranty wich is as good as it gets with motherboards, that i know of.
Supports USB 3.0 really well, i can get 137 MBs to and from my rosewill enclosure.
Did i mention it makes coffee?????
Cons: If you even touch the thing without ESD wriststrap on good luck turning it on. Easy to damage in a sense, I had to RMA the first of 2 boards. I am very cautious when i set up systems and somehow wether my doing or not ended up with DOA board and my only conclusion was either ESD or came broken. AMAZON honered the RMA thhough.
For what you get compaired to other boards its a great buy but if broken down feature to feature it should be around 80 dollars. I know this wont change for awhile and it comes at a premium but common give the people what they want!
Other than that i cant think of any, know what you need and want before your purchase. This board has only one PCIe 16x slot and the other is x4 so beware. It is a budget board afterall.
That is all i have i will update as neccesarry. Thanks for reading. SPACESHIP Z77 BLUEBIRD AWAY!!!!!!
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