How are Intel MB?

[davel]

I ordered and decided to go with Gigabyte UD5H this morning. Hopefully won't have any issues. Thanks all!

 

[imported_mystro]

Intel boards go thru a much deeper testing process simply because Intel demands it, they don't like getting trashed on the net
their mobo's especially today are more chipset oriented then ever and yes they can be more costly but they demand a higher standard from their manufacturer ( foxcomm? ) and may not even have a few tricks others in that class add on to rein the sheep in but, you usually end up with a solid long life performer.
Check the new bios:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpZr2khbPWQ

 

[Magic Carpet]

I ordered and decided to go with Gigabyte UD5H this morning. Hopefully won't have any issues. Thanks all!

Congrats! Enjoy your new board

 

[meloz]

How are Intel MB?

Stable. Reliable. Boring.
Perfectly adequate if you are not going to overclock.

 

[Mars999]

Stable. Reliable. Boring.
Perfectly adequate if you are not going to overclock.

Ditto

 

[coffeejunkee]

If only the new Z77 70K was 20 to 30 bucks cheaper, then I may have considered it.

This. I really like the Intel boards, but their price, not so much.

Stable. Reliable. Boring.
Perfectly adequate if you are not going to overclock.

Can this not-suitable-for-overclocking myth go away now?

Intel boards also have best fancontrol available, other manufacturers don't even come close.

ps. Gigabyte's nice too.

 

[imported_mystro]

Stable. Reliable. Boring.
Perfectly adequate if you are not going to overclock.

Since the new Intel Visual BIOS allows to to do anything your little heart can stand regarding OCing..I'd say the limitation is only the CPU.

 

[meloz]

Can this not-suitable-for-overclocking myth go away now?

Intel boards also have best fancontrol available, other manufacturers don't even come close.

ps. Gigabyte's nice too.

Since the new Intel Visual BIOS allows to to do anything your little heart can stand regarding OCing..I'd say the limitation is only the CPU.

My latest data point was that review done by Anandtech where they echoed what I said: IIRC board was good in every way but fell short of some overclocking and some 'nice-to-have' features. It is certainly possible Intel have updated their firmware since then, and that now Intel boards are world leaders in overclocking. I stand corrected. :thumbsup:

 

[Dkcode]

Various reports around the web indicate the DZ77GA-70K is weak compared to the likes of ASUS and Gigabyte when it comes to overclocking. That is not to say it won't overclock or lacks any overclocking features but its not the board to have if you want to go balls out and rip your CPU to shreads.

I am not canning the Intel board as it is the board I would buy if I end up going the Ivy route. It looks like a solid board and the layout is right for me.

I have owned a bog standard Intel P35 board in the past and it was not all that brilliant. No overclocking features what so ever, which was fine as I did not want to overclock, however plugging in my system fans into the boards fan headers used to run them at the lowest possible speed with no control over them. This used to annoy me, also the board locked up once every few months. Not a big issue, could have been a minor problem with the RAM I used but certainly not as stable as any ASUS board I have owned in the past. So in my expereince Intel boards have not been the most reliable.

 

[Dislikeyou]

I went with ASUS Z77 V-Pro but both CPU fan headers on it died when i was messing around with the Antec 920 cooler to make the fish tank noise go away. Then when i was about to remove the motherboard from case and RMA it, i accidently bent several pins so the store refused to exchange it.

I had to buy a new motherboard and i went for Intel® Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K. I love Visual Bios. The motherboard is very good but not excellent because there is several issues.

• Can install Windows using UEFI mode but cant boot it in UEFI mode because i get the error: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"
  
• I have a Fractal Design R3 case and the front panel USB 3 port is not working. It is something with pin 10. I currently use the Intel USB 3 bracket that i got with the motherboard but had to purchase a extension cable because the cable on the bracket is short.

I noticed that my CPU, 3770K is running at 3.69GHz with Turbo Boost on. But on the ASUS board it was running at 3.9GHz as it should. Luckily i took a screenshot when i had the ASUS board so i know that the CPU is able to do 3.9GHz.

On the Intel ark page it shows:

Max Turbo Frequency 3.9 GHz

Screenshot from ASUS board:

Screenshot from Intel board:

Maybe someone knows why it is like this?

 

[Dkcode]

Are all C States enabled on the Intel Board?

You might have more luck posting this on the Intel support forum.

If you find a solution please post back here.

 

[cmdrdredd]

This. I really like the Intel boards, but their price, not so much.



Can this not-suitable-for-overclocking myth go away now?

Intel boards also have best fancontrol available, other manufacturers don't even come close.

ps. Gigabyte's nice too.

Ok you just said Gigabyte's fan control was good? It's not even close to Asus...

 

[cmdrdredd]

I went with ASUS Z77 V-Pro but both CPU fan headers on it died when i was messing around with the Antec 920 cooler to make the fish tank noise go away. Then when i was about to remove the motherboard from case and RMA it, i accidently bent several pins so the store refused to exchange it.

I had to buy a new motherboard and i went for Intel® Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K. I love Visual Bios. The motherboard is very good but not excellent because there is several issues.

• Can install Windows using UEFI mode but cant boot it in UEFI mode because i get the error: "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"
  
• I have a Fractal Design R3 case and the front panel USB 3 port is not working. It is something with pin 10. I currently use the Intel USB 3 bracket that i got with the motherboard but had to purchase a extension cable because the cable on the bracket is short.

I noticed that my CPU, 3770K is running at 3.69GHz with Turbo Boost on. But on the ASUS board it was running at 3.9GHz as it should. Luckily i took a screenshot when i had the ASUS board so i know that the CPU is able to do 3.9GHz.

On the Intel ark page it shows:



Screenshot from ASUS board:

Screenshot from Intel board:

Maybe someone knows why it is like this?

It could be like some boards board where the bclk is set on auto and it's not exactly 100, but 100.2 or something. Set it manually to 100 if you can.

 

[Dislikeyou]

Are all C States enabled on the Intel Board?

You might have more luck posting this on the Intel support forum.

If you find a solution please post back here.

I did post on Intel support forum. But i thought i should post here too, so more people will see it.

I found solution. I'm not sure if this is the correct way or not.

I found settings in bios. I ticked "Runtime Turbo Ratio" and set "Turbo Ratio" to 39.

Setting Runtime Turbo Ratio to Enable allows a single Turbo Boost multiplier to be adjusted from within Windows while reducing firmware GUI ratios to a single setting.

And it shows 3891.62 MHz now.

Not the same as it was on the ASUS board where it showed 3920.47 MHz and bus speed 100.5.

I also ran the Intel Processor Diagnostics Tool and it failed at Base Clock Test.

--- IPDT64 - rev 1.17.0.0 ---


--- Start Time: 06/13/2012 13:28:38---


--- Skipping Config ---


--- Reading CPU Manufacturer ---

Expected --> GenuineIntel
Detected --> GenuineIntel
Found --- Genuine Intel Processor ---

--- Temperature Test ---

Temperature Test Passed!!!


Temperature = 65 degrees C below maximum.


--- Reading Brand String ---

Detected Brand String:
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz

Brand String Test Passed!!!


--- Reading CPU Frequency ---

Expected CPU Frequency is --> 3.50


Detected CPU Frequency is --> 3.49184

CPU Frequency Test Passed!!!


--- FSB NOT Supported on this Processor ---


--- Running Base Clock test ---


Detected Base Clock --> 99

!!! --- Base Clock test Fail --- !!!

--- Test End Time: 06/13/2012 13:28:48---

When i turned off the Base Clock test, it completed all tests.

 

[Dkcode]

Thanks for posting back.

Did it fail the base clock test on the Intel board or ASUS?

 

[coffeejunkee]

I noticed that my CPU, 3770K is running at 3.69GHz with Turbo Boost on. But on the ASUS board it was running at 3.9GHz as it should. Luckily i took a screenshot when i had the ASUS board so i know that the CPU is able to do 3.9GHz.

Maybe someone knows why it is like this?

The Asus board 'cheats' in that it uses the highest turbo multiplier for all cores loaded. Officially it should only use the 39x multiplier for single and dual core loads and 37x multiplier for 4 core loads. This can be disabled in Asus bios.

Ok you just said Gigabyte's fan control was good? It's not even close to Asus...

Technically, no. But I will say Asus fancontrol sucks balls in the most severe ways because it won't let you go below 60% fanspeed. And their io chip is currently not recognized by Speedfan.

Also, their Fan XPert and Ai Suite in general is a buggy pile of shit. Fan Xpert 2 is slightly better (ridiculous 60% limit is gone but still sucks because wont allow fanspeed below minimum startup value) but is only officially supported on the more expensive models even though it works on any Z77 model.

Gigabyte has very rudimental bios control but Speedfan does work and gives you more options than any bios ever will. So, yes.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Its up to speed fan to support the motherboard not the other way around. Nice try

 

[Dislikeyou]

Thanks for posting back.

Did it fail the base clock test on the Intel board or ASUS?

I never tried IPDT on the ASUS board. Just on the Intel board
I did google and some other people also fails at Base Clock test. I think it reads wrong values from bios.

The Asus board 'cheats' in that it uses the highest turbo multiplier for all cores loaded. Officially it should only use the 39x multiplier for single and dual core loads and 37x multiplier for 4 core loads. This can be disabled in Asus bios.



Technically, no. But I will say Asus fancontrol sucks balls in the most severe ways because it won't let you go below 60% fanspeed. And their io chip is currently not recognized by Speedfan.

Also, their Fan XPert and Ai Suite in general is a buggy pile of shit. Fan Xpert 2 is slightly better (ridiculous 60% limit is gone but still sucks because wont allow fanspeed below minimum startup value) but is only officially supported on the more expensive models even though it works on any Z77 model.

Gigabyte has very rudimental bios control but Speedfan does work and gives you more options than any bios ever will. So, yes.

Thanks. Now i see why the CPU ran at 3.9 GHz by default on the ASUS board.

I also agree that AI Suite is buggy and crap. Don't install it. You can control fans in bios. Set to silent etc.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Its up to speed fan to support the motherboard not the other way around. Nice try

Yes, I'm aware of this. And I would say the guy developing Speedfan is doing a better job all by himself in his spare time than all Taiwanese mobo manufacturers combined.

Furthermore, I don't have to 'try'. Asus fancontrol is a joke with no workaround, simple fact. Gigabyte fancontrol is a joke too, but there is a workaround.

Worst thing is, it would probably take 5 minutes for some guy over at Asus to change the bios limit for casefans from 60% to 20%.

 

[Kaldorine]

Even back when i started building PC in the socket 478 days the intel boards were known to be rock solid but just boring. Very standard stuff but high quality and reliable.

 

[imported_mystro]

Even back when i started building PC in the socket 478 days the intel boards were known to be rock solid but just boring. Very standard stuff but high quality and reliable.

The Intel Extreme series is well equipped..wifi,BT and oodles of the usual Intel onboard board status LEDs, the latest firmware make it a major player at this level. When I first heard Intel was going to build an Extreme edition and always knowing their high quality build..I ordered this week...I need solid/reliable.

 

[Hugo Drax]

I still have my old intel advanced ml motherboard with 8mb or 16 of ram and a pentium 133 floating around. Still boots fine. Gotta boot that old beast to double check.

 

[Mars999]

I still have my old intel advanced ml motherboard with 8mb of ram and a pentium 133 floating around. Still boots fine.

memories I remember dropping $1k just on a Pentium 200mhz with MMX alone!! and a Tyan Tomcat MB was extra...

 

[scope4live]

I plan on going with the DZ77 as it's stability with the added visual BIOS finally show me Intel is growing up.
Their motherboards have always been super mission critical, as I am still running an ancient P4 3.4 Northwood on the 865PERL and of course it's not a spped demon, but it holds the audio DSP cards that are basically 24 Intel E8600 CPUs.
The POS Matrox G450 still works on the APG 4x slot too.

I still use a 1U DSP rack which is as powerful as several i7 quad's, but have added a super memory sub system intensive application.
So I will use a pair of 1U ATX chassis's each with a DZ77 and 16GBs of Samsung 30nm RAM, 1 x SATA II Seagate Momentus, and a pair of Vertex 4 256GB SSDs.
My apps are in need of the fastest random reads of varying Que Depths.
I play 2 x 88 note MIDI Keybaoard controllers, so every note I play is targetted at thousands of RAM buffers, which then point to the SSD's for Random reads with a decent sequential reading rate.
But the 90,000 IOPS is insanely beautiful for my needs, and the Samsung RAM will OC easily just by raising the 1.35v to 1.5v, whilst leaving the CPU stock since my number crunching is done with dedicated audio processors.

I sure like the looks of the Z77 Sabertooth though. Too many RMAs for me though. But if I had time to wait for a few more BIOSs, I'd get that board.
But of you want your build to work 100% and right away, Intel never disappoints.

 

[Dislikeyou]

I plan on going with the DZ77 as it's stability with the added visual BIOS finally show me Intel is growing up.
Their motherboards have always been super mission critical, as I am still running an ancient P4 3.4 Northwood on the 865PERL and of course it's not a spped demon, but it holds the audio DSP cards that are basically 24 Intel E8600 CPUs.
The POS Matrox G450 still works on the APG 4x slot too.

I still use a 1U DSP rack which is as powerful as several i7 quad's, but have added a super memory sub system intensive application.
So I will use a pair of 1U ATX chassis's each with a DZ77 and 16GBs of Samsung 30nm RAM, 1 x SATA II Seagate Momentus, and a pair of Vertex 4 256GB SSDs.
My apps are in need of the fastest random reads of varying Que Depths.
I play 2 x 88 note MIDI Keybaoard controllers, so every note I play is targetted at thousands of RAM buffers, which then point to the SSD's for Random reads with a decent sequential reading rate.
But the 90,000 IOPS is insanely beautiful for my needs, and the Samsung RAM will OC easily just by raising the 1.35v to 1.5v, whilst leaving the CPU stock since my number crunching is done with dedicated audio processors.

I sure like the looks of the Z77 Sabertooth though. Too many RMAs for me though. But if I had time to wait for a few more BIOSs, I'd get that board.
But of you want your build to work 100% and right away, Intel never disappoints.

Intel is really getting better at support. 1 month after i bought the motherboard they released a new bios and almost all my issues is gone. Have only 2 small issues that i hope they will solve. So nice that they have Chat support. I also tried to call them by phone but they had a bit of trouble to understand me since my English is not best and that's why Chatting with them is a better option for me. Intel Visual BIOS is the best bios i have seen so far. Not only the look of it but it also offers options i never seen on other motherboards. Like enabling/disabling each USB port, PS/2 etc. Also they are good at keeping their drivers page up to date and the drivers are not bloated like ASUS drivers. All the drivers that i downloaded for the for ASUS Z77 V-Pro was 1.5 GB including software like AI Suite but Intel drives is less then 500 MB. If you compare the chipset drivers for example you will see that ASUS driver is 248,74 MB while Intel driver is 2.87 MB.