z77 Gigabyte Motherboard - which one?

[dsc106]

I want a Gigabyte board because I am building a dual boot gaming PC and Hackintosh.

Looking at the: GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H

Thoughts on this, VS say the Sniper 3 or another board?

Things that are important to me:

* Lots of SATA ports (I have 8 internal drives - 2 SSDs, 5 HDDs, and 1x Optical) - and may want to expand more (I do video editing)
* USB 3.0 ports (the more the merrier) - external high speed HDDs
* I would like to be able to add in thunderbolt someday down the road, but I can do that via a PCI-E card.
* I want great audio to plug in to my receiver/home theatre.
* I doubt I'll ever do SLI
* any need to bother with mSata?
* Bluetooth & WiFi are both something that I may need. Should I get it integrated, or I could add on via USB bluetooth. WiFi is a nicety but in reality I will be on wired connection most of the time

 

[rickon66]

I love my Gigabyte, it is built more robustly than any mobo I have ever worked with and I have been building computers over 20 years. Mine went together without one problem and has been rock solid in the past 6 weeks. I was fortunate enough to be near a Micro Center on Ivy Bridge relese day and got mine in a bundle for $139.99.

 

[MacGyverSG1]

The Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 is on my short-list. I don't care about SLI/Crossfire, but those PCI-E slots and the extra 16 PCI-E lanes can be used for other devices. I still can't decide which Z77 board to get. I do like the ASUS' BIOS the best (MSI's is a very close second). Plus, the ASUS boards seem to always have top notch SATA III and USB 3.0 speeds. The ASUS boards are just too expensive compared to similar ones from other manufacturers.

Some new Z77 boards should hit the streets soon. I hope I'll be able to make a decision after that. It could just make it even harder for me to decide.

 

[Kaldorine]

@ Microcenter i got my 3570k with a UD3H for extremely cheap.

 

[caboob]

If you have no plans for SLI then don't get the Sniper 3 board. The PLX chip that expands the PCIe lanes induces latency on single card setups. But in SLI, the board really shines. Right now I'm working with Gigabyte through getting a Tri-SLI setup stable right now but 2-way SLI is rock solid.

 

[DigDog]

yup. a whopping 3% latency.

anyway, the sniper is just so expensive. the UD5 is plenty for everything.

 

[malikq86]

@ Microcenter i got my 3570k with a UD3H for extremely cheap.

yeah get this or the ASRock z77 Extreme4....those 2 mobos are best bang for buck w/ 3570k deal at microcenter.

 

[farlucco]

@ Microcenter i got my 3570k with a UD3H for extremely cheap.

me too...
just bough ..... but extremely cheap is not so correct...
the review speaks well of this motherboard .... also with oc and function....
with this chip z77 gigabyte do very well also with mid and low level motherboard....not like p68

 

[n0x1ous]

Very happy with my UD5

 

[Dkcode]

Anyone have the freezing issue with the UD5?

 

[hokies83]

Anyone have the freezing issue with the UD5?

when your over clock and it is not stable the bios will freeze.

 

[Dkcode]

when your over clock and it is not stable the bios will freeze.

No its a well known issue with these boards even at stock.

People have been having mixed results with it, big thread over on Overclockers UK about them. Just wondered if anyone here using this board encounter this issue at some point and whether it has been fixed with a BIOS update.

 

[Fjive]

No its a well known issue with these boards even at stock.

People have been having mixed results with it, big thread over on Overclockers UK about them. Just wondered if anyone here using this board encounter this issue at some point and whether it has been fixed with a BIOS update.

I have the same issue too on my z77-d3h. Latest bios (F14) didn't solve the random freeze either. But I've tried setting BCLK to 100.10 and it has been fine for the past 3-4 days...maybe you can try it too.

 

[Dkcode]

I don't own the board mate but I have been sizing them up. I was put off the Gigabyte UD5 for the freezing issue. Shame as the board looks very high quality hardware wise.

 

[rickon66]

I have been running mine for about 8 weeks @4.3ghz and have never had a freeze and the room I run it in has been 80-84 degrees F lately.