’S
EDITOR
ICE
CHO
AWARD
GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H
RRP: $149.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com
Test Machine
• Intel Core i7 3770K Retail
• Transcend AxeRam 2400MHZ
CL9
• Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
• EVGA GeForce GTX 680
Classified
• ANTEC HCP 1200
• Windows XP SP3/Windows 7
64-Bit SP1
B
udget boards are
usually something we
try and stay away from
here at TheOverclocker.
Understandably so because
most of the time they just
don’t have all the features
that we consider pivotal
to any self respecting
overclocking motherboard.
Most of the time it’s not that
they have a BIOS that makes
it impossible to overclock,
but it’s that overclocking is
made unnecessarily difficult
by appalling oversights and
general short sightedness.
There are many vendors
14 The OverClocker Issue 20 | 2012
with boards like these, but
fortunately GIGABYTE isn’t
one of them. We’d actually
go as far as to say this is how
budget boards should be from
here on in. At a mere $150
USD it’s rather impressive
what GIGABYTE has managed
to outfit on this board. It’s no
Maximus IV Gene, but then
again it need not be as at $150
we’re lucky that it has any
overclocking features at all let
alone so many.
Physically as you can see it
isn’t too different from the UD5H
which we were thoroughly
impressed by. After numerous
hours spent with this board both
under regular air cooling and
more exotic methods like LN2,
it’s clear that the UD3H may
actually be a better overclocking
motherboard than the UD5H.
For gamers you should still
go with the UD5H, but for our
purposes th