“For $200, you’ll be
hard pressed to find
a better board”.
All results were obtained at 4.8GHz on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit and WinXP.
These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system
Motherboard
3DMark03
3DMark11
Super Pi 8M
Aida 64 Copy
Aida 64 Latency
GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7
108,758
123,685
10,466
1.24.469
29474
29.6
MSI Z77 Mpower
104,739
123,713
10,456
1.24.843
29416
31.2
of options and screens, but
it takes deliberation and
purposeful action to deliver
a BIOS that is both intuitive,
deep in settings but without
too many pages to navigate.
It’s the smooth mouse
movements that make this
the only BIOS which we used
the mouse with; the interface
is slick, sharp and very well
laid out. Simple features like
being able to select your boot
order by arranging icons with
a mouse are the finer touches
that other vendors could learn
from. Saving BIOS profiles
isn’t a matter of just inputting
a name, but information
such as the date, time and
version of the BIOS profile
that is saved is made readily
available to you. It’s this
refined way of communicating
with the user that makes this
board so pleasurable to use.
Outside the BIOS, it’s not
going to win any awards as
you can’t adjust bclk, CPU
multiplier or anything for that
matter on the board. Sure
enough you get the usual
POST LED, V-check points,
reset, power, BIOS switch
and clear CMOS buttons, but
that’s standard these days on
any board that even attempts
to target overlclockers or
enthusiasts. The one gripe we
have in all the above however,
is the positioning of the POST
LED, where it’s easily obscured
by the graphics card. It’s
understandable that since this
is a standard ATX motherboard,
real-estate is hard to come
by, but surely there’s a better
place to have it where it may
actually serve a purpose.
Performance wise, it
delivers the goods. It’s
not so finely tuned like
the OC-Formula but then
again as we’ve seen during
the motherboard testing
in this issue, it seems no
motherboard is. There is
nothing that is lacking in this
boards performance save
for 3DMark2001se results
which are not low, but the
BI ??\??&] [?Y??\?\? B??\?H ?] H?\?[? \?X\??[?\???\? ??]K???H ?[ ?KZ]\?]HY?Z[???HY ?\?H??Y?[?B?^ X?][????[??[?? \??]?Y]???? H ?\?H ?B??\? ?\?Y ?] X\?[? H ???\???\?\? ?Y?Y?X?[? B??] \? [? ?] ?HY?^ X?Y[???HY?Z[???? ? [?x?&[?H\? ?\??Y???[?H?] \???\? ?Y?? Y]??[??KQ?H ? B?Z^[? [?H?[? ?YH?? \?\? ???X? H H?\? ?[ YH???[?^H[?\???\?[?T?x?&\??[?\?H[?H \ ?]?[?Y??? \?B?\?H?X??\[?\???\? B?T?H???T??\?\??\?Z[? B???H?^K???H?\?????\?B???[[X\?B??]T?H??\??\?B?\?X\?[ H?? H?\??QQ?H?S??[?\??X?\?]?\??X]?X] \?\??X\?H?\?????[??[??H?X] ?X?K?] X???[?H ?Y? ??\?[??\?] ?]?]]X??\???]\??&] H?\????[??[?\???\?\??[? ?]?]8?&\? ?[?H? H?\??[?^H?[??^K?\???\??\? ?\?H\?\??[????\???X??[Y[?Y]?\? ?????[ [?H?^H]??\?H [??]8?&\?H ? ???[??\?????[??[?\???\? ]8?&\? ?] H ?[XX?H[?????\?[? ???H???B?? ?L?\??YH ?H ? L?H?\?????\? MB??