Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Review: Thunderbolt Times Two
by Ian Cutress on September 17, 2012 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
- thunder
The Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH sits between a rock and a hard place. At the lowest level, this motherboard is very basic – we get an extra USB 3.0 controller, but Realtek ALC892 audio codec, Realtek internet, no extra SATA ports. On top of this though, the board has a Thunderbolt controller with two ports and support for up to 12 Thunderbolt devices, as well as Gigabyte’s Ultra Durable 5 meaning IR3550 PowIRstage power delivery for cooler operation and reduced power consumption.
At this price bracket, the main competition comes from Gigabyte’s own Z77X-UD5H. In comparison, the UD5H gets dual NIC (one Intel), extra SATA 6 Gbps ports, up to 10 USB 3.0 ports, power switches and debug LED, all four video outputs from the integrated graphics and a bit more in the box in the form of a USB 3.0 panel with the same PCIe 3.0 GPU lane allocation. So it would come down to what you would want in your product – power consumption and Thunderbolt on the UP4 TH, or SATA ports, NICs and more USB on the UD5H. It all depends on the uptake of Thunderbolt in your personal life.
Performance wise at stock shows that Gigabyte has enabled Multicore Enhancement on this board, meaning that when XMP is applied the system will cause the CPU to run at the top turbo bin multiplier, giving 200 MHz more at full load than some other boards. This makes the UP4 TH come up in the top echelons of our more CPU oriented multithreaded tests. Nothing too special from our IO testing comes out, though the use of the four port USB 3.0 VIA chip is always a little limiting compared to two port ASMedia USB 3.0 chips. GPU testing shows that a three-GPU scenario (x8/x4/x4 at PCIe 3.0) is not affected by the lane count. Our AMD GPU testing shows results that seem to be a little lower in comparison to other Z77 boards.
Software, as we have said for a few Gigabyte motherboards now, needs a push into this decade as it feels old, still affects DPC latency, and we are getting multiple programs to install rather than have them all under one heading. The BIOS is getting better in terms of Gigabyte’s earlier implementations of a graphical interface on X79, but it still lacks a little organizational quality for power users.
Do not get me wrong – PowIRstage and Thunderbolt are great things to have on a motherboard but at the minute their implementation is an added luxury and pushes boards out of their price bracket. As a non-TB user, PowIRstages make more sense in a mini-ITX system or when I am pushing for an overclock. The UP4 TH did overclock better than most of the boards it must be said, but individually I would prefer the extra SATA, extra USB 3.0 and extra NICs that the UD5H provides.
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ElFenix - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
"Despite all this, Gigabyte’s foray into the Thunderbolt world is spurned in part by the board we are reviewing today...."You probably meant 'spurred,' though that doesn't really fit either.
Also, the very first sentence should be more like "Because the exclusive license has expired...."
IanCutress - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Thanks for pointing the first one out - it should have been 'initiated in part'. As to the phrasing of the first sentence, I find it common enough where I am. Not sure if it's a UK thing or not, though US vs. UK idioms have been commented on in past reviews. As always, if anything catches your eye please feel free to email :)Ian
freedom4556 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Speaking of UK vs US, I had to Google your Stella Artois reference, and I actually drink the stuff occasionally. Must have been a UK specific ad campaign.lurker22 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
I understand that Thunderbolt is a lot faster and a different usage than USB 3. Frankly, it's not so much better than USB 3 that consumers will pay for Thunderbolt. USB 3 is already leading, and Thunderbolt will be left behind like Firewire despite the tech being superior...dagamer34 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It's rather meh on desktops since it's pretty easy to add new hardware internally, but it makes far more sense on laptops when you have limited number of ports. Having an external PCI-Express bus is interested, especially if external GPUs ever actually arrive at an affordable price point.Kjella - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
If you're going to plug in one device, yes. I think the strength of Thunderbolt is as a laptop dock - plug in one cable and you got wired network, sound, keyboard, mouse, printers external screens, any USB 1/2/3.0 device, firewire, esata, external graphics card dock, regular 3.5" HDDs and whatnot. That can have a future in many companies I think who've now chosen laptops for higher flexibility - now you can have that and dock into a full system with one cable.sean.crees - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It will mean a lot if they ever put thunderbolt on a mini itx board. I know a lot of SFF enthusiasts who would love to try external graphics with a sub 10 liter enclosure. But on a full size ATX board it doesn't really mean a whole lot.Skidmarks - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - link
That's possibly true but only time will tell.GeorgeH - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It really would've been nice to see some Thunderbolt testing. I realize Anand is hogging all of the shiny TB gear, but the review didn't really test the primary draw of this MB and as such is kind of useless.zanon - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Agreed. As the summary correctly states, the raison d'etre of this board are the TB ports. Even if it's just the overpriced Promise a review should give them some stress and see how they perform. Maybe it'll get easier if QNAP ever releases their JBOD.