Gigabyte Z77-HD4 Motherboard
On Board Peripherals
Contents
The Intel Z77 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip supports two SATA-600 ports and four SATA-300 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5).
On this motherboard, the SATA ports are installed facing up, meaning that the installation of a video card in the second PCI Express x16 slot will make access to them very difficult, and you will need to use SATA cables with connectors placed at a 90° angle. (The motherboard comes with such cables.)
The Intel Z77 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.0 ports. The Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 offers eight USB 2.0 ports: four on its rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard; and four USB 3.0 ports, two on the motherboard rear panel and two available through one headers on the motherboard.
The Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 doesn’t support FireWire ports.
This motherboard supports 7.1 audio. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Realtek ALC887 codec, which is a mainstream solution, providing a 97 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. These specifications are perfect for the average user. However, if you plan to convert and edit audio from analog sources (such as VHS tapes, vinyl records, and cassette tapes) you will need to pick a motherboard with an input SNR of at least 100 dB.
Even though the audio codec supports the 7.1 format, this motherboard is only compatible with 5.1 analog speakers. The motherboard has only three audio jacks, it doesn’t come with an SPDIF output, and it doesn’t have a header for you to install one.
As it only has three analog audio jacks, you will have to kill the “line in” and “mic in” jacks when installing a 5.1 analog speaker set. This is, in our opinion, the major drawback of this motherboard.
On the other hand, you can use the HDMI output to get 7.1 audio.
The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by a Realtek RTL8111F chip.
In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with four USB 2.0 ports, shared PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse, VGA output, DVI-D output, DisplayPort output, HDMI output, two USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.
Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel