Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

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). These ports are located at the motherboard’s edge and rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them.

Figure 5: The four SATA-300 ports (black) and the two SATA-600 ports (white)

The mSATA slot is connected to the SATA2 port 5, so they can’t be used at the same time. This also means that the mSATA slot is SATA-300.

This motherboard also has two eSATA-600 ports, which are controlled by a Marvell 88SE9172 chip.

The Intel Z77 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.0 ports. The Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H offers six USB 2.0 ports, available through three headers located on the motherboard; and eight USB 3.0 ports, six located on the motherboard rear panel and two available on a header located on the motherboard. The four additional USB 3.0 ports located on the rear panel are controlled by a VIA VL800 chip.

The Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H doesn’t support FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the VIA VT2021 codec, which is an outstanding solution, providing an impressive 110 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 100 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. This means you are able to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) with this motherboard without adding any background noise.

The motherboard has an optical SPDIF output, and you can add a coaxial SPDIF output or route digital audio to old video cards that require a physical connection in order to have digital audio on their HDMI output by using the “SPDIF_O” connector available.

The analog audio outputs are completely independent, so you won’t have to kill either the “mic in” or the “line in” jacks when installing an analog 7.1 speaker set.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Ateros AR8151 chip.

In Figure 6, you can see the motherboard rear panel with a shared PS/2 connector for keyboard and mouse, six USB 3.0 ports, VGA output, DVI-D output, optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, two eSATA-600 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 6: Motherboard rear panel