Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

The Intel Z77 chipset is a single-chip solution that 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). This motherboard doesn’t bring any additional SATA controllers.

As previously mentioned, the “SATA2 5” port is shared with the mSATA slot, so this port can’t be used when an mSATA SSD is installed.

All SATA ports are located at the motherboard’s edge and rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them. See Figure 6.

Figure 6: SATA-300 (black) and SATA-600 (white) ports

There are no eSATA ports on this motherboard.

The Intel Z77 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.0 ports. The Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH offers six USB 2.0 ports 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, near the main power supply connector. The four additional USB 3.0 ports located on the rear panel are controlled by a VIA VL800 chip.

The Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH doesn’t have FireWire ports.

The two Thunderbolt ports are controlled by an Intel DSL3510L chip.

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 Realtek ALC892 codec, which is a mainstream-grade product, 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 good for the average user, but if you want to work professionally with audio editing or converting analog audio sources into digital format, you will need to pick a motherboard with at least 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its inputs.

The motherboard has on-board optical SPDIF output. Additionally, there are two headers, labeled “SPDIF_IN” and “SPDIF_O,” which can be used to add SPDIF ports if necessary. It is important to point out that it is uncommon for a motherboard to have SPDIF input, so this may be an advantage if you are looking for a motherboard with this feature, even if it is not supported out of the box.

The analog audio outputs are independent only if you use a 5.1 analog speaker set. If you install a 7.1 analog speaker set, you will need to use either the “mic in” or the “line in” jacks.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a Realtek RTL8111E chip.

In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard rear panel with a shared PS/2 keyboard/mouse connector, six USB 3.0 ports, VGA output, DVI-D output, HDMI output, Gigabit Ethernet port, two Thunderbolt ports, one optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 7: Motherboard rear panel