Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Mainboard - Not So Complicated LGA 115 Mainboard (Part 5)

Power consumption

The measurement of power consumption is still conducted with the help of the Extech Power Analyzer 380803 like before. This device is connected before the PSU and the power consumption level of the whole system would be recorded (without the monitor), including power loss in the PSU itself. In the idle mode, we boot the system and wait until it stops accessing into the hard disk. In the case of loading the single-thread CPU, the level of power consumed are measured while testing the number Pi-digits performance, and in the case of multi-thread, it is measured while the test of Fritz Chess Benchmark is being conducted. The Hitman Absolution game is also used to create complex load. The results on the chart are showed in the ascending order and results of the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H are highlighted by darker color for your convenience.

The Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H activates all CPU-related power saving technology accurately by default

As we have mentioned above, the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H activates all CPU-related power saving technology accurately by default. It is not necessary to do any manual setting, which is an obvious advantage. However, the level of consumed power of this mainboard is higher than that of ASUS P8Z77-V LK and MSI Z77 MPOWER, which have the same ability. Less power is required for Gigabyte compared to senior products from ASRock and ASUS, but it power consumption is not typical for its original product, as they have an additional PCI Express switch.

Now, let compare the needed system power consumption when the system is overclocked.

The Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H consumes less power than the two special models

The order is unchanged. Gigabyte performs just like what expected, consuming less power than the two senior products but its power consumption level is still higher than the two other original models.

Conclusion

Although Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H is a new-entry level product, we have many joys experiencing it. With the Intel Z77 Express chipset, its features is truly diverse, and the only feature that it does not really need to use is sharing the CPU integrated PCIe lanes between the graphics card slots. However, it owns an additional USB 3.0 controller instead which is in charge of another pair of USB 3.0 on the back side of the mainboard. There are many features that can be considered as the mainboard’s advantages, including important features like a user-friendly PCB design, a mSATA connection, the ability of adjusting the 3-pin fan speed, efficient layout of the mainboard’s back panel, all advantages of the DualBIOS technology and Ultra Durable 4 Classic, system adjusting options and excellent overclocking. For the drawbacks, we have mentioned some. The Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H, just like other mainboards, does not display the startup information. Besides, only one out of three system fan connectors is able to lower the rotation speed of the fan. Most of all, the power consumption level is much higher than its opponents.

Of course, you will come across other downsides, depending on your own preferences. Some people will not be happy with a vertically orientated mSATA. Some expect more in the PCI slots. However, there is no mainboard that can satisfy every user’s need. That is why many models are provided by many different manufacturers. It is always possible to find the most suitable model for you from many similar products.

However, we do not want to underestimate the wonderful features of this product from Gigabyte. The most important one would be the problem-free behavior. This mainboard does not work as well as expected. You will need to do nothing to have your CPU worked at the real nominal frequency. It is also not necessary to check whether the power saving technology is activated, either. There is no problem with the BIOS update. It provides many setting options and fully reacts with any changes inside them. Any change in configuration can be made easily and simply and the mainboard fully responses to everything you do. There are other mainboards with additional controllers and extendable features, and there are also those with more affordable prices and are simpler. However, it would not be so often to come across such problem-free product like the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H in the catalogue.

Specifications

CPU    ·         Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package ·         L3 cache varies with CPU Chipset           ·         Intel® Z77 Express Chipset Memory          ·             4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory ·             Dual channel memory architecture ·             Support for DDR3 2800(OC)/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules ·             Support for non-ECC memory modules ·         Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules Onboard Graphics (Integrated Graphics Processor) ·         1 x D-Sub port ·         1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 ·         The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter. ·         1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 Audio  ·             VIA VT2021 codec ·             High Definition Audio ·             2/4/5.1/7.1-channel ·             Support for S/PDIF Out LAN    ·             1 x Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) Expansion Slots        ·             1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) ·             1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) ·             1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) ·             3 x PCI Express x1 slots ·             1 x PCI slots Multi-Graphics Technology            ·         Support for 2-Way AMD CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology Storage Interface ·         2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0/SATA3 1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices ·         4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2 2~SATA2 5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices ·         1 x mSATA connector ·         Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 USB ·            Chip: Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ·             Up to 6 USB 2.0/1.1 ports VIA VL800 chip: ·             Up to 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel Internal I/O Connectors       ·             1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector ·             1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector ·             4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors ·             4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors ·             1 x mSATA connector ·             1 x CPU fan header ·             3 x system fan headers ·             1 x front panel header ·             1 x front panel audio header ·             1 x S/PDIF Out header ·             1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header ·             2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers ·             1 x serial port header ·             1 x Clear CMOS jumper ·             1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header Back Panel Connectors       ·             1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port ·             1 x D-Sub port ·             1 x DVI-D port ·             1 x HDMI port ·             6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports ·             2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports ·             1 x RJ-45 port ·             1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector ·             5 x audio I/O Controller BIOS   ·             2 x 64 Mbit flash ·             Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS ·             Support for DualBIOS™ ·             PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a