Gigabyte Z77-HD4 Review
by Ian Cutress on May 19, 2013 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
Gigabyte Z77-HD4 Conclusion
How much can $120 buy in a motherboard? If you want a simple single GPU system with a mild overclock, Gigabyte seem to have you covered. The Z77-HD4 is almost along the lines of a no-frills product: we have the base features of Z77 (overclocking, SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3.0), in a shortened board with additional PCIe, PCIe x1 and PCI ports as needed.
Performance-wise, the Z77-HD4 performs as well as any other Z77 motherboard on the market in terms of actual CPU and gaming performance at stock. All the CPU benchmarks and gaming benchmarks were in the mix – the only point at which we could consider the HD4 was not too good was in some of the IO, particularly DPC Latency where no matter what options we tried, the motherboard still spiked up to 561 microseconds without ET6 loaded and 871 with. USB performance however was decent enough and while power consumption seemed a little high under dual GPU testing, idle power usage was good.
The Z77-HD4 did well in our overclocking suite surpassing expectations. In terms of our bad CPU, it matched other boards we have reviewed recently, and although the voltages had to be increased more than I would like the temperatures were comparatively low compared to our other CPUs. Of course while the board may overclock like some of the big boys, an issue comes along with VRM temperatures at those high overclocks – with fewer phases and smaller heatsinks, you may find the hardware throttles earlier than some of the more substantial designs.
What the HD4 lacks most of all is functionality. Due to the price point we have no extra controllers on board, SATA ports sticking out of the motherboard and an x16 + x4 full length PCIe allocation which does not lend itself to multi-GPU gaming. However if one of the selling points of this motherboard is the inclusion of all four video outputs at the low price, then one could conceivably argue that this board should not be paired with a discrete GPU and more like a good RAID card or Sound card, or one should venture forth with Virtu MVP to get the best responsiveness.
Going up the Gigabyte range, the UD3H is currently on sale for $140, and offers a bit more in styling, eSATA ports, an mSATA port, and up to 3-way CrossFire with an x8/x8 + x4 PCIe lane setup. The in-box package also includes an SLI bridge as a point of differentiation.
For the future, I have had requests to have a look at some of these cheaper products, as well as B- and Q- series when time allows. Unlike some of the bigger boards that flesh out the $150+ range, these lower models can sometimes only differ in one feature, but be based on the same PCB design. So if you have any specific models, please let me know at ian@anandtech.com.
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lmcd - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
I'm just going to tell you now that your assessment is completely off -- a good amount of people can tell the difference in regards to the audio. Plenty of people like the option to XF/SLI later in custom builds. And some of those performance differences were shocking. That was an audio demonstration, but could mouse polling face that, too?Anyway, don't get me started on the audio, but there is reason for better solutions than this board.
HardwareDufus - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
the "this board is probably aimed at the internet café market in China" is pretty shameful and below the belt Ian..I agree as well... Don't be so elitest! It's refreshing to see a decent $120 motherboard that sacrifices nothing that 95% of buyers require. Ian you are getting spoiled reviewing too many high end motherboards jammed with features that only 2% of the buyers require. Come down out of the stratosphere and join the rest of us.
kmmatney - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I also think this comment was way off ""this board is probably aimed at the internet café market in China"If anything, the board is for this market:
http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-proce...
And its what I build for myself, friends, family, and all the computers I build for my company, and anyone else who wants a great gaming experience without breaking the bank.
Razorbak86 - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
"Shameful" and "below the belt"? o.ODo you always get your panties in a twist over such innocuous opinions?
/seewhatididthere
kmmatney - Sunday, May 19, 2013 - link
I have to admit I never use the on-board buttons on my motherboard, and find beep codes to be just as useful as an error code display. At the end of the day, you still need to swap out parts to troubleshoot an error, regardless of an error code display.Flunk - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I agree with you I can't see a need for onboard power and reset switches on any motherboard. If the computer is set up they're worthless and if you're working on it you have your screwdriver right there to short out the front panel header. There really is no need at all for onboard power buttons.jabber - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
I have to agree. I don't need dragons or ninjas on the box.I don't need heatsinks fashioned in some faux novelty bullet or landmine design.
I don't need LED lit BIOS reset buttons (I've used mine twice in 5 years, so no, not needed).
I don't need LED error notifications. I've had them and never needed them.
I don't need umpteen video out options, I have a GPU card.
I don't need built in audio, I have a sound card.
I don't need built in ethernet, I have a Intel CT nic.
I don't need a PS2 socket.
I don't need more then 4 SATA ports (three if I'm honest is all I ever need)
I don't need extra USB/Serial/Firewire expansion on the board.
I don't need glow in the dark sockets or custom motherboard colours.
I don't need 8 fan controller sockets.
What do I need? A good quality stripped down board that without all that unnecessary crud would probably cost $50. Unfortunately no one seems to think anyone wants such a board.
If most here were honest it's all they really need/want also.
Razorbak86 - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
Good God, man, give it a rest. I hate it when someone starts ranting and then presumes to speak for the rest of us.jabber - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
Sorry, I'll leave you to your motherboards and GPUs with dragons, neons and bullets on them.Was just stating that a lot of the features that motherboard manufacturers have loaded on 'as standard' are not really needed and only there to increase their slim profit margins.
After 20+ years of PC building I'm kind of fed up paying for crud I don't need in order to purchase a 'quality' board.
Why can't we have a good quality overclocking board without all the stuff we never use? Without all that stuff on there we could have much better signal paths, less noise and better power regs.
kmmatney - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
That's a bit extreme. Most of us need/use the built in Network and Sound, and at least a DVI output is useful, even if you have a separate card. And practically everyone can use a lot of USB ports and headers.