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For ITX platform users, most will use Intel original CPU Cooler. Besides the convenience, it?s also hard to find ITX CPU Cooler. Thermalright, high end cooler maker, just launched a high end cooler for ITX platform. The model is AXP-100. Packing is corrugated paper with black printing. Contents Left is manual, right is installation parts, and lower right is cooler. The fan spec is L 108.25mm X H 101.5mm and Noise Level is 22~30 dBA. AXP-100 body is nickel-plated. 6 heat-pipes improve thermal conduction. L 121.1mm X W 105.47mm X H 44.15mm, the height with fan is 5.8cm. CPU contact face is mirror polished. It looks like a boutique, and the price is also high. If you would like to build a high end ITX PC or look for better heat dissipation, AXP-100 is one of the options. However, big CPU cooler will interfere with DIMM1, you also can use standard height DDR3. Temperature (Room is 19) Enter to OS Desktop - 23~27 CPU Full Speed - 41~43 LinX 0.6.4 Comparing AXP-100 with Intel original cooler, when entering to OS desktop, it?s 1~3 lower and full speed is 5~6 lower. The cooler performance is good at full speed condition, but the improvement is not huge. It dues to Core i3-3220 is low heat. If I used Core i5 or i7 CPU, I believed AXP-100 would be much better. 3D Performance Test Intel Core i3-3220 built-in HD Graphics 2500 3DMark Vantage => P1761 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 45.00 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 726 HD Graphics 2500 is 30~50% faster than HD Graphics 2000. However, the score is only entry level. If you use ITX PC as media player or limited 3D usage, it?s good enough. If you would like to play 3D games, I do recommend you to install VGA. Adding AMD Radeon HD 7700 3DMark Vantage => P7994

CPU is Intel Core i3-3220, most entry Ivy Bridge so far. The clock is 3.3GHz, physical 2 Cores with Hyper-Threading for 4 threads, called 2C4T. It?s 22nm, TDP 55W and 3MB L3 Cache. System Performance Test CPU 99.8 X 32 => 3292.41MHz DDR3 1796 CL9 10-9-27 2T Hyper PI 32M X4 => 14m 14.585s CPUMARK 99 => 514 Nuclearus Multi Core => 14268 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 13.29/6378 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 191818 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 3.17 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.32 pts PCMARK7 => 3099 Windows8 Experience Index - CPU 7.2 Core i3-3220 single thread performance is very high. 2C4T structure also works well for multi-tasking. If you have higher performance demand for file converting or graphics related applications, you can consider Core i5 or i7 CPU. It will improve the performance. DRAM Test DDR3 1796 CL9 10-9-27 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 18452 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 22463 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 19663 MB/s DDR3 1995.4 CL9 11-10-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19416 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 25345 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 20886 MB/s Ivr Bridge Momory Controller improves a lot. B75 chip can reach DDR3 2000. Previous Sandy Bridge CPU with entry chipset only supported DDR3 1066~1333. Comparing Intel two generations, DDR3 clock improves a lot. The bandwidth increases 25%. Temperature (Room is 19) Enter to OS Desktop - 26~28 CPU Full Speed - 47~49 LinX 0.6.4 The test above is using Intel original cooler. The result is quite good already. 22nm is another Ivy Bridge advantage. Core i3-3220 temperature is quite low in default clock. If installing in chassis, I estimate the temperature will rise 5~8 degree C more which is still acceptable.

2012, almost all active MB brands launched ITX boards. ITX advantage is smaller dimension. If using high performance CPU, GPU or WiFi technology support, it may create more value to PC as competing with smart phones, tablets or laptops. GIGABYTE former two generations Intel ITX MB specs were normal and late. For Ivy Bridge structure, the specs are improved a lot. It?s capable to compete with the others. Taiwan has two models, H77N WIFI and B75N. The PCB designs are almost the same. The main difference is H77N WIFI built-in BT4.0 / WiFi card and antenna. H77 chipsets supports two SATA3 devices, but B75 only supports one. This article is testing GIGABYTE B75N. It uses better texture black PCB. If you have WiFi demand, you can choose H77N WIFI. CPU PWM is 4+1 phases. B75 cannot adjust CPU ratio, so it?s enough for Core i7. B75N market price is higher than other B75 ITX MB. However, the specs and components are quite high level. Lower Side 1 X PCI-E X16 3.0 supports X16 bandwidth. Dual LAN chips are both Realtek RTL8111E. Audi chip is Realtek ALC892, supporting 7.1 channels and High Definition Audio technology. Right Side 2 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333/1600(Must use Ivy Bridge CPU) DDR3 max capacity is 16GB, supporting Extreme Memory Profile technology. Upper Side 1 X White SATA, support SATA3 by B75 3 X Black SATA, support SATA2 by B75 Upper left corner is Mini PCI-E slot for installing WiFi/BT 4.0 card. Lower left corner is 24-PIN power connector. IO 1 X PS/2 KB/Mouse 2 X USB 3.0(Blue) 2 X HDMI 1 X DVI-I 4 X USB 2.0(Black) 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF Optical output 5 X Audio jacks In 3D BIOS main screen, it shows major parts explanation as cursor over. UEFI DaulBIOS the other interface is traditional screen. Most users are more familiar. Test System Configuration CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 MB: GIGABYTE B75N DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT DDR3 1866 8GX2 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 2500 / AMD Radeon HD 7700 HDD: Seagate Momentus 500G POWER: XIGMATEK Tauro 400W Bronze Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 OS: Windows8 64bit

PCMark Vantage - HDD Score : 77278 CrystalMark Sequential Read 1045.61 MB/s Sequential Write 940.61 MB/s PCMark Vantage HDD Score is same as single drive. I think it?s software issue. CrystalMark still has almost double speed. IOMETER 2008 1 minute - 100% Read / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 75398.85 3 minutes - 100% Read / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 68926.28 IOMETER 2008 Random Read 4KB increases 24~35%. 1 minute to 3 minutes later, the performance drops 9%. 1 minute - 100% Write / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 112569.77 3 minutes - 100% Write / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 112823.49 IOMETER 2008 Random Write 4KB increases about 23%. SSD Benchmark TOTAL => 7455.18 This software also increases 48%. Windwithme mentioned several times when sharing SSD Raid 0 test. That moment, Intel Rapid Storage Technology didn?t support Raid 0 Trim mode. So the speed would drop after using for long time. Few months ago, Storage Technology Drive 11.5 released and official support Raid 0 Trim. This is really a good news for Raid 0 mode users. It also pushes SSD further performance and applications to wider range. SandForce SF-2281 controller has been launched over 18 months. From high end SATA3 SSD position to current 80% market share, the price is close to entry SATA3 SSD. As different service terms and warranty, the price is different. Popularity and price is SandForce strength. The weakness is random write beginning is risng from 200 more MB/s to 500 MB/s slowly. This time, CORSAIR Force GS uses different NAND Flash ICs. Some performance is improved a little. As Max Random 4k Write (IOMeter 08) over 90k IOPS (4k aligned) is the major improvement. This article shares you the different performance of SandForce SF-2281 controller with different NAND Flash. Also, Intel Rapid Storage Technology Drive high performance in Raid 0 mode. You can use it as your reference for further SSD purchasing. This article is also in my blog - WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

3 minutes - 100% Write / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 91553.28 The former review of SandForce SSD, the performance is lower after 3 minutes. It may be caused by firmware. As GS using SandForce controller, IOMETER 2008 Random Read / Write 4KB test are very good. 1 minute and 3 minutes test difference is minor. You can treat it as acceptable deviation. SSD Benchmark TOTAL => 5026.30 This result is much higher than 3700 by Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 controller SS. You can see SandForce controller SSD still has his advantage in some software. Second part is two 240GB GS runs at Raid 0 mode. Two CORSAIR Force GS 240GB both install at white SATA3 port. None OS system drive without any data. Test at Intel Z77 platform. HD Tune Pro 5.00 Black Size is the special part of this software. Left side default is 64K and right side is 8MB. 64K - Read - Average 1028.7 MB/s Access Time 0.123ms 8MB - Read - Average 1040.1 MB/s Access Time 0.122ms 64K - Write - Average 325.8 MB/s Access Time 0.094ms 8MB - Write - Average 891.9 MB/s Access Time 0.153ms Read - Random Access & Extra tests Write - Random Access & Extra tests File Benchmark Sequential 4KB randon Read - 84750 IOPS / Write - 169440 IOPS ATTO DISK Benchmark over 128KB test, max read is 1118.4 Mb/s and max write is 1047.5 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 1012 MB/s Write - 529.9 MB/s Read - 1064 MB/s Write - 993.1 MB/s Read - 1063 MB/s Write - 875.5 MB/s HD Tune Pro 5.00 most items are almost double speed. CrystalDiskMark scores are also the same. ATTO DISK Benchmark is a good software to test SSD best read/write performance with short time. The max score is almost double as well. You can see the Raid 0 mode really improves the performance. AS SSD Benchmark - 1423 Seq Read - 1031.05 MB/s Write - 517.00 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 456.30 MB/s Write - 407.31 MB/s In Raid 0 mode, AS SSD Benchmark score increases about 75%.

64K - Write - Average 336.7 MB/s Access Time 0.143ms 1MB - Write - Average 331.4 MB/s Access Time 0.108ms Read - Random Access & Extra tests Write - Random Access & Extra tests File Benchmark Sequential 4KB randon Read - 66732 IOPS / Write - 91984 IOPS ATTO DISK Benchmark over 512KB test, max read is 557.9 Mb/s and max write is 535.6 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 524.1 MB/s Write - 288.7 MB/s Read - 527.4 MB/s Write - 524.9 MB/s Read - 527.6 MB/s Write - 525.1 MB/s CrystalDiskMark default test is random. You can see right side performance is lower. It?s characteristic of SandForce controller. It has lower performance in random algorithm. Left pic is CrystalDiskMark sequential mode. The write performance is close to official specs. AS SSD Benchmark - 811 Seq Read - 519.43 MB/s Write - 274.13 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 224.70 MB/s Write - 214.04 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark Seq Write is similar to CrystalDiskMark. Compression Benchmark write starts from 280MB/s to over 480MB/s. SandForce in Sequential Write uses special algorithm, this is key weakness of SandForce controller. In sequential or random read, 4K performance and continuous write, SF-2281 controller is very good. PCMark Vantage - HDD Score : 78671 CrystalMark Sequential Read 503.02 MB/s Sequential Write 500.48 MB/s IOMETER 2008 1 minute - 100% Read / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 55773.68 3 minutes - 100% Read / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 56190.92 1 minute - 100% Write / 100% Random 4KB Total I/Os per Second => 91791.99

Solid-State Drive does improve C performance in past 4 years. No matter DeskTop PC or Notebook both shorten the system processing time. It?s why SSD still so popular after launching many years. However, the high price also impact the popularity. Every year, SSD price is almost 50% off. The price segment is based on 100 or 200USD. As history price record, 2 years ago, 200USD only could have 60GB, last year was 120GB and this year is 240GB. This year, you can find many 120GB SSD below 100USD. This price point is acceptable. 3 years ago, CORSAIR, from USA, started their SSD product line which was pioneer in this field. Controller also moved from SAMSUNG to SandForce or Marvell. Different controller focus on different performance and price segment. This GS SSD is Force Series. It had Force 3 and GT, 2 versions. Force Series uses SandForce controller with different NAND Flash ICs. Let?s look at packing first. Gold is a representative color of GS. Contents Left side is product warranty card, middle is Force GS 240GB and right side is back 2.5? to 3.5? rack and screws. Product size is 2.5?. The capacity is 240GB.?Official max speed is 555/525 MB/s at ATTO Disk Benchmark. Random 4K max write is 90k IOPS. It?s very high specs of 4K performance in current SSD market. Metal shell with red coating and tactile impression is grain texture. CORSAIR offers 3 years warranty. The family has 128/180/240/360/480GB. Capacity provides rich choices. Users can choose the suitable one by budget or demand. Back is black metal with matte hair line. It improves the product texture. Lower left is SATA3 and power connectors. Next is silver laser sticker. As warranty and internal hardware safety, we better to keep it in original state. Force Series GS uses popular SandForce SF-2281 controller. NAND Flash uses 16 SanDisk Mark 24nm ICs, 16GB each. If you are interested in Force GS internal build, you can search in Google. The test platform is Intel Z77 chipset, GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER M3. It?s mid-end gaming series using Micro ATX. It emphasizes audio and LAN chips. It equips Creative latest CA0132, quad-core audio processor. It supports THX, CRYSTAL VOICE, and etc. It has 3 PCI-E X16, 1 PCI-E X1. The expandability is very good as Micro ATX form factor. Also Intel chipset IO performance is better. The SATA3 should have better performance in SSD. System Configuration CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K MB: GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER M3 DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT 1866 8GBX2 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 HD: SanDisk Extreme 240GB / WD 1TB 7200rpm POWER: Thermaltake TR2 600W Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 OS: Windows8 Ultimate 64bit Single SanDisk Extreme 240GB install at white SATA3 port None OS system drive without any data. Test at Intel Z77 platform. HD Tune Pro 5.00 Black Size is the special part of this software. Left side default is 64K and right side is 1MB. 64K - Read - Average 408.7 MB/s Access Time 0.116ms 1MB - Read - Average 521.3 MB/s Access Time 0.117ms HD Tune Pro 5.00 set Black Size as 1MB almost reaching the best performance.

BootRacer Time to Logon 6~8 seconds Time to Desktop 26~28 seconds It's about 33~35 seconds from boot up to get in to OS desktop. Because MSI original OS comes with some add on programs, this will make the boot up time slower. Come pare to the Windows 7, Windows 8 will be 6~14 seconds longer time depends on different conditions. Maybe it's because the Windows 8 will get to the "Start" page and then get on the Desktop, that will takes more time. Dual SSD with RAID0 really make the notebook boot up much faster, also faster when installing, loading or saving programs. If we use HDD for boot up with Windows 8, will takes more than 1 minute to get to the OS desktop. If user install their pure clean Windows only with drivers, that could make the boot up time faster around 20 seconds. Temperature presents (Room environment 21?) 38~40? when idle mode. (Cooler Boost off) 34~38? when idle mode. (Cooler Boost on) Run the InteBurn Test to make CPU with full loading - 73~86?(Cooler Boost off) Run the InteBurn Test to make CPU with full loading - 72~77?(Cooler Boost on) We use idle mode and full loading test to compare the Cooler Boost fan function to check difference. The temperature difference of Cooler Boost on and off, it's about 2 degree when idle, and biggest gap is 11 degree when CPU is full loading burning test, so the Cooler Boost really helps when users need it. Besides the fan performance, about the noise of the cooler, it's not easy to hear the fan noise if Cooler Boost is off, and Cooler Boost will make the noise louder for sure. But the noise is not high frequency that makes people uncomfortable, if you listen to the music or play games with Dynauido sound system, you will not hear the noise even you turn on the Cooler Boost. Many notebooks with Dual Core will be 40? more when idle mode, and full loading will be 80~90 degree. So the temperature of GT70 with Core i7 and GTX675MX is really well controlled, MSI did have good design skill on the thermal solution with small space inside the notebook. Conclusion of MSI GT70 Dragon Edition: Pros: 1. Dragon Edition makes the chasses with special coating with Dragon Tattoo, also improve the packing a lot. Upgraded hardware on GTX675MX and Killer Double Shot. 2. Dual mSATA3 SSD and 2.5 inch 750GB HDD makes great balance of performance and capacity. 4xDDR3 DIMM with good extend of the RAM size. 3. Rich on IO interface, 3 USB3.0 and 2 USB2.0, with HDMI, D-Sub and eSATA as well. 4. Full size keyboard by Steelseries with back light, add on Turbo, Cooler Boost to boost up GPU and fan performance. 5. Special 2 channel with 1 subwoofer design with Sound by Dynaudio system, the sound quality even better than previous version of GT70. 6. Built in 1920x1080 Full HD matted display, that will makes your eyes more comfortable when gaming or watching movies. 7. Latest Killer Double Shot function, the LAN is faster and WiFi comes with 2x2 and 2.4GHz/5GHz dual band design. Cons: 1. SSD will be better if use the Micron or Marvell control chip. 2. Maybe IPS panel is more expensive, but still expect the GT70 could option with IPS panel in the future. 3. The NVIDIA graphics driver still need to improve on Windows 8 system, some 3D benchmark or games still can't get good performance on GTX675MX with full speed. 4. Recommend to use Creative Sound Core3D quad core sound chipset. Performance Rated: ?????????? 92/100 Material Rated: ?????????? 90/100 Specification Rated: ?????????? 86/100 ID Design Rated: ?????????? 88/100 Cost/Value Rated: ?????????? 70/100 Recent years some friends start to use notebooks to replaced PC desktop, their performance demand is not so high. But right now a notebook with better performance is more popular, because more people wants to use their laptop to play more games with Full HD resolution, and they also need high performance to take out for business trip or better mobility, these demand makes the high performance notebook market raising up every year. MSI got into the Gaming laptop market very early years ago, and keep enhance their products with better material and features for gamers every year. windwithme did share the GT70 with GTX680M version few months ago, this time add on some different software and more temperature benchmarks, also the first time to make benchmarks with Windows 8. You could refer last article to make some detail comparison. The GT70 Dragon Edition is limited version, the price range is close as previous GT70, the Dragon Edition did have some upgrade on GPU and some hardware, the Cost/Value is even better than regular version, but they are still at higher price segment. If you got limited budget but still want good performance laptop, you could consider GE60/GE70 at lower price range, GT70 if more suitable for top performance demand users. Hope MSI could come out better design with better price Gaming laptop in 2013. This is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 300008 CINEBENCH 11.5 OpenGL => 26.57 fps CPU => 6.31 pts CPU (Single Core) => 1.38 pts PCMark7 => 5435 Windows 8 Benchmarks CPU performance increase a little because of the i7-3610QM 2.3GHz upgraded to i7-3630QM 2.4GHz. PC Mark 7 over 5400 scores, this is really high as a notebook platform. Windows 8 built in benchmarks is more accurate than Windows 7, CPU/RAM got really high scores, especially the Super RAID dual SSD RAID0 makes the storage up to 8.3 points. GT70 built in with 2 GPU, one is Intel HD4000 from Core i7-3630QM, the other is NVIDIA GeForce GTX675MX with 4 GB DDR5 vRAM. 3DMark 11 - P4186 BIOHAZARD 5 Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 119.2 fps Heaven Benchmark 3.0 DX11 1920 X 1080 => 53.2 FPS Previous GT70 comes with GTX675M, this time it upgraded to GTX675MX, the 3D performance is around 15%~20% higher than GT675M. The 3D benchmark programs above got really high scores in notebook field, GT70 Dragon Edition presents very smooth gaming experience with Full HD resolution and highest effects on most of the heavy loading games. GT70 Dragon Edition built in with 2 mSATA interface with 2 128GBx2 SSD on RAID0 mode as C: drive for Windows 8 system used. The drive D: is a SATA2 interface with 750GB 7200rpm HDD for data storage. Below is the benchmarks of drive C: from Super RAID with 2 SSD RAID0. HD Tune Pro 5.00 Read - Average 986 MB/s Access Time 0.100ms ATTO DISK Benchmark over 128k could reach the highest reading speed with 1064.1 Mb/s, and writing speed up to 1025.0 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 914.6 MB/s Write - 365.0 MB/s Read - 994.7 MB/s Write - 845.9 MB/s Read - 995.8 MB/s Write - 854.6 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark - 955 Seq Read - 958.29 MB/s Write - 345.25 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 276.39 MB/s Write - 316.77 MB/s The random access tests will be lower when in CrystalDiskMark on the right image and AS SSD Benchmark Compression Benchmark writing start from 300MB/s more, and over 900MB/s at last. Depends on the benchmark result, these 2 SSD should be used with SandForce SF-2281 chip, Random Writing is the weakness, and it's really good performance on 4k access and other writing or reading benchmarks. Most 120GB SSD with SF-2281 chip used 120GB, and use the extra 8GB as the cache buffer. Recently the new version of 128GB SSD could use complete 128GB capacity, GT70 use the new version with 128GBx2 capacity.

The Dragon Head tattoo on the right side of the palm rest. The placement of keyboard is same as desktop keyboard, the numeric key on the right side is good to input numbers easier. The Keyboard By SteelSeries design comes with good typing sound, the force feedback and durability is better than most of normal laptop keyboards. The key in the middle is power button, shine with white light when turn on. The feature control panel designed with touch sensor, with 6 feature to control. Left 1 is GPU Turbo boost key, left 2 is Cooler boost key. Sound By Dynaudio speaker system aside the control panel with metallic cover. The back light keyboard could switch with multi colors, it's orange, green and blue right now. You could also change it become single red color to fit the same color tone of GT70 Dragon Edition. 17.3" LED back light matted monitor, with 1920x1080 Full HD resolution. HD WebCam supports 1280x720 30fps recording and 1280x1024 photo snapshot. The back side of the laptop. From right: heat sink hole HDMI eSATA D-Sub RJ-45 LAN AC Lock Previous version of GT70 only used Killer Gaming LAN, but this time GT70 Dragon Edition used both Killer LAN and Killer WiFi with Wireless-N1202 chipset, it supports 2x2 and 2.4GHz /5GHz bandwidth, these 2 was called "Killer Double Shot", for really faster internet access and lower gaming pin rate. Left side. From right: Line out Line in Mic-in Headphone SDXC card reader 3x USB3.0 Right side. From right: Blu-Ray burner drive 2x USB2.0 The GT70 Dragon Edition used Windows 8 OS. It's the hardware information in the device manager of Windows 8. System benchmark tests Nuclearus Multi Core => 23251 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 24.95/11973

In recent 2 years, MSI did not focus on the Ultrabook series as many other brands, they mainly focused on high performance of Gaming series Notebooks, that makes MSI to become a well known gaming products company in the market, also shows how important of the Gaming related market. MSI Gaming, Dell Alienware and ASUS ROG are the top 3 of the gaming laptop products in the gaming laptop market, that's the well known brands in the gaming laptop market. The higher product position comes with much higher price range. MSI extend their Gaming series become more price range segments, GT series on the top, GX series based on AMD platform, and GE series focus on the performance level market with better Cost/Value, so that more consumer could consider their GE series with better price range. This time we would like to share the latest version of MSI GT70 - The GT70 Dragon Edition. The GT70 Dragon Edition totally changed with their box design, make it slimmer and with better looks of their dragon logo to impressed gamers and power users. The ID design of GT70 Dragon Edition. Compare with their regular GT70, the GT70 Dragon Edition use red metallic cover design with the Dragon Tattoo on it, that makes GT70 more gaming style and high performance looks. The metallic cover with normal light will be deep red, but the metal will reflect light of the color with different angle, so the color of the red will be lighter when outdoor with sunshine. Besides the box size become slimmer, the interior design is also become better, every accessory was put with lint bag, makes it looks higher quality with better protection. On the bottom of the laptop, 4 corners comes with 5 soft pad for stand. The subwoofer of 2.1 channel speaker was placed on the up left side, it presents really good quality on low frequency sound stage. Battery on the down left side, up right side comes with CPU, GPU(MXM module) and DDR3 DIMMs. DDR3 designed with 4 DIMMs, use dual channel design and built in with 4GBx2, supports up to 32GB (8GBx4). And it comes with 3 SATA interface, supports mSATA with RAID 0 function. Accessories. Driver DVD, quick guide and 2 years warranty book. The battery designed with 9 Cell, 7800mAh. The 180W adaptor was made by Delta with good quality. Gaming style mouse, it's 3200dpi optical but good positioning and good handling, but if it's larger and with laser optical will be better. The limited accessory is the necklace with the shield of MSI Gaming Series Dragon Edition, it's very special and only comes with GT70 Dragon Edition. The placement of C side. The red part is also metallic material with dragon tattoo, it's good of touch feeling when using, but you will feel cold in winter. ..... XD The Dragon Tail image on the left side of touch pad. The touch pad is really good, very sensitive and good on positioning, make it easier to control. The signal lights from left side, Bluetooth mode, WiFi mode, Battery status, Suspend mode, HDD access.

3D Performance - PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 3DMark Vantage => P33910 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 383.69 FPS Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 1920 X 1080 => 100.7 FPS When running with VGA - AMD Redaon 7970, the 3D performance is very high. Unfortunately, I only got one7970 card. As single card performance, Z77X-UP7 is above standard. You can see 3~5% difference in 3D performance. It may be caused by Windows8 or latest AMD driver. If there is any opportunity in the future, I will test 3DMark Vantage to see the detail 3D performance. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 103W CPU full speed by running LinX - 246W FurMark Test - 430W i7-3770K disable C1E, OC to 4.8GHz and combo with AMD HD7970 VGA. The platform uses none 80Plus 600W Power Supply to compare the power consumption status. When entering to OS desktop, you can see the power consumption is very low. When CPU or GPU full speed, the power consumption increases a lot. You can see even Z77X-UP7 is 32-phase CPU PWM, it doesn?t cause any extra loading. Temperature Test (Room is 26?C) Enter to OS Desktop - 33~38?C CPU full speed by running LinX - 80~86?C When i7-3770K OC to 4.8GHz, I suggest you to use high end fan or water cooler. During test, the room is 6?C cooler than summer. CPU full speed is around 80~86?C If it?s winter, the temperature will be a little bit lower. Under this temperature condition, if you are installing in chassis, the inner air flow will be very important. At same room temperature, I test the MOSFET temperature. GIGABYTE launched IR3550 PowlRstage in Computex 2012 as own high end MB new PWM design. When disabling C1E and entering to OS desktop, it?s about 35.7. When burning system, the max is around 46.7. The temperature is very low. I will compare it with other Z77 MOSFET in the future. GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 Pros 1.UP7 owns more OC designs and better hardware specs, comparing to UD7. 2.UEFI BIOS has two interfaces for users to choose. 3.Exclusive OC-Touch design and 32-phase CPU digital PWM enhance the OC capability. 4.Using IR3550 PowlRstage latest PWM design to lower the MOSFET temperature. 5.Unique BT4.0 / Wi ? Fi card to connect your all mobile devices. 6.Supporting max 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology. Cons 1.CPU voltage in full speed or standby is not stable in default setting. 2.DDR3 bandwidth can be improved. 3.Should use better audio chip. Performance ?????????? 89/100 Components ?????????? 90/100 Specifications ?????????? 92/100 Appearance ?????????? 88/100 C/P Value ?????????? 69/100 Z77X-UP7 is improved a lot in both hardware and software comparing to Z68X-UD7. For example, new IR3550 PowlRstage PWMa and 32-phase digital CPU PWM. It supports max to 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI and exclusive BT4.0 / Wi-Fi card. OC-Touch OC design is for users to OC in bare system and extreme OC. The color changes to black with orange which is more eye catching. Z77X-UP7 is one of GIGABYTE most high end model in Z77. It uses own most high end components and specs in 2012. As it?s a top model, the price is also high in Z77 MB. As the top MB product, C/P value is always low. It?s suitable for higher budget and top specs demanders. Recently, windwithme shared GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 and ASUS Maximus V Extreme, top 2 brands high end Z77. Mainly, I only do air cooling OC or some performance tuning. I hope it’s useful for your reference. This is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 411934 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.78 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.04 pts PCMARK7 - 6140 Windows8 Experience Index - CPU 8.4 This is my first time using Windows8 for product review. Hyper PI 32M is 30~40 sec faster and the other software also improved more or less. The special part is Windows8 experience index break through the CPU 7.8 limitation in WIN7. Also, Windows8 installed capacity is 10GB less than Windwos7. It?s a little faster than WIN7 in booting. Booting screen is similar with tablet or smart phone, touch panel devices. After entering main screen, the interface is almost same as Windows7. However, there are some new features. As general users, it takes time to get used to the new interface. DDR3 is USA CORSAIR Dominator Platinum series, CMD16GX3M4A2400C9. The packing is very unique. It?s a 2 layers stack. Each layer consists of 4GB X 2. Dominator Platinum is CORSAIR most high end DDR3 product line. The heatsink quality and design are even better than Dominator GT series. The picture is DDR3 2400 4GB X 4. The internet shows Dominator Platinum has launched DDR3 2800. DDR3 top with white metal heatsink. I guess it?s the reason for naming Platinum. It bundles with CORSAIR original DHX(Dual-path Heat eXchange) Cooling technology with better cooling ability. After power on, the top of black heatsink will light blue-white. It makes quality even better. DRAM Bandwidth Test DDR3 2401 CL9 11-11-31 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 24658 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 28598 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 28481 MB/s The test is running at DDR3 2400 1T and 4G X 4. Z77X-UP7 4DIMM OC ability is quite good. The gap is not big between 2 and 4DIMM. DDR3 2600.8 CL10 12-12-34 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 25760 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth -30088 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 28829 MB/s DDR3 2667.8 CL11 12-12-35 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 25935 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth -30221 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29371 MB/s After comparing three DDR3 clock, you can see the bandwidth is rising gradually from DDR3 2400 to 2666. Even though Ivy Bridge structure bandwidth increasing range is not big, the extreme clock has improved a lot from Sandy Bridge. As DDR3 OC, I think it?s more about memory quality, voltage, and CL tuning. It takes time to find out the best CL and clock.

Z77 high end version also use big surface heatsink. It looks elegant. It features ultra-thin metal fins, the heatsink provides greater surface area so that quicker heat exchange can occur. OC-Touch Z77X-UP7 this design is better than Z68X-UD7. Red button is power button. Two + and ? for adjusting CPU and BCLK. Gear is for BCLK steps switch. Right hand side is LN2 switch and below has 8 touch points for voltage measurement. GIGABYTE displayed IR3550 PowlRstage in ComputeX 2012. This new PWM design uses in own mid to high end MBs. It delivers 60A per phase and lower temperature than former PWM design. Z77X-UP7 uses 37-phase digital PWM, 32-phase CPU + 2-phase VTT + 3-phase Intel HD GPU. GIGABYTE UEFI interface provides 7 languages. I remember it seems didn?t support Korean in previous version. Intel Core i7-3770K default ratio is 35. I set it as 48 to run at 4800MHz. Enable X.M.P. and this CORSAIR DDR3 auto set to 2400 and CL. Vcore Loadline Calibration is important feature for CPU OC. CPU voltage set as 1.350V and Vcore Loadline Calibration is default. When CPU is full speed, voltage will drop around 2 levels. As the pic, I switch to Extreme and set CPU to 1.350V. It?s 1.356V as standby and 1.368V as full speed. I set i7-3700K to 1.350V. It can pass all software stalely. DDR3 voltage is 1.650V as the other key voltage in OC. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K MB: GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M4A2400C9 VGA: PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 HD: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 256GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 600W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 OS: Windows8 64bit CPU 100.0 X 48 => 4801.5MHz(Disable Turbo Boost and C1E) DDR3 2401 CL9 11-11-31 1T(Enable X.M.P. mode) Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 10m 53.985s CPUMARK 99 => 756 Nuclearus Multi Core => 35398 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 37.79/18137

2012 is very important for PC market. There are more and more mobile devices coming. Especially smart phones and tablet PCs. It really impacts traditional PC and NB markets. This change does benefit the users which you can see the change in MB market. More brands start to enhance their service terms and conditions. GIGABYTE also launched their 4 years warranty in Taiwan. For mid to high end Intel Z77 platform, the price drops from former 170UD to 120USD. High end Z77 price is around 10~15% lower than previous chipset. Except the MB enthusiasts market, the price drop is good for general users. GIGABYTE high end MB has 2 product lines. One is Gaming series, Z77 model called G1.SNIPER3. The other one is designing for OC and extreme performance, the board for this review, called Z77X-UP7. GIGABYTE used to use UD with numbers as model name. This model changes to UP with number. First, you can see the Z77X-UP7 board. The color is black and orange which is different with past UD7. Z77X-UP7 is E-ATX, size is 30.5cm x 26.4cm. Most ATX case can install it, except shrinking ATX case. It?s for Overclocking market. The following part will introduce all the details. Accessories Product Manual, software manual and drivers CD. 3.5? front panel controller board, BT4.0/WiFi card, 4-Way SLI bridge. IO panel, back panel SATA bracket, SATA cables, WiFi antenna. CrossFireX / 2-Way and 3-Way SLI bride, voltage cables. Lower-Left 3 X PCI-E X16 support X16 bandwidth. 2 X PCI-E X16 support X8 bandwidth. It supports up to 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology. 3-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI bandwidth is X16 + X16 + X16 4-Way AMD CrossFireX bandwidth is X16 + X8 + X16 + X8 4-Way nVIDIA SLI bandwidth is sX8 + X8 + X8 + X8 2 X PCI-E X1 LAN chips are Atheros GbE and Intel GbE LAN. It builds in Realtek ALC898 audio chip supporting 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio technology. Design in Taipei Lower-Right 2 X White SATA by Z77 support SATA3. 4 X Black SATA by Z77 support SATA2. It supports hybrid RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. The max performance decides by installed SATA devices. 4 X Gray SATA by Marvell 88SE9172 support SATA3, RAID 0 and RAID 1. 1 X mSATA supports SATA2. If you install mSATA, SATA2 port 5 will not work. Right hand side is debug LED, MB and SB are dual BIOS switcher, and blue round button is RST_SW. Upper Right 4 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333/1600/2666(OC) and DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. It supports Extreme Memory Profile technology. Next is 24-PIN power connector and front USB 3.0 connector. Upper Left Z77X-UP7uses new fins design with heat pipe. CPU metal cover is better quality by plating process. Behind the heat pipe, there are 2 8-pin power connectors for high power consumption usage after OC. IO 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI / DisplayPort 6 X USB 3.0/2.0(Blue) 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF Optical output 6 X Audio jacks

CPU Full Speed - 53~56 LinX 0.6.4 Using Intel original cooler, i3-3220 is good in OS Desktop. Full speed is lower than 60 degree C. This is also better than average. After Ivy Bridge phases in 22nm, K sku CPU temperature after OC is not improved. However, for general use, the temperature performance is excellent. Power Consumption Test Enable C1E and Enter to OS Desktop - 30W Disable C1E and Enter to OS Desktop - 38W Running LinX to Full Speed CPU - 57W In Sandy Bridge, Intel has lower the TDP much comparing to 1st gen Core i. After Ivy Bridge phase-in 22nm, it?s even 10~20% lower. The Ivy Bridge doesn?t improve much in ratio due to Sandy Bridge TDP is very low already. Also, I don?t use 80Plus power supply this time. If I change to 80Plus, it will improve more. LGA 1155 chipset has H61, B75, H77 and Z77. These four chipsets have different specs and features. I do recommend you to study first before buying. The price is much cheaper than the past. Four chipsets entry models price is very close. It?s around 15~30USD for each segment. Most MB brands have many models for each chipset. You can choose by your budget, favorite brands and specs. Intel revealed Ivy Bridge Core i3 is renewing product line as the price is same as Sandy Bridge Core i3. For positioning is also the same. Entry i3-3220 bundles HD2500 and i3-3225 is with HD4000. If 3rd gen Core i3 price can be lower, it will be more attractive. Windwithme shares Ivy Bridge entry Core i3-3220 performance for your reference. I also hop Pentium series can be released earlier. This is also in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

DDR3 1995.2 CL9 11-10-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19509 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24499 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 20886 MB/s In the test, I OC DDR3 8GB X2 from 1866 to 2000. You can see DDR3 performance is always Intel advantage. The bandwidth is similar to Sandy Bridge, but DDR3 clock can rise 2~3 levels. Previously, H67 only can reach DDR3 1333, but H77 max clock is DDR3 2000. Of course, Z77 with better quality DDR3 can even achieve 2400~2600 which is enhance DRAM extreme clock a lot. 3D Performance Test Intel HD Graphics HD2500 3DMark Vantage => P1783 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1366 X 768 => 41.72 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 709 i3-3220 builds in HD2500 and former i3-3120 or i5-2300 both built in HD2000. For above three 3D software, HD2500 performance is 30~50% higher. If HD2500 3D performance is not enough, you can choose HD4000 built-in or external VGA. SPARKLE nVIDIA GTX570 3DMark Vantage => P25923 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 238.46 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 4002 I use the mid to high end VGA to see how the performance is of i3-3220 with VGA. Three 3D software is around 10~20% lower than nVIDIA GTX570 bundle with i7 CPU. This can be the reference for limited budget. If you want to enhance 3D performance, you better to put you money on VGA. i3-3220 can bring out around 80% 3D performance. If you have more budget, you can consider CPU either. H77 also support Intel Smart Response Technology. Also, GIGABYTE H77-DS3H has mSATA slot. HDD performance test (Disable SRT feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark max Read is 106.5 Mb/s and Write is 104.4 MB/s. HD Tune Pro 5.00 64K - Read - Average 82.6 MB/s Access Time 15.2ms HDD plus SSD performance test (Enable SRT feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark max Read is 212.6 Mb/s and Write is 69.6 MB/s HD Tune Pro 5.00 64K - Read - Average 151.9 MB/s Access Time 0.2ms SanDisk U100 spec is mSATA and SATA3. The max Read/Write is 450/380MB/s. Due to H77-DS3H mSATA only supports SATA2. The bandwidth will limit the mSATA3 SSD performance. After enabling Intel SRT, the Write performance is 1.5~2 times faster. Access Time is 76 times faster. The Write performance boost a lot in small files but max is lower than HDD. For actual usage, system boot is 2~3 times faster. I do hope GIGABYTE can upgrade mSATA slot to SATA3. It will boost SSD performance. Temperature (Room is 28?C) Enter to OS Desktop - 33~37

UEFI Screen Intel Core i3-3220 default is 3.3GHz DRAM can set to DDR3 2000 after fine tune. The performance is much higher than former H67 DDR3 1333. DRAM Advanced Parameters set the latency to CL9 11-10-27 1T. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 MB: GIGABYTE H77-DS3H DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT32GX3M4X1866C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 2500 / SPARKLE GTX570 HDD: Seagate Momentus 500G / SanDisk U100 64GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 600W Cooler: Intel Original Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit System Performance Test CPU 99.8 X 32 => 3292.72MHz DDR3 1995.2 CL9 11-10-27 1T Hyper PI 32M X4 => 14m 54.007s CPUMARK 99 => 519 Nuclearus Multi Core => 14204 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 13.28/6376 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 200583 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 3.18 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.35 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 11m 36s x264 FHD Benchmark => 9.8 PCMark Vantage => 8644 Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.2 Intel structure advantage is high performance of individual thread. You can see the good score in single core benchmark above. i3-3220 is 2C4T and supports Hyper-Threading. IT will be 30% faster than own 2C2T CPU. Former share, Ivy Bridge 3770K, single thread performance is 3~6% faster than Sandy Birdge 2700K and 10~14% in multi-tasking. Comparing i3-3220 and i3-2120, the performance is close. It may causes by L3 Cache capacity.

Intel Core I Gen 3 is named Ivy Bridge which is launched in April. In the beginning, there were only mid to high end models, Core i5 and Core i7. For lower price Ivy Bridge Core i3 was launched in Sep. Now you can save some budget for Ivy Bridge CPU to buy Core i3 instead of Core i3. There are three models for new Core i3, Core i3-3220, i3-3225 and i3-3240 from low to high. Each is 100MHz difference. i3-3225 built-in Intel max performance HD4000 GPU. i3-3220 and i3-3240 are HD2500. This is the simplest way to distinguish. This guide is using Intel Core i3-3220, the cheapest one of three models. The clock is 3.3GHz. It?s physical 2 Cores and none Hyper-Threading. It can run 4 threads, called 2C4T. It?s 22nm manufacturing and TDP is 55W. L3 Cache is 3MB. It?s most entry Ivy Bridge CPU. The bottom of original cooler is none cooper for own 2 Cores CPU. If you add some better quality thermal paste, it?s helpful for temperature control. CPU back, it?s Revision E1. There are 4 chipsets in the market. The cheapest is H61 since Sandy Bridge. H61 doesn?t support SATA3 and USB 3.0. It?s quite a pity. The higher level is B75. Intel set it at Small Business Advantage. The picture is GIGABYTE B75M-D3V. B75support native SATA3 and USB 3.0. The price is higher than H61. If B75M-D3V got 4 DIMMs, the expandability would be better. LGA 1155 most high-end chipset is Z77. The price is even higher. Since this year the MB competition is very tough. Z77 entry model MB is much cheaper the former structures. The picture is FOXCONN Z77A-S. Z77 owns highest specs, expandability and adjustable CPU ratio for OC in LGA 1155. K sku CPU can adjust higher ratio and none K sku CPU can rise 200~600MHz clock. The mid-end uses H77 chipset - GIGABYTE H77-DS3H H77 can OC the built-in GPU, but not CPU. The other features are the same with Z77. GIGABYTE recently builds in mSATA slot from mid-end ATX MB. Windwithme just got mSATA SSD and will share Intel Smart Response Technology.

Hi-Fi Z77X uses relatively high-level ALC898 of Realtek, which has the good performance in both computability and stability. Its audio effect is quite acceptable. At present the MB manufacturers use various audio chipsets of Realtek. Hi-Fi Z77X uses Realtek, so it is difficult to be distinguished from other MB brands. The design on the upper side of the audio chipset is the metal shield printed with BIOSTAR Logo shining red when power-on. Altec Lansing BackBeat Plus UHP206 is sold at a price closed to the medium-level earphone in the common consumption market. I compare the actual audio effect of Hi-Fi Z77X and TZ77XE4 when the Realtek ALC898 audio chipset is used. Altec Lansing is a U.S. brand with long history. I believe most PC users can speak out some of its well-known loudspeakers which produce quite high-level performance. BackBeat Plus UHP206 is of in-ear type, belonging to the monitoring function, and can present the audio effect of real sound source. It supports Creative THX technology. Let?s first take a look at the THX software interface. The first three options are enabled by default. If the user enables the options of SMART VOLUME and DIALOG PLUS, it will optimize the sound field, but decrease the finer points of intermediate frequency. It is suggested opening these two options when gaming or watching videos. When comparing the audio quality of these two MB brands, it will disable all THX options to achieve the original audio effect. The left side is the Multi-Channels Calibration interface, used for the multi-channel calibration of PC loudspeaker. The right side is SmartEAR Headphone Utility?used for adjustment under the earphone environment. Below is the test for audio quality, which belongs to personal opinion. It makes the comparison of the built-in audio effect between the Hi-Fi Z77X and TZ77XE4. When the earphone volume is 50%, the sound is loud enough. Thus, it?s no need to worry the insufficient power will cause small volume. High frequency ? there is no sharp tune, and it is much finer . Intermediate frequency ? the definition and the finer points are improved. If the intermediate frequency can be fuller, it will be better. Low frequency ? bass is quite shocking, free from the problems of TZ77XE4 in which the sound is not thick or muddy enough. As for the built-in level, Hi-Fi Z77X improves the audio effect more or less. Moreover, with the THX software, it will be more suitable for watching video or gaming, bringing about a better performance in the effect of audio field. Compared with the last generation under the same brand, TZ77XE4 makes the most improvements in the performance in the intermediate frequency. It will get quite good built-in audio effect for listening to the music. Of course, Hi-Fi Z77X improves the audio effect of built-in audio chipset, making the consumer enjoy better audio quality with the same price. However, its audio effect is not so good as the lower or medium-level audio card on the market. After all, the built-in audio effect doesn?t need to spend extra money like the additional audio card, so it is hard to compare this part fairly. Temperature performance (Ambient temperature is 28 Celsius) System standby - 38~46 Running LinX, CPU at full speed - 82~87 XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 is a radiator that has gain higher C/P ratio on the market, while its price falls around the medium level. Although the temperature is slightly higher when overclocking to 4.5GHz, its radiation capacity is quite satisfactory if considering its reasonable price.. If you think the temperature of 80 Celsius is too high, it is helpful to enhance the internal cooling or reduce the overclocking to 4.4GHz when installing it into the case. Power consumption test System standby - 125W Running LinX, CPU at full speed - 222W 3770K OC 4.5GHz, C1E disabled, and the system standby under GTX 570 SLI mode, it is only 125W. When CPU is at full speed, it will increase about 97W. The power consumption under Ivy Bridge platform is obviously lower than the last generation of Sandy Bridge. BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X Pros 1. The price is a little higher than the basic-level Z77, with its specification and material similar to the middle-level Z77. 2. Japanese solid capacitor, built-in Power/Reset buttons and simple debug LED. 3. It adopts UEFI interface with fast startup speed, rich options and large range of voltage, as well as excellent overclocking ability. 4. Provide special Calibration Microphone to adjust the sound field based on the surroundings. 5. With special design of audio effect of the built-in Hi-Fi, the MB power supply has 13 phases in total. Cons 1. BIOSTAR has no distribution channel in Taiwan currently. 2. It is suggested using the advanced audio chips, such as Creative CA0132 or VIA Envy24MT. 3. DDR3 bandwidth has some improvement room. Performance ratio ?????????? 80/100 Material ratio ?????????? 85/100 Specification ratio ?????????? 82/100 Appearance ratio ?????????? 82/100 C/P ratio ?????????? 83/100 BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X is sold at US$150(NT$4,382), which is almost the same price of TZ77XE4 when released on the market. Currently, the price of TZ77XE4 has dropped to US$120 or so, but it has two more SATAs and one DisplayPort. Thus, the C/P ratio will be increased. Both Hi-Fi Z77X and Hi-Fi H77S are two models of Intel platform introduced with Hi-Fi material. Hi-Fi A85X and Hi-Fi A85W with the AMD FM2 that are released by BIOSTAR lately, also have the same audio effect design. In recent years, some MB brands have improved the audio effect or the network on the advanced product line, which seems to pave road for the gaming market. Moreover, the BIOSTAR with affordable price and high performance has also stepped in the design of audio effect. It is a piece of good news for the users who calls for better built-in audio effect with limited budget. And Hi-Fi design does make substantial improvements on the audio effect. I hope BIOSTAR will adopt Hi-Fi material in more MB products in the future, so that the consumers will have more MB options with higher C/P ratio:) This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

Nuclearus Multi Core => 31526 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 35.08 /16837 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 378507 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.14 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.92 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 4m 10s x264 FHD Benchmark => 26.6 PCMark Vantage => 26885 The frequency of 4.8GHz is about 6.7% higher than that of 4.5GHz. Compared with 4.8GHz, the Fritz Chess Benchmark of 4.5GHz is 7.8% higher in the test, and CINEBENCH R11.5 7.2% higher. Moreover, the x264 FHD Benchmark is 7.1% higher and FRYRENDER is 6.3% faster. It seems that the increased CPU frequency will improve the performance accordingly. However, most of my previous tests use the advanced radiator with overclocking to 4.8GHz. This time I use the affordable CPU radiator with overclocking to 4.5GHz to test the performance, getting different results in the voltage, power consumption and working performance. It is hoped to provide reference for the users of medium-level radiator. After all, overclocking to 4.8GHz requires more conditions. DRAM bandwidth test DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19333 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 19292 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 22702 MB/s When installing 4DIMM in the DRAM, the overclocking capability of the same DDR3 will be lowered by one or two levels, which is common for many Z77. Thus, I set it as DDR2400 2T, which is a stable parameter. Those who want to achieve the overclocking frequency of DDR3 2400~2600 1T, it is suggested using 2DIMM which also provides a favorable environment to achieve the purpose in addition to the powerful DDR3. Moreover, the DRAM bandwidth of Hi-Fi Z77X is two-level lower than that of TZ77XE4, which needs to be enhanced by the newer BIOS in the future. 3D performance test - SPARKLE GTX570 SLI 3DMark Vantage => P45768 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 6244 Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 1920 X 1080 => 101.4 FPS The bandwidth required by SLI mode is X8 + X8, but the performance might be poorer. However, sold at this lower price, Hi-Fi Z77X still supports AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology, thus it is a product with rather good specification. BIOSTAR advertises Hi-Fi Caps and Hi-Fi resistors, and the material adopts the non-polarized capacitor and film resistor. Equipped with the audio-amplification chipset on the front earphone, it provides the users with better audio quality.

The radiation fin for Z77?s chipset is of long-shape design. In addition to the unique appearance, it is also labeled with PURO Hi-Fi. O.N.E calibration page of BIOSTAR UEFI interface The frequency multiplication of the CPU Ratio is 45, i.e. 3770K will be operated by 4500MHz Graphics Core Ratio Limit is the frequency of the built-in GPU The algorithm of 23 is 23 X 50 => 1150MHz. In the figure below, it adopts the default frequency of built-in HD 4000 for 3770K. DDR3 frequency is set as 24, namely DDR3 2400. For DRAM frequency and parameter settings, generally, smaller value leads to higher performance. Set it as DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T, and adjust other detailed options to optimal setting values. The user can increase the frequency and adjust the parameters based on the DDR3 property, so as to increase DDR3 bandwidth. Voltage page Four CPU VCore Modes are included, i.e. SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode CPU VCore Offset -0.200~+0.370V CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.790V In terms of the purpose of overclocking, the major change here is the CPU voltage. In the sample figure, the CPU Vcore is fixed as 1.280V. Making slight adjustment based on the radiation ability and CPU property are two major foundations for overclocking CPU. This page can adjust the shared capacity needed by the HD 4000 built in 3770K. CPU Smart FAN can control the rotating speed based on the CPU condition. PC Health Status The CPU temperature detected here is higher, while the wind temperature felt from the radiator or the detected temperature by OS temperature detection software will be lower. This time the common and affordable CPU radiator is used, and the 3770K overclocking to 4.5GHz is set stably. Install 4DIMM DDR3 2133 and overclock it to 2400 2T. The capacity of DRAM is 4G X4, namely 16GB in total. Hi-Fi Z77X is equipped with better radiator and 2DIMM DDR3, which can also achieve the overclocking performance of 4.8GHz / 2600. I only intend to test the overclocking in different ways, providing more information to the users who need. Test platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K MB: BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: SPARKLE GTX570 SLI SSD: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 256GB POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit Intel Core i7-3770K overclocking performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4500MHz 1.280V DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T 1.608V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 12m 57.381s CPUMARK 99 => 708

In recent years, overclocking and material are the major positioning route in the middle and high-level MB market. With the Desktop market changing, the terms like electric competition or Gaming appear on the technical data of a lot of hardware. For the MB field with mature specifications, it has put the focus on the audio effect and network. In this way, it intends to improve the traditional design model before, providing better audio effect for users in gaming environment. Most customers are under the impression that BIOSTAR take the affordable price and the overclocking as the major market positioning. TZ77XE4 released before performs well in the aspects of C/P ratio and overclocking capabilities. And Hi-Fi Z77X released lately, as implied in the product name, mainly strengthens the audio effect. The product package this time takes the sound-related pattern, which is also quite special. Hi-Fi Z77X Appearance Currently, most MB brands use the shining black PCB, while BIOSTAR uses the matte PCB material which increases the sense of texture. As for colors of Hi-Fi Z77X, PCB, DRAM and PCI slots are all black, and then matched with blue radiator. Hi-Fi Z77X looks different from the black and orange appearance of TZ77XE4. Personally, I like its external package design and new colors better. Accessories enclosed: Product manual, IO board, SLI / CorssFire X bridge, SATA wires, Calibration Microphone and driver disk The lower-left section of motherboard 2 X PCI-E X16 3.0, supporting AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology at most, with a bandwidth of X8 + X8 1 X PCI-E X16 2.0, with a bandwidth of X4 3 X PCI-E X1 Network chip adopts Realtek RTL8111E Audio chip Realtek ALC898 supports 8-channel Blu-ray Audio and THX TruStudio Pro technology at most The lower-right of motherboard 2 X black SATA, provided by chipset Z77, with SATA3 specification 4 X black SATA, provided by chipset Z77, with SATA2 specification They can work together to build RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10, and the highest performance depends on the SATA device installed. Power / Reset buttons and debug LED, and the black section on upper side is the front USB 3.0 slot The upper -right of motherboard 4 X DIMM DDR3, supporting 1066/1333/1600/1866(OC)/2133(OC)/2400(OC)/2600(OC) The maximum capacity supported by DDR3 is 32GB, supporting Extreme Memory Profile technology. The lower side is the 24-PIN power input. The upper-left of motherboard The power supplies on both sides of CPU are equipped with the enhanced passive radiator, with a power input on the upper side of 8PIN. IO 1 X PS/2 Keyboard 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI DisplayPort 4 X USB 2.0(black) 2 X USB 3.0(blue) 1 X RJ-45 Network hole 6 X Audio hole The power supply design has 13 phases in total, including 10 CPU VCORE phases + 1 VCC phase + 2 IGD phases

Enable X.M.P. => DDR3 1866.8 CL9 10-9-27 and manual adjust to 1T. ADIA64 Memory Read - 17252 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 45532 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 13238 MB/s There is only part of software supporting LGA 2011 exclusive quad channel. You can see Sandra Memory Bandwidth supports quad chanel. LGA 2011 DDR3 1333 quad channel bandwidth is only 10% more than LGA 1155 DDR 2600 dual channel. CrystalMark reached multi-memory scoreand quad channel bandwidth. ADIA64 Memory Read and MaXXMEM Memory don’t improve much. If we compare three clock and parameters to see the bandwidth, and using Sandra Memory Bandwidth as base, DDR3 1333 1T is 0.4% higher than 1866 2T. You can see 1T or 2T is not the key factor. Pulling high DDR3 clock is more helpful for DDR3 bandwidth. Temperature(Room is 30?C) Enter to OS Desktop – 32~35 CPU full speed by LinX – 38~50 Even the threading is 8C16T, due to CPU clock is not too high and H100 water cooler performance, the temperature is very good. It seems Intel original cooler is enough for Xeon CPU. Power Consumption (Enter to OS Desktop) Enable C1E - 65W Disable C1E - 107W CPU full speed by LinX - 205W The power consumption is using AMD Radeon HD 7970 as well. New LGA 2011 and former LGA 1366 CPU are both 32nm. The power consumption is big different. You can see LGA2011 is lower 50~70W than LGA 1366 CPU. Besides CPU power consumption is lower, new C606 or X79 is also saving more power than X58. 3D Performance - PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 3DMark Vantage => P32516 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 369.88 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 5996 Redaon HD 7970 is current AMD most high end single GPU VGA. All tests have very high 3D performance. Of course, AMD also has Redaon HD 7990 with two7970 GP. You can choose your own VGA by budget or requirements. This is for simple share. As room is 30 degree C, I use tool to test MOSFET temperature. When entering to OS desktop and enable C1E, the max temperature is 40.5 and 51.6 in burning CPU. As my own experience in several X79 boards, X79S-UP5 MOSFET is quite low in CPU default mode. My every LGA 2011 articles all have these numbers for reference. GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WIFI Pros 1. First C606 Server Chipset in DeskTop market 2. UEFI BIOS provides two BIOS interfaces 3. DDR3 supports 8 DIMM and ECC. It supports up to 14 SATA devices. 4. First IR3550 PowlRstage PWM design to lower the MOSFET temperature. 5. Exclusive BT4.0/Wi – Fi card to support all mobile devices. Cons 1. CPU voltage drift between standby and OC is too big. 2. OC ability is lower than X79 3. Intel C606 SAS only supports SATA2 Performance ?????????? 82/100 Components ?????????? 91/100 Specifications ?????????? 93/100 Appearance ?????????? 86/100 C/P Value ?????????? 82/100 I used to share Core i7-3930K / 3960X default and OC performance. These two CPUs are most high end in consumer PC which is 6C12T. This Intel Xeon E5-2000 series CPU only use in high end Server. E5-2680 is 8C16T. Some general software doesn’t support it, but it still improves some software performance. If you are OC enthusiasts, 3930K and 3960X adjustable ratio is a better choice. X79S-UP5 price segment is same as former X79-UD5. The main difference is X79S-UP5 using Intel C606 chipset. It adds dual LAN, 14 SATA devices, supporting ECC and new IR3550 PowlRstage PWM design. Unfortunately, Intel C606 only supports two SATA3 devices. Otherwise, X79S-UP5 spec will be even better. X79S-UP5in mid-end X79 market is quite competitive in specs and components. Currently, X79 MB is still in high end market. However, LGA2011 life cycle is longer than mainstream LGA 1155 platform. It’s all depending on your budget and needs. This is just a reference guide for who is considering LGA 2011 platform. This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 351690 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 11.96 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.41 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 6s x264 FHD Benchmark => 31.2 PCMark Vantage => 16941 Windows Experience Index Fritz Chess Benchmark => 43.47/20867 In E5-2680 8C16T structure, it has very good performance for multi-threading software, such like CINEBENCH R11.5 / FRYRENDER / x264 FHD Benchmark. As overall system performance, some software seems no performance improved due to none multi-threading support, such like CrystalMark 2004R3 / PCMark Vantage. Windows Experience Index cannot support 8C16T, so I just ignore it. Xeon is great for multimedia or file converting, but not some regular software. Besides you have specified software requirement, for general users, 4C6T or 6C12T CPU utilization rate will be higher. LGA 2011 is the only quad channel DDR# platform in DeskTop market. DDR3 is CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT series, CMT32GX3M4X1866C9. The packing clearly shows supporting Intel X.M.P. Certified QUAD CHANNEL. The clock is 1866 and latency is CL9 10-9-27 with 1.50V. DOMINATOR-GT uses exclusive DHX thermal technology. The heatsink and PCB designs are bigger than some high end DDR3. DDR3 capacity is 4 X 8GB As X79S-UP5 8DIMM design, it can support up to 64GB, 8G X 8, 64GB. UEFI DualBIOS default is DDR3 1333.4 CL9 9-9-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 15203 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 33842 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 12531 MB/s Enable X.M.P. => DDR3 1866.8 CL9 10-9-27 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 17100 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 44352 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory - Copy - 13127 MB/s The performance difference between DDR3 1333 1T to enable X.M.P. DDR3 1866 2T is as below. ADIA64 increases 12.5%, Sandra increases 31% and MaXXMEM increases about 5%. ADIA64 and MaXXMEM performance is not much for quad channel platform. But you can see Sandra Memory bandwidth is almost double the LGA 1155 platform. The quad channel support really impacts the DDR3 performance.