Gigabyte Z77X UP7 Overclocking Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, November 12, 2012
Board Layout and Features
The motherboard features a matte black PCB with orange expansion slots and color accents on the various heatsinks. Like previous 7 series motherboards the Z77X is designed for mutli-GPU applications and features a slot layout to support up to four GPUs at one time.
Looking at the back of the motherboard we can see how the PCI Express slots are wired and some indication as to what slots are considered primary vs secondary when it comes to bandwidth allocations.
There are a few surface components on the back of the board to support the new PWM design and which are also protected by a black heatspreader.
Power is extremely important when overclocking to ensure the best stability. On the Z77X-UP7 you will find a total of 32 power phases for the CPU and five more for VTT and internal graphics. This by far is the largest PWM array we have ever seen and is completely the product of the new PowIRstages PWM design.
There are a few surface components on the back of the board to support the new PWM design and which are also protected by a black heatspreader.
Power is extremely important when overclocking to ensure the best stability. On the Z77X-UP7 you will find a total of 32 power phases for the CPU and five more for VTT and internal graphics. This by far is the largest PWM array we have ever seen and is completely the product of the new PowIRstages PWM design.
Behind the PWM cooler you'll find dual 8 pin CPU power connectors. Given the location the cables should be easy to hide in any modern chassis and easy to remove given the space between the power plug and I/O panel.
