Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K

Intel may be king of the processors, but it?s always struggled a bit to rule over the motherboard realm. The reason is, for the most part, not that shocking: The company is more concerned with making boards that show of its processors than in making products that capture enthusiasts? imaginations. That?s the case with one of Intel?s first motherboards for its Z77 Express chipset, the Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K: It has all of the necessities but few of the niceties, with a price ($249.99 list) that is slightly too high for what you get. Still, if your primary concern is getting a reliable board without even the slightest possibility of compatibility problems, the DZ77GA-70K is a no-brainer.

It conforms to the ATX form factor, and offers you the typical suite of features you get with Z77 Express, including compatibility with both the current and previous generations of Intel Core chips (respectively third or ?Ivy Bridge,? and second or ?Sandy Bridge?) CPU overclocking capabilities, and support for Smart Response Technology (SRT) for using a solid-state drive (SSD) to cache data and improve overall system performance. (To learn more about how this works, and how well this works, check out our review of the Intel SSD 311 Series.)

Beyond that, you should expect solid, largely unexciting functionality from the DZ77GA-70K. For example, take the collection of expansion slots: There are two PCI Express (PCIe) version 3.0 x16 slots, one of which will run at x8 if you have two video cards installed in them; one PCIe x4 slot; two PCIe x1 slots; and two regular PCI slots. This limits you to a maximum of two discrete video cards, using either AMD?s or Nvidia?s GPUs. But unlike three other first-wave Ivy Bridge motherboards we?ve seen, the Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe, the ECS Z77H2-AX, and the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H, the DZ77GA-70K does not support VirtuLogix?s dynamic switching between discrete and integrated video; hobbling things further for users of CPU-based video is that there?s only one display output on the DZ77GA-70K?s rear panel: HDMI. This means you won?t be able to take advantage of the Z77 Express chipset?s ability to control up to three monitors at the same time.

The rear-panel ports are something of a motley crew themselves, and slightly on the old-fashioned side. Besides HDMI, there?s a single PS/2 port for connecting an old-school keyboard or mouse, four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, optical S/PDIF out, five jacks for setting up eight-channel analog audio, one eSATA port, and, most incongruously, a FireWire 800 port (these are becoming increasingly rare these days). Yet, shockingly, there are also two Gigabit Ethernet ports, whereas just one remains far more common. (Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n wireless functionality come by way of an external module that connects to a USB 2.0 header.)

If you want to add additional ports, Intel gives you lots of choices by way of headers on the motherboard: six more USB 2.0, four more USB 3.0 (for which Intel has also thoughtfully added a bracket with two ports for mounting in an external 3.5-inch drive bay), and one more FireWire?all an unusually large number. You?ll also find a healthy number of SATA jacks: four each 6Gbps SATA III and 3Gbps SATA II. Four DIMM slots can hold up to 32GB of dual-channel DDR3 1600 RAM; if you?re overclocking your memory, the board is rated for DDR3 2400 speeds and perhaps even higher.

The DZ77GA-70K uses Intel?s new Visual BIOS (really a UEFI), an excellent-looking and astonishingly easy-to-use pre-boot utility?whether you?re looking to just change a setting or two or overclock your processor, it?s a completely clear, threat-free environment that beginners will especially appreciate. Among the other built-in features are Power Supervisor, which protects the motherboard from power failures or surges; Fast Boot, which speeds up power-up times; and Intelligent Phase Shedding, for reducing energy consumption. The Visual BIOS also utilizes some of the best automatic overclocking tools out there, so you can get good results even if you?re not a guru. (We were able to overclock a Core i7-3770K CPU to 4.6GHz with a stock air cooler without breaking a sweat.)

Our testing showed that Intel is right about the DZ77GA-70K?s power use. Of the four Z77 Express motherboards we?ve seen so far, this one draws the least power overall. We measured the full-system power draw of our test PC with the DZ77GA-70K and a Core i7-3770K CPU installed and found it used only 71.2 watts at idle and 136.3 watts under full load. The Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H marginally surpassed the Intel board when idling (71.1 watts), but it was still an impressive turnout for Intel, especially given how much power its heftiest competitor needed (the ECS board, and 85 watts when idling and 158.5 under full load). Otherwise, the DZ77GA-70K performed respectably in our benchmark tests; all four of the motherboards were very close in performance (as is usually the case), with the Asus motherboard eking out the most wins, leaving the DZ77GA-70K?s performance not much to email home about one way or another.

That?s also essentially true with the Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K overall. It makes neither significant missteps nor compelling arguments in its favor; it?s just a good, basic motherboard. Unfortunately, it?s priced like a premium model. For about $35 more, the Editors? Choice Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe gives you a world of more exciting features; the ECS board, priced at about $309, does too, and offers unique visual appeal the DZ77GA-70K doesn?t provide. And if you?re willing to sacrifice the extras, why not just go with the outstanding (but no-frills) Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H. If you want the Intel imprimatur, the DZ77GA-70K will give it to you. We?re just not convinced it?s worth the extra money given the things you don?t get.

More Chipset and Processor Reviews:
??? Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K
??? Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
??? ECS Z77H2-AX
??? Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
??? Intel Core i5-3470
?? more

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