Intel DZ77GA-70K Pro Reviews

I have to say that as we were getting more and more acquainted with the new Intel DZ77RE-75K and Intel DZ77GA-70K mainboards, our opinion about them changed dramatically. At first their layout seemed flawless, but later on some issues convinced us otherwise. The developers obviously had their own idea of the best spot for the internal USB 3.0 connector, which was different from the others’ and proved to be somewhat flawed after all. The new “Visual BIOS” charmed us at first glance by being much easier to work with and much better-looking with way richer functionality. The option that allows you to select a BIOS section as a Home page was only available by Biostar mainboards before, and none of the makers have so far come up with the idea of adding a Search option to the BIOS. Among its other indisputable advantages are exceptionally rich functionality of the “Home” section and super-easy overclocking using “Overclocking Assistant”. However, later on we discovered that the new Visual BIOS hasn’t been restructured as much as it seemed at first sight: it retained some of the old issues and acquired numerous new ones, unfortunately. Of course, introduction of the new Visual BIOS could not be completely issue-free, and they will be fixed and eliminated with the time. But what really bothers me is whether anyone will ever get to eliminating the old ongoing problems that have existed in the old BIOS versions, too. Despite a number of shortcomings, we can’t consider these mainboards a failure. They have very rich functionality meeting all today’s needs, they work great in default mode and even overclock processors. It is great to see the top model in the lineup to boast new Thunderbolt interface, and the more systems supporting it will come out, the bigger will the infrastructure grow. Overall, Intel DZ77RE-75K and Intel DZ77GA-70K mainboards are quite interesting, but unfortunately, we can’t give them our ultimate recommendation just yet.

Intel has built what is probably one of its best desktop motherboards in the DZ77GA-70K . The UEFI BIOS is excellent, although there are some fixes that need to be made in enthusiast controls at this time. The stability of the DZ77GA-70K is what you expect from a motherboard from Intel. However the overclocking prowess of the DZ77GA-70K does not live up to its "extreme" moniker. The Intel DZ77GA-70K is a very good motherboard, however for those of you looking to eek out another 300MHz to 400MHz out of your shiny new Ivy Bridge processor, there are better options out there for you. The DZ77GA-70K will run you around $220 if you should decide it is right for you.

The Intel Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K is a fine, if slightly pricey, Ivy Bridge–ready motherboard for those who don’t expect a gala feature set.

Our contact at Intel tells us the DZ77GA-70K should be priced in the $220 - $240 range. As you would probably expect from an Intel-built motherboard, the DZ77GA-70K leverages all of the features of the Z77 Express chipset, but it goes beyond them as well and includes Firewire, WiFi and Bluetooth as well. Intel has also done a really nice job with its Visual BIOS interface and we like that the board has features like diagnostic LED indicators (over and above the POST code error reporter) and dual Intel LAN controllers.

Nowhere near as weak a board as we've seen from Intel launch boards in the past, but the Intel DZ77GA-70K really struggles to achieve its enthusiast credentials.

I can only hope that the Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard represents a new push by Intel to make their motherboards more competitive. ASUS isn't trembling in their boots just yet, and there are still some rough edges in Intel's design and implementation. However, in my opinion this is the first Intel motherboard that represents a credible choice for an enthusiast looking to build a new rig. Intel has done a really good job with the hardware feature set on this board. Users will appreciate the eight USB 3.0 ports, extra SATA 6G ports, dual Ethernet ports, and POST code display, POST sequence LEDs, and power phase LEDs. But the star of the show is the Intel Visual BIOS. It's aesthetically pleasing, well laid out, and very functional. Enthusiasts and overclockers will spend more time in the BIOS than other users, and using this one is a real pleasure. The more you use it, the more obvious it is that some very smart people really sweated the details. It makes every other BIOS I've used seem primitive by comparison.

When Intel launches new processor and chipset lines together, we’ve typically found the companion Intel board to be a safe, stable solution for system builders who aren’t really looking to push their systems to extremes or add a boatload of additional devices. But then, we ask, what's the fun of a new, leading-edge CPU line without the tools and toys to push it to the extreme and outfit it with a boatload of similarly advanced components? As a result, while the Intel offerings have been solid enough, we’ve generally been seduced by the bells and whistles of boards from third-party board makers like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. This time around, though, the DZ77GA-70K firmly establishes Intel’s credibility as an enthusiast motherboard maker itself. The highly tweakable but super-easy-to-use UEFI BIOS, the extensive selection of ports for both modern and mainstream components, and the motherboard’s stable operation with an overclocked chip make it an excellent choice for all levels of system builders. That being said, it’s not the perfect board for everyone. If you are looking to install three video cards or plan to connect more than one monitor without a dedicated graphics card, you’ll find more capable options elsewhere. But for most folks looking to build a cutting-edge system for gaming, multimedia, or other performance-centric uses (and hoping not to have to splash out for a board that costs more than the leading Ivy Bridge chip), the DZ77GA-70K is a superb choice.

The Intel DZ77GA-70K is a high-end motherboard, meaning it is targeted to the most advanced user, who understands the importance of the PLX PEX8606 switch chip. Since the chipset doesn’t have enough PCI Express lanes available to connect all the devices that are present on this motherboard, this chip automatically switches PCI Express lanes in order to provide the highest performance possible to the device that is requiring performance at any given moment. On motherboards without this chip, you need to manually disable devices (namely, USB 3.0 and SATA-600 ports) that you are not using if you want to achieve the highest possible performance on the ports that are being used.

The Z77 chipset brings us native PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, and a few small technological enhancements over the 6 series chipset. Overall, there is no radical new technology on the new chipset that demands an upgrade from a 6 series board. New features such as Virtu MVP, Rapid Start and 3-display support will only work if you pair the chipset with the new Ivy Bridge processor. If you are using the Sandy Bridge processor, these features will not be available to you. If you really do not need these features, there’s no real reason to upgrade. Technically, motherboard manufacturers can very well add such features and enable support on 6 series boards, but Intel has limited it strictly to the new platform. One of the more useful features with the new chipset in our opinion is the Smart Connect, which will be available with the 6 series chipset as it is software based. The performance difference with the 7 series and 6 series board using a Sandy Bridge processor is very small. When we look at the CPU and memory subsystem performance, they are almost identical. The 7 series seems to have a slightly better memory performance over the 6 series but the CPU performance is pretty much identical. In real world applications that are CPU and memory bound such as Cinebench, X264, and TrueCrypt, we noticed that there is virtually no difference between the two chipsets. However, in games, there can be up to 5% gain in the performance. The difference is very small, but it is there nonetheless.