Also, while the components are not fully “Ultra Durable”(TM) as the higher-end models with their custom Japanese capacitors and extra copper PCBs, the 5K hour rated AP-Con capacitors used are durable and long-lasting enough beyond the typical range of use expected from the motherboard. When it came to hardware selection, Gigabyte was justified with the exclusion of extra SATA and USB ports considering the price but makes up for it by utilizing Intel LAN and Realtek ALC1150 HD Audio codec with TI Opamp. These extra applications are always wonderful extras that make up for the lack of hardware extras typical of entry level motherboards.
Gigabyte motherboard reviews software#
The Gigabyte software suite is also very well integrated in the App Center with many useful programs that are unfortunately slightly marred by a few inconsistent designs and non-functioning remote OC app. While other manufacturers have been cautious with their approach to recommending overclocking, Gigabyte is diving in with both feet even on their entry level Z97 board. The downside however is that Gigabyte did not seem to care much about those who are beginners as the values available on the F7 BIOS were much higher than what typical Haswell air-cooling requires and there is no warning (even in simple color coding) whenever much higher values beyond recommended air-cooling values are adjusted. With the Z97-D3H, Gigabyte is unabashedly driving users toward overclocking as heavily suggested by the updated SmartTweak UEFI design despite the relatively modest 4-phase VRM. A high-end board just throws tons of features on top of another but on the budget level boards, the concessions made to keep the price down have to be factored in, especially if it affects the overall context of what the manufacturer is trying to achieve. Reviewing entry and budget Z97 motherboards present a unique challenge on their own as contextualization is much more important in factoring in their relevance. « Sub-System Benchmarks (Storage, Audio, Network, Gaming)įinal Thoughts about the Gigabyte Z97-D3H Motherboard