Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
Gigabyte's entry-level ATX Z77 motherboard is the GA-Z77-D3H. The price is very appealing, with an average price tag of £84 it is one of the cheapest boards in this test.
You'll immediately notice the mSATA connector in the middle of the motherboard. It's meant for a small SSD to be used for Intel's Smart Response SSD caching technology. When the mSATA connector is used, the sixth internal SATA slot is disabled.
The GA-Z77-DRH features two PCI-Express x16, three PCI-Express x1 and two PCI slots. There are six internal SATA connections, but no eSATA. Four of the six USB 3.0 ports are external, and the two extra USB 3.0 ports are controlled by an EtronTech chip. To connect a monitor there are VGA, DVI and HDMI connections, and the Virtu MVP software for the integrated GPU is also bundled by Gigabyte. Like the micro-ATX boards from the previous page, a VIA VT2012 audio chip is used. On the PCB the text "108 dB" is printed, but this must be a left-over from when Gigabyte used the high-end Realtek ALC889 codecs for all their motherboards. The VIA chip doesn't come close to achieving that type of audio quality. That the network chip comes from Atheros is interesting, as this manufacturer is mainly known for its WLAN controllers.
Being an entry-level board there aren't any extra features. You won't find any onboard buttons or troubleshooting, but there is a dual BIOS. The graphical EFI-BIOS is the same as on the micro-ATX boards.
Performance-wise this board is very good, and the power consumption is average.
