****Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Review****

[stulid]

I bought this board and regretted it. It isn't bad but the MSI G43/45 is better value for money.

Not really, this board was first released and came with a free £30 cooler and now its also coming with another free £30 cooler

Hi Stulid,

My BIOS doesn't look the same as yours, it looks like the window in the middle without the stats on the outside etc (The settings tab is in the top left corner, Home etc, it does not say Gigabyte UEFI Dual BIOS). My board came with the F2 version, so I've just updated to F5 and it's no different. I have clicked "Resolution toggle" as it looks as though the BIOS is in low res, but it says it's not compatible with my configuration or something?

Also the mouse movement is very laggy in the BIOS, not sure if this is normal?

I think I know what may cause this, its either you have your monitor plugged into a gfx card thats not showing the full res needed until you boot into windows or you need to try a different connector on the board if not using a gfx card.

 

[stulid]

Hmm, I'm using a HD 7950 so I doubt that's the issue. The monitor is a Samsung 2033rz, 1680x1050, could this be the reason?

Could well be as the BIOS is shown in 1080 I think (trying to remember but its hard)

 

[stulid]

What's the onboard sound like on this board?

Thinking about upgrading my ageing 775 system, but would like to get a board that offers decent onboard sound, so i dont have to have a soundcard. The soundcard i have now is a Creative Extreme music, so if it was as good as that or better it would be great.

The onboard sound is not as good as a X-fi xtreme music.

 

[stulid]

Ahh, that's a shame. I remember a while ago I was looking at upgrading when ivybridge had just been released and there was a Gigabyte motherboard that supposedly had great on board sound, but I cant remember the model. Was hoping on-board sound might have moved on a lot since I built this 775 based pc.

Great review btw, the overclocking guide will be very helpful when I do upgrade as I haven't really looked into it since I clocked this PC 5 years ago.

The onboard sound is just average like most boards it will not be better than a dedicated sound card, the boards with the kick ass sound are the Sniper 5 and M5.

These have the OP-AMP upgrade and Nichicon audiophile capacitors and a separation in the physical PCB to separate the sound section from the rest of the board to eliminate crosstalk and interference.

 

[stulid]

When I get a moment I will try and show some pics of what I think causes this, I am sure its dependant on which display connector you use.