Intel BOXDZ77GA70K--high-end z77 champ?

[imported_mystro]

I realize the new Intel Intel BOXDZ77GA70K is very new but it certainly deserves a slot near or at the top of the high-end boards if for no other reason then it meets Intel's very high build criteria and adds to the mix.
I found a fairly good review but would still like to see it in a roundup against other top >$200 boards.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Intel-DZ77GA-70K-Motherboard/1524/1

The new Intel Visual BIOS for power users:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpZr2khbPWQ

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Intel boards are reliable but lack many features that other mobos offer in the same price range.

 

[imported_mystro]

I also noticed it lacked a few bells such as only HDMI vid out but seemed to excel in areas that count and which long time members here appreciate..quality build/long life. A board purpose built/intel designed for Ivy Bridge and using the new Visual BIOS for power users makes the BOX-D a very compelling high-end board IMO and certainly we need more competition at this end and this is certainly that.

 

[Dkcode]

Been doing a lot of research on Z77 boards and this is the one i'll be using if I make the jump to Ivy in the not so distant future.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'd rather get a different mobo

i want the bells and whistles

 

[cmdrdredd]

Never was a fan of Intel mobos. Especially not one that uses a 8+2+1+1 power phase setup.

 

[imported_mystro]

With so few choices today and looking at the real bottom line since we're spending a nice chunk of cash on these..build quality and support are the real priorities.. not color or gimmicks like armor covering or even features such as wifi which this board has-- I mean what builder doesn't have a real wifi router anyway?
The bones ..ever tried to get an answer from Asus or Gigabite on an issue or question?) Intel usually answers a query within 12 hours from my personal experience with a SSD. Yes TY it has a few less bells but very few but what the BOX-D has is whats really important.
CMDR: what are the other top boards power phases..you can bet Intel will always be conservative plus they use a powerful onboard voltage regulator if it's needed to police the proper settings.

 

[Dislikeyou]

I have this motherboard. It is a very good board even tho it lacks features that ASUS Z77 V-Deluxe has and it has similar price. I just have a few issues that i posted HERE. I think that all of them will be solved by future bios updates. Visual BIOS is really good. One of the best bios i seen so far.

Note that there is more issues with Intel Z77 motherboards then those that i have. You can check HERE. If you decide to buy a Intel motherboard i would recommend you to wait a few months when new revision will be out. Its nice to see that Intel is making progress on the motherboard market. They also have decent live chat support HERE, i prefer to chat then using phone.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Note that there is more issues with Intel Z77 motherboards then those that i have. You can check HERE. If you decide to buy a Intel motherboard i would recommend you to wait a few months when new revision will be out.

They usually fix using software and BIOS updates over the lifecycle. That's my experience with Intel boards. The particularly problematic one was the DG965WH, but the issue was gone ~6 month after launch. Also the boards that come with "Tock" phase have more initial issues in general than the "Tick" ones. So I like to think of Tick as fixing issues, while Tock brings new features/performance for the platform.

 

[cmdrdredd]

With so few choices today and looking at the real bottom line since we're spending a nice chunk of cash on these..build quality and support are the real priorities.. not color or gimmicks like armor covering or even features such as wifi which this board has-- I mean what builder doesn't have a real wifi router anyway?
The bones ..ever tried to get an answer from Asus or Gigabite on an issue or question?) Intel usually answers a query within 12 hours from my personal experience with a SSD. Yes TY it has a few less bells but very few but what the BOX-D has is whats really important.
CMDR: what are the other top boards power phases..you can bet Intel will always be conservative plus they use a powerful onboard voltage regulator if it's needed to police the proper settings.

Higher end asus and gigabyte boards use 15 or 16 phase design with digital vrms and 100% solid caps from japan. Its all in the features you want. Intel boards never were or will be known as overclock kings.

Anyway on support. Asus and gigabyte both have reps that respond to questions on various forums. Asus has the ROG forum too.

 

[imported_mystro]

Higher end asus and gigabyte boards use 15 or 16 phase design with digital vrms and 100% solid caps from japan. Its all in the features you want. Intel boards never were or will be known as overclock kings.
Anyway on support. Asus and gigabyte both have reps that respond to questions on various forums. Asus has the ROG forum too.

I read on PCPER you can have 16 phase boards which totally suck and 4 phase boards that are rock solid.
Some boards brag about using Japanese parts for marketing purposes but when you look at the board itself and it was made in China, not Taiwan! which totally negates any parts made from Japan IMO.
I think users will find the Intel BOX-D will OC just fine (if needed) and it certainly has the BIOS to do it and overall deserves serious consideration especially after reading the Intel forum on this board (thx Dislikeyou)..very few complaints.
As for support..Intel also has dedicated forums but more importantly,you can also actually contact Intel.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I read on PCPER you can have 16 phase boards which totally suck and 4 phase boards that are rock solid.
Some boards brag about using Japanese parts for marketing purposes but when you look at the board itself and it was made in China, not Taiwan! which totally negates any parts made from Japan IMO.
I think users will find the Intel BOX-D will OC just fine (if needed) and it certainly has the BIOS to do it and overall deserves serious consideration especially after reading the Intel forum on this board (thx Dislikeyou)..very few complaints.
As for support..Intel also has dedicated forums but more importantly,you can also actually contact Intel.

Your opinion is invalid because it assumes that Japanese caps on a board made in china are different than Japanese caps on a board made in your basement. They are the same no matter where it's built. Some of the best hardware is built in China seriously it's true.

Do you even know what Japanese Nichicon caps are? To put it simply they are regarded as the best quality capacitors you can buy anywhere. They are all made in Japan and many venders use them on their hardware.

 

[imported_mystro]

Cmdr
You misread me..I said nothing against Japanese parts as a matter of fact if I could order a mobo made there you can bet it would be on the top of my short list simply because they are highly experienced in microelectronics just as the Taiwanese and basically so is the US, check the electronics on a Boeing 787, I never saw a single Chinese part not even a rivet..I'm sure that'll change someday? I personally would hate to see the top boards migrate from Taiwan.

BTW..thanks for the headup on Phases, you may enjoy this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hawthorn-farm-motherboard,2963.html

I enjoy reading your threads so don't want to turn this into a pissin contest, the whole idea behind it was to bring a high-end Intel board into the forefront for consideration which it well deserves.

 

[cmdrdredd]

No I'm not baggin on you. I thought you said something like the board had to be built in japan or something. There's really very few places motherboards are built. Gigabyte builds theirs in Taiwan as does MSI and Biostar I believe. Although MSI has expanded to mainland China too. Asrock is a spinoff of Asustek which also started Pegatron in 2007. Asus announced that they will break from pegatron and since about 2010 I think, Pegatron has been independent. Anyway Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, China, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. All using state of the art facilities. Their motherboards can be made in Taiwan or China (I've seen China more often). Pegatron mainly made OEM components (non branded). A lot of people assume that when Pegatron went independent that Asus lost it's capability to manufacturer motherboards and components which isn't true. Another major manufacturer is Foxconn. They have their own brand but Foxconn builds boards and components for companies like Apple and others.

Anyway the point is, there are really only a few major manufacturers and others have to source from someone else. It's my opinion that Asus & Gigabyte are without question the best in the industry.

 

[imported_mystro]

Thanks for the manufacturer data, Intel said the Boxdz77ga70k and 75k are made in Taiwan at Foxcomm in their high-end white room. I linked to an early review (8.70 out of 10 score) at:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=915&Itemid=69&limit=1&limitstart=10

Also Hitech Legion Editors choice.
http://www.hitechlegion.com/reviews/motherboards/18321-intel-dz77ga-70k-motherboard-review?start=25
Hi Tech Legion

I've been looking for a higher end board for the long term without allot of foo-foo just solid well built quality and I'm about to hit the buy button..I guess I'm sold partially even though it's such a new environment this Extreme Edition from Intel although Intel seems to be challenging users to OC this board using the new Visual BIOS anyway, finally getting over the X79 chipset syndrome mainly because of my changing usage or older age

 

[Sunny129]

i think the thing to remember here is that the reason Intel has always been at the top of the charts in motherboard reliability is specifically due to the fact that Intel has always severely limited OC'ing tools (not to mention many other BIOS tweaking tools as well). now we finally have an Intel board that supposed OC's w/ the best of them...but the question them becomes, will this overclockable Intel board maintain the same superior reliability that its "impossible to OC" predecessors had? only time will tell, since we won't know the true failure rate until the board has been on the market for some time...but my guess is that this Intel board will not maintain the level of reliability that past Intel boards had if owners actually OC with it, and that in the end, it'll be no more reliable than the top OC'ing boards from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc...which are reliable enough for the average user and even the power user.

so if in the end, this board doesn't prove to be any more reliable than the competition, then you might as well go with a top-of-the-line ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. board since they all provide more features. i'm not trying to knock your opinion of this board...i don't even have any first hand experience w/ it myself. i'm just saying that any manufacturer's motherboard becomes less reliable the higher you OC with it, and Intel certainly isn't exempt from this fact.

 

[WilliamM2]

No I'm not baggin on you. I thought you said something like the board had to be built in japan or something. There's really very few places motherboards are built. Gigabyte builds theirs in Taiwan as does MSI and Biostar I believe. Although MSI has expanded to mainland China too. Asrock is a spinoff of Asustek which also started Pegatron in 2007. Asus announced that they will break from pegatron and since about 2010 I think, Pegatron has been independent. Anyway Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, China, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. All using state of the art facilities. Their motherboards can be made in Taiwan or China (I've seen China more often). Pegatron mainly made OEM components (non branded). A lot of people assume that when Pegatron went independent that Asus lost it's capability to manufacturer motherboards and components which isn't true. Another major manufacturer is Foxconn. They have their own brand but Foxconn builds boards and components for companies like Apple and others.

Anyway the point is, there are really only a few major manufacturers and others have to source from someone else. It's my opinion that Asus & Gigabyte are without question the best in the industry.

As far as I know, Asus doesn't manufacture any motherboards. Pegatron was their manufacturing division, and continued to make their boards even after it was spun off. They are now severing ties with them, and will have their boards made by ECS and others low end manufacturers. Best in the industry? I've had more issues with Asus boards than any other brand. Not with reliability, but it seems they are all released well before they have the bios sorted.

http://www.techpowerup.com/164412/A...f-its-Motherboards-Notebooks-by-Pegatron.html

 

[cmdrdredd]

As far as I know, Asus doesn't manufacture any motherboards. Pegatron was their manufacturing division, and continued to make their boards even after it was spun off. They are now severing ties with them, and will have their boards made by ECS and others low end manufacturers. Best in the industry? I've had more issues with Asus boards than any other brand. Not with reliability, but it seems they are all released well before they have the bios sorted.

http://www.techpowerup.com/164412/A...f-its-Motherboards-Notebooks-by-Pegatron.html

Asus owned Pegatron and then split. Asus still owns a couple facilities. They are not sourcing from whatever facilities Pegatron owns currently.

You do realize ECS makes Asus Graphics Cards right? ECS is a big manufacturer with a lot of experience. Asus makes a ton of stuff. Laptops, tablets, monitors, graphics cards, motherboards. There's only a few major places to build full motherboards and Asus will go with the best one and will 100% for sure oversee every aspect of the process to ensure their boards still come out quality if they decide to source from somewhere else. Thing is, any of the big ODMs can make anything the vender wants. If Asus wants a board a specific way you can bet they can do it to Asus' specs. Your Asrock boards were built in the same place as Asus boards but look at the specs. Analog VRMs and stuff.

Pegatron is no longer manufacturing anything for Asus. As I said Pegatron did OEM stuff (i.e stuff that goes into complete systems).

It's also well known that ASUS has the best UEFI bios around. I don't know what you're talking about there. Where it's built doesn't matter but how it's built and to what specs does.

 

[500MM]

Hey I'd really love to hear from you guys in a few weeks if you buy this board. Reviews look good but there's nothing like actual uses to notice bugs and issues.