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- Jul 23, 2012
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- GA-Z77X-UP5 TH
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- Core i7 3770K
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- EVGA GTX 970
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The 5 best Gigabyte Ivy Bridge boards compared
Now that both Ivy Bridge and Mountain Lion are out it looks like a lot of people will be building a new Hackintosh. I'm one of them by the way. A key choice in any build is the motherboard, and for a number of reasons Gigabyte's boards have been long-standing favourites in the Hackintosh scene. Which of the many should you use, though?
Helpful information is available in various threads, and this article is meant as a summary discussing the most likely choices. If we focus on boards based on the Z77 chipset, because that, in contrast to the H77 chipset, allows for overclocking, I think the most likely choices are: Z77-DS3H, Z77X-UD3H, Z77X-UD5H, Z77X-UP4 TH, and Z77X-UP5 TH.
For a detailed comparison of these boards see this list on the Gigabyte website: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4280,4279,4153,4147,4139
Comparison by functional area
Onboard Graphics
The DS3H does not have Display Port. The lack of Display Port means you're limited to 1920x1200 as a maximum resolution on a digital connection, i.e. DVI-D or HDMI.
The UP4 TH and UP5 TH have two Thunderbolt ports each. There are reports that you can connect Apple Thunderbolt displays [1], speakers and camera do not seem to work yet though. If you are using a discrete GPU then none of this matters.
Audio
The UD3H stands out, but not in a good way, because it uses a VIA chip and this isn't well supported in Hackintoshes. All other boards use varying Realtek chips, which are supported. That said, the newer one in the UD5H and UP5 TH doesn't fully work yet, i.e. stereo only and not all connectors are supported. There is an intriguing report by thelostswede [2] that the UP5 TH works better than the UD5H, which surprised me because according to Gigabyte's website they use the same chipset. He seems like someone who knows what he's talking about, though.
Network
The DS3H and UD3H use an Atheros chip, which works. The UD5H has dual ports, backed by Atheros and Intel, both of which work. The UP4 TH has a Realtek chip, which works, too, but has a bit of a poor reputation in some circles. For desktop use it should be totally fine, though. The UP5 TH has one Intel chip, which works.
Expansion Slots
All boards have a PCI Express x16 slot running at x16 and supporting the PCI Express 3.0 standard. This means they all support at least a single modern discrete GPU. With the exception of the DS3H all boards have a second x16 slot running at x8, thus supporting dual GPU setups. Otherwise all boards have a mix of slower ports, the DS3H having the smallest number of them. It is the only board that has two regular PCI slots, though, which could be interesting if you have a lot of really old cards.
Storage Interface
The Z77 chipset provides 2x SATA3 6Gb/s and 4x SATA2 3Gb/s interfaces. All boards have an mSATA connector and if you install an mSATA SSD this disables one of the SATA2 ports. In case of the DS3H you lose a SATA2 port even if you don't install an mSATA SSD. I can't see a reason to use an mSATA drive in a Hackintosh.
The UD3H and UP5 TH provide two extra SATA3 ports, internal and/or eSATA, via a Marvel chip. The UD5H has two of the Marvel chips providing four extra SATA3 ports.
USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt
All boards have at least 4 USB3 ports, two on the back panel and two through internal headers, normally used for the front panel.
The DS3H has 4 USB2 ports on the back panel and 4 on internal headers. The UD3H and the UP4 TH have 6 USB2 ports on internal headers and a VIA chip powering an additional 4 USB3 ports on the back panel. The problem is that this chip is not supported by OS rendering those ports useless. The UD5H and UP5 TH include two VIA hubs, which do work with OS X and provide an extra 4 USB3 ports on the back panel and yet 4 more USB3 ports on internal headers.
Firewire support is limited. The UD5H has one port on the back panel, the UP5 TH has one on an internal connector. That's it. The other boards do not support Firewire.
The UP4 TH and UP5 TH's showpiece are the dual Thunderbolt ports and they are known to work with several devices [3][4].
PCB/Components/Size
The DS3H is Gigabyte's standard PCB, the others are "ultra-durable" using more copper in the PCB and very high quality parts only. The UP4 TH and UP5 TH have a brand new power management setup which could be good for overclockers.
All boards require standard ATX cases but the DS3H is 3cm narrower. This could help in cramped cases but at the same time there might be issues with the DS3H due to the basic (non-angled) SATA connectors and the positioning of the CPU socket closer to the back panel.
Miscellaneous
The DS3H doesn't have S/PDIF on the back panel, and it only has a 4-pin ATX 12V power connector, which might be an issue for some.
The UD3H, UD5H, and UP5 TH have enthusiast features such as power and reset buttons, BIOS switches, voltage measurement points, and in the case of the UD5H a heatsink LED power connector.
The UP5 TH comes with a combined Bluetooth and WIFI card, but apparently this is not supported by OS X [5].
Price
To give you ballpark figures: the DS3H is roughly about €/$ 100, the UD3H about €/$ 150, the UD5H and UP4 TH about €/$ 200, and the UP5 TH about €/$ 275. Prices vary, these are just ballpark figures.
Summary of boards
Z77-DS3H
Basic Z77 board without extra controllers (which is why it's just Z77 and not Z77X, I think). Only provides minimal number of ports and features, standard PCB and components. Perfectly fine for many builds. And it's cheap.
Z77X-UD3H
More ports and features, higher quality, but a problematic audio chipset and only 2 out of 6 USB ports working on back panel. Probably going to be the most popular choice outside Hackintosh circles.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5793/...ith-ivy-bridge-asrock-asus-gigabyte-and-msi/7
Z77X-UD5H
Full featured board, many ports, higher quality. Very solid choice. There might be an issue with DPC Latency (see review below) that needs further investigating.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6108/...eview-functionality-meets-competitive-pricing
Z77X-UP4 TH
For the same price (roughly) as the UD5H you get two Thunderbolt ports and even better power management, but you lose four working USB ports, the Firewire port, SATA3 ports, and have to settle with a Realtek network chip.
Z77X-UP5 TH
Almost everything that the UD5H and the UP4 TH have. More pricey, though.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5904/gigabyte-dual-thunderbolt-on-z77
Links
[1] http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...-thunderbolt-display-ga-z77-up5-th-works.html
[2] http://www.tonymacx86.com/hardware-...boards-live-available-soon-17.html#post395833
[3] http://www.tonymacx86.com/articles/...h-verified-work-thunderbolt-devices-os-x.html
[4] http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-lion-desktop-support/61906-demo-ga-z77x-up5-th-w-thunderbolt.html
[5] http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/61499-ga-z77x-up5-vs-ga-z77x-up4.html#post393305
Now that both Ivy Bridge and Mountain Lion are out it looks like a lot of people will be building a new Hackintosh. I'm one of them by the way. A key choice in any build is the motherboard, and for a number of reasons Gigabyte's boards have been long-standing favourites in the Hackintosh scene. Which of the many should you use, though?
Helpful information is available in various threads, and this article is meant as a summary discussing the most likely choices. If we focus on boards based on the Z77 chipset, because that, in contrast to the H77 chipset, allows for overclocking, I think the most likely choices are: Z77-DS3H, Z77X-UD3H, Z77X-UD5H, Z77X-UP4 TH, and Z77X-UP5 TH.
For a detailed comparison of these boards see this list on the Gigabyte website: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4280,4279,4153,4147,4139
Comparison by functional area
Onboard Graphics
The DS3H does not have Display Port. The lack of Display Port means you're limited to 1920x1200 as a maximum resolution on a digital connection, i.e. DVI-D or HDMI.
The UP4 TH and UP5 TH have two Thunderbolt ports each. There are reports that you can connect Apple Thunderbolt displays [1], speakers and camera do not seem to work yet though. If you are using a discrete GPU then none of this matters.
Audio
The UD3H stands out, but not in a good way, because it uses a VIA chip and this isn't well supported in Hackintoshes. All other boards use varying Realtek chips, which are supported. That said, the newer one in the UD5H and UP5 TH doesn't fully work yet, i.e. stereo only and not all connectors are supported. There is an intriguing report by thelostswede [2] that the UP5 TH works better than the UD5H, which surprised me because according to Gigabyte's website they use the same chipset. He seems like someone who knows what he's talking about, though.
Network
The DS3H and UD3H use an Atheros chip, which works. The UD5H has dual ports, backed by Atheros and Intel, both of which work. The UP4 TH has a Realtek chip, which works, too, but has a bit of a poor reputation in some circles. For desktop use it should be totally fine, though. The UP5 TH has one Intel chip, which works.
Expansion Slots
All boards have a PCI Express x16 slot running at x16 and supporting the PCI Express 3.0 standard. This means they all support at least a single modern discrete GPU. With the exception of the DS3H all boards have a second x16 slot running at x8, thus supporting dual GPU setups. Otherwise all boards have a mix of slower ports, the DS3H having the smallest number of them. It is the only board that has two regular PCI slots, though, which could be interesting if you have a lot of really old cards.
Storage Interface
The Z77 chipset provides 2x SATA3 6Gb/s and 4x SATA2 3Gb/s interfaces. All boards have an mSATA connector and if you install an mSATA SSD this disables one of the SATA2 ports. In case of the DS3H you lose a SATA2 port even if you don't install an mSATA SSD. I can't see a reason to use an mSATA drive in a Hackintosh.
The UD3H and UP5 TH provide two extra SATA3 ports, internal and/or eSATA, via a Marvel chip. The UD5H has two of the Marvel chips providing four extra SATA3 ports.
USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt
All boards have at least 4 USB3 ports, two on the back panel and two through internal headers, normally used for the front panel.
The DS3H has 4 USB2 ports on the back panel and 4 on internal headers. The UD3H and the UP4 TH have 6 USB2 ports on internal headers and a VIA chip powering an additional 4 USB3 ports on the back panel. The problem is that this chip is not supported by OS rendering those ports useless. The UD5H and UP5 TH include two VIA hubs, which do work with OS X and provide an extra 4 USB3 ports on the back panel and yet 4 more USB3 ports on internal headers.
Firewire support is limited. The UD5H has one port on the back panel, the UP5 TH has one on an internal connector. That's it. The other boards do not support Firewire.
The UP4 TH and UP5 TH's showpiece are the dual Thunderbolt ports and they are known to work with several devices [3][4].
PCB/Components/Size
The DS3H is Gigabyte's standard PCB, the others are "ultra-durable" using more copper in the PCB and very high quality parts only. The UP4 TH and UP5 TH have a brand new power management setup which could be good for overclockers.
All boards require standard ATX cases but the DS3H is 3cm narrower. This could help in cramped cases but at the same time there might be issues with the DS3H due to the basic (non-angled) SATA connectors and the positioning of the CPU socket closer to the back panel.
Miscellaneous
The DS3H doesn't have S/PDIF on the back panel, and it only has a 4-pin ATX 12V power connector, which might be an issue for some.
The UD3H, UD5H, and UP5 TH have enthusiast features such as power and reset buttons, BIOS switches, voltage measurement points, and in the case of the UD5H a heatsink LED power connector.
The UP5 TH comes with a combined Bluetooth and WIFI card, but apparently this is not supported by OS X [5].
Price
To give you ballpark figures: the DS3H is roughly about €/$ 100, the UD3H about €/$ 150, the UD5H and UP4 TH about €/$ 200, and the UP5 TH about €/$ 275. Prices vary, these are just ballpark figures.
Summary of boards
Z77-DS3H
Basic Z77 board without extra controllers (which is why it's just Z77 and not Z77X, I think). Only provides minimal number of ports and features, standard PCB and components. Perfectly fine for many builds. And it's cheap.
Z77X-UD3H
More ports and features, higher quality, but a problematic audio chipset and only 2 out of 6 USB ports working on back panel. Probably going to be the most popular choice outside Hackintosh circles.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5793/...ith-ivy-bridge-asrock-asus-gigabyte-and-msi/7
Z77X-UD5H
Full featured board, many ports, higher quality. Very solid choice. There might be an issue with DPC Latency (see review below) that needs further investigating.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6108/...eview-functionality-meets-competitive-pricing
Z77X-UP4 TH
For the same price (roughly) as the UD5H you get two Thunderbolt ports and even better power management, but you lose four working USB ports, the Firewire port, SATA3 ports, and have to settle with a Realtek network chip.
Z77X-UP5 TH
Almost everything that the UD5H and the UP4 TH have. More pricey, though.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5904/gigabyte-dual-thunderbolt-on-z77
Links
[1] http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-...-thunderbolt-display-ga-z77-up5-th-works.html
[2] http://www.tonymacx86.com/hardware-...boards-live-available-soon-17.html#post395833
[3] http://www.tonymacx86.com/articles/...h-verified-work-thunderbolt-devices-os-x.html
[4] http://www.tonymacx86.com/mountain-lion-desktop-support/61906-demo-ga-z77x-up5-th-w-thunderbolt.html
[5] http://www.tonymacx86.com/buying-advice/61499-ga-z77x-up5-vs-ga-z77x-up4.html#post393305
