Asus p8z77-v pro VS Gigabyte ga-z77x-ud5h-wb

I don't think you can go wrong with either one, but Gigabyte seems to have a better reputation in regards to support. The Gigabyte has a legacy PCI port, which may be of interest if you have any old cards you haven't quite retired yet. The Gigabyte has 1 more SATA 3 (6GB) port. It also has 1 eSATA and 1 mSATA vs. neither on the Asus (step up to Deluxe for 1+1). The Gigabyte has a total of 10 USB 3.0 ports and 6 USB 2.0 ports, whereas the Asus has 8x 3.0 and 10x 2.0. The Gigabyte has 2 LAN ports vs. 1 on the Asus. The Asus is listed as 16-phase (12+4) whereas the Gigabyte is listed as 12-phase (8+4). Manufacturers seem to evaluate these specs differently though so you may want to look into that if you require more info. Either one will be able to OC without issues though. FWIW, I am also building a 3770K system and opted for the GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WiFi.
Edited by D3FiANC3 - 5/8/12 at 1:36am

check this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5793/intel-z77-motherboard-review-with-ivy-bridge-asrock-asus-gigabyte-and-msi/9

that vcore stability is amazing and that's the ud3 with only 6 power phases. I think gigabyte has the best quality for this round.
You cant go wrong with the asus board either (better/higher ram clocks).

What is shown in that review isn't ripple, ripples is the AC noise left on the DC output after AC switching, such as those in the motherboard's power supply for the CPU. What he is reading is CPUz values from idle to load which basically show trends.

but i support the UD5H and UD3H. They are solid boards, for the price compared to asus they offer more features without a doubt. IDK why the reviewer doesn't compare them in that aspect as well.
Edited by Sin0822 - 5/9/12 at 2:43pm

would that 16-phase (12+4) to 12-phase (8+4) effect performance?

The power phase should not affect performance but it can affect stability at the edge of the charts when overclocking.

Sorry double post

Sin, I've been debating between these two boards as well, but saw a lot of reviews on newegg for the UD5 (non-wifi mostly) that say they have boot/loop problems with this board. The fix users posted was
"1) Raise the CPU Vcore from 1.100 up to 1.220
2) increase the IMC to .005 of you CPU VTT, for example with IMC 1.050 you want to change to 1.055
3) Increase your CPU/PCIe base clock from 100.00MHZ to 100.01 (which is what i used but it is reported that 100.10 and 101 works also)"

Any insights on this? Before reading the reviews, which I take with a grain of salt, I was dead set on this board after reading one of your posts from a month back or so but find this a bit disturbing

so far with latest BIOS updates I don't hear complaints about any boot loops. You shouldn't need to do any of those things, I have 2 of those non wifi UD5H's and 2500K, 2600K, 3770K, 3570K and no boot loops. There was some minor thing with the 2500K and 2600K, but since then they have been addressed. They really were focused with sandy bridge CPUs, the latest BIOS update should seal the deal as it responds to the power on/off thing. The loops described was the board going through an odd loop where it would turn on and off 3 times then proceed to boot as if nothing happened, and this would happen every 5-8 boots, and it was a microcode issue which was updated. First I thought it was only on 2600K, this was a month ago, and then they fixed it all up no issues. Then users with 2500K reported it and I tested and it happened, so i reported it again and they seem to have fixed it. There was also an issue where the board would restart into the BIOS safe mode, as if the OC failed, this would happened after every second restart(either press restart button twice in a row, or hit restart in windows twice in a row) but they have addressed that issue too.

The reason there is so much talk about the UD5h compared to other boards is that it is a very hot seller, compared to other boards it is selling very quickly. its bang for the buck at the $200 price range is optimal, What is extremely surprising is that it is out selling the UD3H, and the UD3H is always the best seller because of its price. Supposedly it seems a lot of people are willing to pay more for the quality and features.

If you decide to get the board or not I really don't care, it doesn't make me feel better nor do i get any prize if you buy the board lol, I just have used it and i can say it is very solid at this point, the issues from a month or two back are from the board not being fully ready for sandy bridge, which has since changed as GB found that most people are using sandy instead of ivy. I guess a lot of people wanted to upgrade their Z68 boards, which is pretty puzzling in itself.
Edited by Sin0822 - 5/24/12 at 7:44pm

My vote goes for Asus or Biostar..with Gigabyte next
Sin kinda likes Gigabyte
vtt @ 1.22? Is that a typo? 1.12.yes..1.22 is umm..unnecessary..