A more budget-oriented H77 board for those with simpler needs
We’re familiar with Intel's maxed-out Z77 chipset, but the new Gigabyte H77M-D3H is one of the first boards we've played with to sport the H77 chipset.
You can get a broader overview of the of the H77 in our Asus P8H77-M Pro review. but the elevator pitch involves lower pricing in return for less enthusiast features, while maintaining the key home-theatre-friendly multimedia moves.
As for the Gigabyte H77M-D3H itself, we're talking motherboard for movies with a budget twist. So that means MicroATX form factor rather than full ATX. Gigabyte has also taken the knife to a few of the choicer features you might expect to find on a home theatre board and the result is a somewhat bare-boned, if competitively priced, option forgetting in on the Intel 7 Series action.
The competition takes the form of existingH67 boards - many of which are at least theoretically compatible with the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors - and all the other H77-ers that are currently poppingup, including the new Asrock H77 Pro4/MVP. which provides a full-ATX option.
Feature fail?
Festooned with features the new Gigabyte H77M-D3H most demonstrably is not. Where the Asus P8H77-M Pro has every imaginable video output option, along with tasty extras like an optical S/PDIF port and eSATA. the Gigabyte H77M-D3H looks slightly sorry for itself. You don't even get 6.1 analogue sound connectivity, which could be considered an oversight on a board that ostensibly should appeal most to movie buffs.
Of course, there's another way of looking at all that. For starters, DisplayPort is pretty much irrelevant to home theatre larks, so why pay for it? The same goes for extra analogue sound sockets and the optical S/PDIF port.
In practice, most users will simply plug into the HDMI port and syphon off video and audio in digital formats. If that's your plan, you won't care about the missing features. That said, it's always handy to have an eSATA port for heaving large video files on and off. And you could argue that £15 isn't a lot more to pay for having the option of future flexibility and more features.
Moreover, like any H77 board, its general appeal isn't that broad. You can't overdock it and multi-GPU support is limited to AMD's CrossFireX platform. If you had no intention to overdock or go with SLI, it wouldn't make a bad gaming platform. But we prefer to have more options.
Flexibility though isn't the H77M-D3H’s strongest point. Partly that’s thanks to the limitations Intel has placed on the H77 chipset, but Gigabyte has also cut a few corners to hit its price target. If you're planninga system that can turn its hand to almost any task, frustration is likely. But if it's a home theatre rig based on DVI connectivity, why spend more? Simply drop in your Intel chip of choice, some memory and storage and you're good to go. Performance at stock clocks is also good enough that you won’t notice the gap between this and pricier boards.
Technical analysis
As motherboards with hot new chipsets go. the Gigabyte H77M-D3H is pretty affordable. So we'll forgive its tail-end placing in our motherboard benchmarks. However, like all of the new H77 boards, it's worth noting it's not remotely ovorclocking friendly. That probably limits its appeal beyond cheap all purpose rigs and home-movie setups.
GIGABYTE H77M-D3H User Mnual Download
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
Conversion Conversion Emoticon Emoticon