Gigabyte's Z77 chipset flawed?

[diamondmines]

Hi guys,

I heard and read somewhere that some of Gigabyte's Z77 chipset is flawed, if not all. Apparently, you couldn't overclock the board over 1.330/1.338Vcore? Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks.

[diamondmines]

Come on guys, someone should have an idea about this. I really need to know. Since nobody replied, does this mean it's generalization on the users part? Or like 5 of the Z77 MBs crashed out of 1000?

[scaryjim]

Frankly, you could say that allowing a user to change the voltage on a CPU at all is a flaw. No CPU is advertised to run stably or safely at anything other than its stock voltage.

Most motherboards have limits in the BIOS on how far outside the default you can change each setting. So it's possible that some Gigabyte Z77 motherboards limit CPU voltage to 1.33v. I wouldn't call it a flaw though. If it bothers you, do some googling, download some Gigabyte motherboard manuals, and read up on the subject. Personally, it doesn't interest me in the slightest, so I'm disinclined to do the research for you...

[munkey99]

Think you may be confusing the limitations of the boards with a bios that doesn't allow vcore adjustment (GA-z77m-d3h and GA Z77-ds3h) with those that do allow vcore adjust (like ga-z77-d3h).

The budget z77s only allow vtt/pll adjustment, not vcore, but the auto voltage control does adjust to support turbo mode according to the power demands of the processor. My ga-z77-ds3h has no vcore adjustment but having clocked a 2500k from 3.3ghz (stock) and a bin of about 1.2v to 4.2ghz the auto CPU voltage setting automatically scales to 1.33v.....and stops. It limits the headroom without vcore adjustment but plenty have overclocked with higher vcore using a d3h or more expensive models. Solid boards, highly recommended. Just be sure you pick the right model if you want to tweak vcore (I didn't!)

[diamondmines]

Thank you.

[diamondmines]

Frankly, you could say that allowing a user to change the voltage on a CPU at all is a flaw. No CPU is advertised to run stably or safely at anything other than its stock voltage.

Most motherboards have limits in the BIOS on how far outside the default you can change each setting. So it's possible that some Gigabyte Z77 motherboards limit CPU voltage to 1.33v. I wouldn't call it a flaw though. If it bothers you, do some googling, download some Gigabyte motherboard manuals, and read up on the subject. Personally, it doesn't interest me in the slightest, so I'm disinclined to do the research for you...

Thank you very much for your support.

[diamondmines]

Think you may be confusing the limitations of the boards with a bios that doesn't allow vcore adjustment (GA-z77m-d3h and GA Z77-ds3h) with those that do allow vcore adjust (like ga-z77-d3h).

The budget z77s only allow vtt/pll adjustment, not vcore, but the auto voltage control does adjust to support turbo mode according to the power demands of the processor. My ga-z77-ds3h has no vcore adjustment but having clocked a 2500k from 3.3ghz (stock) and a bin of about 1.2v to 4.2ghz the auto CPU voltage setting automatically scales to 1.33v.....and stops. It limits the headroom without vcore adjustment but plenty have overclocked with higher vcore using a d3h or more expensive models. Solid boards, highly recommended. Just be sure you pick the right model if you want to tweak vcore (I didn't!)

I think you've answered my frustrations more clearly munkey99, thanks man.