When Gigabyte first contacted me about reviewing the Z77X-UP5 TH, I was fully expecting just an updated Z77X-UD5H. Instead, what I received, although clad in similar wrappings, was very much a different animal with a very different design. At first, I was a bit disappointed, but at the same time I realized that my expectations were, perhaps, a bit misplaced. The Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH is pretty good, especially if memory performance is your thing. There are a few caveats in that CPU performance might suffer a wee bit, but under close examination, it seems a relaxed Turbo profile is at fault here.
With today's Intel products, issues concerning Turbo are a definite reality, so much so that some might have noticed that I include default Turbo lists in my CPU-Z screenshots. Identifying such an issue really goes a long way towards getting the most you can out of your system. That said, it's pretty obvious that Gigabyte needs to get that issue solved, and put out a new BIOS as soon as possible - even if the current BIOS version is F4 and the boards have gone on sale within the last week or so. When you combine that with the Z77X-UP5 TH doing pretty well already, and notice that BIOS improvements have come a long way, it really seems that Gigabyte may have a real winner if they fix the BIOS issue. Power consumption and overall performance is decent already - just a simple change to how Turbo works and this board may be the very best Gigabyte product I've tested to date.
I really feel that this board might be ignored by many simply because of Thunderbolt, but if you are into building a Hackintosh, there's no better option. I've already seen quite a few people get things up and running very quickly even though this product has barely hit retail shelves. I cannot forget to mention the great audio rendering the Z77X-UP5 TH has, and with the Hackintosh perspective fresh, this really does add to the overall package the Z77X-UP5 TH offers - one which has me sold. No, it's not perfect ... but ultimately, it's pretty damn close. I have talked to Gigabyte about the issues I have found to make sure they are definitely aware, as this is something they HAVE to fix. Until then, good job Gigabyte, but I know you can do just a bit better.