Gigabyte Z77 Motherboards

Gigabyte's Lineup of the Intel Z77 platform (Panther Point). first up the Gigabyte Z77-UD3H and Z77-UD5H

This board has a more beefy looking heatsink 

Look like it has a matte black PCB

The Z77X-UD5H is an extremely feature-rich offering, in some aspects a more complete package than even the G1.Sniper 3. It provides a 15-phase CPU and 2-phase memory VRM. Expansion slots on this board include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), three PCIe 2.0 x1, and one legacy PCI. SATA connectivity on the Z77X-UD5H includes five internal SATA 6 Gb/s (two from the PCH, three from third-party controllers), four SATA 3 Gb/s, one mSATA, and one eSATA. Display I/O includes one each of DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort. There are two gigabit Ethernet interfaces (one driven by an Intel controller, one by a Qualcomm-Atheros controller), 8+2 channel HD audio driven by Realtek ALC898, ten USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, six via front-panel headers), FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Moving on to the Z77X-UD3H, we find a leaner loadout overall. A 9-phase VRM powers the CPU, 2-phase memory. The expansion slot arrangement is identical to that of the Z77X-UD5H. SATA connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports, one mSATA, and two eSATA ports. This board has even more USB 3.0 ports than the UD5H: six on the rear-panel, two via header. The rest of the connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio (VIA-made CODEC, we're not too sure about the 108 dBA SNR marking), one gigabit Ethernet interface (likely Realtek 8111F). Display connectivity includes one each of DVI, HDMI, Display Port, and D-Sub. 


Source: Techpowerup


G1 Sniper M3 

this is the first Micro ATX G1 killer motherboard and is based on the same Z77 chipset, and is backed by a fairly exhaustive feature-set that makes it a formidable high-end micro-ATX gaming desktop choice (good for LAN party rigs). The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 9-phase VRM, which draws power from a 4-pin ATX connector (instead of 8-pin EPS). The socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel memory.Out of the four expansion slots this form-factor permits, three slots on this board are physical PCI-Express x16. The topmost one is PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/x8), the bottom-most one is electrical PCI-Express 3.0 x8. These two slots are wired to the CPU. The x16 slot in the middle of the two is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4, wired to the Z77 PCH. Then there's a PCI-Express 2.0 x1, also wired to the PCH. SATA connectivity doesn't rely on any third-party controllers, internally there are two SATA 6 Gb/s ports, three SATA 3 Gb/s, the fourth 3 Gb/s port is wired out as eSATA, on the rear panel.Further, the board doesn't rely on third-party USB 3.0 controllers. There are just four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear-panel, two via front-panel header, all four wired to the PCH. Like the G1.Sniper 3, this board lacks fancy Creative or Bigfoot made connectivity. It makes use of Creative Sound Core3D audio, which is backed by amplifier circuitry that's better ground-isolated from the rest of the motherboard; and Intel 82579V gigabit Ethernet. Display connectivity includes one each of DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort. A number of USB 2.0 ports top it off.


Source: Techpowerup

As you can see the rear I/O only has usb 3.0 ports

Finally is the Highest end in the gigabyte line of Z77 (most probably not official yet). The motherboard is designed to drive up to four graphics cards in 4-way CrossFire/SLI configurations. It takes advantage of a PLX PEX8747 bridge chip, which takes in one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 link, giving out two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 links, it even has a native multiplex that splits its second downstream x16 link to two x8 links. This way, the G1.Sniper 3 is ready for 4-way action with the latest PCIe Gen. 3.0 graphics cards. The socket LGA1155 CPU is powered by a 15-phase VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC/x16/NC; x16/NC/x8/x8; x8/x8/x8/x8); two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 (wired to the PCH), and one legacy PCI. There's a boat-load of SATA connectivity, starting with six SATA 6 Gb/s ports (two from the PCH, four from additional controllers), four SATA 3 Gb/s, and one mSATA 6 Gb/s. For a change, Gigabyte did away with both Creative X-Fi audio (at least the CA20K2-based version) and Bigfoot Killer NIC, and replaced them with more familiar parts, such as HD audio (probably Realtek ALC898) driving the audio, with better ground-isolated amp circuitry, and Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller (probably 82579V). There's a second GbE connection, driven by a Realtek controller. Display connectivity looks to include DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort (the whole lot). All USB ports on the rear panel are USB 3.0, four of them could be wired to the PCH. There are a number of USB 2.0 ports available by headers, not to mention two more USB 3.0 ports via front-panel header. Moving on, the G1.Sniper 3 has Gigabyte's dual-UEFI BIOS with 3DBIOS UI. While the board retains the gunmetal black+green color scheme, it did away with retarded-looking heatsink designs. It packs a whole bunch of features for overclockers, including consolidated voltage measurement points, a feature-rich BIOS, etc. The G1.Sniper 3 could feature in Gigabyte's first wave of Z77 motherboards.


Source: Techpowerup