GIGABYTE has a wide market reach, and they can really throw their weight around in any segment they choose as they have plenty of models and manufacturing to do so. As of recent they have thrown their hat into the overclocking arena more heavily than before and this is of course at a similar time when many manufacturers are doing just the same. This kind of competitiveness is excellent for the consumer as each company will push to be the best which means so much better pricing and performance for the end user.

Today we have the Z77X-UP7 which is the board that GIGABYTE sees as the true successor to the famed X58A-OC board. That board was an absolute marvel as it arrived on scene quite late but it made up for its lateness with raw power. One thing it was missing was the more pedestrian IO connectivity, and as a result, general 24/7 usage was a bit unrealistic. We can see elements of the X58A-OC here on the Z77X-UP7 and performance is very promising. The UP7 however does offer some improvements to what we saw with the X58A-OC board. GIGABYTE realized that despite its benching capability, users will still want the regular usage to be excellent, and so they built the Z77X-UP7 with features great for benching and for 24/7 usage.