Intel DZ77RE-75K Extreme Series Z77 SLI Gaming Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,852 words · ~9 min read
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Welcome to my unboxing and first look at a genuine Intel desktop board. Okay,
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that's good. This is extreme series optimized for Intel K processors. So,
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this is an Extreme Series board and is optimized for Intel K processors cuz
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this is an LG 1155 board which means
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that you don't have support for Intel Extreme Edition processors on LGA 2011.
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The D77RE-75K has a bunch of cool stuff. So,
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number one is an Extreme board. Supports Intel Core i7, i5, and i3. Highly
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optimized for K processors, which means overclocking friendly. Yay. Intel visual
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BIOS, which means UFI BIOS, PCI Express 3.0, LG 1155 processor support, NVIDIA
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SLI technology, AMD Crossfire X technology. Look at that. It's AMD logo
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on an Intel product. Haha. Um, Lucid Virtue MVP virtualization for
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improved performance as well as the ability to use the onboard video for
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quicks sync and your dedicated graphics card for gaming. And what else do we
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want to talk about? Oh, yeah. It has Thunderbolt, which is Boss. So,
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transformational high-speed dual protocol. Man, you know, Intel has like
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the boringest way of talking about like the coolest stuff sometimes. No offense,
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guys, but transformational high-speed dual
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protocol PCIO delivering performance, simplicity, and flexibility. Fastest IO
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connection to your
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PC. What they really mean is like beastly Thunderbolt technology for like
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the fastest daisy chaining awesomeness. And uh that's what they were trying to
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say. Latest responsiveness technology. Ah, Intel smart response technology with
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SSD caching. Intel rapid start. So you can quickly start up your PC and Intel
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smart connect technologies are all present. Power supervisor. Oh, that's
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neat. So monitor ensures system protection from power supply failure. Current surgeon overcurren protection
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power spikes and power dies. The power supervisor will shut the power off.
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That's really cool. So they're building in like a uh like breakers almost on the
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board by the sounds of things, which is really neat. I mean, one of the biggest
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risks to a PC in general is if you know
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there's a power problem of some sort and your power supply explodes, which is
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inconvenient and expensive cuz you got to get a new one. But it can also be a
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total disaster because it can take other stuff with it at the same time. So,
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Intel has thought of that and decided that they don't really want that to happen. And there's Oh, custom SLI
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bridge. Love it. Look at that blue connectors. I
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don't have one like this. I'm like totally pocketing
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this. Intel mouse pad. Intel has awesome swag that comes
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with their products. Check this out. I still have this from uh this was back
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like some extreme edition LGA75 board. Warning, noobs, beware, you will be
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pawned. Love it. Actually, it might have come with uh
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what was that board? Skull trail or something. The one that was dual socket.
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Yeah, that was the one. Extreme desktop boards. Sweet mouse pad. Actually feels
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reasonably nice. Got nice grippyiness on the back. Very cool. We've also got Oh,
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look at that. A front USB 3. So, internal header
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to front 3 and 1/2 in drive with uh two
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USB 3.0 connectors. And it's pretty nice. Like, it's brushed metal. It's not
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plastic like some of the ones that I've seen included with other boards. Very
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nice. I mean, that's the thing about Intel is it might be a little bit more expensive, but they tend to get some of
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the finishing touches right. And I say some because these are red SATA cables,
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and that's just tragic. Okay, moving
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right along. Oh, neat. So, they include
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a an external. I think this is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but let me just double check
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before I go and, you know, get ahead of myself
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here. Includes Bluetooth 2.1 Wi-Fi BGN
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module. So, that's very, very neat. And they also include a cable to connect it.
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So, this probably plugs in. Where on earth does this No way. It's internal.
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Oh, that's cool. So, you can probably use this on anything. It's just USB.
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Look at that. Internal USB plug to internal USB header. And you just stick
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it somewhere to the inside of your case discreetly. Very nice. And this is even
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pretty easy to sleeve as well. So, you could uh sleeve it black and it look
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really good. Colorcoded IO
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shield. Summary of a summary of post codes. Very nice. Love it when they
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include a post readout. Love it even more when they actually tell you what
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they mean. Driver disc integration guide
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in color. Oh, in color. How to build your PC. Very
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nice. There you go. And you can tell like a team of people worked on anything
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that Intel releases. So, little quick guide to all the different various front
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panel connectors, processor compatibility.
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Yeah. Okay. the LG 1155 and some maximum
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ownage Razor thing. Okay, cool. Moving
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on to the board itself. Intel has really figured out the
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aesthetics of their boards ever since LGA775, I think. And they've this whole
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like skull theme thing that they've got going on, I think looks really good.
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It's a lot better than like guns and bullets and stuff like that. It's got
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like, you know, like a silvery sort of stylized look to it. goes really really
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well with the dark blue. Love silver and dark blue as far as color schemes go.
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And I'm not going to gush too much about how good-looking this board is, but it's
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it's good-looking without being sort of overly flashy and kind of silly. So, all
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solid state caps all over the entire board. There's no uh no liquid caps,
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including the power delivery as well as every other component on the board.
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There's the LG 1155 socket with a lot of
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room around it, which is great if you have a large aftermarket cooler. your
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eight pin power connectors in its ideal location. On the left, you've got
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support for dual channel DDR3 memory up
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to probably 64 gigs would be would be my guess, but uh we'll see. It depends on
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uh it depends on dim availability over the next little bit. You can at least
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put uh you can at least put 32 gigs in
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today. 24 pin power connectors and its ideal location along the right hand
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edge. Onboard power and reset buttons, very very nice. We've got SATA 3 6 Gbit
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per second ports off the Intel chipset. SATA 2 3 Gbit per second ports. And it's
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very rare for Intel to include like a
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third party chipset, but they've got a Marvel chipset providing two more SATA 3
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6 GB per second ports. That's uh that's fantastic. Wow. Front IO. I consider
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this to be the ideal location for Front IO. I really like this. I don't really
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like it when they put it over here cuz your front IO is always there and never
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somewhere else and you're always using it. You know, it's not like USB 2 where
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there's a chance you won't be using it. Um, okay. So, there are three front
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panel USB 2 ports, two front panel USB 3
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ports, spitif out, as well as front panel Oh, look at that front panel
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FireWire. Nice to still see that. Where's the front panel audio, though? There it is. Okay. Expansion slots.
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We've got seven. love seeing boards with seven expansion slots because what that
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means to someone like me is that they put the effort in to make sure that uh
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they were filling up all of the space and giving you as much expansion as they possibly can. So these will run in
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either 16x or 8x 8x mode PCI Express 3.0
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1 2 3 PCIe 1X slots and two PCI slots.
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If you're using two dual slot graphics cards, you'll be left with two PCIe 1X
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and one PCI slot. I consider this to be a very good mix. Good on you, Intel. All
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right. Uh oh, yeah. Let's have a look at fan headers. So, we've got one, two,
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three, four PWM fan connectors on the
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board. Um the locations aren't as perfect as I'd like. I'd like to see
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more fan headers sort of around here because otherwise there's not really
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much to connect your front fans to. Uh top fans, can so CPU fan, top fan, rear
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fan, and this is sort of in no man's land. I'd like to see a couple up here
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instead, but it's not the end of the world. On the back, we've got four USB
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2.0 connectors, a PS2 connector, FireWire,
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ESATA. I'm going to have to find out what that is. Uh, dual Intel gigabit
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Ethernet, four USB 3.0, HDMI, as well as
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Oh, that must be the uh must be Thunderbolt. It just looks funny. No,
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it's not. No, there it is. Yeah, we'll find out what that is. It's probably a clear SIMO switch, though. HDMI, 7.1
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audio out, optical audio out, and a Thunderbolt connector. So, give me a
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sec, guys. So, yeah, basically this will when you illuminate this, it'll get you
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back to the BIOS at default settings, which is basically a clear SIMOS switch,
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but not quite. However, this is a clear SIMOS jumper. So, you just go ahead and
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flip that over in order to clear the SIMOS. I think that pretty much covers
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it. Although, it does have a couple of uh yeah, a couple of interesting software bits that are included,
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including McAfee, ESET, Smart Security. This is neat. Splashtop remote desktop
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is included, although there's like an asterisk, so I don't know, other names
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and brands, etc. Lap link PC mover and you can monitor PC health with the Intel
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desktop utility. Neat stuff. So, what's the
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point? Pretty much everything you need in terms of IO. I was wrong. It's 32
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gigs max, by the way. Everything you need in terms of IO, every feature you
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could possibly ask for, including the latest Thunderbolt technology, SLI,
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Crossfire, all that good stuff. And I mean, it's built by Intel, so like, you
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know, realistically, it's got a 3-year warranty, but if it's not working 10
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years from now, I'll be very surprised. Thank you for checking out my unboxing
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and first look at the D77RE75K from Intel. Don't forget to
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subscribe for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos. And how
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exactly am I going to put this
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motherboard in this box?
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Hey, you're in my spot.