Layout

At a first glance the Biostar Hi-Fi Z77X looks very good with its harmonic design. The manufacturer decided to go for a black matte PCB as well as black expansion slots and DIMM slot. A closer look at the different coolers and at the capacitors next to the audio chips shows blue color accents. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. The fact that there are SATA connectors which have been angled by 90 degrees allow an easy installation of oversized graphics cards. What also helps is the fact that the board is not overcrowded with additional chips. Therefore it has been possible create a very decent layout.

The Biostar Hi-Fi Z77X comes with a digital 13 phase power design. Looking at the board from this point of view it should definitely be capable of handling even extreme overclockers demands.

Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Hi-Fi Z77X. Officially supported are DDR3 2600(OC), 2400 (OC), 2200 (OC), 2133 (OC), 2000 (OC), 1866 (OC), 1600, 1333 and 1066 MHz. There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 1.3.

On the Hi-Fi Z77X the southbridge as well as the current converters are being cooled using passive cooling blocks. Basically this board is quite plain and simple. There is for example no additional PLX chip to split PCI Express lanes. What you get is the standard connectivity offert by the Z77 PCH.