Gigabyte GA-Z77-UP4 TH (Z77) Motherboard Review

We’ve been seeing its presence and imminent arrival grow over the last few months and most crucially at Computex 2012, Thunderbolt was the buzz word of the show as many manufacturers started to show off in more detail their up coming motherboards an peripherals that will be supporting of the new interface. So what is Thunderbolt?

In its simplest form, Thunderbolt is not quite a new interface as we will see, but more of a way of utilising one interface for multiple tasks. Up to now, an interface has really only been for on particular task and most commonly this is data whilst the other option is video on a separate array of interface types. The need to more data faster and also have the ability to connect up more and more peripherals is rapidly increasing and short of having an expansion bay full of interface cards and more and more ports on the rear I/O, a new solution is required.

In a nutshell, what Thunderbolt has done is to combine both the data and video signals into a single interface whilst also allowing for the ability to daisy chain peripherals eradicating the need to have a huge number of ports on the I/O panel. With a maximum of 6 devices and a display monitor per each port on the motherboard supported, the Z77X-UP4 TH will out the box be able to daisy chain a combined total of 12 devices and 2 monitors with a resolution of up to 2560×1600 each.