Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H Motherboard User Review

I’m sure all of you have heard the ‘ole saying “you get what you pay for”, and today I think we may just change your mind on that saying. It’s not very often that you see budget motherboards sporting the latest and greatest features available, yet Gigabyte has done just that and loaded it’s GA-Z97-D3H ATX motherboard with some features that aren’t available on other higher end boards. The best part about this is that you can get the Z97-D3H for just under $120 at Amazon.com and as usual, Gigabyte has put a 3 year warranty on the board.

Without any further hesitation, we’re going to jump right in. The front of the box features a large ‘Ultra Durable’ graphic, and town at the bottom we can see the model number. For those of you that may be new to Gigabyte motherboards, here’s the run down on the ‘Ultra Durable’ branding. Gigabyte first introduced their Ultra Durable lineup in 2006 when they began outfitting motherboards with Solid Capacitors. These new solid capacitors claimed to improve system stability as well as reliability. In the years since, Gigabyte has re-introduced the Ultra Durable line two more times. For more information on the Ultra Durable lineup from Gigabyte, click here.

As you can tell, it appears that all of the information regarding the Z97-D3H is printed on the back side of the box. On the left side we can see some bulleted notes, outlining some of the features of the D3H motherboard. The right side features a graphic of the motherboard itself, as well as a picture of the fear Input/Output (I/O) options.

Upon opening the box up, we found the motherboard itself wrapped in an anti-static bag, just as you would expect, as well as a single package of SATA cables.

The Z97-D3H certainly doesn’t set any records for bundled accessories, but everything that you need is included out of the box. You get two SATA cables, an I/O shield, as well as some documentation and a driver disc.

Finally, our first look at the Z97-D3H motherboard. As you can tell Gigabyte has gone with what appears to be a new color scheme for the Z97 family. The board is a dark brown, which almost appears to be black under certain lighting conditions. The gold heat-sinks really pop against the dark background of the PCB. We also have a splash of grey with the second memory channel.