Five Z87 Motherboards Under $220, Reviewed

Z87X-UD4H Applications

Gigabyte’s App Center service pop-up gives easy access to many of the firm's motherboard-specific applications. Most unusual (and potentially valuable) of these, USB Blocker allows users to set access controls for various USB ports to block access from unwanted devices, such as someone else’s infected thumb drive.

Gigabyte @BIOS provides firmware update checks and its FaceWizard utility for boot-screen customization.

Gigabyte Live Update checks servers for the latest version of the motherboard’s drivers and utilities.

Notice the writing on this screenshot tab: Gigabyte is the only company I’ve recently seen to include a digital audio input with its audio solution. Other menus are identical to the Realtek apps discussed previously within this article.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.