It’s easy to tell that EVGA values its customer’s input when developing new motherboards. Here are the design changes I noticed that are a direct result of customer influence:

• The “Dark Mode” jumper, which allows turning off all the onboard LEDs, except for the post code display.
• The onboard postcode led, power, reset, and clear CMOS button have all been moved near the top right side of the board allowing for easy access after the system is assembled.
• PS/2 port has been added because some gamers feel it is more responsive than using USB.
• Two onboard PCI-e type 6-Pin power connectors to ensure your high end graphics cards never starve for power.
• Better spacing between multiple GPU configurations.
• More than two SATA 6 GB/s ports, thus the reason for adding the two Marvell 6 GP/s SATA ports.

In addition to the above, the Z77 chipset brings its own set of technologies to the table as well. Probably the most welcome sight is the addition of native USB 3.0 support. While not exclusive to the Z77 chipset, Lucid Virtu MVP and SSD caching are additional features that many users will appreciate.

The EVGA Z77 FTW supports 4-Way SLI, and there are very few Z77 motherboards that do. The sky is the limit as far as building a powerful gaming rig goes. Overclocking couldn’t be easier, provided you have adequate cooling. Once I had the alpha 1.03 BIOS, I was able to set my memory at its rated 2400 MHz, and clock the CPU to 4.6 GHz in a matter of seconds. At these settings, the Z77 FTW proved to be completely stable and easily took every benchmark we threw at it.

If you are the type that enjoys extreme overclocking, then you will enjoy a couple of the BIOS settings intended to make that journey a success (see the BIOS  video above). It will be interesting to see what the Liquid Nitrogen Crowd amongst you can get out of this motherboard. Who knows, there may be a world record or two on the horizon; time will tell!

At the time of this review the Z77 FTW is available for $319.99 USD from Newegg, or $329.99 USD directly from EVGA. This price puts it right in line with other high end Z77 motherboards on the market. EVGA left nothing on the table as far as the features included on the Z77 FTW; its all there. The motherboard is an overclocking beast, and will delight anyone looking to build a killer gaming system. If you are looking at the Z77 platform for your next system build, then you absolutely must take a good hard look at this latest offering from EVGA.

The EVGA Z77 FTW has been awarded a 9.5/10 and the accompanying Overclockers Tech Gold Award!

Dino DeCesari (Lvcoyote)