As mentioned previously during the inspection of the TZ77XE4, BIOSTAR have positioned the top PCI-E x16 slot rather close to the CPU socket for our liking. Other vendors usually position the x1 slot at the top of the lineup of PCI-E to avoid creating clearance issues for graphics cards and CPU coolers but BIOSTAR havent done this unfortunately.
As pictured below the graphics card is being pushed over slightly because both the heatsink and the fan on the heatsink of our test system are very close. The fan is actually touching the back of the PCB. As the top PCI-E slot provides the best bandwidth, its only common that all users will want to use this slot for their graphics card functionality.
Graphics cards come very close to the CPU Cooler
Another aspect that is worth mentioning is the memory. For other Z77 motherboards we have reviewed the memory does come in close proximity to the CPU cooler but nothing as close as with the TZ77EX4. The cooler is actually pushing the nearside memory module down and outwards.
Memory is a close affair
