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First looks: Gigabyte Z170X Gaming G1 motherboard

By Koh Wanzi - 10 Oct 2015

First looks: Gigabyte Z170X Gaming G1

Image Source: Gigabyte.

There are high-end motherboards, and then there is the Gigabyte Z170X Gaming G1. Priced at a stratospheric S$939, the Gaming G1 alone costs more than some CPU and motherboard bundles. For that price, we expect a zero-compromises feature set, and from what we’ve seen, the board does deliver (well, it better).

Overclocking comprises the cornerstone of the performance of any enthusiast-level board, and the Z170X Gaming G1 incorporates a whopping 22-phase digital power delivery design to help with overclocking stability. This includes a combination of IR digital power controllers and PowlRstage ICs to detect the current more accurately. According to Gigabyte, this will help to distribute the thermal load more evenly among the individual ICs, which will in turn improve reliability.

The board features an impressive 22-phase power design.

Moving around to the VRM heatsinks themselves, we see that they are equipped with built-in G1/4 threaded fittings that will work with the majority of water-cooling systems. This feature was also included in the Z97 Gaming G1, so it’s no surprise that it makes a return here.

A closer look at the G1/4 threaded fittings on the VRM heatsink.

A look at the PCIe slots shows that Gigabyte is going all out in every aspect of the board’s features. There are a total of four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, all of which are reinforced with metal. Given that you may pair this board with multiple high-end – and heavy – cards this is definitely a welcome feature. And in addition to the four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, there are a further PCIe 2.0 x1 slots.

All four of the full-length PCIe 3.0 slots are equipped with metal reinforcements.

The board is also equipped with a PLX chip which allows for four-way graphics setups in x8/x8/x8/x8. Intel Z170 is no Intel X99, and this is a step toward overcoming the PCIe lane limitations of the former chipset. However, do note that this doesn’t actually involve the provision of extra PCIe lanes. Rather it involves on-the-fly lane switching to allow PCIe lanes to be channelled to the GPUs that need it. This isn’t the same as having additional PCIe lanes to work with, but it approximates it.

The PLX chip is located under the connecting heatsink above the topmost PCIe 3.0 slot. In addition, a metal heatpipe links the PCH heatsink with the VRM heatsinks.

The onboard audio solution is a similarly extravagant affair. The Gaming G1 uses a dedicated quad-core Creative Sound Core 3D audio processor that takes the audio processing load off the CPU for better performance. It also features a Burr-Brown 127dB DAC that supports 192kHz/24-bit audio, audiophile-grade WIMA and Nichicon capacitors, and upgradeable op-amps. The entire audio solution is Creative Sound Blaster ZxRi-certified, and according to Gigabyte, is on par with the design of discrete sound cards.

Moving on to a slightly frivolous note, no high-end board would be complete without some LED-infused extravagance, and the AMP-UP Audio cover features some LED trace path lighting that can be configured from up to seven different colors.

The upgradeable op-amps can be seen flanking the third PCIe 3.0 x16 slot.

Round the back, the rear I/O panel features one USB 3.1 Type-A port, seven USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. The two USB 2.0 ports are colored yellow, and these are actually dedicated USB DAC ports for cleaner power delivery to your DAC of choice. USB 3.1 support is provided by Intel's Alpine Ridge controller, which supports the full data rate of the official USB 3.1 specification because of the four PCIe 3.0 lanes available to it. In comparison, other USB 3.1 controllers like the more common ASMedia ASM1142 only support PCIe 3.0 x2. 

The two yellow USB ports are designed to deliver a cleaner signal to your USB DAC.

For networking, the board likewise boasts a comprehensive combination of wired and wireless options. The dual Gigabit Ethernet ports rely on the latest Killer E2400 chips.

Together with the Killer Wireless-AC 1535 network adapter, they support Killer DoubleShot-X3 Pro technology, an intelligent control system that optimizes your network connection for the lowest latency.

A look at the 2x2 Wi-Fi antennae.

It does this by picking the lowest latency network connection – one of the two Ethernet ports or the wireless connection – and sending all high-priority traffic over that interface. Regular traffic is then sent over the next fastest interface, while bulk traffic is sent over the last.

For storage connectivity, the board has six SATA 6Gbps ports (including three SATA Express connectors) and two M.2 sockets provided by the Intel Z170 chipset. An additional four SATA 6Gbps ports are supplied by a third-party ASMedia ASM1061 controller, but these will not support NVMe devices.

There are a total of 10 SATA 6Gbps ports.

Finally, the board of course comes with a dual BIOS feature, and two switches at the bottom allow you to toggle between the main and backup BIOS and even switch between single or dual BIOS mode.

Two BIOS switches at the bottom let you enable or disable dual BIOS mode or switch between the default and backup BIOS.

But that's not all. Also included in the box is a USB 3.1 front panel with Type-A and Type-C connectors. As it turns out, one can never have too many USB 3.1 ports.

The Gaming G1 is bundled with a USB 3.1 front panel with Type-A and Type-C ports.

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