Shootouts

High-End Intel Z87 Motherboard Shootout

By Wong Chung Wee - 14 Apr 2014

Gigabyte Z87X-OC

Gigabyte Z87X-OC

The Gigabyte Z87X-OC is a visually striking ATX board from Gigabyte's overclocking series. Splashed with streaks of bright orange in stark contrast against the jet black PCB, the Z87X-OC looks its part as the board also prominently features a number of onboard features that will make it fit perfectly into a open workbench environment of overclockers and power users. We venture to say that this board is built exclusively for unlocked 4th generation Intel Core (Haswell) processors!

The Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC is an ATX board from the company's overclocking series. Besides its striking color scheme, the board also boasts of a slew of onboard features that will appeal to system builders working in an open workbench environment.

Like high-end boards from Gigabyte, the board features Ultra Durable 5 Plus technology that we first experienced at Computex last year. Thus, the 12-phase power delivery system of the board features voltage regulation module components like the black solid capacitors, which are capable of stable performance even at high operating temperatures. In addition, the board has PowIRstage ICs that are single-package, single-silicon design MOSFETs, which boast of lower operating temperatures, without any concessions on performance.

 The Gigabyte Z87X-OC board has a 12-phase power delivery system made up of Ultra Durable 5 components.

True to its overclocking pedigree, and somewhat like the ASRock counterpart, the Z87X-OC has an additional 4-pin 12V (the ASRock Z87 OC Formula has an additional 8-pin 12V connector), on top of the regular 8-pin one. This is to provide additional juice to the CPU during overclocking. Moving south from the LGA 1150 CPU socket, we also see a 6-pin PCIe power connector, this is recommended when two or more graphics cards are installed.

Additional power connectors provide much needed juice for the extreme enthusiasts. For overclocking, the board has an additional 4-pin 12V power connector for the CPU. In the event of installation of two or more graphics cards, there is a 6-pin PCIe power connector handy too.

Speaking of its PEG slots, there are four PCIe x16 physical slots. As there are no PCIe Gen 3.0 PLX switch controllers on board, the Z87X-OC supports up to 2-way SLI for NVIDIA graphics cards. However, for AMD Crossfire configurations, the board is able to support up to 4-way CrossFireX configurations. The first PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 slot is able to run at full speed at x16, if only a single graphics card is installed. In the event of a dual GPU setup, the second card is supposed to be installed in the third PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 slot. Therefore, the standard 16 PCIe 3.0 compliant lanes that's powered by the CPU will be shared between the two installed graphics cards with a x8/x8 bandwidth configuration.

 There are four physical x16 slots, only the first three are PCIe Gen 3.0 compliant. The last x16 slot is connected to the board's chipset, operating at x4 PCIe 2.0 speed.

The second PCIe Gen 3.0 slot actually shares bandwidth with the first and third expansion slots. Therefore, in a 3-way PCIe Gen 3.0 compliant graphic setup, the lanes are divided in the following manner, x8/x4/x4. The last x16 slot is only PCIe 2.0 standard, and it is connected to the board's Intel Z87 chipset, running at x4 speed. Do note that only AMD cards are supported in a 4-way CrossFireX configuration. For NVIDIA card owners, they are limited to a 2-way SLI setup. Further to these full PEG slots, the board also has a pair of PCI slots and a lone PCIe 2.0 x 1 slot.

Next, we look at the headers and connectors lining the bottom edge of the board. The headers are made up of front panel audio header, COM port header, a pair of USB 2.0 headers, a USB 3.0 header, and a system panel header with color coding to differentiate between the connectors. Amongst the headers, there are three system fan headers.

The headers are made up of front panel audio header, COM port header, a pair of USB 2.0 headers, a USB 3.0 one, and a system panel header with some form of color coding to differentiate between the connectors. Amongst the headers, there are three system fan headers.

There is a pair of USB 2.0 ports, next to the stack of black SATA 6Gbps connectors. According to the board's manual, the ports are called OC Connect ports. They enable power users to conveniently attach supported devices like flash memory drives to be attached quickly, without having to reach behind when most of the USB ports are located at the rear I/O panel. As you might imagine, this board is engineered for a open test-bench setup rather than to be hidden away within your casing where these and many other features would be harder to utilize.

The pair of OC Connect USB 3.0 ports is used for connecting supported devices in an open workbench environment. 

We also uncovered a nugget of information while reading up on the OC Connect ports; apparently, for some unknown reason, only two of the six USB 3.0 ports from the board's Intel Z87 chipset have been utilized. The rest of the USB 3.0 connectivity is handled by two Renesas USB 3.0 hubs, and the hubs drive a total of 6 USB 3.0 ports, found at the rear I/O, and 2 more that are made available with a USB 3.0 internal header. There is the "Clear Battery" button, next to the OC Connect USB 2.0 ports. When pressed, it will have the same affect as removing the battery from the board.

From the top, we can see the "Clear Battery" button that when pressed, it will have the same affect as removing the battery from the board.

The board supports up to 32GB of overclocked DDR3 memory modules that have been rated up to 3000MHz. The area, just below the DIMM slots, is packed with a lot of onboard features for overclocking and tweaking purposes (refer to below photo). Most notable are the set of OC Buttons that will help overclockers adjust their settings in real-time.

And of course, there is a mainstay Dual BIOS switch that allows the board to operate with two sets of BIOSes, and there is even another switch to disable the Dual BIOS feature of the board. Besides good eyesight, prospective users will need to refer to the board's manual for their operational details.

Besides the OC Buttons, there are BIOS switches and a PCIe DIP switch. There is also a row of voltage measurement points that support two methods of measuring voltage, either with a multimeter directly, or attaching the bundled voltage measurement cables to the corresponding points. (Image Source; Gigabyte)

At the rear I/O panel, there is the OC Ignition button that will maintain power to the system's drives and cooling fans, without powering up the CPU. This feature is useful for keeping the cooling fans running to reduce moisture build up during LN2 cooling. It also allows the attached drives to keep operating, and prevent data loss of any virtual RAM drives.

In terms of video ports, there are two HDMI connectors, and a DisplayPort port. There are a total of six USB 3.0 ports, and a pair of USB 2.0 ones. The PS/2 mouse and keyboard port sits on top of a pair of USB 3.0 ports. There are six analog audio jacks, instead of the usual five, as there is an additional jack for side speakers (as such, the S/PDIF connector has been shifted out). In terms of network connectivity, there isn't any wireless modules, but there is a single RJ-45 LAN port.

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