Pros: Very fast and many features

Cons: Tried 3 different hard drives and still get the exact same errors on freshly installed windows.

Esent errors and database corruptions.

Crashing games and applications.

Bios would reset itself back to defaults on its own. When i put ram on channel A, it would give me beeps instead of posting.

When i put them on channel B they work.

Other Thoughts: I use to be huge on gigabyte boards but after this nightmare, not sure anymore.

Pros: - Lot of slots for expansion PCI-Express for video cards
- Not a ton of annoying thermal armor.
- Easy installation of CPU and heat sink. Did not feel like board was going to bend.
- Overall construction appears to be good. This will probably last for some time.

Cons: Have to buy aftermarket TPM unit to attach to board. Would have been nice to have it come with one for bit locker or other drive encryption. Not an issue for most users.

Other Thoughts: - Do we really need PS2 connections
- Had to flash to BIOS version F-03 to get XMP profiles to work with GSKIll 27200 RAM otherwise board would not clear POST with ram running at 3400.
- XMP settings for BIOS before F-03 were non-compliant with GSKIll RAM although the memory compatibility list was honest when I bought the board.

Pros: Has 2 M2 slots for when I am ready to upgrade to m2 drives and the xmp is working without any issues. Have my 6600k overclocked to 4.3 ghz and it does not ever go above 32 degrees celcius. Lay out of the PCI lanes are perfect and as for my sound I have never heard better quality.

Cons: Took a while to get it set up to where I wanted it. Somewhere around a month but as soon as I got it where I wanted it (mounted) it has worked like a dream.

Other Thoughts: I would recommend this motherboard to a friend and I would purchase again if I need too. Plays my games all @ max settings. Wondering what I would need a dedicated graphics card for.

Pros: Not sure as the board was no good.

Cons: Received this board a few days ago. Put the CPU/fan in, memory, and graphics card. Booted with no beeps and just went into a loop of restarting every 5 seconds. I took the graphics card out same thing. Then swapped with a good power supply; same thing. Then I took out the memory; same. Then the CPU/fan; same. Promptly returned to Newegg.

I've been with Gigabyte for a long time and I do own many great boards that have been running steady for years. I'm hoping this was a fluke and I did get a replacement. The problem is there is nothing worse than paying good money for a product and getting a lemon and having to go through the hassle of RMAs. If I'd go through Gigabyte directly it would probably be a good 2 weeks or more before I have a replacement. Really hoping they get their QA improved.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at
newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 133848 in the e-mail subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: Aesthetically one of the nicest looking motherboards I've seen.
Audio is fantastic.
The layout is great.
M.2 is amazing.
Posted.

Cons: The issues...
Like many others have claimed, the UEFI is very wonky. A lot of settings don't stick half the time, fan settings are bad. It won't allow my memory to use the XMP profile for whatever reason, despite getting tech support from the memory manufacturer.

ALL of the SATA ports on this board are dead. Not a single one works. This is super frustrating to say the least. I bought a SATA expansion card to compensate just to use my storage drives.

Other Thoughts: I bought this board simply for the aesthetics, it fit my scheme and seemed to be feature rich. I didn't like any of the boards from the Manufacturer I built the last 2 PC's with. (Still fully functional to this day). I won't be making that mistake again. Couldn't recommend it based my experience.

Pros: Turned on and worked for a month.
Has a warranty longer than 30 days.

Cons: Turned on and then only worked for a month before crapping out on me. For Gigabyte to talk about how great their components are and how much testing goes into them, they sure know how to make a terrible product. Barely a month went by and the thing won't even get to the boot menu without restarting, which becomes an endless loop.

Other Thoughts: Save yourself and buy from a company that actually tests their products, like ASUS, and doesn't just tell you they do.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 133046 in the e-mail subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

GIGABYTE VIP Support Team

Pros: 2 M.2 slots, great onboard audio with dynamic lighting. Two things about this board are real stand outs. The first is the
two M.2 slots, where you can install the fastest SSD's available. The second is the onboard audio, driven by Burr Brown OPA 2134.

First about the M.2 slots. While they can be use by both Sata and PCIE type ssd cards, you will only use them if you get a PCIE card. Why? Sata SSD's are still cheapest when bought in 2.5 inch form factor. There are 6 sata connectors on this board, and a maximum of 6 sata devices can be connected, so if you use one or both of the M.2 slots for Sata, you lose one or two of the sata conectors.

The onboard audio is great out of the box, plenty loud to drive even the toughest headphones. Two of the amplifier channels (presumably for L-R) are powered by an OPA 2134 operational aplifier, a darling of the head-fi geeks. Sound is pretty darned good, and can save you a bundle on an external audiophile amplifier.

Also cool about this board: 3 sata express, 2 digital video (displayport and hdmi), USB 3.1, Dual NIC (although they cannot be teamed)

Cons: 6 sata ports might be limiting for some. The removable OP amp only covers 2 channels -- Both of these limitations are removed in the higher end version of this board.

Gigabyte APPS are typical, so I would not recommend installing them unless there are specific ones that you'd like (system monitor or the automatic overclocking). Most of the apps are conveniences better found elsewhere (timers, usb blockers, etc). Also, most folk recommend not using the windows based BIOS update (prefer to do it from the BIOS settings for reliability)

Other Thoughts: Why you want this board? Plain and simple, for the two M.2 Slots and the audio. While PCIe x4 SSD's are still a bit pricey, its looking like this will be the form factor of the future, so even if you aren't ready to shell out for one now, you'll be ready. As for the audio, if you want great sound without buying expensive inboard or outboard DAC/amplifiers, this is a great option.

Buy this now for your skylake build, so you can expand and upgrade into the future when M.2 PCIe becomes cheap.

Rock on and groove to the pulsing lights.

Pros: nice smooth stable motherboard overclocks well. great LED and color scheme and super user freindly

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: big thumbs up

Pros: Attractive design with silver, red and black theme that looks nice in any case with clear see-through side panel. Reinforced with metal braces PCI-Express slots reduce chance of damage when replacing or upgrading graphic cards. Removable and upgradeable headphones operational amplifier OPA2134PA with ability to adjust audio level output to your headphones (gain can be adjusted to 2.5 or 6.0 times). Motherboard is equipped with ECO and OC hardware buttons - this lets you quickly switch from lowest power consumption to highest performance with a press of a button. Also motherboard is equipped with debug dual 7-segment LED indicator that displays boot, recovery and error codes. Audio section on this board is insulated from digital section and produces remarkable sound compared to my previous motherboards. Also it is equipped with single COM port header and newest USB Type-C port, as well with 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 3 USB 3.0/2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.1 Type-A port, as well with 2 Ethernet RJ-45 ports.

Cons: I have not found anything that I did not like about this board. It completely satisfies my needs. APP Store I do not find to be of any value and I do not use it.

Other Thoughts: This motherboard requires use of 6th generation Intel processor with socket LGA1151, and previous generation Intel processors with socket LGA1150 aren’t compatible and one will have to purchase new processors when upgrading system, as well as new memory modules - as this motherboard have DDR4 slots with 288 pins. My recommendation is to purchase this motherboard only if you are building new system.

Pros: Looks really nice, it was a fairly easy install into my system. I was pleasantly surprised when i turned it on and found out the board has a really cool red LED strip built in. Has a really slick look to it with the black board and the red/white/silver accents. The BIOS is easily navigated and makes whatever you want to do a breeze.

Cons: The way this board handles the fans on its own is a bit strange. it has 4 system fan connectors and 2 for the CPU (CPU fan, CPU OPT). The CPU OPT is supposed to be used for liquid cooling pumps which is perfect for my corsair AIO cooler, but when it plugged in to the CPU OPT port it wasn't pumping at all and the bios was reading a temp of 45C before I even loaded an operating system. I switched the cables (water pump in CPU fan, radiator fans in CPU OPT) and it worked fine; temps went down to 25C.

Once I got Windows 7 and all the drivers I wanted that came with the Mobo I had to go back in to bios to mess with the fans again. By default it was ALWAYS changing the fan speed if I did anything. If I so much as opened a web page the radiator fans would speed up and get loud, and if I had nothing open the fans on my radiator would stop. Bit too touchy for my tastes and the sound was getting annoying. You have 4 options to chose from:
-Off
-Silent (slow speed)
-Full blast all the time
-Normal (variable speed)

Kinda disappointing that I can't have them go in the middle, so for a middle ground I opted for all the Chassis fans to be on full all the time because they're quiet, the water pump on full all the time, and the radiator fans on Silent. My whole system runs quietly and extremely cool now that it isn't always changing fan speeds. Just a slight hum of fans no louder than a soft whisper. Under heavy load for 2 hours my 6700k never broke 38C.

Other Thoughts: Overall the things bad with this board can be worked around very easily. When you're looking at buying a Z170 motherboard there isn't much variation in performance, so you have to look at aesthetics, the ports, and the price more than anything. I feel this board is jack of all trades, master of none. Yes there are some cheaper, some that look nicer, some that are more expensive with flashy lights and one more USB 3.1 port. But with this board you will NOT have buyers remorse.