GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming Motherboard
- Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 Certified Motherboard
- Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor
- Dual Channel, Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 4 DIMMs
- Intel® USB 3.1 with USB Type-C™ & PD 2.0 100W Support
- 2-Way SLI™ & CrossFire™ Multi-Graphics Support
- NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 22110 M.2 Interface & U.2 Interface for Intel® SSD 750
- Best Support for 3 Intel® SSD 750 Devices in RAID 0
- 2 SATA Express Connectors for Up to 16Gb/s Data Transfer
- Intel® GbE LAN with cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator Software
- High Quality Audio Capacitors and Audio Noise Guard with Ambient LED Trace Path Lighting
- Ultra Durable Metal Shielding over PCIe and DDR Slots
- Ultra Durable Anti-Sulfur Resistors for Longer Lifespan
- Ultra Durable Anti-Rust Rear I/O Connectors
- Dual Hybrid Fan Headers with Precise PWM / Voltage Control for Water Pump & Fan
- GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ Technology
- APP Center Including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ Utilities
- Rear Panel Mini DisplayPort-In for Future Feature Upgrade
Next Generation 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt™ 3
Thunderbolt™ 3 – The fastest 40Gb/s single-wire connection
Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 Certified Motherboard
Powered by Intel's own Thunderbolt controller the new Thunderbolt™ 3 protocol, which is available over a USB Type-C™ connector on the back I/O of the GIGABYTE Z170X-Ultra Gaming, brings an unprecedented single-wire bandwidth of up to 40 Gb/s -- twice more than the previous generation of Thunderbolt! This incredible increase in bandwidth is also accompanied with support for different protocols such as Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.1, which is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, opening up a world of new possibilities.
Daisy-chain Multiple Devices
Support for Mini DisplayPort 1.2 makes Thunderbolt™ 3 a must have for any enthusiast. The Z170X-Ultra Gaming is able to support a display in 4K resolution at 60 FPS. In addition, Thunderbolt™ 3 over USB Type-C™ has revolutionary industry-first features such as Power Delivery 2.0, and the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices thanks to the Z170X-Ultra Gaming's USB Type-C™ port.
Ambient Surround LED
Now offering more LED customizations than ever, users can truly adapt their PC to represent their lifestyle. With a redesigned Ambient LED application, the user has complete control over the LEDs which surround the motherboard.
Dual Hybrid Fan Headers
Precise PWM and Voltage Control for Water pumps or Fans
Many of today's modern computers feature water cooling to ensure that the CPU or graphics cards stay cool and quiet while they are put under heavy load. In order to provide the best support for water cooling solutions, GIGABYTE has equipped its Z170 motherboards with an additional water pump power header. This allows the user to have full control over two water pumps or fans. An additional benefit of these headers with GIGABYTE's motherboards is the option to choose between voltage calibration or PWM modes.
Customization Features and Water Cooling Support
- 100W USB Type-C™ Power Design(Power Delivery 2.0)
- Fast Intel® USB 3.1
- Dual PWM Water Pump Control
- NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 22110 M.2 Onboard
- Triple NVMe PCIe SSDs in RAID O Support (Z170)
- NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 U.2 Onboard
- Dual Armor with Ultra Durable™ Design
- Ambient Surround LED
Immersive VR
Gaming Experience
- VR requires 30% more performance than Full HD graphics for a steady 60FPS or greater.
- Only Gaming PCs can provide the best VR experience.
To create a seamless VR experience GIGABYTE Motherboards offer the best features to make your virtual reality feel like your actual reality.
With technologies such as Thunderbolt™ 3 to transfer data and video, NVMe support via M.2 or U.2, and a one piece metal shielding to brace for heavier discrete graphics cards its obvious that GIGABYTE has the tools you need to start your journey in VR. To set the mood GIGABYTE Motherboards include Ambient Surround LED to put you in the center of action.
Recommended configuration for VR Gaming PC
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 or greater, Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- CPU: Intel i5-6600K equivalent or greater
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99/Z170/H170/B150 motherboards
- Memory: 8GB RAM or greater
- USB Ports:3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port or greater
- OS: Windows 7 SPI 64-bit or newer
Any copyrighted images or trademarks displayed are the property of their respective owners and are shown for reference purposes only. Reference herein does not constitute or imply affiliation or endorsement of Gigabyte products by the respective trademark owners. VR Gaming photo for reference only.
PURE SPEED, MORE POWER
Exclusively on GIGABYTE Powered Motherboards
The Intel® USB 3.1 controller utilizes four PCIe Gen3 Lanes, offering up to 32 Gb/s total bandwidth, for uncompromised transfer speeds of up to 10 Gb/s per USB 3.1. With twice the bandwidth compared to its previous generation, and backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 and 3.0, the much improved USB 3.1 protocol is available over the new reversible USB Type-C™ and the traditional USB Type-A connector for better compatibility over a wider range of devices.
100W USB Type-C™
Power and Charge From USB Type-C With Power Delivery 2.0 Support
Redesigned to take full advantage of all the features that USB Type-C can support, GIGABYTE's new Z170 motherboards with Intel's USB 3.1 controller not only supports USB 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1, but also completely supports Power Delivery 2.0. This means users are able to get up to 100 watts through their Intel powered USB Type-C port. This opens the door for users looking to clean up their cable cutter and power or recharge their devices through this universal connector, the Type-C Port.
2-Way SLI™ / CrossFire™ Multi-Graphics
Multi-graphics configuration offers better graphics performance for gaming enthusiasts who demand the highest frame rates without compromising on resolution.
GIGABYTE Design By spacing the graphics cards in multi-graphics configurations, users are now able to obtain maximum airflow between cards.
Support for DDR4 XMP Up to 3866MHz and Beyond*
GIGABYTE is offering a tested and proven platform that ensures proper compatibility with profiles up to 3866MHz and beyond. All users need to do to attain this performance boost is to ensure that their memory module is XMP capable and that the XMP function is activated and enabled on their GIGABYTE motherboard.
What is XMP?
DDR4 memory modules are available at a stock frequency of 2133MHz, but as frequency tweaking requires a considerable amount of effort and knowledge, memory vendors encode XMP profiles which can automatically modify the timings of the supported memory modules to work with your CPU and to achieve increased performance.
*XMP Profile support may vary depending on memory module. Please visit www.gigabyte.com to see the complete validated memory support list.
Triple NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 Support
Extreme Performance with Gen.3 x4 NVMe PCIe SSDs
GIGABYTE's Z170 motherboards offers the industry's best compatibility in terms of NVMe storage for users who demand high capacity and seek the best performance. GIGABYTE's unique design supports up to three Intel® 750 Series NVMe PCIe SSDs which can be configured in RAID for record speeds of up to 3525 MB/s (Sequential Read), making GIGABYTE the obvious choice for the ultimate PC.
NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 U.2 Onboard
NVMe Performance for PCIe SSDs
The new Intel 750 series SSDs offer an incredible increase in performance over SATA drives. Using the NVMe protocol which takes advantage of the fast bandwidth of PCIe Gen3 x4 lanes (32 Gb/s), the drives are a clear advantage for users looking to boot their OS faster, load their games in a flash and access large files without waiting. By implementing the U.2 port onboard to support the 2.5" Intel 750 Series drive, GIGABYTE ensures that the users can benefit from the best performance.
Fast Onboard Storage with NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 110mm M.2 (Up to 32 Gb/s)
GIGABYTE's M.2 solution offers considerably faster storage performance and support for both PCIe and SATA interfaces for M.2 SSD devices.
Photo for reference only. M.2 SSDs and cables not included.
GIGABYTE Patented
Double Locking Bracket
Industry Leading Ultra Durable™ PCIe Armor
The innovative one piece stainless steel shielding design from GIGABYTE reinforces the PCIe connectors to provide the extra strength required to support heavy graphics cards.
Ultra Durable™ PCIe Armor
Enhanced Strength PCIe Design, Support for Heavy Graphics Cards For Extreme / VR Gaming Station
Dual Armor DIMM and PCIe Metal Shielding
Never worry about your heavy graphics card damaging your motherboard again. GIGABYTE's proprietary Ultra Durable PCIe Metal Shielding reinforces the PCIe connector to prevent slot damage due to heavy graphics card. The DIMM and PCIe metal shield also provides extra strength for when you forget to release the lock while replacing your component, adding a fool proof option which can save your PC's life.
Intel® GbE LAN with cFosSpeed
Intel® GbE LAN features cFosSpeed, a network traffic management application which helps to improve network latency and maintain low ping times to deliver better responsiveness in a crowded LAN environments.
GIGABYTE Patented DualBIOS™ (UEFI) Design
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards feature GIGABYTE DualBIOS™, an exclusive technology from GIGABYTE that protects arguably one of your PC's most crucial components, the BIOS. GIGABYTE DualBIOS™ means that your motherboard has both a 'Main BIOS' and a 'Backup BIOS', Protecting users from BIOS failure due to virus, hardware malfunction, improper OC settings or power failure during the update process.
Long Lifespan Durable Black™ Solid Caps
GIGABYTE motherboards integrate the absolute best quality solid state capacitors that are rated to perform at maximum efficiency for extended periods, even in extreme performance configurations. With ultra-low ESR no matter how high the CPU load, this provides peace of mind for end users who want to push their system hard, yet demand absolute reliability and stability. These exclusive capacitors also come in customized jet black, exclusively on GIGABYTE motherboards.
15µ Gold Plated CPU Socket Design
GIGABYTE motherboards come equipped with a 15 micron thick gold plated CPU socket, which means that enthusiasts can enjoy absolute reliability and longevity for the CPU socket overtime, without having any concerns about corroded pins or bad contacts.
* The entire materials provided herein are for reference only. GIGABYTE reserves the right to modify or revise the content at anytime without prior notice.
* Advertised performance is based on maximum theoretical interface values from respective Chipset vendors or organization who defined the interface specification. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.
* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.
Pros: Quality: Anything I've ever seen from Gigabyte in the last many years that has the UltraDurable stamp on it feels well-built and this motherboard is no exception. The reinforced "armored" PCIe and RAM slots are a very welcome addition, especially for those who replace graphics cards or test items often. The RED LED accent lighting is really nice if you are into that.(I am) I/O: This board has all of the standard Z170 I/O ports you'd expect with the addition of U.2 and Thunderbolt 3 interfaces. It also allows for the configuration of up to 3 NVMe drives in RAID (M.2, U2, and PCIe x4). However, be mindful these interfaces consume PCIe lanes otherwise used for SATA ports. (read the manual carefully) Overclocking: Surprisingly, I typically do manual tweaking to obtain a modest overclock on a CPU. Gigabyte has built-in CPU Upgrade profiles for certain chips and preconfigured settings. Typically, these give to much voltage to obtain a stable clock. However, I set my 6700K to the 4.6Ghz setting and it put the Vcore to 1.32v and is 100% stable and modest temps. Definitely worth looking at this setting if you are a novice or just want to set and forget. Gigabyte App Center: While I can't say this is a perfect execution of motherboard software, I have started to like it the more I use it. The screens aren't super busy to look at and nice to work with. The App Center lets you add or remove applications as you see fit. I found the System Information Viewer, Easy Tune, and Bios Updater the most useful for my needs. SIV is really nice for fan profiles.
Cons: UEFI settings: The UEFI is difficult to navigate if you intend to do manual tweaking. There are no descriptions for most of the fine tune settings. These items are also not described in the provided manual. I am coming from an ASUS ROG board which tells you right in the UEFI what everything does and what increments to use, so this was a letdown. I cannot find how to enable certain settings for adaptive vcore, which is frustrating and should not be that hard to figure out. I know they are there just not well labeled or named. Software documentation and labeling! CPU fan pins: The CPU fan leads are only setup for a PWM fan. There is no way to change this to a typical 3 pin voltage regulated fan. So a normal fan runs at 100% all the time. At least there is a CPU/OPT lead right next to it. This was again another nitpick item.
Overall Review: Over all this is a really nice board and in typical Gigabyte fashion the hardware is great. I think the UEFI could just have been executed a little better with more documentation. For an Overclocker, this is frustrating. At the price point you are going to want to research your needs to make sure this fits the bill. While it has a U.2 interface, it only has (1) M.2 where as others may have (2). The LEDs are RED only, not RGB. The GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-UD3 Ultra is basically this boards twin brother, just in Blue with Blue LEDs. I think Gigabyte could have also upped the onboard audio to match the GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Gaming 6, but to each their own.