Intel Skylake Z170 Motherboards: A Quick Look at 55+ New Products
by Ian Cutress on August 5, 2015 7:59 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z170: Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX
GIGABYTE Z170MX-Gaming 5
Moving back to the gaming line and we get a couple of models in smaller form factors. The MX naming here implies a micro-ATX design.
Here we get what is technically an x8/x4/x4 arrangement, although two-way graphics solutions will typically block the third slot. The PCIe slots get the metal shielding, but due to the lack of space the M.2 slot is now between the PCIe and the chipset – this M.2 runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 for full bandwidth. The styling on the motherboard is similar to that seen on the Gaming 3, which means no rear panel cover but the red/black/white motifs are still present on the heatsinks.
The Alpine Ridge controller is in play here for the USB 3.1 A+C port combinations on the rear panel, while networking duties are through the gaming-focused Killer E2400 network controller. Realtek provides the ALC1150 audio in GIGABYTE’s enhanced solution, with an upgradable OP-AMP as part of the design. Storage extends from the M.2 mentioned before to six SATA 6 Gbps ports that are split into pairs for the three SATA Express configurations.
GIGABYTE Z170N-Gaming 5
Marching into the mini-ITX arena for the gaming range is the Z170N-Gaming 5, with a heatsink/heatpipe arrangement that looks a little different than normal. The power delivery is adjusted too as a result. Functionality here by virtue of the small size extends to a Killer network port as well as the Intel 802.11ac 2T2R dual band AC-8260, Intel’s 3rd generation AC adapter which also supports Bluetooth 4.2. For such a small motherboard we also get the Alpine Ridge controller providing the usual USB 3.1 A+C combination, and it’s worth noting that the power connectors are on the outside of the motherboard which should make it easier to install than some previous GIGABYTE motherboards.
GIGABYTE Z170M-D3H - MSRP ($115)
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The Z170M-D3H is aimed at being just the micro-ATX version of the Z170-D3H, with the focus being a few added features over the regular chipset integration. Surprisingly we get a pair of PCI ports from a bridge chip here, but the PCIe slots are given by a PCIe 3.0 x16 from the CPU and a PCIe 3.0 x4 from the chipset. Another four PCH lanes go to the M.2 slot in the middle, with six SATA ports / three SATA Express ports also included in the storage aspect of the motherboard. There is no USB 2.1 here, relying purely on USB 3.0. Networking uses the Intel I219-V and audio from the Realtek solution.
GIGABYTE Z170N-WIFI
The Z170N-WIFI follows a line of N-WIFI boards from GIGABYTE that has gone back several generations. The aim here is to make something that fits in similar to the Z170N-Gaming 5 but under that on the Ultra Durable line and that costs a little bit less. So while there are no power delivery heatsinks to speak of there are dual Intel I219-V network ports as well as the Intel AC-8260 dual band wireless card. Audio is an upgraded relatek solution and an ASMedia controller gives USB 3.1 A+C. GIGABYTE historically gives this board dual HDMI ports, and we get them here in 1.4b form.
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8steve8 - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
how about the 6700k CPUs in the USA?Luminair - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
FYI Asus has an alert on BBB for sending people broken products: http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-...Hundreds of complaints this year, including people with broken motherboard who did an RMA and received in return... a broken motherboard.
DanNeely - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Ugh. Are they only testing RMAs after getting them sent back twice? (Assuming the first time is user error, not a hardware fault?)apoclypse - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Wow. Remember when motherboards and computer components were ugly? Thos Asrock boards are a work of art. The same with the MSI boards. Not to impressed with what Asus has this time around (in-terms of looks). I've recently built a Haswell-E rig with the X99X from Asrock so I'm not really looking to buy anything but damn those boards make me regret not waiting. Ah well, I needed the extra cores anyway.NARC4457 - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Am I the only one that is still ridiculously confused at the next generation of fast storage? m.2/nvMe what's bootable, what's not, what pinout (B/M)....What the hell is going on with these standards (sic)?
Ian Cutress - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
M.2 is a connection standard that can support both SATA and PCIe storage protocols. It is up to the manufacturer to decide which protocol to implement.SATA drives can use AHCI or IDE, while PCIe drives can be either AHCI or NVMe, but it depends on the controller if NVMe is supported.
Typically NVMe has to be enabled in the BIOS in order to boot from the drive, and you have to install the operating system in UEFI mode - basically Win8.1/10 does this already.
Most Z170 motherboards with M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 should be supporting NVMe devices as boot drives , although I would still refer to the motherboard manufacturers website to confirm this is the case, either on the motherboard's page or in the motherboard's downloadable manual.
Hope that helps.
NARC4457 - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Thanks Ian, that actually helps a lot.joex4444 - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
As an owner of a PCIe 2.0 x8 RAID card, I'd love to see someone put out a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot controlled by the PCH that's actually x8. I see a lot of slots that are physically x16, with x8 connectors but the text always refers to them as PCIe 3.0 x4 (PCH). As I've 8 drives connected to that, I want the full x8 connection. Now of course using the second physical x16 slot on SLI boards and taking 8 lanes from the CPU ought to work, but that drops the GPU down to an x8 link; it would be great to use x16/x8 instead of x16/x4 or x8/x8 here (GPU/RAID).Z170 looked so promising, but so far only X99 offers the PCIe configuration described above.
Ian Cutress - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
The chipset essentially has five PCIe 3.0 x4 controllers, and you can't combine them into an x8. You could use a PCIe bridge chip like a PLX to convert 4 to 8, but you'll still be limited by the four lanes in into the chip. The only way you will get an 8-lane slot is from the processor, unfortunately (because then it would open up GPU possibilities).DanNeely - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link
Is there any reason other than market segmenting (protecting LGA2011's 40 CPU lanes) or avoiding a single device being able to max out the DMI link for them not to allow combos bigger than a 4x?