The GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 Review: Quad-SLI on Skylake, and now with Thunderbolt 3
by Ian Cutress on December 1, 2015 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gaming
- Intel
- Gigabyte
- PLX
- PLX8747
- Z170
- Thunderbolt 3
GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 Conclusion
When it comes to writing a conclusion on a motherboard, the typical explanation comes down to the most prominent feature or asset, and explaining how that pertains to the rest of the motherboard ecosystem as well as the perceptions it is likely to generate. This is tough when it comes to the GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1, as there is almost too much to talk about in your standard 1000 word conclusion.
As a result, there will be two important things you need to know about his motherboard. Firstly, the price – at $500 launch MSRP, it hits the high notes from day one. It has since seen a number of sale prices, and sits for around $465 at Newegg, but only a few other products (mainly workstation based) will top it.
Secondly is the specification list. Seriously, here is the list:
Dual Killer E2400 Network Ports + Killer AC-1535 2T2R 802.11ac WiFi
USB 3.1-A and USB 3.1-C from Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller
A USB 3.1 front panel that coverts a SATA Express port into USB 3.1-A and USB 3.1-C
The USB 3.1-C on the rear panel, with updates, supports Thunderbolt 3
A PLX8747 PCIe multiplexing switch enables from x16/x16 to x8/x8/x8/x8 Support
10 SATA Ports (PCH and ASMedia ASM1061 Controllers)
3 SATA Express Ports
11 USB 3.0 Ports (Mix of PCH direct and via Renesas PCH Hubs)
Creative Sound Core 3D Audio and Software Suite
USB DAC-UP for clean USB power for DACs
International Rectifier power delivery via 22 phases
Combination power delivery heatsink supporting air and water cooling
Enhanced Audio with gain switches and replaceable OP-AMPs
Performance Tuning IC for enhanced BCLK range
PCIe shielding for enhanced mechanical reinforcement for heavy GPUs
I’m sure there’s a feature or two missing from that list, but having this much on a single motherboard is certainly pushing some limits and wow factors.
Now for the critical points – at $500, with an i5-6600K processor at $260, you could buy an Haswell-E platform based on the i7-5930K with a $250 motherboard for about the same and end up with two more cores/four more threads, a total of 40 PCIe lanes and quad channel memory. What would make this system even more exciting is if we had a six-core Skylake processor. Those are features that you will never get with a Skylake system and the argument of Skylake vs Haswell-E at this price point is perfectly valid. It’s all a question of what you need from a system, because for sure the $250 X99 motherboard might not even have USB 3.1, let alone Thunderbolt 3, or M.2/M.2 in RAID, or Creative audio, or NVMe support, or almost anything on that list above. If your workload is suited for pure CPU/GPU throughput, then Haswell-E is the right choice there. For gaming, or functionality, it is arguable at best.
Another critical point will be the choice of Killer networking for both wired and wireless, whereas some users would prefer at least one Intel instead. Therein lies the crux of the PC market – who exactly is this motherboard marketed towards? Enthusiasts? Sure. Prosumers? Perhaps. Gamers? Absolutely. Workstations? Probably Not. I’m sure GIGABYTE would love it if it suited everyone, but there is no one big circle in a Venn diagram that fits all needs or marketing points. The main challengers here are ASUS’ Maximus VIII Extreme and the ASUS Z170-WS which are both at similar price points but offer different use cases. We have the Extreme in for a review fairly shortly.
At the end of the day, this is GIGABYTE’s halo motherboard for Skylake based systems. It will be one of the key elements in a system integrators high end build, and provides any gamer with enough features to be satisfied with a powerful rig. The competition is tough in this space, the volume is low, and GIGABYTE is making strides in most of the areas we have previously been cautious of in the past. Needless to say, even when considering the price, the Z170X-Gaming G1 would be a good foundation for that gaming PC you’ve saved up for. It’s worth a recommendation and GIGABYTE should be proud with what they’ve produced. I can only encourage them to make the minor tweaks to push it further.
Recommended by AnandTech
The GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 Motherboard
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Questor - Monday, December 28, 2015 - link
I am not sure why so many motherboards are including the Killer LAN for the networking. The split second I read that, this motherboard fell to a $0.00 price point. I hate and by hate, I mean HATE Killer LAN networking solutions. One of my X99 boards and an ASRock 990FX have Killer LAN and neither implementation performs worth a fudge. The Intel solution on my other X99 (R5E), M5A99FX Pro R2.0 (B3) and the Realtek on my P67 board are faster, easier to deal with and never disconnect from anything or experience failure to load, latency issue, etc., unless my ISP itself is having problems. Killer has pushed my patients past the limit more than once. I am beginning to consider anything with Killer involved and reference to gamer or gaming to be like the horrid quality TN panels pushed off on the gaming public. A lesser class of product. Give me an Intel NIC and leave me in my heaven. I load the drivers and they just work; never have to mess with them again!__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
first of all, u have enough lanes for quad sli because u have 16 lanes for the graphics card coming from the cpu and another 20 coming from the chipset via dmi. Makes atotal of 36lanes u could split up.Whats normally not working out are multiplexing chips, if it splits up without errors u left with the performance decrease. So at quad sli u left with 4 lanes for everything else, m2ssds/usb3.0chips/killer nics etc etc
That brings us to the weak spot of this test. The only thing whats different from other boards is entirely not tested. Pls make this thing full with gpus and m2 ssds etc and test if this multiplexing works out. Should be possible tou to get 4 identical gpus, im sure gigabyte got some lying around. If not ask asus if they help u prove that the new gigabyte board is crap. Im sure u got 4 gtx 980ti tomorrow.
Keep in mind that this 500buck board loses every gaming benchmark against a 100buck asus board with one third the phases.
Next joke is the connection of the vrm coolers for water. What is this a 6mm outer diameter pipe? Thx for leaving 10% of my waterflow. Make it 2mm next time.
Is it prefilled or is it an empty "heat"pipe on aircooling?
Next problem is that a dual sli of 980ti's gets limited from a 5820 or 5930 sometimes.
So how much ln2 do i need gigabyte for not bottlenecking a quad sli?
Total bs. And nobody should put together a 960 or whatever quad sli, not even a normal sli if its not really needed. The poor scaling(not a major thing at dual but at triple and quad) is a nightmare, then u got micro stuttering, driver issues and heat/space problems.
If needed ahigh end card dual sli but everything else is wasted money. Wait till next year when pascal and polaris are coming.
Even if the money doesnst care, i would rather go in the next pub and spend the 400bucks there than throwing it away like this
__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
and it has also worse sound quality, boot time, usb3.1 performance and dpc latency.This must be a joke for 5 times the price.
Also a joke is that at doesnt test the oc ability of this oc board.
__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
and its recommended by anand so its the third joke in a row.Not tested properly and poor performance in combination with high power consumption gets u an recommended. omg
__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
But the truth is, gigabyte dont uses the 36 lanes that are possibel, instead they are telling just sthg. as u can see in the link gigabyte brings to us the wonder of splitting up 16lanes into 4 times 8, get u some of that. So they leave the most of the 20 chipset lanes untouched but u only have troubles with ur gpus not the m2 ssds ;)http://techreport.com/review/29346/gigabyte-z170x-...
some wild switching and multiplexing going on there.
Buyers pls dont expect that this hell of a build will run fine anytime soon.
__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
instead of that ur m2 ssds will throttle because they are crammed(not sure if its the right word) under the gpus, lol__187__ - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
but no, m2 ssds already throttle even if no gpu is installed. gj gigabyte.the likes are: fan header amounts, lighted shield if its dimmable, better socket, full black pcb, dual bios and for a few upgradeable audio.
Next time f.e. better make the wlan module socketed to a chinch or coaxial spdif interface card instead of a second killer nic and put 2 vrm coolers in the box. both together doesnt work out very
well. or just 3 adjustable 40-60mm fans side by side angled upwards pulling to the rear fan of manycases. then just half the phases all on left side connected with good tim and there u go with ur better thermal solution. Then customer can remove the fan package and screw on an adapter for water cooling if needed. fins go over to passive mode. Or let the chassis intrusion switch switch on some white leds on the mobo for checkups.
Just in case someone of gb reads this and u guys wanted to do 3 killer nics on next mobo just ask us what would be nice, im sure u get plenty of ideas from there.