gaming 5 |

Manufacturer: Gigabyte

Release Date: 9/26/2017

MSRP: $199.99

For the first time ever, I finally had a chance to build my own gaming PC the way I wanted. Building gaming PCs isn’t cheap, and I don’t just go for budget builds. I get the latest and greatest, or not at all, because I want to future-proof my system and I want quality products. Searching for a motherboard started with the first priority of having a wireless LAN, as nothing in my house is connected through a wired LAN to save on cable space. I also wanted to acquire everything at my local Fry’s Electronics, and this was the only 300 series motherboard with wifi. The price was a little more than I wanted to spend, coming in at $200, but this motherboard boasts a plethora of features, some of which I will probably never use.

Let’s start out with just how it looks. This is a sexy motherboard with raised accents, gorgeous lighting, and a sleek layout of all ports and plugs. As I started slapping in my parts, the first of which is the CPU, and then bolting it to the tower, I started noticing just how much was on this thing. From the top of my head, there are 6 SATA ports, 3 M2 PCI-E ports, several fan ports, temperature, USB headers, RGB ports, 2 16x PCI-E 3.0 ports, and 3 PCI-E x4 ports. There’s enough here for a powerhouse of a system, and I loved putting this thing together.

All of my fans were able to plug into the same row, which was nice, but the SATA ports being right on top of each other caused retention clamps to get in the way, and it was a bit of a struggle. When I installed my Intel Optane M2 card, I noticed the M2 lanes disabled two whole SATA ports each. With this installed, I’m limited to only 4 SATA ports, and if I wanted to put an M2 SSD in here, it would drop me down to 2 SATA ports. This is an unfortunate thing, but most people won’t be using M2 ports anyway.

The back of the motherboard features a decent array of ports, such as USB 3.1, which I honestly don’t know what supports that, HDMI, a display port, USB-C, 7.1 audio jacks, 2 wifi antenna coaxial ports, 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, and LAN. It’s not the largest motherboard input setup, but it’s enough to get the job done. If you need more USB ports, most cases come with front USB headers, or you can buy a 5.25″ USB bay drive or even a PCI-E USB card. I could also go on about the black caps, audio capacitors, and all that boring stuff, and to be honest, it means nothing to me. I know it means the board will last longer and won’t be subject to power issues, but most newer motherboards have all these features.

There’s also a dual BIOS feature for overclockers and various fail-safes in the software. There’s a quick flash feature, and you can even restore the BIOS to default settings if an OC goes belly up. Once you get into Bios itself, there are so many options that I don’t know where to start. The M.I.T. is your first screen, and unless you have a K-series CPU, there’s nothing much for you to do here as it’s all for overclocking. You can change the BLCK clock, startup speed, change the integrated graphics speed and splice it, and various other features. I have the non-K 8700, so I couldn’t use most of this.

There are sections to overclock your RAM, which is actually quite complicated, plus various other settings that allow you to change the basic RGB lights, wake devices, and other little minor settings. What’s nice is that there is an easy mode that displays just the basics and what most people will use. You can even access Speed Fan 5 and change all your fan settings right in the BIOS. It’s rather robust, but it’s very basic-looking and rather bland.

Gigabyte boards come with loads of software, and to be honest, they aren’t that great. They feel outdated and basic, and some don’t even work. There’s a Gigabyte App Center, which I actually like as it detects updates for all of your drivers, but there are so many apps, and most of them I found useless. I wanted to be able to use the 3D OSD, which is a customizable OSD for various information that you can select, but I couldn’t get it to appear on screen in any game. There are various cloud storage apps that I found pointless, power management, and EZ Tune, which allows you to OC your CPU and RAM from within Windows, which was pretty handy, but it’s very basic and doesn’t have the details that the BIOS had. You can flash the BIOS and even export and import straight from the app; you can change the USB DAC, EZ RAID setup, GPU tuner, which is basic, and Smart HUD, which I couldn’t even figure out how to use.

There are a couple of neat apps, such as TimeLock, which allows you to set timers to lock down your computer or shut it down. There’s an app that allows you to backup files and recover them, which is pretty cool and useful; however, there are better-dedicated programs out there for that. SIV is the System Information Viewer, which allows you to control your fans with Smart Fan 5. I just set this to performance and let it go, as it did its job well. You can click on each fan in your system and set it to auto-stop or change its various speeds. There is a game boost app and an app that allows you to upload files from your phone, control your computer from your phone, and even OC remotely. The app is awful, feels like it was made 7 years ago, and seems pretty useless. There’s a BIOS fast boot feature and a blue light killer that would completely mess with your picture setup, and that’s about it. I kept maybe five of the dozen or so apps. This is an overly bloated software suite that needs serious updating and trimming.

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This motherboard has a plethora of features and so many options for overclockers and anyone wanting to fine-tune their BIOS and control all of their hardware. The bloated and dated software is a huge disappointment, but there are a few gems in there, for sure. Having the M.2 slots take up 2 SATA lanes each is disappointing, and there aren’t as many rear ports as most people would like, but the addition of wifi and built-in lighting make up for it in the long run.

Specs:

1. Support for 8^th Generation Intel^® Core™ i7 processors/Intel^® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel^® Core™ i3 processors in the LGA1151 package
2. L3 cache varies with CPU
(Please refer “CPU Support List” for more information.)
Chipset
1. Intel^® Z370 Express Chipset
Memory
1. 4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
2. Dual channel memory architecture
3. Support for DDR4 4133(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3866(O.C.) / 3800(O.C.) / 3733(O.C.) / 3666(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3466(O.C.) / 3400(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3300(O.C.) / 3200(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules
4. Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
5. Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules
6. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
(Please refer “Memory Support List” for more information.)
Onboard Graphics
Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel^® HD Graphics support:
1. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2304@60 Hz
  * Support for DisplayPort 1.2 version, HDCP 2.2, and HDR.
2. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@30 Hz
  * Support for HDMI 1.4 version and HDCP 2.2.
Maximum shared memory of 1 GB
Audio
1. Realtek^® ALC1220 codec
2. Support for Sound BlasterX 720°
3. High Definition Audio
4. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
5. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
1. Intel^® GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Wireless Communication module
1. Intel^® Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, supporting 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Band
2. BLUETOOTH 4.2, 4.1, BLE, 4.0, 3.0, 2.1+EDR
3. Support for 11ac wireless standard and up to 433 Mbps data rate
  * Actual data rate may vary depending on environment and equipment.
Expansion Slots
1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
  * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
  * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot operates at up to x8 mode.
3. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
  * The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the M2P_32G connector. The PCIEX4 slot operates at up to x2 mode when a PCIe SSD is installed in the M2P_32G connector.
4. 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
  * The PCIEX1_3 slot shares bandwidth with the SATA3 1 connector. When the PCIEX1_3 slot is populated, the SATA 3 1 connector becomes unavailable.
  (All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
Storage Interface
Chipset:
1. 2 x M.2 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M_32G, M2A_32G)
2. 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_32G)
3. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
  * Refer to “1-8 Internal Connectors,” for the installation notices for the M.2 and SATA connectors.
Intel^® Optane™ Memory Ready
Multi-Graphics Technology
1. Support for NVIDIA^® Quad-GPU SLI™ and 2-Way NVIDIA^® SLI™ technologies
2. Support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFire™ and 3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire™ technologies
USB
Chipset+ASMedia^® USB 3.1 Gen 2 Controller:
1. 1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support
2. 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A port (red) on the back panel
Chipset:
1. 1 x USB Type-C™ port with USB 3.1 Gen 1 support, available through the internal USB header
2. 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
3. 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
Internal I/O Connectors
1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
3. 1 x CPU fan header
4. 1 x water cooling CPU fan header
5. 4 x system fan headers
6. 1 x 3 Amp fan/water cooling pump header
7. 1 x system fan/water cooling pump header
8. 2 x digital LED strip headers
9. 2 x digital LED strip power select jumpers
10. 2 x RGB (RGBW) LED strip headers
11. 3 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
12. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
13. 1 x front panel header
14. 1 x front panel audio header
15. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
16. 1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 Gen 1 support
17. 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 header
18. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
19. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header (2×6 pin, for the GC-TPM2.0_S module only)
20. 1 x Thunderbolt™ add-in card connector
21. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
22. 2 x temperature sensor headers
Back Panel Connectors
1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
2. 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
3. 1 x DisplayPort
4. 1 x HDMI port
5. 1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support
6. 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A port (red)
7. 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports
8. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
9. 1 x RJ-45 port
10. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
11. 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
I/O Controller
1. iTE^® I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
1. Voltage detection
2. Temperature detection
3. Fan speed detection
4. Water cooling flow rate detection
5. Overheating warning
6. Fan fail warning
7. Fan speed control
  * Whether the fan (pump) speed control function is supported will depend on the fan (pump) you install.
BIOS
1. 2 x 128 Mbit flash
2. Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
3. Support for DualBIOS™
4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Operating System
1. Support for Windows 10 64-bit
Form Factor
1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm