Gigabyte H170-HD3 (LGA 1151) Motherboard Review

Introduction Intel's Z170 platform is designed for enthusiasts utilizing incredibly fast DDR4 memory and large frequency boosts on K-series CPUs. In contrast to this, the H170 chipset caters more towards the budget-conscience consumer running a CPU at stock settings and modest DDR4 speeds. So what are the key differences between Z170 and H170? Firstly, H170 motherboards cannot support memory speeds in excess of 2133MHz and limited to a maximum of 16 PCIe lanes 3.0 lanes compared to 20 on Z170. Additionally, the HSIO Lanes have been reduced from 26 to 22 and theoretically, motherboards are restricted to a single X16 graphics slot. However, motherboard vendors can offer dual card setups via Crossfire. The only other notable change is a reduction in USB 3.0 ports from 10 to 8 which should be more than enough for the average user. The first H170-based motherboard to arrive for review is the Gigabyte H170-HD3. This particular model incorporates a wealth of connectors including HDMI 1.4, DVI-D and D-Sub. On another note, the motherboard supports 2 way Crossfire, SATA Express an M.2 expansion port and ALC887 audio codec. Overall, the H170-HD3 is a great value package and I expect it to compare surprisingly well against the higher priced Z170 competition. Specifications Packing and Accessories Gigabyte adopts a fairly clean and understated box design which outlines the motherboard's Ultra Durable qualities. On the opposite side, there are a number of detailed pictures illustrating the motherboard's connectivity options and 2-way Crossfire support. Furthermore, Gigabyte also provides a brief synopsis of the integrated Realtek ALC887 audio. In terms of accessories, the product comes with an I/O shield, user's manual, G Connector, case badge and two SATA cables. It's always great to see the G Connector's inclusion on budget models which makes the install process much more user-friendly. A Closer Look The Gigabyte H170-HD3 isn't as wide as traditional ATX motherboards and utilizes a more compact profile. From an aesthetics standpoint, the black PCB and gold lettering on the heatsinks contrast rather nicely and makes for a professional finish. The visual design also incorporates a white pattern on the audio path which adds some flair. Other standout features include dual BIOS functionality and three system fan headers. Also, notice the central placement of the CPU fan header which can cause headaches when attempting to create a clean build. However, I highly doubt any H170 customers are using an expensive chassis with a windowed side panel and LED lighting. If anything, the central positioning makes it easier to plug in the fan cable and I approve of this decision given the target market. Towards the bottom section, we can see the usual array of front panel connectors positioned in the optimal position for easy cable routing. First impressions are always key, and the motherboard contains a surprising amount of features usually resigned to higher-end solutions. Gigabyte hasn't skimped on the motherboard's circuitry and opts for a 6-phase power delivery and 5K-rated capacitors. This is more than enough to cope with a system running at stock voltages and the base frequency. While the capacitors are not rated for 10K like some high-end models, 5K electronics is well above the industry standard and greatly improves reliability. From this snapshot, we can see the four DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB DDR4 memory at a maximum speed of 2133MHz. This side also contains the 24-pin power in its optimal position, two front USB 3.0 headers, and a 3-pin system fan. Ideally, I'd prefer to see right-angled USB 3.0 headers but this is only a personal preference. Furthermore, the USB headers are very close to the PCB's edge which reduces cable clutter. It's also quite impressive to see a budget motherboard offer dual USB 3.0 connectivity. In terms of expansion capabilities, the motherboard supports 2-way crossfire and has two PCIe x16 PCIe slots. Although the second x16 slot electrically runs at a reduced bandwidth of x4 and not x16. Additionally, there are another two slots which operate at x1 speed and two PCI slots. I'm not entirely sure how many devices still use the old PCI interface, but it's handy if you own an old sound card or other ancient hardware. Connectivity-wise, there are six SATA 6Gb/s ports and two SATA Express connectors featuring a maximum bandwidth of 16Gb/s. On the rear I/O, we can see two USB 2.0 ports, a keyboard/mouse port, D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI 1.4, four USB 3.0, RJ45 connector and 6-channel audio. The only real omission here is USB 3.1 Type-C but this is down to a limitation of the H170 platform. The audio chipset is positioned on a dedicated section of the PCB to reduce interference and improve sound quality. There is also a yellow LED to signify the audio trace which looks superb and evokes an expensive feel. Testing & Methodology Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to review our test system. All tests are conducted three times and the average taken to use in our charts. Hardware Motherboard varies by review CPU: Intel Core i7 6700k GPU: NVIDIA GTX 980Ti RAM: Crucial Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz Cooling: Thermaltake Water 3.0 AIO with Gelid GC-Extreme Case: Lian Li T80 Test Bench Storage Drives: Main storage: Crucial MX200 250GB, Test Devices: SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB SSD, Plextor 256GB M6e M.2 SSD and Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit Networking: ASUS RT-AC68U router Software SiSoft Sandra Engineer - available here WPrime - available here Cinebench - available here 3DMark - available here Bioshock Infinite - available here Tomb Raider - available here AIDA 64 Engineer - available here Latencymon - available here Rightmark Audio Analyser - available here LAN Speed Test Lite - available here Passmark - available here Memory For our memory tests, we use the built-in memory benchmarks in AIDA64 Engineer and SiSoft Sandra. For more details on each of the benchmarks please see here and here respectively. Storage To test the storage performance in our motherboard reviews we use AIDA's Disk Benchmark utility built into their AIDA64 Engineer Edition software package and run linear read and write tests. We run each of the benchmark tests on a SATA III, USB 3.0 and M.2 device. For SATA III testing we use a SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB, for USB 3.0 testing we use the Supersonic Magnum 256 GB USB 3.0 flash drive and for M.2 testing we use Plextor's 256GB M.2 M6e SSD. The drives are always formatted before use. Networking For our networking tests, we connect the test system up to our Intel Gigabit-enabled ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 motherboard test system through the ASUS RT-AC68U router and run our tests. We opted for this over a direct point-to-point connection because we wanted to simulate real-world performance. For our WiFi tests we do the same except we connect the test system to the ASUS RT-AC68U router via WiFi at a distance of 2 metres from the router. The testing software we use for these are LAN Speed Test Lite and Passmark, available here and here respectively. Lan Speed Test LAN Speed Test was designed from the ground up to be a simple but powerful tool for measuring file transfer, hard drive, USB Drive, and Local Area Network (LAN) speeds (wired & wireless). It does this by building a file in memory, then transfers it both ways (without effects of windows file caching) while keeping track of the time. Download the free Lan Speed Test Lite utility from here. PassMark The PassMark Advanced Network Test (which is part of PerformanceTest) is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers both of which must be running PerformanceTest. One of the computers must act as the server and will sit waiting for a connection. The other computer acts as a client. It connects to the server machine and sends data to it for the duration of the test. You can download a trial version of PerformanceTest from here. Power Usage To measure power consumption we, use a "killawatt" meter and measure the total system power draw at the wall. We run three different use-case scenarios for 5 minutes and take the average reading. RightMark Audio Analyser (RMAA) RMAA suite is designed for testing quality of analog and digital paths of any audio device. The results are obtained by playing and recording test signals passed through the tested audio path by means of frequency analysis algorithms. A more common mark is also provided for those unfamiliar with measured technical parameters. Available here. We run the RMAA test using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable connecting the line out to the line in to test the quality of the motherboard audio codec not any external audio devices. We run the complete playback and recording test at default settings and then get RMAA to interpret the results giving the below outputs. We sync the playback and recording audio devices to the same setting as the test for accurate results. DPC DPC is a Windows tool that analyses the capabilities of a computer system to handle real-time data streams properly. It may help to find the cause for interruptions in real-time audio and video streams, also known as drop-outs. This software is available for download free here. wPrime wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions. wPrime is a free utility that is available for download here. Cinebench R15 Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here. 3D Mark The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Download here. Tomb Raider In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. Tomb Raider is a demanding game offering up ultra quality textures, full DirectX 11 support, SSAA, FXAA, MSAA and AMD TressFX technology. Bioshock BioShock Infinite is the third and last game in the BioShock series. It is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. BioShock Infinite supports dynamic shadows, post-processing, light shafts, ambient occlusion, object level of detail, Diffusion Depth of Detail, FOV adjustment controls and other advanced DirectX 11 features. BIOS and Overclocking Gigabyte have employed one of the more traditional BIOS interfaces which revolves around keyboard-driven menus and function keys. I've always preferred simpler BIOS designs to the more exuberant graphical alternatives as it's quicker to find the right menu and manually tweak settings. On the first page, the Memory Intelligent Tweaker lists key variables including CPU temperature, BLCK, Vcore and BIOS version. You can even view memory timings, the CPU ID and temperature per core. Although, this isn't really that vital on an H170 motherboard. The next section allows you to manually configure the memory multiplier and basic timing options. Please note, you can only set the RAM to a maximum of 2133MHz and there's no support for XMP. However, inputting the correct frequency is very easy or you can simply rely on Auto settings. Similarly, it's possible to tweak the DRAM Voltage from 1.2V but this is a pretty pointless exercise due to the chipset's bandwidth restrictions. In a similar vein to memory alterations, the maximum CPU core ratio is 40, and I would recommend leaving everything on auto for optimal stock results. Here, you can change the CPU's Vcore, VCCIO and System Agent Voltage. Once again this might seem like a fruitless task given the locked multiplier. However, it can be beneficial to undervolt your CPU and attain lower temperatures. On the other hand, Skylake's idle and load stock temperatures are fairly low so this might only be worth it if you enjoying tweaking with hardware. The System Information tab is useful to find out the BIOS Version, BIOS ID, Model Name and change BIOS permissions. Moving onto the BIOS Features tab which allows you change the boot priority, enable/disable Fast Boot and make other minor tweaks. In the peripherals sections, it's possible to set manually set the primary graphics slot, turn the Audio LED on or off and make a number of other adjustments. In all honesty, I'd leave the Chipset tab on its default setup as there's nothing here that really needs altering. The Power Management screen is useful to alter which peripherals can wake up the system. Once again, I wouldn't really change anything here unless you have very specific requirements. The final page allows you load/save profiles, change the boot order and Load Optimized Defaults. Unlike the Z170 motherboards, having multiple profiles isn't essential due to the lack of variables when using stock settings. Nevertheless, there's no harm in its inclusion. Overclocking As previously mentioned, Intel's H170 chipset doesn't support overclocking so all the tests were conducted using the i7-6700K's stock frequency. Software Overview Gigabyte includes the same comprehensive software suite from their Z170 line-up and bundles each application in the App Center. This is located on the system tray and only takes up a small amount of screen real estate. The @BIOS tool is handy to check the current version and update the BIOS from a number of sources. You can even disable the LED audio trace if it's overly distracting or choose from two visual effects. The USB Blocker allows the end-user to restrict access to a number of plug-and-play devices and prevent Windows from automatically detecting them. Gigabyte's Home Cloud is designed to sync data between the system and a smart device. Furthermore, it's possible to make backups of essential files. As you can see, Gigabyte's EasyTune software is mostly locked and you cannot enable any of the overclocking presets. Additionally, I didn't detect any major differences in power draw or operating frequency between the ECO and Default presets. On another note, the information tab is fantastic and outlines the BIOS version, motherboard model and current clock ratios. In the Advanced CPU OC tab, you can change each core's multiplier to a maximum of 42, which is the CPU's default boost. Furthermore, it's quite easy to adjust the CPU's voltage, to improve temperatures or underclock to a lower frequency. Although, I'm not entirely sure why anyone would want do this on such an efficient platform. The Advanced DDR OC menu illustrates the maximum supported memory frequency of 2133MHz, and lack of XMP support. You can also make fine adjustments to the CPU Vcore and VAXG Loadline, but this isn't really necessary or recommended. The Hotkey is a useful utility to save overclocking profiles or custom settings. On this particular motherboard, it's not really an important feature as overclocking is disabled. However, it can be useful to save contrasting profiles when fine tuning the memory or finding a lower voltage for the CPU's stock frequency. Gigabyte's Fast Boot feature allows you to reduce boot times and even ignore typical system initialization procedures. Another important aspect is the ability to boot directly into the BIOS from Windows. For the more advanced usage scenarios, you can disable the Platform Power Management but I wouldn't recommend this for 99.9 percent of cases. The System Information Viewer displays vital information about memory frequency, CPU speed and a host of other technical statistics. Gigabyte includes a wide selection of presets to adjust fan speed values and choose between raw performance or silent operation. If you prefer to do some manual tweaking, there is the option to create custom fan curves based on temperatures and system workloads. The System Alert menu is used to customize the safe operating limits and provide warning messages when any of these is exceeded. Gigabyte's Record feature allows you to monitor voltages, temperatures and fan RPM values during benchmarks or idle usage scenarios. The Smart Backup application is a personal favourite of mine and used to backup sensitive data on a partition or entire disk drive. Finally, the Smart TimeLock is designed to restrict PC access at specific times and create a schedule for allotted PC usage. This is a fantastic tool if you have children and want to monitor their web activity although similar functionality has been in Windows for some time. CPU & GPU Performance Cinebench WPrime SiSoft Sandra 3DMark Tomb Raider Bioshock Infinite Memory Performance AIDA64 Engineer SiSoft Sandra Combined Latency Test Storage Performance Linear Read Linear Write Networking Performance LAN Speed Test Lite Passmark Performance Test 8 - Ethernet Passmark Performance Test 8 - CPU Work Load Audio Performance 16 Bit, 44KHz (DVD Quality) 16 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality) 24 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality) DPC Audio Latency Analyser Power Consumption Final Thoughts Pricing The Gigabyte H170-HD3 currently has a retail price of £80.36 in the UK and €109.96 from respected French store, LDLC.com. Unfortunately, I cannot find the motherboard from any USA stockist but it's a fairly new product and should be available within the next few weeks. At just under £80, the H170-HD3 is similarly priced to the ASUS H170-PLUS D3 but has the advantage of supporting DDR4 memory up to 2133MHz instead of lower speed DDR3 and DDR3L. Overview Even though Intel's H170 chipset is designed for customers on a tight budget, it still manages to offer an impressive range of features and doesn't contain too many concessions compared to the enthusiast Z170 platform. This particular motherboard, the Gigabyte H170-HD3 managed to attain great results in 3D benchmarks and emphasizes how powerful a single card solution on H170 can be. Furthermore, most game engines are GPU bound and even at stock settings, the i7-6700K is an absolute powerhouse. Furthermore, the Z170's overclocking headroom doesn't dramatically improve performance in games. The motherboard's BIOS is surprisingly detailed considering the lack of overclocking ability and extremely easy to navigate. It's possible to manually tweak a number of key settings including DRAM frequency and CPU core voltage. Although you cannot increase the CPU multiplier per core beyond 42 or set the memory above 2133MHz. Once again, unless you're dealing with synthetic benchmarks, this doesn't have a major effect in rudimentary tasks or gaming. As a result, H170's restrictions are far from a deal breaker and I honestly believe the gaming audience needs to consider this chipset as a viable alternative to Z170. Realistically, many consumers are uncomfortable with the overclocking process and worried about damaging their hardware. Therefore, if there are no significant performance drops from Z170, why spend the extra? On another note, the H170-HD3 adopts a smaller profile than conventional ATX motherboards which makes the final design look quite sleek. I'm also quite partial to the sophisticated black colour scheme and gold on the heatsinks. Additionally, the white crossed design and yellow audio path make the motherboard look more expensive than it actually is. In terms of the overall layout, there's a good array of connectors including M.2, SATA Express and traditional SATA 6Gb/s ports. There are also two USB 3.0 front panel headers, a clearly labelled CPU header and 3 adeptly placed system fan headers. The motherboard supports a Crossfire graphics card configuration and features two older PCI slots. This is a sensible decision given the retail price and target market because on the budget end, people often like to use their existing, older hardware. In terms of benchmarks, the motherboard performed exceptionally well except for synthetics which showed the theoretical limitations of 2133MHz memory. I was pretty bemused by the UDP networking results which left me feeling pretty disappointed. On the other hand, this could be down to a strange software bug in Windows or perhaps my home network encountered a surge in background traffic. Whatever the case, it's not ideal, but it shouldn't really impact on typical networking tasks. The motherboard did quite well in storage benchmarks and was only a slight amount off the higher tiered positions. This is well within a margin of error and showcases the type of speeds possible on an H170 product. Overall, the H170-HD3 is a fantastic value-for-money proposition and includes loads of premium features, such as Dual BIOS, fast storage options, and excellent audio. The use of 5K capacitors and a reliable VRM design evokes a sense of confidence in the motherboard's longevity. In the next few weeks, we will be reviewing various other H170 motherboards and it will be interesting to see the compare the results. Although, I have to admit the H170-HD3 is a superb package which will be frightfully difficult to beat! Pros Dual BIOS is a surprising addition for the price Excellent selection of bundled software Fantastic Price to Performance ratio Good fan header placement Great audio results Impressive power design for H170 Intuitive and easy-to-use BIOS layout Premium audio capacitors Superb connectivity options via M.2, SATA Express and SATA 3 Support for older PCI hardware Understated and professional visual design Cons Disappointing UDP networking Neutral: No USA availability but this should be rectified fairly soon "The Gigabyte H170-HD3 exemplifies how capable Intel's H170 platform is and offers an astounding price to performance ratio." Gigabyte H170-HD3 (LGA 1151) Motherboard Review Thank you Gigabyte for providing us with this sample.