Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming (LGA1151) Motherboard Review

John Williamson / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Currently, the Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming is available from the respected retailer Box.co.uk for £145.99 including delivery. Around this price point, there’s a lot of competition from models like the ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING/AURA costing £158.99 and the MSI Z170A Gaming M5 with a retail price of £151.99. Overall, the motherboard is competitively priced and has loads of connectivity options to suit even the most demanding usage scenarios.

Overview

Intel’s Z170 chipset has matured since its initial unveiling and provides a great upgrade path for consumers using older motherboards due to the support for high frequency, low voltage DDR4 memory. While the i7-6700K is overpriced in the UK, the performance continues to impress and it’s tricky to find sealed versions of the i7-4970K for a cheaper price. Therefore, Skylake seems to be the best option and there’s a massive catalogue of motherboards to choose from. One could argue that the Z170 motherboard market is over saturated and releasing additional models won’t make a huge impact as many enthusiasts are awaiting news of AMD’s Zen architecture. While this theory has some merit to it and motherboard companies appear to be slowing down their release schedule, it’s always welcome to see new models with an excellent list of premium features.

The Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming is an impressive specimen and utilises the highest grade of components. For example, the CPU socket is 15u gold-plated to prevent corrosion or bad contact points and the 8-phase power delivery is more than ample to cope with an i7-6700K running at high voltages. Not only that, the motherboard opts for anti-sulfur resistors, anti-rust rear I/O connectors and 10K rated capacitors. These combine to offer exceptional reliability.

Sadly, the motherboard isn’t suitable for LN2 overclocking due to the lack of voltage points, onboard buttons and a debug LED. Even if you’re not overclocking, the buttons are useful to test hardware before assembling your new PC in a chassis. Additionally, I rely on the post read-out to analyse boot problems and hardware malfunctions. Honestly, these elements should be included given the motherboard’s price point and I’m not entirely sure why they were omitted. Perhaps it was to create a more minimalist appearance. Whatever the case, professional overclocking is a niche outlet and the motherboard doesn’t focus on this target demographic.

Speaking of overclocking, I was able to reach 4.8GHz without any hassle while employing a very respectable 1.452v. This is significantly less than many previously reviewed motherboards which required around 1.475v to remain stable under load. To be perfectly clear, I haven’t assessed anything on the Z170 platform for some time so it could be an evolution of the chip or strong voltage regulation on the motherboard itself.

The motherboard’s audio solution is passable and based on the ALC892 Realtek codec. Ideally, I would have liked to see the ALC1150 codec which from my testing, tends to fare much better at higher bit-rates. Not only that, the audio circuitry doesn’t have any headphone amplifier or replaceable Op-Amps. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge issue and the audio quality is good enough for most users. There’s still an isolated PCB, EMI shield and Japanese capacitors. However, I expected more given the price point.

On a more positive note, the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming Ultra accommodates a huge array of storage technologies including U.2, M.2, SATA Express, SATA and Thunderbolt 3. The motherboard has received Thunderbolt 3 certification which is a huge plus and fairly unexpected on a product costing £145. This allows the end-user to daisy chain multiple displays, use high-resolution monitors at 60Hz and attach dedicated graphics card enclosures although this is less useful on the desktop. Another superb feature is the 100W USB 3.1 Type-C charging which powers devices extremely quickly providing they support Power Delivery 2.0. Additionally, the motherboard can take advantage of triple NVMe SSDs in an RAID0 configuration using an M.2 to U.2 converter. On the other hand, this is only possible with the Intel 750 Series for the current time. Nevertheless, it’s great to see such a wide range of support for different sized M.2 drives and other NVMe storage.

If you’re considering a custom water cooling loop, then the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming Ultra has you covered and includes two hybrid fan headers with precise PWM control. The end-user can either attach a water pump or fans to these headers and control them via PWM as well as DC.

The motherboard’s BIOS has been overhauled and is a vast improvement due to the slick, stylish user-interface. It’s not just style over substance either and navigating around the BIOS is a quick and painless process. Despite being really simple, the BIOS contains an assortment of tweaks for advanced users through sub-menus. This prevents the kind of user who requires a basic multiplier overclock from being overwhelmed by too many variables. The BIOS outlines all the key information in a clear manner and includes a fan tuning utility which adjusts the RPM values based on recorded thermal loads. Also, the BIOS update process is quick and can be accessed within the main BIOS.

Aesthetically speaking, the motherboard’s neutral black and silver colour scheme is sublime and I adore the understated theme. This fusion of colours works incredibly well and evokes a luxury feel. In particular, the brushed matte black paint work on the heatsinks is wonderful and I’m also quite fond of the I/O cover. Saying that, the imposing G1 branding doesn’t appear to match the subtle styling and the lettering probably could have been more subdued. However, this is only a personal viewpoint and your opinion may differ.

To cater towards those who prefer spectacular lighting, Gigabyte has incorporated LEDs around the motherboard. These span across the PCB’s edge, PCI-E slots, DIMM slots and power delivery. While the lighting is extremely vivid, it can only output a single colour. The lack of RGB is disappointing as the red LEDs might clash with a particular colour scheme. Therefore, why create such a neutral design if you’re going to embed lighting with only one colour? It’s not a huge problem because you can turn the LEDs off completely and the red and black theme is very popular among the gaming audience.

In terms of performance, the motherboard offers stellar results and often hovers around the top positions. As previously mentioned, the memory bandwidth and latency are mind blowing and a major selling point for this product. Additionally, the Cinebench scores were marvellous when running the CPU at stock and 4.8GHz. Although the SiSoft Sandra Arithmetic data was puzzling and didn’t follow this trend. On another note, the storage results remained extremely high, especially when analysing the SATA interface. The networking figures were consistent and the CPU usage hit an average value of 3%.

Pros

100W USB Type-C charging
Comprehensive software suite
Dual BIOS
Excellent SATA read/write speeds
Includes world’s first USB-IF USB 3.1 certified controller
Low overclocked power consumption
Premium 8-phase power design
Sophisticated, neutral appearance
Stainless steel PCI-E shielding
Stupendous memory performance
Supports 3-way NVMe RAID0 with a converter
Thunderbolt 3 certified
Ultra Durable components
Vibrant LEDs

Cons

Audio based on ALC892 instead of ALC1150 codec
Lighting can only be displayed in red
No integrated power button or debug LED

“The Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming is really affordable given the Thunderbolt 3 certification and 100W USB 3.1 Type-C charging power. While the audio solution is lacking somewhat, the motherboard’s Ultra Durable components and exceptional storage performance more than makes up for it.”

Editors-Choice