Gigabyte Z87X-OC (Z87) Motherboard Review

After Gigabyte initially released their overclocking range of boards, they have simply gone from strength to strength with a new addition appearing for all new Intel chipsets. Before this Z87 offering, we find the likes of the X58-OC, Z77X-UP7 and other key products in Gigabyte’s catalogue and all have been a success, therefore meaning the Z87X-OC had a lot to live up to, and it certainly has done that.

Gigabyte have positioned this board in such a way that it offers fantastic overclocking potential and is definitely feature-rich but is aimed at those wanting an affordable solution, as the FORCE board offers more for those with deeper pockets. This gives Gigabyte an edge over the competition as they have a product for everyone, but for the most part, those wanting to do extreme overclocking, will find the Z87X-OC more than enough for their needs, as we saw today. To prove this, at Computex this year, we attended an overclocking event sponsored by Intel and Corsair, which consisted of records being broken and large sums of money being won by extreme overclockers using this very board. If that’s not proof, then I don’t know what is.

Now that I have that aside, I want to focus on the design which can only be described as sexy. It’s so ludicrous that it works, and I think only Gigabyte are able to get away with making a motherboard so bright and vibrant, but it works and I’m glad to see the orange colour scheme retaining its glory among the Gigabyte range.

Feature wise, it’s certainly plentiful and includes some features that hardcore overclockers will appreciate, such as the OC brace, as we all know; overclockers tend to use the motherboard box when overclocking and pushing their hardware to the limit, and this added accessory helps to give support to expansion cards that feature large LN2 pots. Other features such as the OC touch panel and the sliders to easily turn off PCI-Express lanes is frankly such a simple yet effective idea, and a welcome addition to the board.

Performance wise, we saw the Z87X-OC at the higher-end of our charts across multiple tests, and one surprising result was the power consumption used at idle and low which was extremely low in comparison to other boards that aren’t as powerful and feature rich.

Moving on to the important part, which is of course overclocking. The board is aimed at doing this task and it does is extremely well, as it should. 5GHz was and still is the furthest we’ve had our Haswell processor, and while 5.1GHz is achievable, it’s not doable at a safe voltage, meaning that temperatures aren’t within safe limits for a 24/7 overclock. We were very surprised by the low voltage needed to hit 5GHz on this board, and we can only assume that other i7 4770k processors should be able to mimic our results easily thanks to the simple BIOS.

Priced at £179.99 we can only comment to say that this board is slightly under priced for what it is, as we were expected around the £199.99 mark, which is great for both consumers and Gigabyte, as plenty of this boards should be selling across the retail channel, and consumers will be getting an amazing deal with fantastic value for money.

The Z87X-OC really does tick all of the boxes with design, features, overclocking potential, performance and price, leaving the consumer with one amazing deal if looking to move to the Z87 platform and squeezing every last drop of performance out of their conjoining hardware.

Pros

• Unique design
• Feature rich
• Good accessory bundle
• Strong stock performance
• Huge overclocking potential
• Improved BIOS
• High-end overclocking functionality
• Suitable for extreme conditions such as LN2
• Fantastic pricing

Cons

• Some may not like the colour scheme

eTeknix Says: Gigabyte have managed to create an amazing board that appeals to overclockers and those wanting the very best without spending huge amounts of money. The Z87X-OC offers amazing functionality with huge overclocking abilities while keeping value at the forefront of the board.

Thanks to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.