reminiscent of years gone by in motherboard audio . It is sufficient for the most part , but you may want to look at a discreet audio or USB solution if you ’ re looking for high end audio .
As an entire package though , it is a no nonsense motherboard that ticks all the right boxes , puts it together with improved memory support and the aesthetics . It strips down all the superfluous aspects of modern motherboards and provides you with a solid platform from which you could build a potent gaming machine . At $ 145 there ’ s not much to complain about here as you ’ re not going to find a better Z170 motherboard than this one at this price . At least if you do it will not be of the same combination of aesthetics and features . As far as value goes , GIGABYTE has nailed this one .
[ TheOverclocker ] to mind as why this would be useful in any other context but charging of a phone perhaps . Along with that you get M . 2 support and surprise surprise U . 2 connectivity as well . The M . 2 slot is located just south of the CPU socket before the first PCI-Express slot which is excellent as it allows some cooler air to flow over the drive instead of being directly located underneath the graphics card . A small design decision that makes a massive difference to those who would want to install heatsinks on their M . 2 drives for instance as these get incredibly hot under load .
There ’ s essentially nothing that you ’ d not be able to use on this motherboard or connect to it that you need these days . Again , it has touted Thunderbolt 3.0 support , however you should note that it is just a header and not an actual rear IO connector for instance so while it ’ s great as a tick box feature , it is of no material value to most users . The usual 2-way SLI and CrossFirexX rounds it all up and you pretty much have the Z170X Ultra Gaming .
Last we get to the audio portion which is nothing to write home about . It is also one of the telling aspects of the board and its value roots . Instead of the common ALC1150 , you have the ALC892 CODEC with Chemicon capacitors . There ’ s no op-amp anywhere and it ’ s
Summary
Xxx It may be on the budget
side of things but the Z170X Ultra Gaming has all the relevant features and connectivity options a modern mid to high end board should and is likely to have . At this price it ’ s rather difficult to recommend any other offering and for those looking to build a solid gaming platform without breaking the bank . This is where you want to start and it is highly likely
The you Score ’ ll stop here as well .
Would
0 you
/ buy
10
it ?
Xxx Yes
Issue 39 | 2016 The OverClocker 37