Long are the days of the SUPER TOWER chassis being the king of the gamers den, in the past few years the SFF (Small Form Factor) has taken over the market. This is not only due to the compact size of mATX and ITX but that both form factors are continuing to squeeze performance into every bit of their tiny PCBs. Before there was quite a bit of hesitation with going with the SFF form factor mostly because users wanted SLI/Crossfire, a dedicated NIC and sound card. Now with advances in technology most of these compact boards come with these solutions built in. SLI and Crossfire have become an industry standard for MATX motherboards, which translates into machines roughly the size of a shoebox are now able to bust out the same benchmarking scores as their colossal counterparts. Today we look at the very backbone of one of these tiny terrors with Gigabyte’s GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 MATX motherboard.
Gigabyte has shifted their common blue accents for red ones in the G1 gaming series motherboards, which is also carried over to packing. The box features a nice flip out cover which covers the main features of the motherboard as well as a layout of the board. Inside, the motherboard is sealed in an anti-static bag underneath the accessories included from the manufacture. Accessories include the driver disk, instruction manual, two 180 degree SATA data cables, two 90 degree SATA data cables, an SLI bridge and I/O shield.
Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1150 package
L3 cache varies with CPU
(Please refer “CPU Support List” for more information.)
Chipset
Intel® Z97 Express Chipset
Memory
4 x DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory * Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.
1 x D-Sub port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz * The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz or 2560×1600@60Hz * Support for HDMI 1.4a version.
Support for up to 3 displays at the same time
Maximum shared memory of 512MB
Audio
Realtek® ALC1150 codec
TI Burr Brown® OPA2134 operational amplifier
Support for Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
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.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
1 x PCI Express x1 slot (The PCIEX4 and PCIEX1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
Multi-Graphics Technology
Support for 2-Way AMD CrossFire™ and 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage Interface
Chipset:
1 x M.2 PCIe connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe SSD support)
1 x SATA Express connector
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (M.2, SATA Express, and SATA3 4/5 connectors can only be used one at a time. The SATA3 4/5 connectors will become unavailable when an M.2 SSD is installed.)
Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
USB
Chipset:
6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
Internal I/O Connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x M.2 PCIe connector
1 x SATA Express connector
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT)
3 x system fan headers
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
1 x audio gain control switch
Back Panel Connectors
1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port
1 x HDMI port
4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x RJ-45 port
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
I/O Controller
iTE® I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
System voltage detection
CPU/System/Chipset temperature detection
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed detection
CPU/System overheating warning
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan fail warning
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed control * Whether the fan speed control function is supported will depend on the cooler you install.
BIOS
2 x 64 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Unique Features
Support for APP Center * Available applications in APP Center may differ by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also differ depending on motherboard specifications. @BIOS EasyTune EZ Setup Fast Boot Game Controller ON/OFF Charge Smart TimeLock Smart Recovery 2 System Information Viewer USB Blocker
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Smart Switch
Support for Xpress Install
Bundle Software
Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)
Intel® Rapid Start Technology
Intel® Smart Connect Technology
Intel® Smart Response Technology
Operating System
Support for Windows 8.1/8/7
Form Factor
Micro ATX Form Factor; 24.4cm x 24.4cm
Remark
Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.
* The entire materials provided herein are for reference only. GIGABYTE reserves the right to modify or revise the content at anytime without prior notice.
* Advertised performance is based on maximum theoretical interface values from respective Chipset vendors or organization who defined the interface specification. Actual performance may vary by system configuration.* All trademarks and logos are the properties of their respective holders.
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.
Long are the days of the SUPER TOWER chassis being the king of the gamers den, in the past few years the SFF (Small Form Factor) has taken over the market. This is not only due to the compact size of mATX and ITX but that both form factors are continuing to squeeze performance into every bit of their tiny PCBs. Before there was quite a bit of hesitation with going with the SFF form factor mostly because users wanted SLI/Crossfire, a dedicated NIC and sound card. Now with advances in technology most of these compact boards come with these solutions built in. SLI and Crossfire have become an industry standard for MATX motherboards, which translates into machines roughly the size of a shoebox are now able to bust out the same benchmarking scores as their colossal counterparts. Today we look at the very backbone of one of these tiny terrors with Gigabyte’s GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 MATX motherboard.
