Motherboard Reviews
Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7 Review: Everything and Then Some
« UEFI Overview and Overclocking | System Benchmarks (CPU, Memory, Compression, Multimedia) »
Test System and Testing Procedures
| Item | Name | Provided by: |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-6700K (ES) | Intel |
| CPU Cooler |
Noctua NH-D15S with NT-H1 Thermal Compound | Noctua |
| Power Supply |
Corsair HX850W 80 Plus Gold PSU | Corsair |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2x8GB @ 2666MHz 15-17-17-35 2T (XMP) | Kingston |
| Storage | Silicon Power S80 240GB SSD (OS) | Silicon Power |
| Graphics | Integrated CPU Graphics, Gigabyte GTx 960 Windforce 3x OC | Gigabyte |
| Drivers | Intel 10.1.1.7 (Z170), Intel 10.0.2.1 (Z97), AMD Catalyst 15.7 WHQL (FM2+), NVIDIA 353.62 WHQL (Discrete) | – |
| Router | Cisco E3200 stock firmware with 2x 6ft Cat5E cables for network testing | – |
| Motherboard(s) | EVGA Z170 FTW (BIOS v1.03), Gigabyte Z170-Gaming 7 (BIOS F2) |
– |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Enterprise* | – |
Latest working BIOS, updates and drivers were used at the time of the review. Each test was conducted at least three times for accuracy with the exception of PCMark 8 which already does three sets per benchmark run. *All performance benchmarks in this review and all reviews going forward will be using the Windows 10 operating system. **Thanks to our sponsors who provided hardware for the test system.
System Benchmarks
- Aida64 Engineer 5.30
- SiSoft Sandra Lite 2015 SP2b
- CineBench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.4.304
- WinRAR 5.01
- x.264 FHD 1.0.1
- x.265 0.1.4
Subsystem Testing
- CrystalDiskMark 5.0.3 for Storage tests
- LatencyMon for DPC monitoring
- Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.4.1
- Passmark Performance Test 8.0 – Network Speed Graph
Gaming Benchmarks
- 3DMark Firestrike (Default)
- Unigine Heaven 4.0 (Max Settings, 1920 x 1080)
- Bioshock Infinite (Lowest Settings @ 640 x 480, Max Settings @ 1920 x 1080)
Motherboard Specifications:
| Memory Support |
4 DIMM Dual-Channel up to 64GB DDR4 4133MHz (F5a BIOS) |
| Storage | – 6x SATA 6G (Z170) – 2x SATA 6G (ASM1061) |
| USB | 5x USB 3.0 (Z170), 4x USB 2.0 (Z170), 4x USB 3.0 (Renesas D7210210) |
| Ethernet | 1x Intel i219-V Gigabit NIC, 1x Killer E2400 |
| Audio | Creative Core 3D |
| Displays | 1x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI |
| Fan Headers | 5 |
| Expansion Slots |
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| Dimensions | ATX 12 x 9.6 inches (304.8 x 243.8mm) |
For official specifications and promotional information, visit: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5481#ov
