Introduction

It is very easy for me to summarize Gigabyte as a company through their products. Simply put, they are the hipster of the PC-hardware world. Their products are very much their own; there is no mistaking a Gigabyte motherboard from years ago. Since Apple moved into the x86 realm, adopting Intel processors into their products, Gigabyte has been the only board maker with a bunch of options on each platform with which you can easily build a "Hackintosh". They've got a multi-GPU external watercooler, keyboards and mice, coolers and PSUs, motherboards and GPUs in their line-up, and even had cases in the past.

It is because of Gigabyte's long past heritage I am always excited to see what they send me, eager to push the limits of what they got. That widespread experience and hipster focus Gigabyte tucks into their belt brings with it a unique set of board products that have had users talking time after time. Those gun-shaped heatsinks, which did get one user into a bit of trouble with shipping a board through customs, came after having slots of every known color all on the same blue PCB board, but now, we have a completely different focus in Gigabyte's board products.

The Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 motherboard has a name that some might associate with black and green, but these days, we're talking about white and a hint of red splashed onto a black background, and references to high-speed racing cars on the box. Those black and green boards still exist, but the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 is different, better. There's an audio design with replaceable OP-AMPs, Dual BIOSes with single BIOS mode, dual LAN, a ton of overclocking features, and, thanks to the inclusion of a PLX PCIe chip, support for Quad-SLi and Quad Crossfire. THIS is Gigabyte's high-end gaming solution.

Specifications

Packaging

The Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 is in a very large box with a very striking front that hints at a futuristic racing car. The back of the box goes into detail about the board itself.


Opening the front flap reveals a picture of the board's sections, highlighting the features of the Z170X-Gaming G1 without a single word, while on the other is the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 for all to see. The first impression this board makes in person is quite incomparable.


After undoing some box origami, which includes pulling a big black box out of the outer box and lifting the flap of that box up, we see the board contained within its own tray. Removing the board reveals the huge bundle of goodies hidden below.