Gigabyte GA-Z170X-GAMING G1 (Intel LGA-1151)

[cadaveca]

Gigabyte's GA-Z170X-Gaming G1, their top-level Gaming board product, has been on my test bench. Featuring high-end audio with swappable OP-AMPs, support for Quad SLI and Quad Crossfire, USB 3.1, and a host of other features to meet the discriminate gamer's needs.

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[AtlasRush]

freakin' expensive in my country and IMHO all those "gaming features" are pretty useless: Killer NICs drivers suck, and I honestly would get 2 SOC-Force with that price point. Also, 22+2 Phases and just ONE EPS 8 pin connector? C'mon.

 

[TheLostSwede]

The D720210 chips on page 5 are USB 3.0 by Renesas.
The Intel USB 3.1 controller isn't pictured and I'd guess it's hiding under one of the heatsinks. I think you'll find another one inside the front bay unit, since it's technically connected via PCIe to the SATA Express slot.
The ASMedia PCIe switch adds an extra four lanes of PCIe x1 bandwidth of which one is apparently for one of the ASM1061 SATA controller.

Edit: It's apparently an ASMedia controller in the front bay unit, not another Intel chip. The Intel chip should technically be a Thunderbolt 3.0 controller though.

 

[Eroticus]

• BIOS is orange and black, but board is white, red, and black

LOL ...

Any way gigabyte made amazing motherboard ... =] but this price ... 722.34 US Dollar in my country lol.

btw ... Creative sound drivers bugged like always ?

i own Sound Blaster EVO ZxR Headset and drivers for windows useless ...

 

[Ferrum Master]

What an Xmas tree .

What's the capture card doing RMAA tests?

 

[SmokingCrop]

Blargh, how cheap does that white look.. Really ugly in my opinion.

 

[xChoice]

Ugly board indeed, and gigabyte software has been in the wrong side of the line for quiet some time by now.-

 

[GreiverBlade]

Ugly board indeed, and gigabyte software has been in the wrong side of the line for quiet some time by now.-

subjective opinion, totally personal luckily

really nice, review @cadaveca , i wish i did take a Gaming 7 instead of a Gaming 5 (around 30chf difference between them) because of the color theme, the soundchip and the shroud + traceroute (the Gaming 5 has a ALC1150 which is not bad at all but the Soundcore 3D would be a bit more welcome )

but the G1 ... man ... the price ... a 2011-3 with a 1151 socket ahah!

btw the Soundcore3D is not a codec but rather a full fledged sound processor, no?

 

[Ferrum Master]

btw the Soundcore3D is not a codec but rather a full fledged sound processor, no?

No those are extinct... CA20K2 was the last of those.

 

[bogami]

Excellent board who may be called first washed successor for the Sniper. Here are the best parts in one piece. OC CPU and RAM now, PLX is onboar wich opend 4 GPU setup aso , Storage and flow data, hay end audio support with the highest-rated pars ++++
Liquid cooling is a part. also the most hot part of the board PLX chip was not worthy of the liquide cooling that would i assess in terms of price it is sloppy.
Metallic shielding AUDIO above elements would certainly improve the THD noise ratio. We can get all.

 

[GreiverBlade]

No those are extinct... CA20K2 was the last of those.

oh so that's why the Soundcore3D is defined as a quadcore sound processor???
http://www.creative.com/oem/products/chips/soundcore3d.asp

so that one was the last audio processor but the SC3D is not? albeit being defined as such by creative?
http://www.creative.com/oem/products/chips/CA20K2.asp

- Onboard Creative Sound Core3D™ quad-core audio processor?
- AMP-UP Audio technology with exclusive Upgradable OP-AMP
- Audio Noise Guard with LED path lighting
- Dual DAC-UP USB ports
- Gold plated display and audio ports
- High end Nichicon audio capacitors

tho the SNr of the SC3D is 102dB while the ALC1150 is 115dB (a ALC892 SB Audigy FX is 105dB)
but not all ALC1150 are equal ... the one i have on my Gaming 5 sounds better than the one i had on my MVII Ranger (labelled SupremFX 2014)

alright the SC3D is not hardware based so it's a codec then but still seems to be better than a ALC1150 for CPU usage.

since it's the one that is used in the soundblaster Z Zx ZxR, that people tend to praise.

 

[BorisDG]

Gigabyte as usal - meh. Can't compare with high-end ASUSes.

 

[GreiverBlade]

Gigabyte as usal - meh. Can't compare with high-end ASUSes.

nah not really, as i had a Maximus VII Ranger and now a Z170X-Gaming 5 and both at the same price point, both are good enough, plus in most results that Gaming G1 is close to the Z170-A (tho the Hero VIII should be used for comparison but the Z170-A is ok ) only the price make it weird ... since it place it above most of the X99 and even above some dual socket server board at most of my etailers/retailers

 

[xChoice]

http://www.techpowerup.com/151477/c...-soundcore-3d-quad-core-pcie-sound-cards.html

"Alongside the Recon3D external audio device for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, Creative announced its latest line of PCI-Express sound cards. It's curtains for the X-Fi generation of sound cards that led Creative's pack through the second half of the last decade. Creative's newest sound card technology is called Sound Core3D. Unlike with X-Fi which continued the tradition of high-performance native (hardware) audio processing by making use of RISC processors on the card such as the CA20K series, with Sound Core3D "quad-core", the focus finally shifted to the set of DSPs (digital signal processors).

The "quad-core" moniker doesn't refer to there being four processing cores on the sound card, but a set of four DSPs, not necessarily hardware-accelerated, that work to give out the best audio. Two main DSP sets include Creative CrystalVoice and THX TruStudio Pro. THX TruStudio Pro is a DSP set that we're familiar with, some modern sound cards feature it, some motherboard vendors even pack it with their onboard HD audio solutions. THX TruStudio Pro provides THX TruStudio Pro Crystalizer, which works to improve clarity of lossy compressed audio, TruStudio Pro Surround creates a virtual 360 degree surround space that is touted to be better than the countless earlier attempts by various companies, at virtual surround. Smart Volume is a volume stabilizer that keeps in check abrupt volume spikes in games. Dialog Plus controls the mid frequencies to ensure the clearest voice dialog in games (cut-scenes or multiplayer voice chat). Lastly, Pro Bass is a bass compensation feature that works to restore lossy bass."

Thats what it is.

 

[GreiverBlade]

http://www.techpowerup.com/151477/c...-soundcore-3d-quad-core-pcie-sound-cards.html

"Alongside the Recon3D external audio device for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, Creative announced its latest line of PCI-Express sound cards. It's curtains for the X-Fi generation of sound cards that led Creative's pack through the second half of the last decade. Creative's newest sound card technology is called Sound Core3D. Unlike with X-Fi which continued the tradition of high-performance native (hardware) audio processing by making use of RISC processors on the card such as the CA20K series, with Sound Core3D "quad-core", the focus finally shifted to the set of DSPs (digital signal processors).

The "quad-core" moniker doesn't refer to there being four processing cores on the sound card, but a set of four DSPs, not necessarily hardware-accelerated, that work to give out the best audio. Two main DSP sets include Creative CrystalVoice and THX TruStudio Pro. THX TruStudio Pro is a DSP set that we're familiar with, some modern sound cards feature it, some motherboard vendors even pack it with their onboard HD audio solutions. THX TruStudio Pro provides THX TruStudio Pro Crystalizer, which works to improve clarity of lossy compressed audio, TruStudio Pro Surround creates a virtual 360 degree surround space that is touted to be better than the countless earlier attempts by various companies, at virtual surround. Smart Volume is a volume stabilizer that keeps in check abrupt volume spikes in games. Dialog Plus controls the mid frequencies to ensure the clearest voice dialog in games (cut-scenes or multiplayer voice chat). Lastly, Pro Bass is a bass compensation feature that works to restore lossy bass."

Thats what it is.

thanks for precision (yet it's still better than a ALC1150 then )