Page 12 - Computer Power User - February 2017

“The GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming’s
well-rounded design translated to
solid numbers in our benchmarks.”

GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming
$164.99
GIGABYTE
www.gigabyte.us

GIGABYTE GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming

IGABYTE’s motherboard division heatsinks and two of the PCIe slots, and you connect a PCIe SSD to the M.2 or
G went through a big change at the between the DIMM slots. Its across-the- U.2 port.
beginning of the year. The company board illumination makes it as much of Smart Fan 5 is one of the best
introduced AORUS as its premium a showcase piece as any AORUS option. upgrades on GIGABYTE/AORUS Z270
gaming brand and released a whole lineup There’s almost no drop in performance motherboards. On the GA-Z270X-Ultra
of high-end AORUS motherboards based either. The GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming Gaming, GIGABYTE provides you
on the newly minted Z270 chipset. With supports up to 64GB of DDR4-3866, can with five 4-pin, hybrid fan headers that
AORUS taking most of the upper echelon handle SLI (up to 2-way) and CrossFire support both PWM and voltage modes.
of Z270 motherboards, it’s fair to wonder (up to 3-way), and natively supports both The intelligent fan headers automatically
what GIGABYTE has in store for more M.2 and U.2 PCIe SSDs. detect what type of cooling device
mainstream options. If the GA-Z270X- With only one M.2 port, the storage you have connected, such as a liquid-
Ultra Gaming is any indication, it appears subsystem is one area where the GA- cooling pump or CPU, and adjust power
GIGABYTE hasn’t held much back from Z270X-Ultra Gaming takes a slight step delivery accordingly. Within the BIOS or
its AORUS lineups. back from the AORUS GA-Z270X- GIGABYTE’s System Information Viewer
The GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming Gaming 5. Due to the short list of PCIe utility, you can configure a fan’s rpm
($164.99) stacks up well against the SSDs that support U.2, we’d prefer to curve with custom temperature intervals.
AORUS GA-Z270X-Gaming 5 ($194.99) see two M.2 ports, rather than one M.2 There are also six temperature sensors on
we reviewed last month. It boasts RGB and U.2 port. It’s nice to see that the GA- the motherboard, and you can link each
LEDs along most PCB edges, under the Z270X-Ultra Gaming’s M.2 slot supports fan header to a particular sensor. This way,
type 2242/2260/2280/22110 form you have more control over heat triggers
factors, so you can use and system airflow.
any size M.2 SSD. Six Similar to previous GIGABYTE
6Gbps SATA ports are models aimed at gamers, the GA-Z270X-
also present to support Ultra Gaming comes with AMP-UP
conventional SATA Audio to enhance onboard sound quality.
SSDs. The SATA ports GIGABYTE installs Realtek’s new
all remain active when ALC1220 that supports up to 120dB

12 February2017 / www.computerpoweruser.com