Page 13 - Computer Power User - February 2017

CPU, BOOT, DRAM, or VGA LED is adding GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080
on, the corresponding part isn’t working Xtreme Gaming.
normally. GIGABYTE almost always develops
The GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming’s a few tantalizing options in the $150 to
well-rounded design translated to $175 price range, and the GA-Z270X-
solid numbers in our benchmarks. Ultra Gaming is an excellent example.
With a little help from Intel’s Core i7- It can support today’s high-end parts
7700K, the board delivered excellent without going overboard with extras that
scores in Cinebench 15 (988 points) might drive up the motherboard’s price,
and POV-Ray 3.7 (2117.36 pixels such as a second NIC or additional USB
per second). Our test system’s 32GB ports. The mainboard’s RGB lighting also
of Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4- sets it apart from much of the under $175
3200MHz played nicely with the competition—an important note for
mainboard, too, producing 36GBps systems with a side panel window. ■
in SiSoftware Sandra 2016’s Memory
Bandwidth test. In games, we were
able to top 100fps in Metro: Last Light BY NATHAN LAKE
SNR, multi-channel surround sound,
and hardware decoding of DSD128. The (108fps) and Dying Light (110fps) by
GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming also features a
smart headphone amp that automatically
detects the impedance of your headset
or headphones to deliver a low, medium,
or high impedance audio. If you own
a USB headset with a long cable, you
want to connect it to one of the two USB
DAC-UP 2 ports on the rear I/O panel.
The yellow USB 3.0 ports have dedicated
power to provide a clean, low noise signal
that can compensate for voltage drop.
USB DAC-UP 2 might also help to
overcome power deficiency issues with
gaming gear that draws a lot of power
from the USB ports.
Motherboards in the $150 to $175
price range typically don’t boast much,
if any, overclocking and troubleshooting
extras. GIGABYTE equips the GA-
Z270X-Ultra Gaming with enough
basics to get you started. To start, there
are some robust heatsinks on the VRM
and PCH. The heatsinks also feature an
attractive brushed aluminum exterior.
To help you troubleshoot problems,
GIGABYTE includes a series of status
LEDs in the bottom right corner. If the

Specs: Max memory: 64GB DDR4 (DDR4-2400; Max OC: DDR4-3866); Slots: 3 PCIe 3.0 x16, 3 PCIe x1; Storage: 1 M.2 (type 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110), 1
U.2, 6 6Gbps SATA, 2 SATA Express; Rear I/O: 1 HDMI, 1 DVI-D, 2 USB 3.1 (1 Type-C, 1 Type-A), 4 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, 1 PS/2, 1 Ethernet, 1 S/PDIF, audio
I/O; Form factor: ATX; Warranty: 3 years

Test System Specs: Intel Core i7-7700K; GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming; Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB DDR4-3200MHz;
Storage: 480GB Patriot Hellfire; OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

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