Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming GT Review
At COMPUTEX 2014, a new Intel Z97 chipset based gaming series of motherboards was announced by GIGABYTE and today we have the opportunity to review the latest Gaming motherboard, the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X Gaming GT following the previous Gaming series board with extra features like high end integrated audio, preset UEFI BIOS and software overclocking.
Now let's see what this new Intel Z97 chipset gaming board have for us.
Package
Looking at the front of the box, we see Gigabyte logo with motherboard model no. At the rear of the box, we find that Gigabyte goes into great detail on the specifications of the motherboard. Opening the box gives a glimpse of the actual product.
Inside the box
Looks
Board is a solid build in a black and red colour theme.
Features
- Supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors
- Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3 gaming audio suite
- 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
- Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD Audio with Built-in rear audio amplifier
- Killerâ„¢ E2200 gaming networking platform
- Extreme gaming 4-way graphics support
- SATA Express support for 10 Gb/s data transfer
- Long lifespan Durable Black Solid caps
- APP Center including EasyTuneâ„¢ and Cloud Stationâ„¢ utilities
- GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOSâ„¢
Specifications
Layout
Detailed layout of board.
1. Intel LGA 1150 socket, supporting current 4th generation and 5th generation CPU.
5x (15μ) Gold Plated CPU Socket Design. GIGABYTE 9 Series motherboards come equipped with a gold plated CPU socket, which means that enthusiasts can enjoy absolute reliability and longevity for the CPU socket overtime, without having any concerns about corroded pins and bad contacts.
2. 4 x DIMM slots supporting maximum 32GB of 1600/1333MHz DDR3 or up to 3200(O.C.) DDR3 memory.
3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)
4. ATX CPU Power Connector (8-pin ATX12V).
5. Back Panel Connectors 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, 1 x D-Sub port, 1 x DVI-D port, 1 x optical S/PDIF, Out connector, 1 x HDMI port, 1 x DisplayPort, 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports, 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 1 x RJ-45 port, 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
6. 7. 11. 13. 1 x CPU Fan, 1 x CPU OPT Fan and 5 x System Fan Connectors
8. USB 3 Port.
9.1 x SATA Express connector, 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
10. System Front panel Connector
12. 3x USB 2.0 Connectors
14. Front panel Audio connector and Serial Port
15. Expansion Slots.
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1