At first we would like to thank Supermicro for offering us a sample of the C7Z170-OCE Z170 LGA1151 motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Supermicro:

 

“We are a global leader in high performance, high efficiency server technology and innovation. We develop and provide end-to-end green computing solutions to the data center, cloud computing, enterprise IT, big data, high performance computing, or HPC, and embedded markets. Our solutions range from complete server, storage, blade and workstations to full racks, networking devices, server management software and technology support and services. We offer our customers a high degree of flexibility and customization by providing what we believe to be the industry's broadest array of server configurations from which they can choose the optimal solution which fits their computing needs. Our server systems, subsystems and accessories are architecturally designed to provide high levels of reliability, quality and scalability, thereby enabling our customers benefits in the areas of compute performance, density, thermal management and power efficiency to lower their overall total cost of ownership.

 

We perform the majority of our research and development efforts in-house, which increases the communication and collaboration between design teams, streamlines the development process and reduces time-to-market. We have developed a set of design principles which allow us to aggregate individual industry standard components and materials to develop proprietary products, such as serverboards, chassis, power supplies, networking and storage devices. This building block approach allows us to provide a broad range of SKUs, and enables us to build and deliver application-optimized solutions based upon customers' requirements. As of June 30, 2015, we offered over 4,550 SKUs, including SKUs for server and storage systems, serverboards, chassis, power supplies and other system accessories.

 

We conduct our operations principally from our headquarters in California and subsidiaries in Taiwan and the Netherlands. We sell our server systems and server subsystems and accessories through a combination of distributors, including value added resellers and system integrators, and to a lesser extent to OEMs as well as through our direct sales force. During fiscal year 2015, our products were purchased by over 900 customers in 100 countries. We commenced operations in 1993 and have been profitable every year since inception.”

 

 

Product Features:

 

1. Single socket H4 (LGA 1151) supports Intel® 6th Gen. Core™ i7/i5/i3 series, Intel® Celeron® and Intel® Pentium®

2. Intel® Z170 Express Chipset

3. Up to 64GB Non-ECC UDIMM, DDR4-3300MHz (OC), in 4 DIMM slots

4. Single GbE LAN port (Intel® i219V) Single GbE LAN port (Intel® I210-AT)

5. 6 SATA3 (6Gbps); RAID 0, 1, 5, 10

6. 3 PCI-E 3.0 x16 (run at 16/NA/16 or 16/8/8), 2 PCI-E 3.0 x1 (in x4) slots

7. 1 PCIe M.2 (PCIe x4, support 2260/2280/22110)

8. 4 USB 3.0 (2 rear + 2 via header)

    6 USB 2.0 (2 rear + 4 via headers)

    1 USB 3.1 (10Gbps) Type C (rear)

    2 USB 3.1 (10Gbps) ports (headers)

9. 1 DVI-D, 1 DP (Display Port), 1 HDMI 1.4

10. HD Audio 7.1 channel connector by Realtek ALC1150

11. UEFI BIOS support

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

Supermicro is not your run-of-the-mill manufacturer but has activated in the hardware server business for quite a bit and have been recognized as only using high-quality and durable components with their releases. Recently, the company has also started to produce motherboards for the gaming workstations, allowing the use of Skylake processor series along with non-ECC DDR4 memory. The sample we are going to take a look from this new series is the C7Z170-OCE which is shipped inside a custom-designed cardboard enclosure, imitating brushed aluminum on the top layer:

 

 

 

After removing the top layer, we will end up with the name of the motherboard in center, written on an all-black background:

 

 

 

The interior box contents try to follow the motherboard layout color scheme which is black and green; the motherboard is fully wrapped inside an anti-static bag for additional protection:

 

 

 

The accessories are placed on the bottom layer; here we will find no less than six red SATA cables (we would prefer these to be green in order to keep a consistent color scheme), the I/O shield, mounting screws for the M.2 storage and also an installation disk:

 

 

 

 

We also have a quick installation guide to our disposal which shows us the motherboard schematic along with the pin placement of the headers in order to make our assembly job easier. If this is not enough for us, we can always use the fully-fledged manual found on the driver CD but also online, on the product web page:

 

 

 

After seeing the C7Z170-OCE PCG for the first time we have had a flashback regarding the older DFI overclocking boards, which have had a similar color scheme; despite this is one of Supermicro’s first attempts at overclocking boards, we do find the hardware layout quite clean and with plenty of jumpers in order to enable/disable some features on a hardware level, without the need of entering inside the UEFI:

 

 

 

The VRM around the CPU socket is covered by themed black/green aluminum heatsinks, while the I/O area is shielded too. This motherboard does feature a digital 6+2+1+1 power phase design, six phases being dedicated for the CPU, the two for the iGPU and the last 1+1 for the VCCSA and VCCIO:

 

 

 

 

Near the memory slots and the top VRM heatsink we do have one CPU fan header:

 

 

 

Near the top left corner, we will be able to spot another PWM fan header along with the eight-pin CPU power connector:

 

 

 

Nearby we have one 35203 6+1 dual-output digital multi-phase controller from International Rectifier:

 

 

 

The ASMedia ASM1142 IC is present for providing the USB 3.1 interface support:

 

 

 

Another PWM fan header is present between the I/O shielding and the first PCI-E x16 slot; JPL1/2 jumpers are meant to enable or disable the LAN interfaces which are provided by the two Intel Gigabit LAN I219/I210 controllers; these can be paired via software in order to obtain a LAG configuration:

 

 

 

The Avago PEX8747 allows extension of the PCI-E lanes to 32 (16x/NA/16x to 16x/8x/8x):

 

 

 

Supermicro has chosen to go with the ALC1150 CODEC from Realtek on this motherboard:

 

 

 

The audio area of the PCB is featuring a shielding from the rest of the components so it would be able to provide better sound quality:

 

 

 

The bottom area of the PCB is filled with headers and jumpers; here we have the AUDIO_FP header, SMB to PCI-E slots jumpers, the OC_FRONT_PANEL header (a component which is optionally included), the BIOS Recovery switch, two USB 2.0 headers, the 5V standby power header, one USB 3.1 header, the Chassis Intrusion header, the TPM header, the Front Panel Control header but also one COM port header:

 

 

 

 

The ASMedia ASM1142 secondary controller is offered nearby:

 

 

 

Near the CMOS battery, we will be able to spot ASM1480 16-to-8 channel multiplexer/demultiplexer switches with Hi-Z outputs:

 

 

 

The M.2 PCI-E connector supports storage of different standards:

 

 

 

Here is a closer look at the slot layout; we can see that Supermicro has also written on the PCB which slots are available from the CPU and which from the PCH:

 

 

 

A Nuvoton NCT6792D-B Super I/O chip is responsible of monitoring voltages, fan speeds and temperatures and near it we have the two-digit LED display:

 

 

 

 

In the bottom right corner, we do have a Watch-dog jumper but also SATA DOM (Disk On Module) Power header:

 

 

 

Six green SATA ports are available for immediate use:

 

 

 

Moving up we do have an USB 3.0 header along with another fan header:

 

 

 

The Z170 PCH is covered by a medium-sized themed heatsink:

 

 

 

Near the memory slots we can also find the ATX 24-pin power connector:

 

 

 

As we have seen with quite a bit of overclocking boards, hardware buttons are also placed to our disposal; here we have the memory overclocking button, the pre-defined overclocking profile buttons, but also the home button:

 

 

 

In their vicinity we do also have a Clear CMOS button, a BIOS restore button but also a Power button:

 

 

 

The memory slots have the channels color-coded for an easier identification:

 

 

 

Supermicro warns on the PCB the order of memory slot population:

 

 

 

On the I/O, we do have the following interfaces present:

 

-PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port

-2xUSB 2.0 ports

-S/PDIF Out

-HDMI Port

-DisplayPort

-DVI-D port

-2x Gigabit LAN ports

-2x USB 3.0 Ports

-USB 3.1 Type C port

-Audio ports

 

 

 

If we turn the board on its back, we will be able to see that the heatsinks are safely screwed-in and no push-pins are used:

 

 

 

A row of LEDs are used in the audio layer area:

 

 

 

The status and button LEDs offer quite a show when the board is turned on but we would have really liked for these to be in green (except the two-digit status LED display):

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Supermicro board comes with an UEFI BIOS which is quite complex; the arrangement of the menus is different when compared with BIOSTAR and ECS boards, and we can find the main sections on the left side of the screen. First we can see and access the System Information menu which has the Motherboard, CPU and Memory menus handy:

 

 

 

 

 

The Processor/CPU section does cover the Information, Performance and Power Management menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we do have a K-series CPU, then we should navigate to the Overclocking area for adjusting the system performances; here we can set the multipliers for each core, enable/disable Turbo mode, adjust BCLK, set Power Limit overrides, work with the voltages and many more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Memory Overclocking tab allows us to load XMP profiles or define the timings ourselves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can also work with the Graphics Overclocking menu if needed to fine-tune the iGPU performance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a separate Memory menu available too, where we will see the current information along with some miscellaneous settings:

 

 

 

 

Boot menu is next, where we can select the priorities, boot mode or work with several BIOS features:

 

 

 

 

Input/Output menu area allows us to work with the controllers, including SATA, PCI-E operating modes, USB, explore the PCH-FW options or enable/disable COM port from the SuperIO Configuration tab:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

H/W Monitor menu is in charge of displaying system temperatures, adjusting the fan speeds, but can also display the current system voltages:

 

 

 

 

 

The Management menu allows changing the ACPI Sleep State, customize Console Redirection options and from here we will be also able to access the UEFI flash utility:

 

 

 

 

 

System Agent options, Graphics-related settings and some other PCH-IO options can be customized from the Chipset menu:

 

 

 

 

 

The Security menu allows changing of current password or working with Secure Boot options:

 

 

 

 

The current BIOS settings can be saved to different slots:

 

 

 

The usual Save & Exit options are available in a separate section:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 6600K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: Supermicro C7Z170-OCE Z170 LGA1151

RAM: Patriot Viper 2x4GB DDR4 2400MHz @ 2133MHz

Video: HIS 380X

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vector 150

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

With the C7Z170-OCE, we have attempted the same overclock we were able to perform with the other boards, and the system was fully stable:

 

 

We have tested for stability at 4.6GHz with Prime95:

 

(click to enlarge)

High speed memory is also no problem for this board since we have tested the G.SKILL TridentZ 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 (F4-3200C15D-32GTZ) kit with it; one small issue is needed to be mentioned and is related to the XMP profile loading inside the UEFI: while the board loads the timings correctly, the voltage is not so we had to adjust from the set 1.45V to the voltage recommended by the manufacturer which is 1.35V. With the higher voltage the board would not boot at all:

 

 

 

 

Synthetic Benchmarks

 

AIDA64

 

Memory

 

CPU Queen

 

CPU PhotoWorxx

 

CPU Zlib

 

CPU AES

 

CPU Hash

 

FPU VP8

 

FPU Julia

 

FPU Mandel

 

FPU SinJulia

 

Cinebench R11.5

 

Cinebench R15

 

Crystalmark

 

PCMark Vantage

 

PCMark 7

 

PCMark 8

 

SuperPI XS

 

Wprime

 

X264 Benchmark 5.01

 

3DMark 2006

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

3DMark 2013

Games

 

Crysis 2

F1 2012

Metro Last Light

 

By using a KingFast E-Drive 2.5'' SATAIII SLC 120GB SSD, we have performed ATTO runs in order to find the performance differences between the motherboards:

 

BIOSTAR GAMING Z97X

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE

In our RMAA test, the C7Z170-OCE board from Supermicro has scored really well in the 16/44 tests, but fell a bit behind at 24/96.

 

BIOSTAR GAMING Z97X 16/44

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7 16/44

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 16/44

 

 

BIOSTAR GAMING Z97X 24/96

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7 24/96

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 24/96

 

After accumulating a ton of experience in the server board area, Supermicro is now also active in the gaming motherboards area, by providing a catchy look theme, a clean motherboard layout but also server-grade components in order to supply to the end-user a durable product. The integrated Avago PEX8747 extends PCI-E lanes to 32, we have a dual-NIC Gigabit Intel solution available which also can be paired in a LAG configuration, M.2 slot for connecting additional storage, a Realtek ALC1150 CODEC for audio and also an 8-layer PCB design.

 

The UEFI interface of this specific board contains a ton of options, probably many of them will not be touched ever by the regular user, even when attempting overclocking a K-series CPU. Regarding overclocking, the board does come with some automated settings regarding voltages depending on the speed we do set, but as other reviewers reported with several other brands, the preset voltages are a little bit higher than a normal user would normally use. An issue which we have detected during testing is regarding CPU voltage, which does not really apply our custom settings, no matter which value we would set, but would mostly modify itself depending on the current set multiplier. This is a behavior we have seen with other boards too and really hope the next UEFI revision will come with a solution. Enabling or disabling LLC does not seem to solve this, only that with LLC off the preset CPU voltages will be even higher. Another good addition to the UEFI overclocking settings would be the addition of LLC levels.

 

Another small issue we have already covered and was mostly related to our G.SKILL 3200MHz kit, where the UEFI did not set a correct voltage value when reading the XMP (1.45V instead of 1.35V), which made the system un-bootable at this speed; however, this can be easily corrected when going on Manual mode.

 

This board is currently available online for about 325 Euros, which is quite a bit high for the mainstream buyer but since this is a product from the high-end segment, we are discussing a different price range already. If the UEFI issues regarding voltage are fixed, we can consider this motherboard with server-grade components a very interesting choice when making a purchase.

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE Z170 LGA1151 Motherboard is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Supermicro for making this review possible!