At first we would like to thank GIGABYTE for offering us a sample of their Z170X-SOC FORCE Motherboard for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Gigabyte:

 

“Founded in 1986, GIGABYTE is committed to providing top-notch solutions that “upgrade your life”. We are regarded as a pioneer in innovation with groundbreaking excitements such as Ultra Durable™ — a revolutionary technology that redefines the industry, WINDFORCE™ — exclusive heat dissipation design that builds for extreme performance, G1™ Gaming series and XTREME GAMING series—the perfect solutions for gamers and enthusiasts, P series — a powerful gaming laptop less than an inch thick, and BRIX series—a versatile mini-PC in the palm of your hand. GIGABYTE has continuously brought unique new ways of digital world and created marvelous products that empower you with meaningful and charming experiences.”

 

Product Features:

 

Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor

Dual Channel DDR4, 4 DIMMs

22 phases digital power delivery design

Exclusive OC Touch with Metal shielding design

Exclusive Ultra Durable Metal Shielding over the PCIe Slot

Built-in advanced performance tuning IC

Intel® USB 3.1 with USB Type-C™ - The World's Next Universal Connector

Extreme 4-Way Graphics Support with OC Brace

3 SATA Express Connectors for up to 16Gb/s Data Transfer

3 PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connectors with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer

115dB HD audio with build-in rear audio amplifier

Intel® GbE LAN with cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator Software

LED Trace Path with Multi-Color Choice

Water Cooling Ready Heat sink Design with G1/4 Threaded Fittings

GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ with Q-Flash Plus USB port

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

Just recently we have received in our test labs another LGA1151 motherboard, but this time from GIGABYTE; like some of the previous models we have taken a look upon, the Z170X-SOC FORCE comes with “overclocking” advertisement, which makes it recommended for enthusiasts which like to push their platform over the specifications. The product box is quite massive and on the top cover it does feature a F1 car, representing high performance, along with some of the supported technologies:

 

 

 

 

The top cover also opens up like a book:

 

 

 

We can reveal this way the motherboard, which can be seen through a transparent plastic layer:

 

 

 

Some of the product main highlights can be seen listed on one of the sides, in multiple languages:

 

 

 

If we would like to check everything in more detail, we are invited to analyze the back side of the box:

 

 

 

Here we will also get a list of specifications (note the form factor of this motherboard: E-ATX):

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with another black box:

 

 

 

If we remove the top cover, we will get to see that besides the transparent plastic cover, the motherboard is surrounded by foam material, so it won’t get damaged during transit:

 

 

 

On the bottom layer we will be able to observe the bundle:

 

 

 

Compared to the other LGA1151 motherboards which have passed through our labs, the Z170X-SOC FORCE bundle is much more complete. We’ll be able to spot the OC brace, a metal bracket which can be attached to the motherboard and offers support for the add-on cards, without the need of installing the product inside a computer case, a 4-way SLI bridge connector, a 3-way SLI bridge connector, one 2-way SLI bridge connector, a 2-way CrossFire bridge connector and four SATA cables:

 

 

 

Let’s see what the extra cardboard enclosure does have in store for us:

 

 

 

 

Here we do have the I/O Shield, eight voltage measurement cables, a pack of I/O dust covers but also one G connector:

 

 

 

The G Connector simplifies the installation of the Front Panel case connectors:

 

 

 

The I/O Shield comes with an additional power connector, since it is also fitted with orange LEDs:

 

 

 

On the back it comes with an additional isolation layer:

 

 

 

On the documentation side, we do have a Quick Installation Guide, the fully-fledged manual, but also a disk with drivers and applications:

 

 

 

 

 

Z170X-SOC FORCE presents itself with a nice black/orange color scheme and large heatsinks on the 22-phase digital power delivery design, on the central PEX8747 which takes the 16x PCI-E lanes from the CPU and outputs 32x from graphics, enabling 4-way SLI capabilities but also on the PCH:

 

 

 

The VRM heatsinks also double as waterblocks; the threaded fittings at each end of the heatsink provide integration with any water cooling system:

 

 

 

 

In the top left corner of the PCB, we’ve got one ATX 8-pin power connector, which is complemented by another 4-pin power connector:

 

 

 

In their vicinity we will find the I/O Shield LED light header:

 

 

 

A system fan header is located between the left VRM heatsink and the I/O shielding:

 

 

 

An “Intel Inside”-branded shield can be found on the Gigabit LAN controller, which sports cFosSpeed support; this is a similar utility to the one we have found along with the Killer Ethernet controllers:

 

 

 

The audio interface is shielded from the rest and also features a top shroud. At its core we will find the Realtek ALC1150 multi-channel high-definition audio CODEC:

 

 

 

The bottom area of the PCB is also filled with interfaces; here we will find the F_Audio header, one SPDIF_O header, a Serial Port header, a Thunderbolt header, one TPM header, a System Fan header, two USB 2.0 headers, one Frontal Panel header and also two extra System Fan headers:

 

 

 

Near the CMOS battery, we do also have a DualBIOS Switch selector:

 

 

 

The motherboard is equipped with no less than four PCI-Express x16 slots and also three PCI_Express X1 slots:

 

 

 

Between the slots we will find three PCIe Gen3 M.2 32Gb/s ports for extra storage (RAID is also supported):

 

 

 

By using PCI-Express slot stainless steel shielding, we do have a highly reinforced design which can support without issues nowadays heavy graphics cards:

 

 

 

The Z170 PCH is also covered by a themed GIGABYTE OC heatsink:

 

 

 

A combination of SATA Express and regular SATA III connectors is available with this board:

 

 

 

Nearby we do also have two extra USB 2.0 ports for fast BIOS updates or for transferring other data while benching. The OC PEG header is meant to supply extra power to the PCI-E slots on the motherboard, when we are using extreme configurations as 4-way graphics:

 

 

 

Two USB 3.0 headers are ready to be used and these are located between the SATA ports and the 24-pin ATX power connector:

 

 

 

In their vicinity we will get to see the Memory Safe button, which reduces the DDR4 timings for increased compatibility, the Settings Lock button which remembers our successful boot settings and applies them, even if the CMOS has been reset, but also one Clear Battery Button, which has the same effect as removing the CMOS battery for resetting it. This is not all! We do also have voltage reading contacts and headers for using the supplied adapters, handy when using a multimeter:

 

 

 

On the right of the 24-pin ATX power connector we can find the OC DualBIOS Switch, for selecting between the main and backup BIOSes, an OC Trigger Switch in order to switch between low (during boot) and extremely high frequencies, a Clear CMOS button which does not lose the pre-configured profiles, the DTB button which gets us straight to the BIOS menu after boot, one blue Reset button but also a set of four OC PCI-E switches which allows the user to turn on or off the PCI-E lanes in order to troubleshoot easier:

 

 

 

One Debug LED display is available on the top right corner:

 

 

 

An OC Touch panel can be also found near the memory slots with plenty of buttons. From left to right we do have the OC Turbo button which automatically loads an optimized overclocking profile for our system, the OC Ignition button which gives uninterrupted power to all of the motherboard drives and to the fans but not to the CPU, the OC Tag which loads our customized profile settings instantly, but also a set of buttons for changing the CPU multiplier and BCLK. Gear button changes BCLK stepping to 0.1 MHz or 1 MHz:

 

 

 

The DDR4 memory channels are color-coded for easy identification:

 

 

 

Two extra CPU_Fan headers are located between the memory slots and the VRM:

 

 

 

The independent Turbo B-Clock IC enables the overclockers the ability to change the BCLK frequency to a value of their choice; this is a massive improvement over the Intel design which limits to about 5% range via traditional straps:

 

 

 

Near the PCH heatsink we will also find a Renesas uPD720210 which holds the two USB 3.0 headers and also one ASMedia ASM1061 which takes care of the remaining two SATA ports;

 

 

 

The I/O interface is also very rich: here we will get to see two USB 2.0 ports along with a PS/2 combo port, a DVI-D video port, one OCPSW button, a Mini-DisplayPort, four USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI port, one USB Type-C port, a LAN port, a white USB 3.0 port with Q-Flash Plus support and also HW OC APP, an orange USB 3.1 port, but also the audio ports, including the Optical S/PDIF Out connector:

 

 

 

Here is also a look on the back side of the motherboard:

 

 

 

 

The G Connector helps us with the Front Panel connector placement:

 

 

 

 

 

The Z170X-SOC FORCE motherboard BIOS is easy to navigate on and does not have a flashy background wallpaper which could distract us from the tuning activity. Right after boot-up we will be redirected to the M.I.T. section, where we will perform most modifications in order to overclock the system. It houses the following sub-sections:

 

-M.I.T Current Status

-Advanced Frequency Settings

-Advanced Memory Settings

-Advanced Voltage Settings

-PC Health Status

-Miscellaneous Settings

 

 

M.I.T. Current Status

 

 

Advanced Frequency Settings

 

 

Advanced CPU Core Settings

 

 

Advanced Memory Settings

 

 

Memory Channel Sub-timings

 

 

IMC Timing Settings

 

 

Advanced Voltage Settings has the following sub-sections available:

 

-Advanced Power Settings

-CPU Core Voltage Control

-Chipset Voltage Control

-DRAM Voltage Control

-Internal VR Control

 

 

Advanced Power Settings

 

 

CPU Core Voltage Control

 

 

Chipset Voltage Control

 

 

DRAM Voltage Control

 

 

Internal VR Control

 

 

PC Health Status

 

 

Miscellaneous Settings

 

 

System Information

 

 

BIOS Features

 

 

The Peripheral menu also has its own set of sub-sections:

 

-Offboard SATA Controller Configuration

-Trusted Computing

-Super IO Configuration

-Intel BIOS Guard Technology

-SATA Configuration

-Intel NIC Configuration

 

Offboard SATA Controller Configuration

 

 

Trusted Computing

 

 

Super IO Configuration

 

 

Intel BIOS Guard Technology

 

 

SATA Configuration

 

 

Intel NIC Configuration

 

 

Chipset

 

 

Power Management

 

 

Save & Exit

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 6600K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE 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 GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE LGA1151, 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; no issues were encountered, the XMP profile being recognized perfectly fine.

 

 

 

Here are some other info we have extracted from the system thanks to the AIDA64 utility:

Motherboard

 

IMC

 

PCH

 

 

The Gigabyte motherboard is accompanied by a lot of application modules, all which are accessible from the APP Center hub, which must be installed first:

 

 

 

3D OSD application can show us system monitoring details in real time and its settings can be configured via the different available tabs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIOS version can be checked out via the @BIOS utility and here we can also flash a new version, save the available one on file and more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ambient LED takes care of the LEDs in the audio CODEC system but also on the I/O shield; the color stays the same though (orange) and the LED color theme option is inactive:

 

 

 

AutoGreen utility gives the user a little more options regarding the power management options, when the system is paired with a Bluetooth device:

 

 

 

Some BIOS Setup options can be altered via the separate application module:

 

 

 

Unrelated to the motherboard features, Gigabyte also offers a screen Color Temperature option:

 

 

 

USB Blocker password application for USB-connected peripherals is also available here and we have seen it before when reviewing older Gigabyte motherboards:

 

 

 

Gigabyte Cloud Station communicates with the Cloud Station mobile application on our tablet/smartphone so we can control our system from a distance with modules like HomeCloud, Remote Control, Remote OC, AutoGreen and so on:

 

 

 

EasyTune is a fully-fledged system tuning application, which allows us to increase the system performance easily, or let AutoTuning feature work its magic:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIOS Fast Boot can be also enabled via a separate application:

 

 

 

HW OC APP module can configure the respective port to work as a regular USB or only in HW OC APP Mode:

 

 

 

Power Management features can be further configured via the respective application:

 

 

 

We have also got a System Information viewer, which gives us in-depth information about the running system, without the need of having a separate application from a 3rd party for that. This is also the place for configuring the fan speeds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

System backups can be also performed via a separate module:

 

 

 

GIGABYTE Smart Keyboard allows the user to define own commands/hotkeys, change the mouse sensitivity, and create shortcut and password to open a web page or document file, helping him/her make the most out of your keyboard and mouse:

 

 

 

V-Tuner also takes care of the GPU side, permitting overclocking even when a non-Gigabyte video card is involved:

 

 

 

The super-lightweight GTL software is capable of adjusting the multiplier, voltages, bus speeds and more, useful in competitions; the latest version has also added the much-needed hotkeys:

 

 

 

 

When the Realtek audio drivers detect the Gigabyte motherboard, a special skin will be applied:

 

 

 

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 Z170X

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE

In our RMAA test, the GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC Force has scored really well in the 24/96 tests but fell a bit behind when testing at 16/44; this is an usual behavior we have also seen at some other motherboards featuring the same CODEC.

 

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5 16/44

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7 16/44

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 16/44

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE

 

 

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING B150GT5 24/96

BIOSTAR RACING Z170GT7 24/96

Supermicro C7Z170-OCE 24/96

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE

 

The Z170X-SOC Force is one of the most advanced motherboards which have passed through our labs and is packed with a ton of features, hardware and software wise. Besides the 4-way SLI, the three M.2 32Gb/s slots, a beefy VRM, USB 3.1 support via Intel controller we do also have multiple options to overclock the system (via Wi-Fi, via the HW-OC tethering function, via the BIOS or via the Windows software), a well-optimized BIOS to handle overclocked memory without the need of tinkering with each and every timing or we could also remind that we can power up the board without the CPU installed.

 

OC Ignition feature is unique because we can test only a part of the system without sending power to the central CPU; this is useful when testing fans, water pumps in order to check for leaks and so on. Issues can be also checked out by disabling certain PCI-E slots via DIP switches so it is not absolutely necessary to remove the certain add-on boards from their slots.

 

The latest generation of high-end Gigabyte motherboards also features reinforced PCI-E slots, while the VRM heatsinks also double up as waterblocks, while their threaded fittings ensure easy integration with any water cooling system.

 

This is not all! We could also remind of the separate Turbo B-Clock Tuning IC which makes the BCLK tuning easier so we are not limited by the tradition straps, the extra USB ports near the SATA connectors for easy operation when I/O access is an inconvenience, but also the OC PEG 6-pin power connector which can be used when having extreme VGA setups like 4-way SLI. The I/O shield also incorporates LEDs and can be fully controlled via the software or from inside the UEFI BIOS.

 

Being one of the best Z170 boards around, the price also climbs up in the enthusiast range. We could find the Z170X-SOC FORCE motherboard online for about 410 Euros.

 

GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE LGA1151 Motherboard is Recommended For:

 

 

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