At first we would like to thank GIGABYTE for offering us a sample of their Z170-Gaming K3 LGA1151 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.”

 

Fast USB 3.1 Solution

The latest USB 3.1 offers a staggering 10Gb/s transfer speed, 2x faster than USB 3.0 and backward compatibility with existing USB devices.

Fast Onboard Storage with 32Gb/s M.2

GIGABYTE 22110/2280/2260/2242 M.2 solution offers considerably faster storage performance and support for both PCIe and SATA interface for M.2 SSD devices.

All New GIGABYTE™ App Center Including EasyTune™, Cloud Station™ Utilities and More…

GIGABYTE's EasyTune™ is a simple and easy-to-use interface that allows users to fine-tune their system settings or adjust system and memory clocks and voltages in a Windows environment. With Smart Quick Boost, one click is all it takes to automatically overclock your system, giving an added performance boost when you need it the most.

APP Center

GIGABYTE APP Center gives you easy access to a wealth of GIGABYTE apps that help you get the most from your GIGABYTE motherboard. Using a simple, unified user interface, GIGABYTE APP Center allows you to launch all GIGABYTE apps installed on your system.

Easy Tune™

Get the highest levels of performance from your PC with easy to use GIGABYTE overclocking features.

Cloud Station™

GIGABYTE™ Cloud Station™ is composed of several GIGABYTE unique apps that allow your smart phones/tablet devices to communicate, share resources, and control your desktop PC via a wireless connection.

Next Generation SATA Express

SATA Express combines the benefits of PCI Express and SATA to provide much higher bandwidth, featuring data transfer rates of up to 16Gb/s.

2-Way CrossFire™ Multi-Graphics

Multi-graphics configuration offers better graphics performance for gaming enthusiasts who demand the highest frame rates without compromising on resolution.

Killer™ E2200 Gaming Network

GIGABYTE G1™ Gaming motherboards feature the Killer™ E2200, a high-performance, adaptive gigabit Ethernet controller that offers better online gaming and online media performance compared to standard solutions.

Industry Leading Ultra Durable™ PCIe Metal Shielding

The innovative one-piece stainless steel shielding design from GIGABYTE reinforces the PCIe connectors to provide the extra strength required to support heavy graphics cards.

Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD Audio

The ALC1150 is a high-performance multi-channel High Definition Audio Codec that delivers an exceptional audio listening experience with up to 115dB SNR, ensuring users get the best possible audio quality from their PC.

The ALC1150 provides ten DAC channels that simultaneously support 7.1-channel sound playback, plus 2 channels of independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs. Two stereo ADCs are integrated and can support a microphone array with Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Beam Forming (BF), and Noise Suppression (NS) technologies. The ALC1150 incorporates Realtek proprietary converter technology to achieve Front differential output 115dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback (DAC) quality and 104dB SNR recording (ADC) quality.

High End Audio Capacitors

GIGABYTE G1™ Gaming motherboards use high end, Japanese branded Chemicon audio capacitors. These professional audio capacitors deliver the highest quality sound resolution and sound expansion to create the most realistic sound effects for professional gamers.

Ambient LED

GIGABYTE motherboards feature LED lighting for the audio guard path, providing a cool, custom look to your rig. Not only does the Audio Noise Guard protect the board's sensitive analog audio components, but its LEDs can also be programed to beat at the rhythm of the music you are listening to, or pulse at a soothing pace to create a great atmosphere to enhance the environment of your game, movie or music.

15μ Gold Plated CPU Socket Design

GIGABYTE motherboards come equipped with a 15-micron thick 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 or bad contacts.

GIGABYTE Patented DualBIOS™ (UEFI) Design

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ motherboards feature GIGABYTE DualBIOS™, an exclusive technology from GIGABYTE that protects arguably one of your PC's most crucial components, the BIOS. GIGABYTE DualBIOS™ means that your motherboard has both a 'Main BIOS' and a 'Backup BIOS', making users protected from BIOS failure due to virus attack, hardware malfunction, improper OC settings or power failure during the update process.

4K Ultra HD Support

4K resolution is the next technological milestone in high-definition content delivery, utilizing approximately 4,000 pixels on the horizontal axis, more than four times today's standard HD pixel density. GIGABYTE motherboards provide native 4K support with integrated Intel® HD Graphics via HDMI.

HDMI™ - The Next Generation Multimedia Interface

HDMI™ is a High-Definition Multimedia Interface which provides up to 5Gb/s video transmitting bandwidth and 8-channel high quality audio all through a single cable. Able to transmit superior, uncompressed digital video and audio, HDMI™ ensures the crispest rendering of digital content up to 1080p without the quality losses associated with analog interfaces and their digital-to-analog conversion. In addition, HDMI™ is compatible with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), allowing the playback of Blu-ray/HD DVD and other protected media content.

 

 

The next generation of Intel CPUs and motherboards is not out yet, so in this article we will take a look at one of the mainstream Z170 motherboard solutions from Gigabyte, the Z170-Gaming K3, which is also promoted along with the World of Warships game. The product offers support for dual-channel DDR4 memory, the Skylake processor series BUT also Kaby Lake, does come with integrated USB 3.1 interface, 2-way graphics support (Crossfire) and more but let’s begin with the packaging presentation first! The motherboard is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box and shows some of the supported technologies on the top cover:

 

 

 

More details about the main product highlights along with the technical specifications can be spotted on the back:

 

 

 

After lifting the top box cover, we will get to see that the motherboard is placed on the top layer, while the bottom area holds the rest of the bundle:

 

 

 

Besides a User Manual, we will also receive a “DND” door sign, a G1 Gaming sticker and a Multilingual Installation Guide:

 

 

 

As we have seen before, the Z170-Gaming K3 is promoted along with the Free-to-Play title World of Warships, and with the product we do also receive a leaflet containing a Starter Code:

 

 

 

The User Manual gives us details step-by-step on how to perform the hardware installation and describes the motherboard components along with the UEFI interface thoroughly:

 

 

 

The Multilingual Installation Guide is more general, for people which haven’t attempted to build a computer setup before:

 

 

 

The first part of the hardware bundle is composed of four custom SATA cables, the disk with drivers and applications, but also an I/O shield:

 

 

 

The I/O shield was designed to follow the color scheme of the motherboard and also features a padding on the back side:

 

 

 

 

Gigabyte has also included a G Connector adapter, which makes the installation of the frontal panel connectors a breeze:

 

 

 

 

 

The Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard does feature a clean, not overcrowded design, with a color scheme containing dark brown, black and red; even if we are discussing about a mainstream motherboard, Gigabyte did not omit to include with it some of the latest interfaces:

 

 

 

A closer look begins in the top left corner, where we can spot the 12V 8-pin power connector along with a 4-pin PWM fan header:

 

 

 

Between the I/O and the VRM area, we will be able to spot an ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 controller:

 

 

 

Next in-line we have the PTN3360D HDMI/DVI high-speed level shifter from NXP:

 

 

 

The Gigabit LAN interface on this board is provided by the Qualcomm Killer E2201 chipset:

 

 

 

The SuperIO chip comes in the form of the ITE IT8628E:

 

 

 

The audio CODEC area is separated from the rest of the PCB area, in order to minimize noise:

 

 

 

The Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard is equipped with a Realtek ALC1150 CODEC, which is covered by an aluminum casing:

 

 

 

On the bottom area of the PCB, we will be able to spot the following interfaces:

 

-the F_Audio header

-the COM header

-the TPM header

-two USB 2.0 headers

-one System Fan header

-the Frontal Panel header but also two SATA 3 ports

 

A LED_DEMO header is also present near the COM header, but it is not documented:

 

 

 

The board is equipped with no less than four PCI-Express x1 slots and two PCI-Express x16 3.0 slots (one of which is x16 and the other x4 electrical); there is enough space between the x16 slots to fit even beefier cards:

 

 

 

A M.2 connector (socket 3) supports SATA and PCIe storage:

 

 

 

The chipset is covered by a nice themed G1 Gaming heatsink:

 

 

 

Besides the two SATA ports mentioned earlier, the board is also equipped with two SATA Express ports; if we do not have storage drives of this kind, we can always make use of four extra standard SATA 3 ports:

 

 

 

The memory slots are color-coded for an easier identification; nearby we have an USB 3.0 front panel header, along with the 24-pin ATX power connector but also one more SYS_FAN header. The board is not equipped though with Power/Reset hardware buttons or a Debug LED display, in order to cut production costs:

 

 

 

Between the memory slots and the CPU VRM, we will also find two extra fan headers:

 

 

 

The VRM heatsinks are quite slim and do not get in the way when installing larger CPU coolers; the board is equipped with seven power phases, which should be enough even when overclocking:

 

 

 

 

Here is also a look on the back side of the motherboard; here we can see for a fact that the secondary PCI-Express x16 slot is only wired for x4:

 

 

 

The motherboard can provide quite light show in our computer case, since the area along the memory slots and also the one near the audio interface is populated with LEDs:

 

 

 

 

On the I/O, the Z170-Gaming K3 does come with a combo PS/2 mouse/keyboard port, four blue USB 3.0 ports, one DVI-D port, one HDMI port, two USB 3.1 ports in red color, a RJ-45 port, but also the usual audio jacks:

 

 

 

The Z170-Gaming K3 board is equipped with a nice looking UEFI interface, which does also include an Easy Mode. Monitoring widgets can be also found on the right side of the screen, while on the lower right we can access Q-Flash for updating the BIOS or Smart Fan options for fine-tuning the fan speeds:

 

 

 

Coming back to the standard UEFI interface, we’ve got multiple menus available; the first one is M.I.T, which is the first place to go in order to fine-tune the system performance. Several sub-menus can be found here:

 

-Advanced Frequency Settings

-Advanced Memory Settings

-Advanced Voltage Settings

-PC Health Status

-Miscellaneous Settings

 

Here we can also access the Smart Fan 5 Settings:

 

 

The Advanced Frequency Settings menu does allow the user to perform CPU overclocking, but also adjust the memory clocks (XMP or manual):

 

 

Advanced CPU Core Settings can be also accessed from here:

 

 

The Advanced Memory Settings menu allows us to choose from different XMP profiles, adjust the memory multiplier manually, the reference clock, the Odd Ratio, frequency at boot and more:

 

 

The memory sub-timings can be also customized in the highest detail:

 

 

The Advanced Voltage Settings menu does present us with four separate sub-sections:

 

-Advanced Power Settings

-CPU Core Voltage Control

-Chipset Voltage Control

-DRAM Voltage Control

 

 

The Advanced Power Settings menu allows adjusting the Loadline Calibration, but comes with less aggressive options versus the SOC Force:

 

 

The CPU Core Voltage Control area allows the user to set a manual voltage for the processor, adjust the voltage for the integrated graphics, VCCIO, System Agent or can adjust the CPU Core PLL Overvoltage:

 

 

The Chipset Voltage Control menu allows us to adjust the PCH Core voltage setting:

 

 

From the DRAM Voltage control menu, we can adjust DRAM-specific voltages:

 

 

Moving back to the PC Health Status menu, we can see the live system voltages, along with the Case Open status:

 

 

The Miscellaneous Settings menu does come with two more settings we can enable or disable:

 

 

Moving on to the main System menu, we have the ability to check out the current BIOS build, but also adjust the System Language or System Date/Time:

 

 

The BIOS menu comes with the usual options regarding the boot of the system; from here we can also adjust the mouse cursor speed:

 

 

Next we’ve got the Peripherals menu, which allows us to set the first device to provide display output, enable/disable the Gigabit LAN controller, configure EZ Raid, choose an operation mode for the Ambient LEDs on the motherboard but also enable or disable Intel PTT. Several sub-menus are available here too:

 

-OffBoard SATA Controller Configuration

-Trusted Computing

-SuperIO Configuration

-Intel BIOS Guard Technology

-Network Stack Configuration

-NVMe Configuration

-USB Configuration

-SATA and RST Configuration

 

 

Here are the modes we can configure for the Ambient LED:

 

 

The connected PCIe SATA Controllers will be shown in the respective menu if installed:

 

 

Trusted Computing area comes with some other specific options:

 

 

The SuperIO Configuration menu only allows us to switch the Serial interface on or off:

 

 

Next we do have the Intel BIOS Guard Support option:

 

 

Network Stack can be either enabled or disabled:

 

 

NVMe installed devices will be also shown in the dedicated menu, if installed:

 

 

USB Configuration menu does show some specific options:

 

 

SATA and RST Configuration menu allows us to work with the SATA controller options:

 

 

The main Chipset menu allows us to enable or disable other interfaces such as the Integrated Graphics, Audio Controller and more:

 

 

The Power Menu is filled with the usual Power Management options:

 

 

The Save & Exit menu does allow us to save, discard or load factory defaults; we do also have several slots to our disposal for saving and loading different profiles:

 

 

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 Z170X-Gaming K3 LGA1151 motherboard, we have attempted overclocking and succeeded at 4.6GHz; one mention is that we needed to climb a bit with the voltage further, since we did not have aggressive Loadline Calibration settings available inside the BIOS as with the SOC Force model:

 

 

Here is also the validation:

 

(click to enlarge)

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 after a bit of voltage tuning, the XMP profile being recognized perfectly fine. Initially, when we have loaded the XMP profile, the RAM was running at 3066MHz after the reboot; in order to enable operation at 3200MHz and boot at the same frequency perfectly stable we had to set a manual voltage of the System Agent to 1V inside the BIOS:

 

 

 

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 near the audio CODEC but also of the ones near the memory modules; there is a single color available (red) so 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:

 

 

 

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 getting the same info. This is also the place for configuring the fan speeds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

System backups can be also performed via a separate module:

 

 

 

Access to the computer can be restricted on a schedule thanks to the Smart TimeLock feature:

 

 

 

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:

 

 

 

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

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 LGA1151

In our RMAA test, the GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 has scored really well in the 24/96 tests but fell a bit behind when testing at 16/44, trailing the SOC Force board; this is an usual behavior we have also seen at some other motherboards featuring the same ALC1150 CODEC from Realtek.

 

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 16/44

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 16/44

 

 

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 24/96

GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming K3 24/96

 

The Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard was built from scratch for the mainstream segment but this does not mean that it is not a capable product: it is packed with support for some of the latest technologies as USB 3.1, metallic shielding over the main PCI-E slot, a Gen3 x4 M.2 connector for installing additional storage, 2 SATA Express connector(plus two regular SATA 3), one ALC1150 HD Audio codec with built-in rear audio amplifier, a Killer E2200 Gigabit LAN adapter for minimizing in-game lag and more.

 

There is enough space between the top PCI-Express x16 slots in order to install dual-slot video cards in a CrossFire setup and if we do not use the SATA Express interface, we can consider that the board has a total of 6 SATA 3 ports available.

 

The board is not equipped with a Debug LED display or Power/Reset buttons as we have seen on more expensive models, but the configurable LED segments on the sides kind of make it up for it, since we are able to set it up on our choice by using the supplied Ambient LED software.

 

 

 

The Z170-Gaming K3 motherboard is also equipped with a fully-featured UEFI interface, which is quite easy to work with because of the accessible settings in the M.I.T. section. Since the Loadline Calibration settings are not as aggressive as we have seen with other boards, the voltage drops a bit during load so we needed to raise the values a bit further in order to attain stability at 4.6GHz.

 

As we have seen with other Gigabyte boards, the memory XMP support is great! The tested 3200MHz memory module, while it booted first at 3066MHz, we could be able to make it work at the desired frequency by altering a bit the System Agent voltage at 1V.

 

Kaby Lake support is also included with this board, thanks to the latest BIOS so no need to swap it when upgrading from the Skylake generation.

 

This specific model does also come with an affordable price of 122.85 Euros at the moment of the review!

Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 LGA1151 Motherboard is Recommended for:

 

 

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