Gigabyte GA-X170-Extreme ECC review

Gigabyte has unveiled a new high-end motherboard for Intel LGA1151 socket, the Gigabyte GA-X170-Extreme ECC. Positioned as a motherboard for workstations for desktop users, this board is based on Intel C236 chipset, and comes with support for Intel Xeon E3-1200 the V5 processors, plus Intel Core processors 6th generation core “Skylake”.

This new model of Gigabyte is also compatible with DDR4 ECC memory, which partly takes its name. Built in the standard form factor ATX, the board receives power through a combination of power connectors ATX 24-pin connector plus EPS +12 V 8 pin.

Expansion slots include two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (running on configuration x8 / x8 with both occupied), a third PCIe 3.0 Wired x16 directly to PCH motherboard and operating with a bandwidth x4 and other PCIe 3.0 x1 three slots.

A star attraction here is the choice by Gigabyte controller 2 USB 3.1 ports manufactured by Intel, which connects to the PCH through a bus PCIe 3.0 x4, compared with most other USB 3.1 controllers on the market which are connected via PCIe 3.0 x2. This ensures dedicated bandwidth consisting of 10 Gb / s for each of the two ports, without any loss of bandwidth overhead.

The card offers one of each type of ports, whether of type A and type C, wired to the controller. The card offers up to four additional ports USB 3.0 from the chipset and by Renesas hub chip. Further it comprises a Thunderbolt port 3 of 40 Gb / s ports, DisplayPort 1.2 as a gateway.

Storage connectivity GA-X170-Extreme ECC includes two slots M.2 32 Gb / s and four SATA-Express connectors 16 Gb / s which are divided as eight SATA 6 Gb / s. There are two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, one powered by an Intel controller I219-V, and another for a Killer E2400.

The integrated audio solution is the highest in the range of Gigabyte, with a sound processor Creative Core3D, TI Burr Brown OPA2134 OPAMP (user replaceable), insulation layer of soil and electrolytic capacitors Nichicon Muse. Incoerpora plate the famous technology Gigabyte UEFI Bios Bios chips redundant with auto-switching. The company did not disclose pricing.