AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7
3rd January 2017Type
MotherboardPrice
$239.99 USGigabyte AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 Board - Close Up
The Gigabyte AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard is styled in white and black. This is the first product design by AORUS which offers a fresh new color and design scheme. The motherboard comes in the standard ATX form factor and there are a lots of features to talk about so let's get started.
The AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard is designed to offer best overclocking support to enthusiasts and be a feature rich product for gamers. AORUS has designed a protective cover for the motherboard that spans the entirety of the left section on the board. The PCB is of matte black color with white lines textured around the CPU socket.
The board uses the LGA 1151 socket to support Intel Core processors. The socket is compatible with both Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) and 7th Gen (Kaby Lake) processors. The socket has a protective cover out of box which can easily be removed when installing the processor.
The motherboard packs a 12 Phase Digital PWM supply which powers the socket. The PCB is outfitted with long lifespan, Durable Black solid state capacitors that have an endurance rating of over 10,000 hours. The powerful VRM design allows overclockers to get the most of this motherboard when overclocking Intel processors.
Next to the socket are four DDR4 DIMM slots which can support up to 64 GB (Dual Channel) memory. These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 4000 MHz. Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation.
AORUS not only made the DIMM slots to support faster memory, but they also made it to look great. All four DIMM slots come with dual armor metal shielding. This adds more durability and can provide extra strength to your components if you forget to release the lock while replacing DIMMs. The shielding is of stainless steel and designed to prevent against PCB distortion and twist, plate bending and ESD interference. There are also lesser chances to bend the PCB when installing memory on the board.
You can also spot LED switches embedded between the DIMM slots. Three in total, these are part of the RGB Fusion system which can display up to 16.8 million colors and programmable through a built-in application that comes with the board.
The VRMs are covered by two sets of heatsinks with an aluminum shroud. These carry a white and silver color scheme with a black aluminum based base. The two heatsinks are interconnected through a heatpipe that will be used to dissipate heat effectively.
The AORUS cover on the I/O panel looks superb. There's no cooling mechanism involved with the cover as it's just for visuals and mostly hollow from the inside. But it does add to the overall looks of the product and that's it's main purpose over here.
The CPU is supplied power through a single 8-Pin power connector. This will feed the CPU with up to 150W of power. Most Intel CPU's will be shipping with TDP's under 100W but that changes when users overclock, that changes power limit based on applied voltages and clock speeds.
Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 3.0 x16, three PCI-Express 3.0 x1 and two M.2 slots. The board can support 3-Way multi-GPU (CrossfireX / SLI). The M.2 slots are rated to support NVMe PCI-e Gen3 x4 and Intel Optane series memory.
The supported types for the M.2 socket are 22110, 2280, 2260 and 2242. M.2 slots offer up to 32 GB/s link speed compared to just 6 GB/s on SATA 3 bus.
Just like the DIMM slots, the PCI-Express slots are fitted with ultra durable PCIe Armor. The new stainless steel shielding design reinforces the PCIe connectors to offer up to 1.7x strength in shearing tests and up to 3.2x stronger retention force. There are extra anchor points under the slots which can carry large graphics cards with ease.
Gigabyte also implemented their double locking bracket system which locks the card from both front and back side. This holds the card in place no matter how much load is being applied.
Turbo B-Clock can also be found on the motherboard. This IC enables overclockers to have the ability to change their BCLK frequency to a desired value of their choice. With the new linear range adjustment option, ranges from 90 MHz to 500 MHz are now possible. This means that overclockers are not limited to the 5% ranges of traditional straps.
The Z270 PCH is housed beneath a large heatsink with AORUS logo and label embedded on it. The cover has a white frame and a large metallic block that is finished in brushed black metal.
The board has the Gigabyte patented DualBIOS design which let's you load a secondary BIOS in case the first one goes bad. This is a safety features that comes in handy with overclocking.
Storage options include six SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 6 different storage devices at a single time. Additionally, you can also plug in three SATA-Express based devices to these ports.
A single U.2 slots is equipped which can support PCI-Express Gen3 (x4) storage devices. Intel 750 Series SSDs can be plugged in to this port although the board doesn't come with any U.2 connection cables. You can also connect up to 3 NVMe PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 (M.2+U.2+PCIe).
The Sound Core 3D system is designed to offer the best audio experience an on board system could provide. It has the world's first Quad-Core Audio processor, Creative Sound Core 3D on their new boards. It provides the power of a dedicated audio processor which the CPU can offload most of the work to. It is a total solution from Creative that comes in the form of both hardware and software, offering a richer experience to audiophiles.
Next to the DIMM slots are three switches to switch between OC mode, ECO mode and Power On / Off. There are also two buttons that allow memory and board diagnostic. The Turbo and XMP logos on the PCB light up under operation, depending upon their usage.
One of the interesting designs implemented on the AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard is the swappable overlay for Accent LED. This overlay complements the RGB Fusion technology in AORUS motherboard by adding more flare and style inside cases. It's an interesting design which really looks great when the board is running.
The I/O on the motherboard includes PS/2, Dual LAN (Intel Gigabit + Killer LAN) ports, USB 3.1 (Type-A + Type-C), dual USB DAC-UP 2 ports with adjustable voltage (Dedicated Power Design), three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0, Display Port 1.4 and a 7.1 channel high quality audio jack.
Gigabyte AORUS Z270X Gaming 7 Photo Gallery:
Contents
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The AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard is an all rounder with great specs, features and a design that is a complete stunner. At $240 US, the AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 is going to be the best option for Intel 6th and 7th generation PC builders.
- Great Design Quality
- Great OC Support
- Dual Ethernet Ports
- Metal PCIe and DIMM slots
- Intel Optane Support
- Intel 6th and 7th Gen Support
- Dual USB 3.1 (Type-A + Type-C)
- Lots of storage capabilities
- Lots of I/O capabilities
- Onboard Audio design
- RGB Fusion Lightning
- Great $240 US Price
Pros
- No Onboard WiFi Module
- Lots of competition under $250 US
- Kaby Lake Not a Big Improvement From Skylake
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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