GIGABYTE AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 LGA 1151 Motherboard Review

Conclusion

There are two parts of this review, first one is the processor and the second is the motherboard. While the review mainly focused on the motherboard, the processor is something to talk about as they are an essential part of this yearly upgrade cycle that Intel is bringing to consumers.

Intel's Core i7-7700K Is Nothing To Get Excited About

Intel Kaby Lake series brings us the 7th generation processors in the mainstream market. They feature what Intel's calls their most optimized 14nm node, 14nm+. Intel also says that these processors bring performance improvements and support for higher clock speeds. Essentially, Kaby Lake are a better tuned Skylake uArch for the mainstream community.

But Kaby Lake isn't as exciting as it sounds. With Kaby Lake being one of the worst Intel launches when it comes to NDA. Majority of the tech sites have already tested the Core i7-7700K processor. Yes, it is faster compared to Core i7-6700K. But as a result of obtaining faster clocks, it runs hotter and sips more power.

It does what Intel promised, to deliver faster performance and higher clock speeds but it breaks the efficiency rating of Core processors which although doesn't matter a whole lot to the mainstream audience but is some thing that goes opposite to the principles defined by Intel. So yeah, you get that 10% faster performance than Core i7-6700K and you also get than 7% clock speed bump. In return, you get higher temperatures that are much worse when overclocking (The Core i7-7700K can do 5 GHz with ease provided you have a beast of a cooler) and with that clock bump, you get higher power consumption.

Lastly, there's no IPC increase. Kaby Lake is the same as Skylake with higher clock speeds to simply put it. And the worse thing is that it might be so for the next 2-3 generations. Upcoming Intel Core series such as Coffee Lake (Kaby Lake Refresh) and Cannonlake will be bringing no incremental IPC improvements and will add more cores for better performance throughput. So without further to say, Intel Core i7-7700K is without a doubt, the fastest mainstream chip in the market but it has too many drawbacks in terms of power and temperatures that make Skylake still look as the better option for gamers.

Farewell 100-Series, 200-Series Boards Are The Best Option For 6th and 7th Generation Core PC Builders

And there are many to select from. The Gigabyte AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 is the first board from AORUS and it has pleasantly surprised me. AORUS is doing a pretty good job in the laptop gaming department but this is the first time they will be designing boards for Gigabyte. The AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 packs it all, a great design, lots of features, good overclocking support, M.2 and Optane support, RGB LED system and costs under $250 US.

I was excited about this board when I first learned about the price of this board. It was actually after several days of testing that Gigabyte told me that this board was going to cost $239 US. I had previously thought of this board being priced closed to $300 US but it turned out that this was truly a remarkable product that was priced really well.

Coming to the design, the board has it all. Support for multiple GPUs, support for faster memory, support for faster storage and support for M.2 drives. The motherboard can easily push Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs upto 5 GHz and the performance metrics look great. The premium components on this board along with the heatsink cooling is top-notch. My only complaint was no added-WiFi wireless connectivity but that's not much of a big deal. The integrated audio codec is high-end and allows users to add their own custom OP-AMP solutions.

One of the key visual features added to 200-series boards is RGB AURA systems. I have actually been a fan of decent RGB lightning and the ability to customize RGB through the Gigabyte RGB Fusion application is really fun and simple. For those who are not interested in their PCs being lit up like a Christmas tree, the system can be turned off entirely.

One of the things I am really looking forward to test with 200-series motherboards is Optane memory. Intel's 7th generation Core processors support Optane memory and I'll be really looking forward to running Optane based DIMMs on these boards. As for M.2 drive, this was my first experience with the new storage interface and it was a good one. M.2 is definitely the future as it delivers speeds much faster than regular SSDs. If you are building a new PC, make sure to get a M.2 SSD (NVMe).

Alright, so the last note of this review is that Kaby Lake is faster but it's not as great as we hoped for. On the other hand, the 200-series platform comes with lots of features that motherboard makers have implemented in their unique offerings. AORUS developed an amazing product lineup in their very first entry to the motherboard industry. 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.

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

9.7

WCCFTECH RATING

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.

Pros

• 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

Cons

• No Onboard WiFi Module
• Lots of competition under $250 US
• Kaby Lake Not a Big Improvement From Skylake

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