BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X Motherboard Review

Motherboards/Intel S1151 by stefan @ 2015-09-24

The Gaming Z170X motherboard from Biostar was built on the strong foundation Z97X had and features plenty of expansion possibilities, including the new USB 3.1 Type-C port, no less than three M.2 slots, two which are hidden under the plastic shroud and one visible, plenty of SATA-Express and SATA ports, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots for enabling tri-Crossfire support, the Realtek ALC898 8-channel CODEC, dual-LAN (Intel and Killer NIC) and more. We also have a set of touch-sensitive buttons which include BCLK and multiplier modifier on-the-fly, 8-phase VRM for the CPU and DDR4 memory support up to 4000MHz in UEFI.

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Product Features Part I

Intel Z170 chipset

 

With the Intel® Z170 chipset and the 6th generation Intel® Core™ processors, you will immediately be at the forefront of the battlefield, fueled by mindblowing power and performance. From content creation to gaming, the Intel Z170 chipset provides you with the power and performance you need.

 

Hi-Fi 3D

 

Hi-Fi 3D Technology enables high definition multi-dimensional sound where it matters the most with height, width and depth in front of the listener. It's based on the physics of reproduced sound and the basic human perception of sound. The high resolution sound reproduction stands above existing sound enhancements or virtualization technologies.

 

Blu-ray Audio

 

Upgrading your Audio performance in the easiest way is choosing BIOSTAR ultimate Motherboard. It does support Blu-ray audio DRM (compatible driver/software) and provide the higher audio output of 24 bit/ 192KHz than the 16 bit/ 48KHz from the normal MB. You will experience the high quality sound effect with pure Blu-Ray Audio.

 

XLouder

 

XLouder button offers players a quicker way to enable the "XLouder" function, it increases the volume from "microphone", allowing players to have a quicker control over the microphone while enjoying the games.

 

Super Hi-Fi Audio Connectors

30uF “Golden” plated audio connectors provide superb signal conductivity, less oxidation, and best possible studio-grade headgears.

Hi-Fi AMP 3D

With the built-in new generation 3D amplifier, Biostar Hi-Fi 3D motherboard can drive major high-end headphones with over 100dB loads and up to 600ohm impedance. It allows you enjoy a fuller range of dynamic sound with crisper details and less distortion when you are using any headphones.

Smart Ear 3D

Smart Ear 3D provides true reproduction of virtual 3D space using any headphones! It delivers the true 3D sounds for music, movies and also games. It's fantastically, especially if you've never experienced this kind of acoustic phenomenon before.

Hi-Fi Pre AMP

Hi-Fi 3D Technology is built-in power amplifier to boost the speaker volume. It will increase double volume level with high-quality HD audio output. Hi-Fi 3D Technology not only improves on the headphone but also enhances your speakers' sound volume.

Hi-Fi preamp can boost the line level audio signals from analog and digital sources to levels that a power amplifier can detect and boost again to successfully power up the loadspeaker.

3D Sound Fields

The six types of 3D Sound Fields are including Hi-Fi Theater, Hi-Fi Hall, Hi-Fi Game spots, Hi-Fi Studio, Hi-Fi Conference and Hi-Fi Bistro for your different applications. Biostar Hi-Fi 3D technology involves the virtual placement of sound sources anywhere in 3 dimensional spaces, including behind, above or below.

Hi-V Caps

Hi-V Caps is "Metalized Polypropylene Film Capacitor" for each audio channel circuit. The customized audio capacitors deliver low noise, low distortion and wide bandwidth to achieve the highest sound resolution and sound expansion.

Hi-Fi Power

Audio power is an important factor in audio quality. Most AV equipment isolates the power supply for each analog and digital signal to gather high-quality sound reproduction. Equipped with BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Power technology, it will utilize audio components with independent power design for a significant reduction in electronic noise and superb sound quality.

Hi-Fi Ground

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Ground ( Golden Line ) is noise-blocking multi-layer PCB design to isolates analog audio signals from digital sources. Unique PCB layout is ideal for exceptional clarity and high fidelity sound.

Hi-Fi 110dB+

Embrace exceptional sound quality for the win with 110dB SNR and stylish and efficient EMI shield blocks electromagnetic interference to help provide cleaner audio. It has achieved a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 110dB, yielding almost loss-less audio form rear audio connectors.

 

HDMI 2.0

 

HDMI 2.0 supports true 4K resolution- 4096*2160@60hz. A significant increase in bandwidth is up to 18mbps, and significant enhancements are added to support the continued increase consumer demands on video and audio experience.

HDMI 4K2K

The new 4K2K resolution enables high-definition image display with four times the resolution of full HD ,4K2K display is faithfully express bright, highly detailed content that fills the entire screen with lifelike images. Connectivity with PCs via a single HDMI cable for displaying 4K2K data.

 

DisplayPort

 

DisplayPort is a digital display interface developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor, though it can also be used to carry audio.

 

DX12

 

DirectX 12 introduces the next version of Direct3D, the graphics API at the heart of DirectX. Direct3D is one of the most critical pieces of a game or game engine, and we've redesigned it to be faster and more efficient than ever before. Direct3D 12 enables richer scenes, more objects, and full utilization of modern GPU hardware.

 

Killer E2200 LAN

 

BIOSTAR Gaming series motherboard adopts Killer E2200 LAN, a dedicated LAN chip for gaming network; it is designed to provide the highest performance for online games. Killer E2200 with Advanced Stream Detect feature can automatically detect the game traffic flow and other network traffic to ensure it’s quality of instant messaging, allowing players always in control of the network hardware and enjoy the thrill of games without delay.

 

USB 3.1 Type-C

 

USB 3.1 doubles the data transfer rate from 5Gbps to 10Gbps compared with USB3.0, and also is backward compatible with all existing USB3.0 & USB2.0 devices. The Type-C connector is fully reversible which makes it convenient, and it also can save your charging time on portable devices up to 50% compared with Type-A connector.

 

PCI-e M.2 32Gb/s

 

PCI-e M.2 32Gb/s is the latest storage interface, it delivers the highest bandwidth and lower latency. It's 3 times faster compared with PCI-e M.2 10Gb/s.

 

Dual GbE LAN

 

The primary advantage is the doubling of bandwidth which allows the network bandwidth of 1G to become that of 2G, and with two high-speed gigabit networks plus zero packet delay that provides super high data transmission efficiency. Another major advantage is "Load Balancing", it allows users to attach both network adapters to a single network. It will therefore support the aggregation "teaming" function by merging the two connections to support multiple aggregation modes. In addition, two Gigabit Ethernet lightning protection circuits reducing the probability of damage from lightning or other power surge. So if one connection is disabled the other connection will automatically kick in.

 

 

Charger Booster II

 

Charger booster 2, with maximum voltage up to 2A which provides a quicker charging time on various portable devices.

 

XMP

 

Press XMP key to automatically adjust XMP MEMORY to the best performance and enjoying the extreme pleasure of the stability and speed.

 

SATA Express 16Gb/s

 

New generation SATA Express standard with speed up to 16Gb/s and meets SATA specifications.

 

PCI-E Gen 3.0

 

PCI-E 3.0 is the next evolution of the ubiquitous and general-purpose PCI Express I/O standard. At 8GT/s bit rate, the interconnect performance bandwidth is doubled over PCI-E 2.0, while preserving compatibility with software and mechanical interfaces.

 

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