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GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE LGA1151 Motherboard Review

Motherboards/Intel S1151 by stefan @ 2016-07-22

The Z170X-SOC Force is one of the most advanced motherboards which have passed through our labs and is packed with a ton of features, hardware and software wise. Besides the 4-way SLI, the three M.2 32Gb/s slots, a beefy VRM, USB 3.1 support via Intel controller we do also have multiple options to overclock the system (via Wi-Fi, via the HW-OC tethering function, via the BIOS or via the Windows software), a well-optimized BIOS to handle overclocked memory without the need of tinkering with each and every timing or we could also remind that we can power up the board without the CPU installed.

A Closer Look Part II

Compared to the other LGA1151 motherboards which have passed through our labs, the Z170X-SOC FORCE bundle is much more complete. We’ll be able to spot the OC brace, a metal bracket which can be attached to the motherboard and offers support for the add-on cards, without the need of installing the product inside a computer case, a 4-way SLI bridge connector, a 3-way SLI bridge connector, one 2-way SLI bridge connector, a 2-way CrossFire bridge connector and four SATA cables:

Let’s see what the extra cardboard enclosure does have in store for us:

Here we do have the I/O Shield, eight voltage measurement cables, a pack of I/O dust covers but also one G connector:

The G Connector simplifies the installation of the Front Panel case connectors:

The I/O Shield comes with an additional power connector, since it is also fitted with orange LEDs:

On the back it comes with an additional isolation layer:

On the documentation side, we do have a Quick Installation Guide, the fully-fledged manual, but also a disk with drivers and applications:

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