Gigabyte Introduces Eight New Intel-Based Motherboards

Gigabyte announced that it has seven new workstation motherboards coming to market with Intel’s C232 and C236 chipsets. Although these boards are technically designed as workstation products, they carry a number of features that we would expect to see on enthusiast motherboards. Gigabyte also announced a new Z170 chipset motherboard.

Before we examine the features on each motherboard, it’s important to note a naming convention that Gigabyte is using. According to a Gigabyte representative, the features and connectivity options of the workstation C236 chipset are identical to the consumer H170 chipset, and the C232 chipset is the same as the B150 chipset. Realizing this, Gigabyte opted to place “X170” in a motherboard’s name to signify the use of a C236 chipset, and “X150” to indicate a C232 chipset.

At the high end, Gigabyte released two motherboards that are essentially the same, the GA-X170-Gaming 7 WS and the Gigabyte-GA-X170-Extreme ECC. In terms of their physical design and makeup, when we were shown these motherboards at CES they were exactly the same, except one had a sticker that said “Extreme ECC” placed over the “Gaming 7 WS” printed on the board. The Extreme ECC version does, as the name suggests, feature support for ECC DDR4, and it is targeted more as a workstation product, but otherwise there isn’t anything different about these boards.

Gigabyte hasn’t released all of the specs yet, but both motherboards will have three SATA Express ports, two M.2 Key M slots, and two additional SATA-III (6 Gbps) connections not configured to be used as SATA Express, giving users plenty of storage options. They will also have a Creative SoundCore 3D audio chip and use two NICs, one produced by Intel and the other a Killer E2400. Both boards have USB Type-C connectors on the rear I/O panel, but Gigabyte didn’t state what protocol they use.

As a slightly lower-end option, Gigabyte will offer the GA-X170-Gaming 3 WS. This board has significantly reduced VRM cooling hardware compared to the other X170 boards, and it has considerably fewer power phases, but it still has enough that users shouldn’t need to be concerned about what processor they use.

Connectivity options on this board are fairly similar to the GA-X170 Gaming 7 WS board. It still has three SATA Express and two M.2 Key M slots, but it has two fewer SATA-III ports than the more expensive boards. It also has only a single Killer E2200 NIC, and Gigabyte didn’t dish out the remaining board specs.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Gigabyte’s New Motherboards
ModelGigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 6GA-X150M-Plus WSGA-X150-Plus WSGA-X150M-Pro ECCGA-X150-Pro ECCGA-X170-Gaming 3 WSGA-X170-Gaming 7 WSGA-X170-Extreme ECC
ChipsetZ170C232C232C232C232C236C236C236
Memory Support4 x DDR42 x DDR44 x DDR44 x DDR4 ECC4 x DDR4 ECC4 x DDR44 x DDR44 x DDR4 ECC
PCI Ports(3) x16(4) x1(1) x16(2) x1(2) x16(1) x1(2) PCI(2) x16(2) PCIN/A(3) x16(3) x1(3) x16(3) x1(3) x16(3) x1
M.2 Ports2 x Key M01 x Key M1 x Key MN/A2 x Key M2 x Key M2 x Key M
SATAN/A6 x SATA-IIIN/A8 x SATA-IIIN/A6 x SATA-III8 x SATA III8 x SATA III
SATA ExpressN/A0Yes1N/A333
AudioN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/ACreative SoundCore 3DCreative SoundCore 3D
NetworkingN/A1 x Realtek Gigabit1 x Intel Gigabit 1 x Intel Gigabit N/A1 x Killer E22001 x Killer E24001 x Intel Gigabit1 x Killer E24001 x Intel Gigabit
Form FactorATXMicro-ATXATXMicro-ATXATXATXATXATX

There is no word on pricing or availability.

Follow Michael Justin Allen Sexton @EmperorSunLao. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • DookieDraws
    For the love of God, Tom's, please make viewing images much easier when they're clicked on. Just make them pop up larger on the screen and go away when clicking off of them. Purty please! :)

    Anyway, those boards ain't bad looking. Would like to see manufacturers offer at least 2 different versions (color and style) of certain motherboards.
    Reply
  • Digmeahole
    OMG Ugly as sin!
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    I actually like the tan-digi camo on brown, maybe not as much as I would like to have in a PC, but its better than all the red on black everywhere.
    Ill say it again, Im glad manufactures are trying something new color wise.
    Reply
  • babernet_1
    Table formatting is horrific. Did you have your kid do it?
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    The boards vinyl looks like a response to Asus's Sabranco lineup and their new Sabranco TUF cam white motherboard shown off at CES. Gigabyte have been pushing a military theme across their mobile platforms so this sin't unusual. This would be hard to fit inside a build with solid colored components. If Gigabyte did launch the rest of their components in this new digi-camo outfit then that would be killer indeed!
    Reply
  • RobertGru
    Which ones have USB 3.1?!?!?!
    Reply
  • nodeffect
    Hi tomshardware, I found a very easy to implement plugin for all your images. http://fancybox.net/
    To learn how to use it step by step please refer here: http://fancybox.net/howto
    Reply
  • vgray35
    For the love of God, Tom's, please make viewing images much easier when they're clicked on. Just make them pop up larger on the screen and go away when clicking off of them. Purty please! :)

    Anyway, those boards ain't bad looking. Would like to see manufacturers offer at least 2 different versions (color and style) of certain motherboards.
    For the love of God, Tom's, please make viewing images much easier when they're clicked on. Just make them pop up larger on the screen and go away when clicking off of them. Purty please! :)

    Anyway, those boards ain't bad looking. Would like to see manufacturers offer at least 2 different versions (color and style) of certain motherboards.
    Reply
  • vgray35
    And while you are at it, revamp your your advertizing data usage hit and general webpage structure. My data usage visting this site is getting so high, that I am on the verge of finding an alternative site. Running video clips automatically is an arrogant stance, and chewing up my monthly data budget on trivialities is not appreciated. Fix it or I will need to reduce visits to this site dramatically. I cannot afford the cost of each visit.
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    17350403 said:
    And while you are at it, revamp your your advertizing data usage hit and general webpage structure. My data usage visting this site is getting so high, that I am on the verge of finding an alternative site. Running video clips automatically is an arrogant stance, and chewing up my monthly data budget on trivialities is not appreciated. Fix it or I will need to reduce visits to this site dramatically. I cannot afford the cost of each visit.

    I have never had a video auto play, and my usage is minimal.
    Reply