Sneak Peek At Gigabyte's Upcoming X99, Z170X Enthusiast Motherboards

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We got a sneak peek at a quintet of new Gigabyte motherboards at PAX East. Coming in May, all five are targeted at the enthusiast market. Three of these motherboards use the X99 chipset for Haswell-E, and the other two use the Skylake Z170 PCH. One of the X99 chipset motherboards will also become Gigabyte's new flagship for the LGA 2011-3 socket. It should be noted, however, that these boards are still being developed, and their specs and features are subject to change.

The new X99 motherboards from Gigabyte all share a similar look. Gigabyte's new X99 flagship, the GA-X99-Designare EX, uses a black PCB and uses a white plastic cover with blue highlights The other two X99 boards, the GA-X99-Ultra Gaming and the GA-X99-Phoenix SLI, are similar except that the Ultra Gaming board has red highlights whereas the Phoenix SLI's highlights are orange. The boards also feature LED lighting in various locations.

X99 Designare EX
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X99 Ultra Gaming

These three boards each have a total of eight DDR4 RAM slots, which Gigabyte reinforced with steel plating to increase their durability. All of the PCI-E x16 slots have also been reinforced to prevent damage by heavy graphics cards.

On the GA-X99-Designare EX, Gigabyte placed a single M.2 slot and two U.2 ports to ensure users had access to several next-gen storage connections. The GA-X99-Phoenix SLI is similar, except it drops one U.2 port. The GA-X99-Ultra Gaming has two M.2 slots and just one U.2 slot. All three of these motherboards have a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C connector, as well.

The two new Z170 motherboards share a similar design to their X99 counterparts, but scaled down slightly. Both of the new Z170 boards, the GA-Z170X-Designare and GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming, feature the same steel-reinforced DDR4 slots as the X99 motherboards, as well as steel-plated PCI-E ports. These boards also support a single U.2 port and one M.2 slot.

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Z170X Designare

The GA-Z170X-Designare does surpass all of the other just-revealed boards in that it comes with two USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C ports, and it supports Thunderbolt 3, as well. (The GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming also comes with USB 3.1 Gen 2 on a Type-C connector, but it only has one such port.)

At this time, those are all of the details we were able to get from Gigabyte on these new boards. Expect to see more details next month when Gigabyte releases them on the market.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Questors
    The X99 look good in terms of features and layout, but the shiny plastic is looks tacky and cheap (not inexpensive). It reminds me of toys one will find in a store where everything is a dollar or so. A brushed aluminum or carbon fiber I/O cover is great, though the latter will increase cost. Paying the price for a high end board and receiving a product with plastic accenting just doesn't cut it.
    Reply
  • silversurfernhs
    I love the aesthetics of the metal shrouds over the pcie slots. I hope that trend sticks and makes its way to Asus boards.
    Reply
  • Questors
    I like the metal on the PCIe slots as well. The especially holds true (to me) on a black PCB with other black and chrome-like accents.
    Reply
  • CBender
    Gigabyte needs to hire some one with a just a tiny bit of taste. And someone who will make better bios.
    Reply
  • ruggedmeerkat
    Does Gigabyte hire kindergarten kids to design its X99 boards?
    Reply
  • Questors
    No idea how my first post got repeated here.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    17882604 said:
    The X99 boards look great in terms of features and layout, but I positively HATE all the plastic! It gives these boards a look akin to cheap toys one would find in one of those stores that sells everything for a "dollar-ish." A nice brushed aluminum or even carbon fiber I/O cover would be nice, though the latter would up the price I am sure.

    Why are you posting the same thing over and over?
    Reply
  • voxdan
    The new feature-sets are solid, but I too really dislike all the shiny plastic and these color schemes. We have started to see a slight trend to more neutral black, grey, silver, aluminum, or white schemes that do not dictate one's theme and I would have liked to have seen that done here.
    Reply
  • Questors
    17882622 said:
    17882604 said:
    The X99 boards look great in terms of features and layout, but I positively HATE all the plastic! It gives these boards a look akin to cheap toys one would find in one of those stores that sells everything for a "dollar-ish." A nice brushed aluminum or even carbon fiber I/O cover would be nice, though the latter would up the price I am sure.

    Why are you posting the same thing over and over?

    I see what you mean and I have no idea. The only thing I have done since initial post is a reply to another, like this.


    Reply
  • Thomas Yiu
    It looks like a copy of a ASUS ROG Rampage V Extreme.
    Also, I think there may be issue with putting a very large GPU on first slot because of the M.2 for GA-X99-Designare EX.
    Reply