Test – Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 – Conseil Config | Specs | Price | Pros and Cons – After some tests of very high-end models equipped with the latest Z170 chipset from Intel, I am going to present a card that corresponds more to the needs of everyone, I named the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3!
On the program of course compatibility with the latest Intel “Skylake” processors, DDR4 memory ports, SLI or Crossfire compatibility, a worked audio part and an Intel chip in charge of the network, enough to satisfy even the most demanding. Offered at a price of around 160 € the Z170X-UD3 is not an entry-level motherboard but is much more affordable than the models tested previously, let’s see what the little one has in the belly!
| Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 | |
|---|---|
| Format | ATX (30,5 cm x 23,5 cm) |
| Socket | Intel LGA 1151 |
| CPU | Intel Celeron / Pentium / Core i3 / Core i5 / Core i7 |
| Chipset | Intel Z170 Express |
| Memory | 4 x DDR4 2133 Mhz “Dual Channel” Support XMP Maximum de 64Go Jusqu’à 3466 MHz (OC) |
| Slots d’extensions | 1x PCIe 3.0 16X (fonctionnant en 16X) 1x PCIe 3.0 16X (fonctionnant en 8X) 1x PCIe 3.0 16X (fonctionnant en 4X) 3x PCIe 3.0 1X (fonctionnant en 1X) 2x M.2 socket 3 |
| Multi-GPU | AMD CrossFire 3-Way nVidia SLI 2-Way |
| Chipset Audio | Realtek® ALC1150 + condensateur haut de gamme |
| Réseau Filaire | 1 x Intel® GbE LAN |
| Réseau sans fil | Non |
| Nombre de connecteurs pour ventilateurs | 5 x 4-pin PWM |
| Stockage | Intel Z170: 2 x M.2 Socket 3 3 x Sata Express 6 x SATA 6Gb/s Support RAID 0 / 1 / 5 / 10 |
| USB | Panneau arrière: 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB Type-C 3 x USB 3.0 / 2.0 2 x USB 2.0 / 1.1 Internal connectors: 2 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 |
| Video outputs | 1 x HDMI 1.4 1 x D-Sub 1 x DVI-D |
| Price | 164€ |
The Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 is therefore an ATX format card but is a little shorter on one side with its 23.5 cm (when a “classic” card is 24.4 cm), which will result in seeing part of the card. which will not be suspended on the shorter side, nothing which will affect its proper functioning, however.
It is of course equipped with the latest Z170 chipset from Intel ches and therefore compatible with the latest generation Intel processors, from Celeron to Core i7, including Pentium and core i3 i5. By changing the socket, Intel also took the opportunity to switch its entire world to DDR4 (even if they remain backward compatible with DDR3, if the motherboard accepts it) which already equipped the high-end in socket X99 instead. of aging DDR3. The base frequency of DDR4 is 2133 MHz, but Gigabyte announces that it will be possible to install modules up to 3466 MHz, which will then be considered as overclocking (like DDR3 at more than 1600 MHz for the latest processors on socket 1150). The memory operation remains in “Dual Channel” as on the previous consumer socket,
Regarding the PCIe ports, the Z170X-UD3 has 3 PCIe 16X ports (one of which operates in 16X, another in 8X and the last in 4X) and 3 PCIe 1X ports, all of which are SLI 2- compatible. Way and Crossfire 2 or 3-Way.
The card does not ignore integrated components, an Intel network chip will connect you to the internet with a maximum speed of 1 Gigabit, the sound part is given to a Realtek ALC1150 chip supported by high-end Nippon audio capacitors Chemicon, enough to satisfy the very large part of potential buyers. On the other hand, there is an integrated Wifi point, you will have to get an independent card to use it.
In terms of storage Gigabyte also offers a largely sufficient number of connectors, namely 6 Sata ports (Sata Express compatible, so possibility of having 3) as well as 2 M.2 ports compatible with Sata or PCIe SSD up to 4X . We are not here at the level of very high-end motherboards but it will still be necessary to have a hell of a bunch of peripherals to fill it all.
Offered at a price of around 160 €, the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 offers all the features that 99% of users will ever need, and this at a relatively affordable price, although we can find it cheaper (but with more entry-level components).
The box of the Z170X-UD3 is in the colors of the game from Blizzard Heroes of the storm, but the retail version may not be. In addition to the model name we find the small logo “Ultra durable” which ensures components designed for increased longevity as well as 2 Intel Z170 and Core logos.
The rear is well populated, in addition to the name of the model there is a listing of the strengths of the beast, namely 1 Intel USB 3.1 controller, 1 USB 3.1 Type-C connector, 2 M.2 PCIe x4 connectors, 1 x Intel Gigabit network chip, high-end capacitors whether for the motherboard itself or the audio part, 2 BIOS, SLI and Crossfire etc. A table of technical characteristics is also present.
When opening the box, we find the motherboard in its antistatic bag surrounded by cardboard, under the latter is the bundle.
The bundle consists of:
The bundle is therefore rather complete, everything is present to install and connect the card without problem.
Here is the beast! An entirely black PCB, radiators with a small gold border as well as a mixture of black and gray for the PCIe ports and the memory, as much to say that the Z170X-UD3 is sober, and it is not to displease . The PCB is logically less cluttered than on the very high-end models but we can still see that there is not much room available for other components.
The build quality is excellent here and the card exudes quality.
At the back we always find the same black PCB, we can see that only the radiator located below the PCIe ports is fixed by screws, the others use plastic fasteners (savings required), this should not be a problem. but for the moment they are less well fixed than with screws.
The Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 has 5 4-pin PWM connectors for fans, placed as close as possible to the case and processor fans, this should be sufficient for almost all configurations on the market.
Gigabyte has clearly not abandoned the audio part of its motherboard, in addition to the circuit separated from the rest of the motherboard there are Nippon Chemicon capacitors specially designed for audio and a cache on the Realtek chipset, no doubt that the Majority of users will not need to install a specialized sound card.
The motherboard is equipped with a 16x PCIE connector wired in 16x, another wired in 8x and a last wired in 4X, a SLI or Crossfire configuration of 2 cards will be perfectly well managed, on the other hand the speed of the last 16x port (in 4x) will limit the performance of the last card in a 3-card Crossfire. Of course, PCIE 1x ports are also present. We can also see the 2 M.2 PCIE / Sata ports present to the left and right of the PCIE 16x cable port, enough to install 2 SSDs if the need is felt.
Gigabyte has also thought of all those who have in addition to USB 3.0 connectors on the case of other peripherals requiring a USB 3.0 connection (such as an internal card reader for example) by equipping their card with 2 connectors, this will be a big plus .
Here are all the Sata ports of the Z170X-UD3, 6 in number and all Sata Express compatible (3 in total), sufficient for almost all configurations on the market.
3 aluminum radiators are present on the board, this will be enough to properly cool the VRMs around the processor. Note that the small size of those placed around the processor will not interfere with the installation of coolers, even the largest.
At the back we have the right to (from left to right):
As we can see the number of connectors does not occupy all the available space, but with 6 USB ports, 3 video outputs as well as the eternal RJ45 Gigabit connector and the 3.5mm jack and optical outputs for the sound this should be enough for the vast majority of users.
When entering the BIOS we come across this screen, which is now well known to all Gigabyte motherboards, unfortunately there is no “HD” version here, we will have to be content with gray, however this does not change the functionality at all. . The “MIT” tab includes several submenus that we will see right away.
In these submenus it is possible to see the state of the processor and the memory (frequencies, multiplying coefficients, memory capacity, timings etc.), possibility of adjusting the frequencies of the processor and therefore overclocking as well as activating the XMP profile of the memory, configure the memory frequencies (as well as overclock if necessary), configure all the voltages (CPU, memory, different chips etc.) as well as control the different voltages, temperatures and the speed of rotation of the fans connected. To summarize, there is everything you need here to be able to configure your configuration with little effort.
In “System Information” you will find information about the motherboard and BIOS, model name, BIOS version and date as well as the language setting.
In “BIOS Features” it is possible to set the boot priority of the various devices installed as well as other options for fast boot.
The “Peripherals” tab allows you to set the boot priority of the PCIE ports, activate / deactivate the LED of the audio part, as well as configure the Sata ports and the Intel network chip.
The “Chipset” part allows you to activate or deactivate the VT-d virtualization function, to activate / deactivate or leave in automatic the graphics chipset integrated in the processor as well as to activate / deactivate the audio and network parts.
“Power Management” as its name suggests gives access to the various power settings of the card, such as activating the startup via the keyboard or the mouse, which should make the PC when the Power button is pressed etc.
Finally in “Save & Exit” it is possible to save the settings you have just made, or restart without touching anything as well as loading the default parameters and saving / loading profiles.
Gigabyte offers us a motherboard with a fairly large panel of software available, without these being essential they can be useful if you want to overclock / adjust your fans / update your bios via Windows. I will take a quick tour of the different software available:
EasyTune
By launching EasyTune it is possible to overclock your processor with a single click, by choosing one of the available presets:
As the name of the software suggests, it’s easy! With one click you can overclock your processor, very good for beginners, but be careful to control the temperatures once the settings have been applied because the software tends to be very large on the voltages applied.
The other 4 tabs are there for finer settings, voltages, memory and more! You have to know what you are doing if you start to touch this, use it at your own risk! In this latest version of Easytune Gigabyte added a tab used to change profiles on the fly, for example before launching a game it will be possible via a combination of keys to change from a default profile to an overclocked profile.
System Information Viewer
The System Information tab, as its name suggests, presents information about your processor, memory and motherboard.
More interesting, the Smart Fan Auto part makes the configuration of the fans changeable in 1 click with 4 predefined settings (Quiet, Standard, Performance, Full Speed).
This is certainly the most interesting part for any silent pc fan, it will allow you to configure the speed of your fans as you see fit in relation to the temperature of the processor (unfortunately only this temperature). The ventilation curve can be changed and you can make your PC as quiet as possible, or as efficient as possible, according to your desires!
It will also be possible to set alerts according to different settings, for example if the processor exceeds a certain temperature, if a fan goes too low or even a drop in voltage etc.
With the latest version of System Information Viewer Gigabyte also added a small part to keep an eye on the different voltages, this can still be useful even if other software does much better.
@Bios
Gigabyte provides a small utility that allows you to update the motherboard Bios, either via a file already downloaded, directly on Gigabyte’s servers or to save your Bios in a file.
3D OSD
Gigabyte also offers software to display important component information during 3D games, it is possible to change color, font size etc.
Ambiant LED
Small novelty that will delight fans of customization, the Ambiant LED addon will enable or disable the LEDs of the Audio part on the motherboard or the rear panel, unlike the Z170X Gaming G1 previously tested here there is possible only to touch the LED of the audio part and not the LED on the back of the motherboard (normal since it is not present!).
Intel Extreme Tuning Utility
The software from Intel in partnership with Gigabyte makes it possible to overclock the processor, voltages, frequencies, activate / deactivate the various features of turbo mode, etc. Benchmarks are also integrated in order to check that the machine is quite stable.
The Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 has been tested with the configuration below:
In order to have results covering a wide range of applications, I chose the following benchmarks:
The card will be put in front of the other Z170 motherboards tested at Conseil Config namely the Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 (tested here), Gigabyte Z170X Gaming G1 (tested here), MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC (tested here) and MSI Z170A XPower Titanium Edition (tested here).
As you might expect the results are very close on all motherboards, if not identical! With a score of 643 the Z170X-UD3 is doing very well.
Encoding the 800 MB .mp4 file to an .avi file is done in 113 seconds with the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3, very close to all other cards because the difference between the least efficient and the most efficient is only 2 seconds.
Here again everything is played in a pocket square, 8mins15 seconds for the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 and all the other cards are at this level.
Since the memory controller has been integrated into the processor for a few generations at Intel, the results are therefore quite identical, with 35913 MB / s in reading for 38941 MB / s in writing and 36910 MB / s when copying, at the level of all the other motherboards in the comparison once again.
Again no need to draw you a picture here, the results are all the same, no card will stand out from the others during games, no offense to those who think that a high-end motherboard offers more performance than more entry-oriented or mid-range cards 😉
Nothing to report here, the speeds are identical between the 4 motherboards, nothing very surprising.
The Intel network chipset is excellent as usual, reaching speeds of up to 985 Mb / s in download and 980 Mb / s in upload, very good results which will be sufficient for the vast majority of users.
As on all motherboards tested so far the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 has no trouble running the Core i5 6600K at 4600 MHz, above and the PC comes under Windows but is not stable in the tests, no matter what voltage is applied, it is clear that the limiting factor here is the processor used. However, with a voltage of 1.284V the temperatures are really very reasonable and the motherboard is “rock solid” as our English-speaking friends would say.
As one would expect the results reflect the rise in frequency perfectly, especially software using multicore in mass like Handbrake and Cinebench, it is clear that the encoding or the software of calculations will be in heaven. In games, however, the gain is marginal, as one might have suspected.
In the end, the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 behaved very well and managed to contain the ardor of the Core i5 6600K overclocked to 4.6GHz (this will depend on the quality of the processor of course) while showing no signs of weakness or any crashes during hours of testing.
Here we are at the end of this test, what about the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3?
After high-end motherboards, it is good to test a motherboard that is much more accessible and that offers enough features for the vast majority of users. Indeed with its Intel network chipset, its part supported by high-end capacitors, SLI and Crossfire compatibility, enough Sata and M.2 ports, the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 has everything to be a perfect choice for a gamer config.
In addition to its features Gigabyte offers a very well finished card, whether in terms of manufacturing quality or even the very sober look, it will clearly not do a task in a configuration.
The performance is of course very good, at the level of any other motherboard on the market, whether in games or in benchmarks, nothing new knowing that a motherboard does not really come online anymore. matters when it comes to pure performance.
Priced at around 160 € the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 is a no-frills mid-range motherboard that will be perfect for almost all users, especially gamers.
A big thank you to Wilfrid from Gigabyte who allowed me to do this test.
You can buy by clicking the amazon links
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