Thursday, March 24th 2016
GIGABYTE Launches the X170-Extreme ECC Motherboard
GIGABYTE unveiled a new high-end socket LGA1151 motherboard, the X170-Extreme ECC. Positioned as a workstation motherboard for the high-end desktop crowd, this board is based on Intel C236 chipset, and comes with support for Intel Xeon E3-1200 V5 processors in addition to 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors. It also supports DDR4 ECC memory, which partly lends it its name. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 with both populated), a third PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical gen 3.0 x4, wired to the PCH), and three other PCIe 3.0 x1 slots.
A star attraction here is GIGABYTE's choice of an Intel-made 2-port USB 3.1 controller, which connects to the PCH over PCI-Express 3.0 x4, compared to most other USB 3.1 controllers in the market, which connect over PCI-Express 3.0 x2. This ensures consistent 10 Gb/s bandwidth dedicated to each of the two ports, without any bandwidth loss to overhead. The board offers one each of type-A and type-C ports, wired to this controller. The board offers an additional four USB 3.0 ports from the chipset and a Renesas-made hub chip. Also on offer is a 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, with DisplayPort 1.2 passthrough.Storage connectivity on the X170-Extreme ECC includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, and four SATA-Express 16 Gb/s connectors, which break out as eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. There are two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, one driven by an Intel I219-V controller, and another by a Killer E2400. The onboard audio solution is top-of-the-line from GIGABYTE's parts bin, with a Creative SoundCore 3D processor, TI Burr Brown OPA2134 OPAMP (user-replaceable), ground-layer isolation, and Nichicon Muse electrolytic capacitors. The board is driven by GIGABYTE's Dual-UEFI BIOS tech, with auto-switching redundant BIOS chips. The company didn't reveal pricing.
A star attraction here is GIGABYTE's choice of an Intel-made 2-port USB 3.1 controller, which connects to the PCH over PCI-Express 3.0 x4, compared to most other USB 3.1 controllers in the market, which connect over PCI-Express 3.0 x2. This ensures consistent 10 Gb/s bandwidth dedicated to each of the two ports, without any bandwidth loss to overhead. The board offers one each of type-A and type-C ports, wired to this controller. The board offers an additional four USB 3.0 ports from the chipset and a Renesas-made hub chip. Also on offer is a 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, with DisplayPort 1.2 passthrough.Storage connectivity on the X170-Extreme ECC includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, and four SATA-Express 16 Gb/s connectors, which break out as eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. There are two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, one driven by an Intel I219-V controller, and another by a Killer E2400. The onboard audio solution is top-of-the-line from GIGABYTE's parts bin, with a Creative SoundCore 3D processor, TI Burr Brown OPA2134 OPAMP (user-replaceable), ground-layer isolation, and Nichicon Muse electrolytic capacitors. The board is driven by GIGABYTE's Dual-UEFI BIOS tech, with auto-switching redundant BIOS chips. The company didn't reveal pricing.
30 Comments on GIGABYTE Launches the X170-Extreme ECC Motherboard
The Desert Camo...eh..
Fugly board though.
I'd prefer them to be U.2 ports tbh. They may get ore use in that format.
.........nope nope nope your right...... the urban desert camo thing is an oxymoron on so many level......
loved those series...
It would be interesting to see if this and the asrock c232 board can support i5/7 unofficially...
So all in all there's no restrictions on chipsets themselves for supporting all cpus, it's up-to motherboard manufacturer to make vrm solid enough and offer a bios that have support for all 1151 socket cpus.
Might make a decent crunching rig though.
Kitsch