GIGABYTE introduced the stunning-looking Z270-Designare motherboard. Featuring a white colored PCB with RGB LED elements and artistic diffusers, this socket LGA1151 board is packed with some premium features. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 7-phase VRM. The CPU is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated). Other expansion slots include a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH), and three PCIe 3.0 x1.

Storage connectivity on the Z270X-Designare includes six SATA 6 Gb/s (from which four convert to two 16 Gb/s SATA-Express ports), one 32 Gb/s U.2 port, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports (from which one is type-C), and six 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 ports. Display connectivity includes DVI and HDMI. GIGABYTE deployed its Amp Up onboard audio solution featuring a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, headphones amp, audio-grade capacitors, and ground-layer isolation. One gigabit Ethernet interface driven by an Intel-made controller makes for the rest of it. We expect this board to be priced around the $170 mark.