GA-Z87X-OC To Lead GIGABYTE's LGA1150 Motherboard Pack

[btarunr]

At a private media unveiling held on the sidelines of CeBIT, GIGABYTE disclosed its next-generation flagship motherboard, the Z87X-OC. Like most socket LGA1150 motherboards unveiled this week, this one is still under development, and the company is yet to finalize color-scheme and heatsinks for the PCH and VRM, so don't judge it by its looks just yet. The Z87X-OC is designed primarily for overclockers.

The LGA1150 socket is powered by an 8-phase VRM, which draws power from a combination of 4-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS, in addition to the board's 24-pin ATX connector. To stabilize the board's various power domains, you can optionally plug in a 6-pin PCIe power connector. The board gives overclockers a high degree of physical on-the-fly voltage control, and measurement points. One of the chipset's four USB 3.0 ports are wired out as a type-A port on-board, letting you install and run your Windows 7/8 installation off a USB 3.0 flash-drive.



The LGA1150 socket on the GIGABYTE Z87X-OC is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC ; x8/NC/x8 ; x8/x4/x4). The bottommost long PCIe slot appears to be electrical Gen 2.0 x4, wired to the PCH. A PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and two legacy PCI slots find room in the middle.

Connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s internal ports, a total of nine USB 3.0 ports (six of which are driven by third-party controllers), HDMI and DisplayPort display outputs, 8-channel HD audio, PS/2 mouse/keyboard combo, and gigabit Ethernet. We expect the Z87X-OC to be part of the company's first wave of LGA1150 motherboards. Find more pictures at the source.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[radrok]

and the company is yet to finalize color-scheme and heatsinks for the PCH and VRM, so don't judge it by its looks just yet.

I was ready to jump at the colour scheme

I like the PCI slot choice though, can't hurt to have them around when you carry legacy sound cards.

 

[Absolution]

Nice buttons there.

 

[Nordic]

Im noticing little or no vrm cooling on all these boards. I guess they don't need it.

 

[radrok]

Im noticing little or no vrm cooling on all these boards. I guess they don't need it.

Every year they display motherboards without VRM cooling, they just have to show the layout.

Heatsinks are not that important when the product isn't going to be powered on.

I also bet that most of those motherboards prototypes aren't fully functional anyway.

 

[Aquinus]

They should have just eliminated PCI from the board all together. I'm sure they could have found 2 PCI-E links somewhere. I can also see holes for mounting a VRM heat-sink.

 

[radrok]

On a second thought, I really don't like the BIOS battery location.

This is just nitpicking though :|

 

[Aquinus]

I just realized that next to the SATA ports there is a spot to provide the board 6-pin PCI-E power.

 

[ALMOSTunseen]

I just realized that next to the SATA ports there is a spot to provide the board 6-pin PCI-E power.

Yeah, good to know they can make that 90 degrees, but not the 24 Pin and 8 Pin.

 

[blibba]

Yeah, good to know they can make that 90 degrees, but not the 24 Pin and 8 Pin.

A lot of cases struggle to deal with a full-width board with right-angled 24-pin.

 

[[502]]

The Z87X-OC is designed primarily for overclockers that don't need to place their system on a case.

Fixed. Those buttons are nice but they'll be useless once you put this mb into a case (which is mostly of us do).

 

[blibba]

Fixed. Those buttons are nice but they'll be useless once you put this mb into a case (which is mostly of us do).

It's designed primarily for overclockers, some of which don't put their boards in a case.

If you put the board in a case, the buttons won't ruin it for you. But if you run it on a test bench to take a sub-zero 3Dmark record, you might want them, and Gigabyte wants people to do that so that you'll be impressed and buy the board.

I do notice that they've taken a roughly 75% hit in the VRM phase-count vs. the Z77 version of this board.

 

[ALMOSTunseen]

It's designed primarily for overclockers, some of which don't put their boards in a case.

If you put the board in a case, the buttons won't ruin it for you. But if you run it on a test bench to take a sub-zero 3Dmark record, you might want them, and Gigabyte wants people to do that so that you'll be impressed and buy the board.

I do notice that they've taken a roughly 75% hit in the VRM phase-count vs. the Z77 version of this board.

Yes, I have noticed these boards are very cluttered together to begin with.

 

[Cold Storm]

On a second thought, I really don't like the BIOS battery location.

This is just nitpicking though :|

That's the one thing that is making me like Gigabyte more and more is their placement for that. Hell a lot easier to do than taking a card out of the slot.. Even more so when there is water involved.. But, like you said.. personal thoughts.

 

[radrok]

It's designed primarily for overclockers, some of which don't put their boards in a case.

This, also for the minority of us who uses test benches as cases the buttons are very handy.

 

[BUCK NASTY]

This, also for the minority of us who uses test benches as cases the buttons are very handy.

Nothing like ugly switch wiring hanging off the test bench. I too like the flexibility of this board and it been a while since I've been excited about a new mobo.

 

[badtaylorx]

nooooooooooo.... im just finishing my z77 build

 

[dj-electric]

I'm digging the black caps

 

[Prima.Vera]

This mobo looks good and clean.

 

[Jorge]

You can only use this mobo one day of the year: Halloween

 

[boogerlad]

Perfect. I would buy this in a heartbeat if the price is right and haswell has a decent ipc increase.

 

[Delta6326]

Looks very good and I like the layout my only complaint I have is like all the other M/B, has to many PCI if your going to have legacy slots at least leave it to just 1, the bottom PCI should be a PCI Express ×1 as the first one will get blocked and anyone using new card wont be able to use their PCI Express ×1 card.

EDIT: forgot PCI Express ×1 can fit in any slot, just looks funny.

 

[freaksavior]

So whats the advantage of Z87 of Z77?

 

[DOM]

So whats the advantage of Z87 of Z77?

1150 cpus

 

[blibba]

1150 cpus

That and finally six native SATA3 on an Intel chipset.