GIGABYTE Z170-SOC Force Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

Here are some of the first pictures of GIGABYTE's flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard targeted at professional overclockers, the Z170-SOC Force. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, this board offers strong CPU and memory VRM, and yet offers a connectivity loadout that's in league with "gaming" class motherboards. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX, and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. A 24-phase VRM powers the CPU, its heatsink features preparation for liquid cooling. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots (supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory).

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16/NC/NC/x4 or x8/NC/x8/x4 or x8/x4/x4/x4); and three PCI-Express 3.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 slots (32 Gb/s), three SATA-Express 16 Gb/s ports, and a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (two type-A, from which one converts to type-C if it's populated), eight USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by header), and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports, including two type-A ports near the SATA ports (could help serve as "front-panel" ports in bench-type case setups). Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort (which likely also means availability of Thunderbolt 20 Gb/s). Gigabit Ethernet and GIGABYTE's latest generation Amp-Up audio solution make for the rest of it. A plethora of onboard OC control options are available. Find more pictures at the source.



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[deemon]

NOBODY CARES about those big mobos... give us some decent ITX please finally!

And what is this "soc force" meant to mean? It's sounds awfully a lot like "suck force" => I would understand this kind of texts on vacuum cleaner but not on a motherboard...

And what's with the awful orange color?

And wtf are you supposed to do with those buttons on the motherboard once you have built your computer and it's inside a case?.... or they think people shouldn't use cases for their computer? And then again this awful washed out orange color forces you to use case ... without a window!

 

[Deleted member 138597]

OWW!!! This looks very great, and look at that OC touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY COOOOL!!!!!
VRM waterblock prefitted.... NICE!!!!

But.....

24 phase VRM?????

doesn't it seem GIGABYTE used lower-quality VRMs?

 

[ZoneDymo]

OC touch might be the most useless gimmicky thing I have seen in a while

 

[Deleted member 138597]

OC touch might be the most useless gimmicky thing I have seen in a while

Actually this thing have been around in every OC mobo, only that they weren't classified as a grouped feature.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Actually this thing have been around in every OC mobo, only that they weren't classified as a grouped feature.

idk about that, I know many motherboards feature that reset button for if shit turns sour, this is just nutty

 

[BorisDG]

And what is this "soc force" meant to mean? It's sounds awfully a lot like "suck force" => I would understand this kind of texts on vacuum cleaner but not on a motherboard...

I think it's coming from Super OverClock.

 

[bogami]

It looks good but the PCI-E Fucked up. M.2 will be deprived of this option. 8x4x4x4 the questionable act on NVIDIA GPUs regardless of directX12. I would like to see these tests. and how much input disc will be available if you use M.2 inputs. From the processor can be expected this. http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/in...700k-versus-core-i7-4790k-cpu-benchmarks.html .

 

[buildzoid]

OWW!!! This looks very great, and look at that OC touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY COOOOL!!!!!
VRM waterblock prefitted.... NICE!!!!

But.....

24 phase VRM?????

doesn't it seem GIGABYTE used lower-quality VRMs?

6 PWM signal run through a quadrupler most likely. Even if each phase only does 20A or 30A(which as cheap as motherboard phases go) you still have 480-720A available to the CPU so that's not an issue.

I think all the random covers on this board will make insulating for LN2 a pain.

idk about that, I know many motherboards feature that reset button for if shit turns sour, this is just nutty

The OC touch buttons are nice because you don't need to install any in OS OC utilities and they give you the ability to swap the CPU from low clocks to high clocks manually which is great for LN2 since you don't want to run 6Ghz when you're making your screenshot/opening the benchmark/tweaking the OS.

 

[Basard]

OWW!!! This looks very great, and look at that OC touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY COOOOL!!!!!
VRM waterblock prefitted.... NICE!!!!

But.....

24 phase VRM?????

doesn't it seem GIGABYTE used lower-quality VRMs?

I did have one of Gigabyte VRMs fry once.

 

[bonehead123]

betta hope u have a cpu with 40 pci lanes, cause all those m2 slots + GPU's + ports are gonna suck 'em up real quick

 

[jboydgolfer]

nice looking board.

 

[Steven B]

6 PWM signal run through a quadrupler most likely. Even if each phase only does 20A or 30A(which as cheap as motherboard phases go) you still have 480-720A available to the CPU so that's not an issue.

I think all the random covers on this board will make insulating for LN2 a pain.



The OC touch buttons are nice because you don't need to install any in OS OC utilities and they give you the ability to swap the CPU from low clocks to high clocks manually which is great for LN2 since you don't want to run 6Ghz when you're making your screenshot/opening the benchmark/tweaking the OS.

You guys forget this platform is different than haswell

 

[Sabishii Hito]

Time to see what this DDR4 can really do. Haswell-E's IMC was a bit limited with 3400 being the practical max frequency on air, but from what I've heard, Skylake will be doing 4000+ easy with Samsung ICs.

 

[AsRock]

nice looking board.

I still think it's kinda meh , then again not liked many at all for looks even more so this one. Although this one replacing the red with black would be much better. i would be taking as much of that plastic crap off as possible still lol.

http://www.maximumpc.com/gigabyte-teases-upcoming-z170-chipset-motherboards/

Then again i would still pick what ever one had best options \ price for me how ever it looked.

I like the ASRock boards more once again looks wise although i wish they would do more gold\black micro boards

 

[jboydgolfer]

I still think it's kinda meh , then again not liked many at all for looks even more so this one. Although this one replacing the red with black would be much better. i would be taking as much of that plastic crap off as possible still lol.

Oh my God...I agree now,, I hadn't noticed the White portion..I just woke up when i commented that. Ugh. it looks like a gundam robot.

As far as Asrock goes..I haven't had ANY board BUT Asrock for a Very long time...shortly after they began..in the early 2000's...I remember they're support was basically Google Translate. it wasn't fun.

 

[ShurikN]

That board is fucking sick... love it.

 

[AsRock]

yeah i like it too although as i said i would of liked it more without the red but it looks better than the others i think, not sure but it's one they should of had the leds on so the white would reflect the colors. But all so there is all that plastic crap that has to go .

Oh my God...I agree now,, I hadn't noticed the White portion..I just woke up when i commented that. Ugh. it looks like a gundam robot.

As far as Asrock goes..I haven't had ANY board BUT Asrock for a Very long time...shortly after they began..in the early 2000's...I remember they're support was basically Google Translate. it wasn't fun.

I do wounder what their pricing will be but the x68 \Z77 boards came will good overclocking ability for a low $130 priced board which i think puts the those $200+ boards pointless unless your in to benchmarks.

 

[micropage7]

I think it's coming from Super OverClock.

d#mn, first that i think when read the title is system on chip

somehow i miss simple board

 

[GAR]

surprised Gigabyte didnt put PCI ports lmao, the only company still putting PCI ports on high end gaming boards

 

[petedread]

NOBODY CARES about those big mobos... give us some decent ITX please finally!

And what is this "soc force" meant to mean? It's sounds awfully a lot like "suck force" => I would understand this kind of texts on vacuum cleaner but not on a motherboard...

And what's with the awful orange color?

And wtf are you supposed to do with those buttons on the motherboard once you have built your computer and it's inside a case?.... or they think people shouldn't use cases for their computer? And then again this awful washed out orange color forces you to use case ... without a window!

Yeah dude like your the only opinion on the planet. And Gigabyte (who sell stuff to people) have no idea what people want.

Deemon get yourself a decent ITX.

 

[Petey Plane]

I like the 3 m.2 sockets, but otherwise, the heat sinks look awful, just like 99% of all other gaming motherboards. I'd be embarrassed to own something that looks like that. Same goes for the red and white monstrosity also posted ITT. I wish a company like Supermicro would sell a mobo with with the features and black PCB of a gaming mobo, but with server style (aka, function over form) heat sinks. The Asus WS boards get closest to that, but their price disqualifies them, for me.

 

[peche]

NOBODY CARES about those big mobos... give us some decent ITX please finally!

And what is this "soc force" meant to mean? It's sounds awfully a lot like "suck force" => I would understand this kind of texts on vacuum cleaner but not on a motherboard...

And what's with the awful orange color?

And wtf are you supposed to do with those buttons on the motherboard once you have built your computer and it's inside a case?.... or they think people shouldn't use cases for their computer? And then again this awful washed out orange color forces you to use case ... without a window!

trust me they didn't make the motherboard according your preferences...

That board is fucking sick... love it.

so do i .... the first reason for getting new hardware....

 

[Assimilator]

surprised Gigabyte didnt put PCI ports lmao, the only company still putting PCI ports on high end gaming boards

Don't worry, they compensated by putting a VGA port on the Z170X Gaming 3: http://653fb62b3a129d296422-3019ba1...dn.com/images/Kh0S8HrGV5b4.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg

Yes, a VGA port. On a "gaming" motherboard. In 2015.

 

[peche]

Yes, a VGA port. On a "gaming" motherboard. In 2015.

lol....