The Biostar Racing Z170GT7 is an interesting product. it provides a decent, affordable option with some off-the-wall features you certainly wouldn't expect from a motherboard priced as it is. The inclusion of the 5050 LED controller was certainly a surprise, nevermind the LEDs sunk into the MOSFET coolers and along the board's left edge. Then, looking at the benchmarks, the Biostar Racing Z170GT7 fared pretty well, as evidenced by its PCMark8 and AIDA64 results, the PCMark8 result being the second-highest result I've got so far on Intel's Z170. That makes the Biostar Racing Z170GT7 a good performer that look goods and is easy on the wallet; what more could you ask for?

There is something to be said about the placement of fan headers and the small software package, but given this board's low cost, comparing it to motherboards that cost significantly more doesn't make any sense. The board does pack a lot of features for such low a price, although not all of them are needed, that's for sure. The onboard buttons and LN2 switch aren't really needed, but given the "Racing" name, they may make sense, although buying a value-oriented board for benching is never going to get you top benchmarking scores. The touch buttons are great for initial system set-up and testing, though. Having dual BIOSes is great for when you're overclocking and things go wrong. I can't believe there's so much packed in here for so little cost. Given the low power consumption, the benchmarks, excellent audio, and everything else, you can tell Biostar spent a fair bit of time making sure this board works right.

So, what about overclocking, you ask? It works fine. Given how memory latency seems to be optimized, I can understand that the Racing Z170GT7 only supports 3200 MHz DIMMs. It's not a top performer for benchmarking at the extreme, but for daily clocks at around 4.6 GHz or so, it works like any other board does. Someone looking for a decently priced board that isn't focused on super-high ram speeds, but decent CPU overclocking for 24/7 use doesn't need to look anywhere else. IF you do, you're looking at a set color scheme, while this board has lights you can change to nearly any color. Well, except for the PCH cooler's LEDs. Got one? Let us know in the forums!