The Board - A Closer Look

One of the surprising features of the Biostar Racing Z170GT7 are its dual-socketed BIOS chips with a switch just above them for you to pick which is in use. There is also the standard IDT BCLK chipset that stabilizes the BCLK and allows for higher clocking than would be possible without it.


The audio design, while a bit of a departure from past Biostar audio designs, still has quite awesome audio output, partly because it is electrically isolated from the rest of the board as with many others boards by now.


There is an Intel Gigabit LAN chip with a surge-protection circuit to ensure the best connectivity no matter what, so there's no complaints about that to be had.


Also unexpected was a small area devoted to OC essentials. First of all, the touch-sensitive buttons are definitely not an average add-on.


Then we have an LN2 switch?!? On a Biostar board? Also included is a dual-digit POST display, so you can diagnose boot problems should you have any.


I found a rather standard Super I/O chip sticking out from the board's PCH heatsink, and I also noticed the TMDS chip near the board's rear I/O towers.


The Biostar Racing Z170GT7's PCH cooler looks great, with a great big white "R" in the middle as long as the board is not powered up. The M.2 port is just to the left of the PCH cooler, between the two lower PCIe slots, where it'll be exposed to airflow in most builds so it doesn't overheat.