As we noted, top-right of the X99 SOC FORCE is certainly the business end, and perfectly encapsulates its overclocking ethos. Clustered around the 24-pin ATX connector are a swath of overclocking and troubleshooting tools ideal for newcomer and enthusiast alike. Included are a bank of PCIE lane switches (especially useful if you have GPU problems within water cooling loops), voltage probe points, and a plethora of reset/boot options; but that’s just for starters.

A main bank of buttons controls overclocking through incremental BCLK and CPU ratio changes, and BLCK steppings; a button labelled ‘Tag’ (short for OC Tag) automatically loads favourite settings to return to a successful overclock; and the Ignition button (a lightning bolt) enables power to attached devices without initialising boot. A power button and debug display are the final touches to this comprehensive set of tools.

You should also note the wider than usual clearance around the screw holes, providing some added piece of mind on installation.



Moving down to storage, the X99 SOC FORCE is fairly well equipped. Eight dedicated SATA 3 6Gbps ports should be ample, whilst a further two are shared with one SATA-Express port. Other X99 boards have included two, but given the lack of drives currently on the market a second one seems redundant at best. Note that SATA-Express and M.2 operation are mutually exclusive with this board (although both SATA 3 ports will operate normally with an M.2 drive connected).

Nestled between the SATA ports is a SATA Power connector. Its role is to provide auxuillary power to the PCI-Express subsystem in multiple-GPU configurations, but typically isn’t required when using less than three high-performance GPUs. Adjacent to it are temperature sensor ports for a K probe cable.



Along the bottom edge of the motherboard we find one USB 3.0 header, two USB 2.0 headers, front panel audio and a couple of four-pin system fan headers. Placement is fine, but does reward a chassis with cable management positions at the bottom of the case.

Of somewhat secondary interest is the connector labelled THB_C, intended for a Thunderbolt Add-in Card. A lack of demand for Thunderbolt accessories explains why these add-in cards are sold separately.



Simplicity is the order of the day in rear I/O. Included are:



A legacy PS/2 port is included to retain high reliability whilst in BIOS, but would also please competitive gamers who appreciate the ports’ low latency. Additional switches allow quick and easy CPU overclocking of a chassis-mounted X99-SOC FORCE, even if the options aren’t quite as comprehensive.



Finally, a look at the wider PCI-Express slot area. GIGABYTE make full use of the length an EATX form factor allows, cramming in four full-length PCIe x16 and three x1 slots and thereby allowing up to 4-way SLI/Crossfire (depending on CPU). Two slots (the first and third) are wired for full x16 operation, whilst the others are limited to x8; in 3-way GPU configurations x8/x16/x16 is typical, whilst 4-way will operate at x8/x16/x8/x8.

Also present is the M.2 slot, accommodating up to the 80mm-long 2280 standard. The slot conforms to the second generation M.2 specs, leveraging up to four PCIe lanes for a maximum storage bandwidth of 20Gb/s, far in excess of SATA 3.