Intel’s X99 chipset has taken the spotlight since Intel Broadwell-E hit the scene earlier this month but Computex 2016 was not without its fair share of new additions to the Z170 family either – most notably GIGABYTE’s Designare and Ultra Gaming models, the latter of which we’ve been checking out today.

The Z170X-Ultra Gaming arrives with a sleek aesthetic which should satisfy those with a thirst for understated styling. However, to liven things up GIGABYTE has equipped numerous locations on this motherboard to use their optional ‘Ambient LED’ configuration – allowing a variety of animations to cycle. The only niggle with this is that the LED is fixed to red; so this lighting may interfere with a different coloured theme, such as blue or green etc.

GIGABYTE has made steps to include a number of features which will diversify this offering, these include steel armour plated PCI Express/DDR4 slots, Intel USB 3.1 Type-C with Power Delivery 2.0 (100W), U.2 storage connector; supporting triple NVMe storage and smaller details such as the water pump fan headers which offer precise PWM and voltage control. GIGABYTE has also made steps to refine and tweak their UEFI BIOS which from our point of view is a much-welcomed modification – the BIOS is now much easier to use and feels intuitive.


Putting Z170X-Ultra Gaming into the performance tests reveals consistently good results, coupled with the fact we managed to easily overclock our Intel Core i7-6700K to 4.7GHz on just 1.34v. This motherboard also presented us with one of the lowest power consumption results thus far on our Z170 journey; all of this reinforcing just how efficient and reliable the Ultra Gaming really is.

Arriving with a price-tag of just £139.99 GBP / $160 USD, the Z170X-Ultra Gaming is surely a good value for money route for anyone considering a move to Skylake. This motherboard has plenty of features and is also backed by a lengthy, 3-year warranty. ** GIGABYTE is currently running a promotion (June 2016) which allows cashback on specific boards, customers can expect up to £32 back after purchasing Z170X-Ultra Gaming, therefore bringing the total cost to just over £100 after cashback! **

Z170X-Ultra Gaming is a cost effective route to Intel Skylake. With a bag full of useful features, defining looks and great performance this motherboard is definitely one to contemplate.




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