Orange and Black
..
Gigabyte Z87X-OC
There is a 2 way Crossfire connector, a 2 way SLI bridge connector included in the package.
To help stabilize the massive GPUs available today when using the board on a bench, Gigabyte have included the OC Brace. Unfortunately my Ghetto bench setup would not allow me to use it. But I can see the value in keeping multiple GPUs with LN2 pots from putting excessive stress on the PCIE slots.
There are two versions of the OC series in this round. This is the more price conscious version that carries with it a legendary reputation and a price that is actually pretty reasonable considering the performance potential! It lacks the PLX chip which allows 4 way SLI. Technically it does allow 4 way Crossfire, but with only at 4X PCIE lanes for 3 of the cards.
Introduction
The Gigabyte Z87X- is part Gigabytes new series of Ultra Durable 5 PLUS labeled boards. Building on the previous Ultra Durable 5. Additional features and in depth explanation can be found here:
GIGABYTE 8 Series Ultra Durable Motherboards
This board is aimed at the sub zero and extreme enthusiast overclocker, someone who wants to get the most out of their CPU and memory. They plan to squeeze every last ounce of performance from the board, the processor and the memory. Target market is the benchmarking crowd. Those who measure performance victories with the tiniest of margins. For these guys, they need every advantage they can get.
The website for the Z87X-OC is located here:
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1150 - GA-Z87X-OC (rev. 1.x)
And the OC Micro Site is located here:
GIGABYTE 8 Series Overclocking Motherboards
But this is also a new platform, Z87. This is socket 1150, which has replaced the socket 1155 of Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge, and brings us the new 4th generation Core processors from Intel named Haswell.
Haswell and Z87 bring with them a few changes and updates from the previous generation. The six SATA ports are now all SATA 3(6Gb/s) and there are more flexible options with the PCH PCIE lanes now and the motherboard manufacturer can choose how to allocate the 8 available PCIE 2.0 lanes. For more USB3.0 ports or more PCIE slots depending on the motherboard configuration.
Physical changes to the socket itself means that if you want a Haswell processor, then you need a new 8 series motherboard to go with it. And if you want to overclock, you will need a Z87 based board and a K series processor.
The new Haswell processor is an evolutionary product and there are improvements in the integrated graphics core as well as slight improvements in efficiency which generally work out to about 10-15% improvement per clock.
The other change that some overclockers will be interested in is the ability to change base clock settings. The gear ratios selection includes options 1.00x, 1.25x or 1.67x as BCLK multipliers, giving you an offset of 100MHz, 125MHz or 167MHz. Just like in X79. This can allow some fine tuning of memory frequencies to get the most out of your system.
Board Layout
Orange and Black. Its a handsome board in my opinion. Not everyone may like it but it makes it instantly identifiable as an OC series board.
IR3553 PowIRstage® ICs promise to provide superior power output as well as lower overall temperatures and offer higher overall efficiency and fewer overall components on the board due to their single package design.
These are the little brother to the IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs used on the higher end OC Force board. These were chosen as a way to help keep the costs down while giving up little in the way of practical performance.
Gigabyte use of black PCBs and orange highlights are further accented on this board with just the right amount of gunmetal grey and polished aluminum on the black heat sinks. Overall the board has the look and feel of high quality and careful manufacture.
The board is CrossfireX compatible up to 4-way. And SLI Compatible up to 2 way.
Expansion port layout is as follows:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one expansion card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. It will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX16 is populated.
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1, PCIEX4_2)
* The PCIEX4_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots. When it is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 slot will operate at up to x4 mode.
* When installing a x8 or above card in the PCIEX4_1 slot, make sure to set PCIE Slot Configuration in BIOS Setup to x4. (Refer to Chapter 2, "BIOS Setup," "Peripherals," for more information.)
(The PCIEX16, PCIEX8, and PCIEX4_1 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x1 slot
(The PCIEX4_2 and PCIEX1_1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots
There is an additional OC PEG power connector just below the CPU socket to help provide additional power to the PCI-E slots when running SLI or CrossfireX.
There are 2 internal headers for additional USB 3.0 front ports. One just between the DIMM slots and ATX power connector. This one is red in color and indicates that it is On/Off Charge ready and can provide charging to devices even if the system is shut down. The other one is located at the bottom just to the right of center on the board. There are also headers along the bottom of the board for an additional 4 USB 2.0 ports. There even two additional USB ports on the front edge of the board. These are handy when benching as you do not have to reach around to get to the back panel when connecting a thumb drive. There is no shortage of USB connectivity here.
There is a large diagnostic LED panel beside the ATX power connector. This can point you in the right direction in the event of a boot failure.
Gigabyte Z87X-OC
There is a 2 way Crossfire connector, a 2 way SLI bridge connector included in the package.
To help stabilize the massive GPUs available today when using the board on a bench, Gigabyte have included the OC Brace. Unfortunately my Ghetto bench setup would not allow me to use it. But I can see the value in keeping multiple GPUs with LN2 pots from putting excessive stress on the PCIE slots.
There are two versions of the OC series in this round. This is the more price conscious version that carries with it a legendary reputation and a price that is actually pretty reasonable considering the performance potential! It lacks the PLX chip which allows 4 way SLI. Technically it does allow 4 way Crossfire, but with only at 4X PCIE lanes for 3 of the cards.
Introduction
The Gigabyte Z87X- is part Gigabytes new series of Ultra Durable 5 PLUS labeled boards. Building on the previous Ultra Durable 5. Additional features and in depth explanation can be found here:
GIGABYTE 8 Series Ultra Durable Motherboards
This board is aimed at the sub zero and extreme enthusiast overclocker, someone who wants to get the most out of their CPU and memory. They plan to squeeze every last ounce of performance from the board, the processor and the memory. Target market is the benchmarking crowd. Those who measure performance victories with the tiniest of margins. For these guys, they need every advantage they can get.
The website for the Z87X-OC is located here:
GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1150 - GA-Z87X-OC (rev. 1.x)
And the OC Micro Site is located here:
GIGABYTE 8 Series Overclocking Motherboards
But this is also a new platform, Z87. This is socket 1150, which has replaced the socket 1155 of Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge, and brings us the new 4th generation Core processors from Intel named Haswell.
Haswell and Z87 bring with them a few changes and updates from the previous generation. The six SATA ports are now all SATA 3(6Gb/s) and there are more flexible options with the PCH PCIE lanes now and the motherboard manufacturer can choose how to allocate the 8 available PCIE 2.0 lanes. For more USB3.0 ports or more PCIE slots depending on the motherboard configuration.
Physical changes to the socket itself means that if you want a Haswell processor, then you need a new 8 series motherboard to go with it. And if you want to overclock, you will need a Z87 based board and a K series processor.
The new Haswell processor is an evolutionary product and there are improvements in the integrated graphics core as well as slight improvements in efficiency which generally work out to about 10-15% improvement per clock.
The other change that some overclockers will be interested in is the ability to change base clock settings. The gear ratios selection includes options 1.00x, 1.25x or 1.67x as BCLK multipliers, giving you an offset of 100MHz, 125MHz or 167MHz. Just like in X79. This can allow some fine tuning of memory frequencies to get the most out of your system.
Board Layout
Orange and Black. Its a handsome board in my opinion. Not everyone may like it but it makes it instantly identifiable as an OC series board.
IR3553 PowIRstage® ICs promise to provide superior power output as well as lower overall temperatures and offer higher overall efficiency and fewer overall components on the board due to their single package design.
These are the little brother to the IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs used on the higher end OC Force board. These were chosen as a way to help keep the costs down while giving up little in the way of practical performance.
Gigabyte use of black PCBs and orange highlights are further accented on this board with just the right amount of gunmetal grey and polished aluminum on the black heat sinks. Overall the board has the look and feel of high quality and careful manufacture.
The board is CrossfireX compatible up to 4-way. And SLI Compatible up to 2 way.
Expansion port layout is as follows:
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one expansion card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
* The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. It will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX16 is populated.
2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1, PCIEX4_2)
* The PCIEX4_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots. When it is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 slot will operate at up to x4 mode.
* When installing a x8 or above card in the PCIEX4_1 slot, make sure to set PCIE Slot Configuration in BIOS Setup to x4. (Refer to Chapter 2, "BIOS Setup," "Peripherals," for more information.)
(The PCIEX16, PCIEX8, and PCIEX4_1 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x1 slot
(The PCIEX4_2 and PCIEX1_1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2 x PCI slots
There is an additional OC PEG power connector just below the CPU socket to help provide additional power to the PCI-E slots when running SLI or CrossfireX.
There are 2 internal headers for additional USB 3.0 front ports. One just between the DIMM slots and ATX power connector. This one is red in color and indicates that it is On/Off Charge ready and can provide charging to devices even if the system is shut down. The other one is located at the bottom just to the right of center on the board. There are also headers along the bottom of the board for an additional 4 USB 2.0 ports. There even two additional USB ports on the front edge of the board. These are handy when benching as you do not have to reach around to get to the back panel when connecting a thumb drive. There is no shortage of USB connectivity here.
There is a large diagnostic LED panel beside the ATX power connector. This can point you in the right direction in the event of a boot failure.
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