CPUs & Motherboards

BIOSTAR GAMING Z170X Review

vortez
December 30, 2015 19 Min Read
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An Intel Z170 motherboard designed for gamers – featuring many useful features including twin M.2 slots.



Product on Review: GAMING Z170X Motherboard
Manufacturer & Sponsor: BIOSTAR
Street Price: £160 GBP / $200 USD

BIOSTAR has been manufacturing motherboards since the mid-80s, yet their focus has been in countries other than Europe and many enthusiasts will probably be unfamiliar with their products. Whilst they may not be deemed a top-tier motherboard manufacturer for the enthusiast market, they do offer a combination of solid features and good value for money.

We’ve already reviewed a series of Intel Z170 motherboards from a variety of different brands but today we’ll be turning to BIOSTAR for a detailed look at what the GAMING Z170X has to offer.


About BIOSTAR
In 1980, the IT industry was growing at a phenomenal rate. With wide experience in buying and selling electronic parts as well as researching on future demands for mainboards and add-on cards , the founder of BIOSTAR GROUP, established BIOSTAR MICROTECH INTERNATIONAL CORP in 1986.

In the early years, BIOSTAR concentrated on the manufacture of mainboards built for XT form factor. To maintain steady business growth, BIOSTAR managed to keep a large portion of its capital and manpower invested on the design and development of new products, which at the same time has enabled it to stay competitive in the rapid evolution of the computer industry.

Technical Specifications


Taken from BIOSTAR, here are the technical specifications for GAMING Z170X.

Chipset
Intel Z170
GAMING COMMANDER
External GAMING Commander Box / Audio Control Software Utility
CPU SUPPORT
Intel® Core™ i7 LGA 1151 Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 LGA 1151 Processor
Intel® Core™ i3 LGA 1151 Processor
Intel® Pentium® LGA 1151 Processor
Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 95Watt
MEMORY
Support Dual Channel DDR4 3200(OC)/ 2133/ 1866 MHz
4 x DDR4 DIMM Memory Slot
Max. Supports up to 64GB Memory
EXPANSION SLOT
3 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot(x16 or x8, x8 or x8, x4, x4)
3 x PCI-E x1 3.0 Slot
1 x PCI-E M.2 Key A Slot(support Wi-Fi or WiGig)
STORAGE
3 x SATA Express 16Gb/s Connector
Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10
Support PCI-E Storage RAID: 0,1,5
2 x M.2 Key M 32Gb/s Connector
USB
1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port
6 x USB 3.0 Port
1 x USB 3.0 Header
2 x USB 2.0 Header
LAN
Intel I219V – Gigabit Ethernet PHY
Killer E2201 – 10/100/1000 Controller
&#8251 ;Dual GbE
MULTI GRAPHICS
AMD 3way CrossFireX
INTEGRATED VIDEO
By CPU model
Supports DX12
Supports HDCP
CODEC
Realtek ALC898 8 Channel Blu-ray Audio
Support Blu-ray Audio
Support HD Audio
Support Biostar Hi-Fi 3D
REAR I/O
1 x PS/2
1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port
6 x USB 3.0 Port
2 x HDMI Connector, resolution up to 4096 x 2160 @60Hz, compliant with HDMI 2.0
1 x DisplayPort Connector, resolution up to 4096 x 2304 @60Hz
1 x DVI-D Connector, resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz
2 x RJ-45 Port
5 x Audio Connector
1 x S/PDIF Out Port
INTERNAL I/O
1 x USB 3.0 Header
2 x USB 2.0 Header
3 x SATA Express 16Gb/s Connector
2 x M.2 Key M 32Gb/s Connector
1 x Front Audio Header
1 x Front Panel Header
1 x S/PDIF-Out Header
2 x CPU Fan Header
3 x System Fan Header
1 x GAMING_Panel Header
1 x LN2 Switch
H/W MONITORING
CPU / System Temperature Monitoring
CPU / System Fan Monitoring
Smart / Manual CPU / System Fan Control
System Voltage Monitoring
OVERVOLTAGE
CPU Vcore/ Vring/ VSA/ VCC_IO/ VGT/ VCC_PLL_OC/ DDR/ DDR DIMMA CA Verf/ DDR DIMMB CA Verf/ DDR VPP/ PCH 1.0V
DIMENSION
ATX Form Factor Dimension: 30.5cm x 24.4cm ( W x L )
OS SUPPORT
Support Windows 7 / 8.1(x64) / 10(x64)
BUNDLE SOFTWARE
BullGuard
Smart Ear 3D
BIO-Remote2
Smart Speed LAN
Intel Rapid Storage Technology(include Intel Smart Response Technology)
ACCESSORIES
4 x SATA Cable
1 x I/O Shield
1 x 4GB USB Flash Drive
1 x User Manual
FEATURES
Supports PURO Hi-Fi 3D
Touch OC
Supports 100% Solid capacitor
Supports Rapid Debug3
Supports Charger Booster II
Supports BIOS Online Update

Packaging, Bundle & First Look



The GAMING Z170X arrives in well-designed box which is clearly marketed towards the gamer. On the reverse there are details surrounding the core feature-set and technical specifications.


Inside the box there are an assortment of bundled accessories which accompany the motherboard. These items include the following:

• 4 x SATA Cables
• 1 x I/O Shield
• 1 x 4GB USB Flash Drive
• 1 x User Manual
• 1 x Gaming Commander

BIOSTAR include a USB flash drive which contains all the relevant drivers/software as well as the user manual in digital format. We think this is a great idea, especially since all users will have a spare USB port whereas an optical drive may well be absent from system builds nowadays since more and more enthusiasts are choosing to phase them out.

The Gaming Commander is a 5.25” device which adds extra functionality to the front panel. Such options as volume control, CPU temperature indicator, diagnosis LEDs for CPU, VGA, memory. So, if you do have a spare optical drive bay on your computer chassis, Gaming Commander certainly adds in some useful features.


Extracting the motherboard from its packaging, again, the styling on this motherboard are definitely tailored to the gamer. Z170X GAMING utilises a brown PCB and features black and khaki slots (perhaps pointing to military-esque approach). There is also a fair amount of plastic used over the heatsinks which to a certain degree does cheapen the visual appearance.

Overall, our motherboard has decent styling and since we’ve been reviewing BIOSTAR motherboards for a few years now we can certainly vouch for their progression in terms of building aesthetically pleasing products.

GAMING Z170X conforms to the ATX form factor measuring: 30.5cm x 24.4cm.

Closer Look



GAMING Z170X is designed to work with Intel’s 6th Generation of processors – Skylake. We therefore have the LGA1151 socket, around the socket there are mounting holes for LGA115X so if you have a cooler that has been used on another socket such as LGA1150/55 then it will work fine here too. Immediately next to the memory slots and VRM heatsink there are dual-fan headers to work in conjunction with coolers which have two cooling fans.

BIOSTAR have given GAMING Z170X 12-phases designated specifically for the CPU. There are two heatsinks which sit over the VRMs which are interconnected via a copper heatpipe. The heatsinks are aluminium but do have a plastic shroud as can be seen above. Around the socket and throughout the board BIOSTAR are using a number of high-quality components including:

• Super Durable CAPs
• Super Durable Ferrite Chokes
• Moisture Proof PCB
• Low RfsON MOS

On the top-edge of the motherboard, behind the heatsinks there is an 8-pin CPU power socket.


Moving to the memory there is support for dual-channel DDR4 – up to 64GB and up to DDR4 3200MHz (OC).

Around the memory there are also some additional features which include a handy onboard button strip which supplies a power button, reset button, BCLK/CPU Ratio modification. This strip will be useful if you’re intending to use GAMING Z170X on a test bench. Usually, manufacturers place bulky buttons onto the edge of the motherboard for such usage, it’s great to see BIOSTAR delivering a solution which is condensed and streamline.

Directly next to this strip there is a clear CMOS button and Intel XMP switch – again these are both useful for troubleshooting and are in easy reach if this configuration is going onto a test bench. Above the 24-pin ATX power there is an LED debug panel which will display digits for POST troubleshooting.

So overall, GAMING Z170X is well-equipped for testing and diagnosis.


For storage there are three SATA Express ports and up to six SATA ports (borrowing from those SATA Express). This should be sufficient for most user’s needs – if you do have more than two SATA drives you’ll need to borrow from those SATA Express ports but with this standard being premature it’s unlikely all three ports will be used simultaneously.



Behind these SATA ports sits a large heatsink which covers the Intel Z170 chip. The heatink isn’t immediately visible due to a large plastic shroud. This shroud has a red LED which plugs directly into the motherboard.

By detaching the plastic cover an additional M.2 slot is revealed. This M.2 slot can be accessed without having to remove the entire fascia.


In the PCI Express region there are a whole host of features available. First of all we have the expansion slots which consist of:

• 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots
• 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot, running at x16
• 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot, running at x8
• 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot, running at x4

GAMING Z170X supports multi-GPU configurations via AMD CrossfireX only. The omission of NVIDIA SLI support is unusual – we’d expect all motherboards nowadays to be compatible with both vendors.

In between the PCI Express slots there are two M.2 slots which are Gen3 x4 (one is hidden behind the plastic shroud as already mentioned). This allows bandwidth of up to 32GB/s and allows drives like Samsung’s 950 PRO to be installed, which uses NVMe technology.

Located on the bottom edge with the other USB/audio ports, BIOSTAR has given GAMIKNG Z170X a “GAMING_PANEL” port, this is to work in connection with the included Gaming Commander unit.

On the far-edge we also have the audio components (Hi-V CAPs) which are backed by Realtek ALC898. The audio components are compatible with BIOSTAR Hi-Fi 3D.


Last of all we arrive at the rear IO section of GAMING Z170X. This region supplies us with:

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports
• 2 x HDMI 2.0 ports
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x DVI-I port
• 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C port
• 4 x USB 3.0 ports
• 2 x RJ-45 ports (via Killer E2200)
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 5 x Audio Gold Plated Jacks

It’s great to see that BIOSTAR are using HDMI 2.0 ports on this motherboard as we can output to ultra hi-resolutions with bigger refresh rates. There are a plethora of different video ports for onboard usage.

Intel Z170 Features


Intel’s initial release schedule for Skylake was planned well in advance, long before Microsoft officially announced the launch date of Windows 10. Most of August was set aside for conferences and seminars including the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, all with the aim of taking the wraps off and going deep into the technology within this new CPU architecture. Unfortunately bringing forward the release date of ‘K-series’ SKUs has meant that they’re unable to furnish detailed technical info to reviewers and members of the press, and won’t be releasing this information until IDF. The following is information which has been released thus far.

Developed under the codename Sunrise Point, Intel’s 100-series chipset is designed to operate hand-in-hand with an Intel ‘Skylake’ 6th Generation core processor. It utilises an LGA 1151 socket, underscoring the fact that neither CPU nor motherboard are backwards compatible with any of the previous generation hardware. As a result Sunrise Point is free to add additional features not present in x90-series and earlier chipsets.

Memory and Overclocking

Most notably from a consumer perspective Sunrise Point is the first Intel mainstream computing platform to be compatible with DDR4, and most Z170 and H170 designs are indeed likely to feature this memory technology rather than continue with DDR3L (a memory spec which Skylake CPUs can also handle). Default support is at DDR4-2133, however speeds above this are possible if a Z170 motherboard and K-Series CPU are used in tandem. One year on from the release of Haswell-E DDR4 pricing is quickly becoming more bearable, and so whilst it’s an additional expense to swallow compared with Haswell/Z97 it may not be quite the price premium you expect.

With Skylake Intel are, for the first time in many generations of Core architectures, once again re-enabling fine grade overclocking of memory at the Base Clock (BCLK) level. The PCI subsystem clock is now independent of BCLK, allowing for robust overclocking support which dispenses with coarse ratios in favour of a MHz by MHz stepping to far higher levels. Pre-launch testing by board partners have ascertained that stable BCLK’s of up to 400MHz are possible (with a stepping down of CPU multiplier), a far cry from even last year’s Haswell Refresh.

It should be noted that overclocking support has also been improved through greater control over individual CPU voltage inputs. Haswell made use of a Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator on the CPU itself; in essence, the motherboard supplied one input voltage and the FIVR divided this into individual on-board component inputs. With Skylake/Z170 the motherboard chipset controls each of these voltages individually, allowing direct adjustment for greater stability where necessary. This could theoretically be a great boon to enthusiast overclockers eager to get every last smidgen of performance out of a system.


Chipset and PCH Features

As we noted in our review of the two launched Skylake CPUs, up to 16 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes exist as a direct low-latency connection between CPU and 3rd party hardware such as graphics cards. These can operate in a 1×16 lane, 2×8 lane or 1×8 lane and 2×4 lane setup for multi-GPU configurations depending on the hardware implementation chosen by the board partners, but aren’t sufficient alone to support additional hardware options such as PCI-Express storage. The Platform Controller Hub therefore provides additional PCI-Express lanes to peripheral controllers.

In contrast to Intel’s 9-series motherboards Sunrise Point can supply up to an additional 20 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes, potentially resulting in double the bandwidth compared with the 20 PCIe 2.0 lanes of the previous generation. These new lanes augment the chipset storage options, most notably in respect to PCIe storage with many designs now featuring multiple next-generation storage options rather than a singular M.2 or SATA-Express port. Whilst not the low-latency connection you require for effective graphics processing, they will be more than suitable for new high-speed storage options including RAID for PCI-Express thanks to an upgraded DMI connection between PCH and CPU.

Further augmenting the platform’s storage capabilities is the adoption of new Intel Rapid Storage Technology protocols allowing PCI-Express storage to be used as caching drives for slower media. Potentially still a niche technology, the stark benefits of next-generation SSDs over mechanical drives as well as future SSDs could be just the breakthrough Intel RST needs to capture mainstream adoption.

In an additional change from the 9-series motherboards support has been added for up to 10 native USB 3.0 ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports, with a maximum of 16 ports in some combination thereof. It should be noted that so far as we can tell USB 3.1 isn’t actually native to the Sunrise Point chipset. Implementation is up to motherboard vendors through 3rd party controllers, and it’s to their credit that many have adopted the new high-speed standard without any fuss. For some both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors are available, with Type-C the most common otherwise.

Those who make use of on-board CPU graphics can now enjoy support for up to three digital display outputs, or make use of the Intel 530 Graphics capabilities in tandem with discrete graphics. Microsoft Windows 10 (via DirectX 12) includes new options which allow disparate graphics hardware to be used in tandem, making best use of processing power where possible. Even without this, the transcoding capabilities of Intel QuickSync make it a tempting proposition for fast and efficient h.265 encoding and decoding, even if your discrete graphics hardware is formidable.

With unchanged support for six conventional SATA III storage ports, Intel 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet, Intel Audio options and comprehensive UEFI BIOS options, Sunrise Point (and by extension all Z170 motherboards) are choc-full of features. That’s not to say that there aren’t some omissions – lack of native USB 3.1 support being the most obvious, whilst native U.2 connectors are a premium feature supplied by board partners – but as a whole the platform is a significant step forward overall.

Test Setup, Methodology & Overclocking


Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-6700K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming 7
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU


Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2014 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Home Suite
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
Games – Tomb Raider, THIEF


Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Real Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z


Overclocking

Overclocking with Skylake is now fully flexible since we can adjust many variables including BCLK and ratio/multiplier.

Our current milestone is 4.7GHz with the Intel Core i7-6700K and we managed to achieve 4.7GHz with the GAMING Z170X quite easily. After just a few minor adjustments in the BIOS we used 100×47 and set the CPU core voltage to 1.38v. This is a great result and we’re pleased that advanced settings didn’t need any modification to achieve it.

Benchmarks: Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z170 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Benchmarks: X264 HD

Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.



Benchmarks: AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page
This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.





Benchmarks: Cinebench R15

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.



Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.











Benchmarks: 3DMark

3DMark FireStrike Product Page
Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.

Benchmarks: PCMark 8

PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.

Benchmarks: Tomb Raider & THIEF

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two popular and recent gaming titles which feature a dedicated benchmark tool within them to display results.



Conclusion


Having already tested a number of exemplary Intel Z170 motherboards, expectations were high for the GAMING Z170X and we have to say that BIOSTAR has done a great job with this offering.

While the aesthetics may not suit everyone’s preference, the trio of colours which have been used (black, brown and khaki) provide system builders with a backdrop to pair up other similar styled components. GAMING Z170X is designed for the gamer but we think a little less plastic would smarten the overall look and avoid cheapening the visual appearance.

BIOSTAR has kitted out GAMING Z170X with a strong feature-set which delivers on many levels. There are all sorts of diagnostic options and plenty of choice for storage too with dual-M.2 slots making an appearance – something which other vendors do shy away from. Having two of these ports is regarded as a bonus and those wanting to engage in some NVMe M.2 RAID will be able to do so with this motherboard.


Throughout our benchmark suite, the GAMING Z170X performed very well and showcased how capable this motherboard is. Furthermore, when we entered the overclocking arena GAMING Z170X managed to achieve our current milestone of 4.7GHz which is testament to the digital power delivery system and construction. Entering the BIOS to modify settings to accomplish this result was a smooth experience and without any problems.

There are a few areas which are a concern – the plastic shroud has already been mentioned, but there is no NVIDIA SLI support which comes as quite a surprise; most (if not all) vendors now provide compatibility for both AMD and NVIDIA multi-GPU configurations. Also, when we look at the lower M.2 slot, it actually sits directly in line with the primary X16 slot. What this means is that an M.2 drive will be completely engulfed by the graphics card and since M.2 drives rely heavily on chassis airflow, having a graphics card sat over the top of it will only obstruct this. BIOSTAR should perhaps think more carefully in future when planning the PCI express region if multiple devices can be installed simultaneously.

GAMING Z170X arrives with a price-tag of £160 GBP / $220 USD. In this price-range there are quite a large number of motherboards from rivals which are more likely to steal the limelight. It’s fair to say that BIOSTAR sit outside of the top-tier lineup and based on this and what’s on offer we feel GAMING Z170X should be priced accordingly – closer to £120 GBP / $180 USD.

BIOSTAR’s GAMING Z170X is an ambitious accomplishment; this motherboard packs in some rather useful features and users should expect solid performance in a variety of different scenarios.

Pros
+ Attractive styling
+ Great feature-set
+ Easy to use BIOS
+ Great performance
+ Overclocks very well
+ Dual M.2 slots

Cons
– Lacks NVIDIA SLI support
– Too much plastic
– M.2 slot sits underneath primary x16 slot
– Should be cheaper

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