Introduction
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The Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming 7 is a top/mid-range socket LGA1151 motherboard based on the new Intel Z270 chipset, supporting the sixth (“Skylake”) and seventh (“Kaby Lake”) generation Core i processors. It brings LED illumination, three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, six SATA-600 ports (allowing three SATA Express connections), U.2 port for high-performance SSDs, nine USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 3.1 ports, one of them Type C. Let’s take a good look at it!
The recently launched Intel Z270 chipset is the high-end model of the new 200-series. The main differences between the Z270 and its predecessor, the Z170, is the 24 PCI Express 3.0 lanes, while the Z170 has 20 PCI Express 3.0 lanes. Another improvement is the support to the future Intel Optane technology, which is a new standard for high-end SSDs.
Like the Z170, the Z270 supports six SATA-600 ports, Smart Response (installing an SSD as a cache for the main hard drive), Smart Connect (allowing the computer to receive emails and refresh webpages while in sleep mode), and Rapid Start (faster boot times) technologies.
Another highlight about this motherboard is that it uses the AORUS brand. It is a “gamer” brand from Gigabyte, used by their high-end hardware.
You can see the Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard in Figure 1. It uses the ATX form factor, measuring 12” x 9.6” (305 x 244 mm).
Figure 1: Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard