Slots: 4x PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Slots (one runs at x8, two run at x4), 1x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot, 2x PCI Slots
SATA: 6x SATA3 Ports, Support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10; 1x SATA Express Port
CPU Support: Support for Intel Core i7 processors/Intel Core i5 processors/ Intel Core i3 processors/Intel Pentium processors/Intel Celeron processors in the LGA1150 package
Onboard Graphics: 1 x D-Sub port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200at60Hz;1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200at60Hz;1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096x2160at24Hz or 2560x1600at60Hz
Support for up to 3 displays at the same time
Expansion Slots:1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16); 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8); 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4; 1 x PCI Express x1 slot; 2 x PCI slots
Support for 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire/2-Way NVIDIA SLI technology
Storage Interface: 1 x SATA Express connector; 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors; Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
USB:6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header). 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports onboard, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
Supports 4th and 5th Generation Intel Core processors. Premium 4-way CrossFire support with OC Brace. Precise digital CPU power design. SATA Express support for 10 Gb/s data transfer. Exclusive GIGABYTE OC Features. Killer E2200 gaming networking. 2x copper PCB design. Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD Audio with Built-in rear audio amplifier. New Heat sink design with 8 onboard fan connectors. Long lifespan Durable Black Solid caps. APP Center including EasyTune and Cloud Station utilities. GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS.
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This was a really nice board and had nice features but, there's only one pcie 1 slot with very bad placement considering that all gpus worth having are 2 slot cards and blocked that one and only pci slot. I couldn't use my wireless card and running a 25ft. CAT 5 cable is really inconvenient. I liked the color scheme and the on board features but let's face it you're not going to use those if it's in a case. BIOS seems like the more suitable route for over clocking. Even when in a case and installing my gpus (2 EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSCs in SLI) the board seemed very flimsy and felt like it would snap. I've had 3 Gigabyte boards both Intel and AMD and have always admired the colour schemes. If you're not worried about pci placements then go for it there's not much more that you would be in opposition of besides pricing because N*****G has it cheaper.
Overall the board isn't to bad. Gigabyte decided to use some s***** QUALCOMM nic and horrible software package that has to be installed. So far I have not seen a way to just get the driver The software causes a glitch with the built in monitoring of network connections that causes a memory leak to fill up the page pool. There is a workaround that you need to disable the built in monitoring program in Windows to prevent the leak. So for a good company to not vet out the pieces that they put into a new board all that well they get a 1 star.
Great motherboard, tons of features - though I'm going to admit 90% of the reason for my decision to purchase this particular motherboard was the color scheme. Love Gigabyte's BIOS, having startup buttons and clear CMOS buttons physically on the board is fantastic, and the thing looks just great. You want to overclock the snot out of a CPU? this is your golden ticket.
That being said, the Killer networking on this board is absolutely terrible. Dropped connections consistently 2-3 times a day for the first few months, and now the ethernet just won't work at all. Period. Ended up using a sub-10 dollar USB wifi dongle and have had absolutely no problems.
Pros: •4 full size PCI-Express slots •Good On-Board Audio (no audible noise with decent speaker, due to high SNR) •lots of fan connectors (but, see con below) •pretty HD-BIOS, but you need to go to classic BIOS mode for some settings •useful on-board buttons (even for non-overclockers - not having to short pins to reset stuff is nice)
Cons: •default BIOS applies way too much voltage at stock settings •CPU is too close to first PCI-E slot to use the best air heatsinks on the CPU •location of PCI-E x1 slot renders it useless with any decent GPU •bad placement of SATA connectors - a large GPU will cover them •fan controller is kinda bad - it can't control non-PWM fans (a downgrade from previous fan controllers) and manual BIOS fan control isn't easy to understand. On top of that, SpeedFan can't seem to see/control the fans •Gigabyte's software is notoriously buggy
Other Thoughts: Be sure to update your BIOS ASAP if you get this board, before it fries your CPU. If you don't need 4 PCI-E slots, there are better boards in this price range. Because of the bad fan controller and layout of this board, I can't recommend it.
So when you buy this board, it is advertised as Ultra Durable and the cover has an image of the motherboard all coated in a layer of snow, indicating that this motherboard is probably going to last you a long time and/or good for liquid nitrogen overclocking.
It turns out it didn’t even beat a rainstorm and didn’t hold out for one month before it start having weird glitches and issues.
After much troubleshooting with Gigabyte tech support (and to Gigabyte’s credit, their support guy Eddie Zheng always promptly replied back to my emails) I’ve come to the ultimate determination that all of my issues that started after a nasty storm and power outage in our area was directly due to the Gigabyte Z97 motherboard itself.
Since that time I have purchased and replaced my power strip/ surge protector with a brand new Monster capable of withstanding nearly 5000 Joules , and got a new voltage regulator (APC Line-R 1200) and swapped out my PSU with a brand new unit. Therefore the issues are isolated to this motherboard itself, and due to the fact that these symptoms all started happening after the recent rainstorms, there is probable cause that the Gigabyte did not even withstand the trials and adversities of a mere thunderstorm.
After the storm I noticed the following issues:
1) Some versions of Seagate’s external USB Harddrive will no longer “power up” during the computer bootup process. If you leave the USB drive plugged into the usb port of the motherboard, then the next day you turn on the computer, it will not “wake up” the usb drive. I contacted Seagate and used their diagnostic tools to determine this was not an issue with the drive. I also tested this same drive on a different desktop computer and noticed no issues whatsoever. So it seems the motherboard is not sending the “wake up” signal to the usb drive at bootup.
2) Even when I reverted to the factory BIOS revision and set all settings back to optimized defaults, there are still instances where sometimes (5% of the time) on a cold boot up the CPU fan will spin at 100% and won’t stop until I manually reboot the computer again. This is directly attributed to faults within the motherboard circuitry itself. It is intermittent so hard to troubleshoot. Sometimes the computer would simply freeze during boot-up and/or sit there with a blank lighted up dark screen for about 30 seconds during God knows what until it finally proceeds to boot with showing the Gigabyte logo during the BIOS process.
3) Even when I tell the motherboard to NOT detect or boot to the DVD-ROM drive, everytime I boot up the computer during the boot process it will scan for the DVD-ROM drive incessantly for several seconds and make loud scratching noises before continuing bootup process. I swapped the DVD-ROM unit and put it in another desktop computer and saw no issues with the DVD-ROM drive itself.
4) The motherboard seems to be “leaking power” (for lack of better words) and powering up some of my accessories that are hooked to the computer even when the computer is turned OFF! In fact, the moment I turn on the switch to the PSU, the motherboard will leak power and turn on the other devices that should never have been turned on at all. The only way that I could get these devices to shut off was to manually and physically hard cut the power by flipping the switch on the PSU itself. This is not a PSU issue because I swapped out for a brand new PSU and got the exact same results.
My empirical experience with this motherboard has called into question the actual build quality of these devices and makes questionable the references to “ULTRA DURABLE”. To make matters worse, if you were to RMA the motherboard chances are high that the manufacturer will simply return back to you someone else’s used motherboard that has other issues. When attempting to buy a replacement at the local Fry’s I noticed all of the ones on the shelf were open-boxed and clearly used. In fact now I’m not even sure that my “brand new” motherboard wasn’t previously used by some other guy, I do know for certain that it started crapping out right after the storm. Lesson learned is shut down your computer during a storm even if you have a surge protector. Even without a direct lighting strike, your motherboard can indeed start having weird glitches that are worrisome and troublesome and impossible to fix. I would not trust the “ULTRA DURABLE” false advertising. It leads to nothing but a false sense of nonexistent security.
