Introduction and Technical Specifications

The GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force motherboard is the flagship board in GIGABYTE’s overclocking series. The board was built from the ground up to appeal to overclockers, offering a mix of features and performance to great effect…

Introduction

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

The Z97X-SOC Force motherboard is the premier offering in GIGABYTE's Overclocking Series of boards. The overclocking series boards are designed with enhancements and features meant to appeal to enthusiasts and professional overclockers alike. The Z97X-SOC Force board deign is based on the previous generation Z87X-OC Force, featuring the same black and orange coloration typical to the series. The board does contain several evolutionary changes making the board easier to use and more appealing to its target users. At an MSRP of $209.99, the Z97X-S0C Force is competitively priced to appeal to all levels of enthusiasts.

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

GIGABYTE enhanced the board power regulation system designed into the current generation boards, allowing for use of a simplified cooling and fewer power phases. As a result, the Z97X-SOC Force is packed with 8-phase digital power circuit for the CPU, using International Rectifier (IR) based PowIRstage digital controllers and 10k-rated black solid capacitors to ensure system stability under any conditions. The Z97X-SOC Force board comes standard with the following integrated features: six SATA 3 ports; one SATA Express 10 Gb/s ports; a Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 NIC; four PCI-Express x16 slots; a PCI-Express x1 slots; two PCI slots; 2-digit diagnostic LED display; on-board power, reset, CMOS clear, CMOS battery clear, OC Ignition, OC Tag, OC Turbo, OC Touch, Settings Lock, Direct to BIOS, and Memory Safe buttons; Dual-BIOS, active BIOS, and IC Trigger switches; OC PCIe and OC DIMM switch jumper blocks; integrated voltage measurement points; and USB 2.0 and 3.0 port support.

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

Technical Specifications (taken from the GIGABYTE website)

CPU Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1150 package
L3 cache varies with CPU
(Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information.)
Chipset Intel® Z97 Express Chipset
Memory 4 x DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
* Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 3300(O.C.) / 3200(O.C.) / 3100(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
(Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.)
Onboard Graphics Integrated Graphics Processor:
1 x D-Sub port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920×1200@60Hz
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz or 2560×1600@60Hz
* Support for HDMI 1.4a version.
1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@24Hz or 3840×2160@60Hz
* Support for DisplayPort 1.2 version.
Support for up to 3 displays at the same time
Maximum shared memory of 1 GB
Audio Realtek® ALC1150 codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics 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. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.

2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1, PCIEX4_2)
* The PCIEX4_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX8 and PCIEX16 slots. When the PCIEX4_1 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode and the PCIEX8 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 (CPU) in BIOS Setup to x4. (Refer to Chapter 2, "BIOS Setup," "Peripherals," for more information.)
* The PCIEX4_2 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX1 slots. The PCIEX1 slot will become unavailable when a PCIe x4 expansion card is installed.
(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 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)

2 x PCI slots
Multi-Graphics Technology 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
(SATA Express and SATA3 4/5 connectors can only be used one at a time.)
USB Chipset:
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)
Internal I/O Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connectorŠ
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x OC PEG power connector
1 x SATA Express connectorŠ
6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT)
6 x system fan headers
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
1 x USB 2.0/1.1 header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x serial port header
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
1 x power button
1 x reset button
1 x Clear CMOS button
1 x Gear button
1 x OC Turbo buttonŠ
1 x OC Tag button
1 x OC Trigger switch
1 x CPU BCLK Down button
1 x CPU BCLK Up button
1 x CPU Ratio Down button
1 x CPU Ratio Up button
1 x Memory Safe button
1 x Settings Lock button
1 x Direct to BIOS button
1 x OC DIMM switch
1 x OC PCIe switch
1 x OC Ignition button
1 x Clear Battery button
2 x BIOS switches
1 x onboard voltage measurement module
Back Panel Connectors 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port
1 x HDMI port
1 x DisplayPort
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
1 x RJ-45 port
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In)
I/O Controller iTE I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring System voltage detection
CPU/System/Chipset temperature detection
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed detection
CPU/System overheating warning
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan fail warning
CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed control
* Whether the fan speed control function is supported will depend on the cooler you install.
BIOS 2 x 128 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Unique Features Support for APP Center
* Available applications in APP Center may differ by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also differ depending on motherboard specifications.
@BIOS
EasyTune
EZ Setup
Fast Boot
ON/OFF Charge
Smart TimeLock
Smart Recovery 2
System Information Viewer
USB Blocker
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Smart Switch
Support for Xpress Install
Bundle Software Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)
Intel® Rapid Start Technology
Intel® Smart Connect Technology
Intel® Smart Response Technology
Operating System Support for Windows 8.1/8/7
Form Factor ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
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