Introduction and Motherboard Layout

The Z270X-Gaming 5 is part of GIGABYTE’s AORUS line of products, offering support for Intel’s Kaby Lake processor line…

Introduction and Motherboard Layout

With the release of Intel Z270 chipset, GIGABYTE is unveiling its AORUS line of products. The AORUS branding will be used to differentiate enthusiast and gamer friendly products from their other product lines, similar to how ASUS uses the ROG branding to differentiate their high performance product line. The Z270X-Gaming 5 is among the first to be released as part of GIGABYTE's AORUS line. The board features the black and white branding common to the AORUS product line, with the rear panel cover and chipset featuring the brand logos. The board is designed around the Intel Z270 chipset with in-built support for the latest Intel LGA1151 Kaby Lake processor line (as well as support for Skylake processors) and Dual Channel DDR4 memory. The Z270X-Gaming 5 will be available at an MRSP of $189.99.

GIGABYTE designed the Z270X-Gaming 5 with a total of 11 digital power phases, more than enough to handle any load thrown at the system. The CPU VRMs are cooled by large coolers above and to the right of the socket.

The board supports a total of two PCIe x4 M.2 slots, one to the left of the CPU socket and below the primary PCIe x1 slot, and the other underneath the third PCIe x1 slot. The M.2 slot by the CPU supports M.2 cards up to 110mm in length, while the other supports cards up to 80mm in length.

The board houses a total of four DIMM slots with Dual Channel memory mode active with modules in slots 1 / 3 or 2 / 4. In between the slots, GIGABYTE placed RGB LEDs that glow in line with the board settings configured through the BIOS or via the windows app. There are two USB 3.0 headers to the lower left of the DIMM slots with a illuminated panel along the lower edge of the board. Like the DIMM slot LEDs, the panel glows in tandem with the RGB board settings.

The Intel Z270 chipset is covered by a low profile black heat sink with a metal overlay stamped with the AORUS brand logo. In addition to the two PCIe x4 M.2 slots, the board was designed with a PCIe x4 U.2 port and three 10Gbps SATA-Express ports. The SATA-Express ports can be broken into two SATA III ports, allowing for up to six SATA III ports.

The board contains a total of six PCIe slots – three PCIe x16 slots and three PCIe x1 slots. The PCIe x16 slots can be used in x16, x8 / x8, or x8 / x8 / x4 mode.

With this board, GIGABYTE offers support for connecting RGB and RGBW LED strip to the board using the RGBW 12V header located to the upper right of the tertiary PCIe x16 slot. Connecting an RGB / RGBW LED strip to the RGBW 12V header synchronizes the LED strip color and activity with that of the motherboard's integrated LEDs. In the screencap, an RGB cable is connected to the RGBW 12V header.

The Z270X-Gaming 5 board contains the following ports integrated into its rear panel: a PS/2 hybrid keyboard / mouse port, four USB 2.0 ports (yellow / black), two USB 3.0 ports (blue), two USB 3.1 10Gbps ports (red) – one Type A and one Type c, two GigE RJ-45 ports – an Intel I219 and a Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2400 NIC, an HDMI output, a DisplayPort output, an S/PDIF digital audio output, and five analogue audio outputs.

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