Pros: This is an aesthetically beautiful board, and the performance/quality was a welcome surprise for this price range.. I paired it with an Intel 6600k, and performance/stability have been awesome. The USB 3.1, great onboard sound, and M.2 slot are icing on the cake.

Cons: None

Overall Review: A little over a week ago, I paired this board with a 6600k, and 16gb of DDR4. CPU/heatsink install went as expected, though I use somewhat low-profile RAM, so my heatsink overlapping the memory slots was not an issue, but something to consider. It seems as though the setup gets easier with every new generation of chipset, and this was no exception. Less than 2 minutes in the bios, and everything was exactly as I wanted it. I had really hoped to make use of the M.2 slot for this, but it was not in the cards. This slot is really handy for mini ITX builds, or for those wanting to maximize performance, and/or those looking to minimize cable clutter. I did a clean install of Windows 7 on a Samsung 850 250gb drive for this build (with the plan to upgrade to windows 10 soon), and everything was literally, well, uneventful. Upon completion of the Windows 7 install, I installed the Ethernet driver from the disk, and went straight for the gigabyte website for the latest drivers. Within a half hour, everything was up and running without a hitch. I won't go into the performance/temperatures of the 6600k, there is better coverage of that on the tech sites, but I am happy with the low temperatures, and not so low performance! Onboard sound quality ranging from decent to fantastic isn't that uncommon these days, but it is worth mentioning the onboard sound on this motherboard is definitely closer to the fantastic side. Also the ethernet is Intel - can't go wrong there! The plethora of USB ports are a welcome sight, with the ever-increasing gadgets that require USB recharging. The rear panel alone has 7 total USB slots from 3.1 to 2.0. This is really an aesthically beautiful board, with tons of bells and whistles for the price, and the quality (and performance) are much better than I'd expect from this price range. Definitely recommend it for consideration, if you are shopping for a new board!

Pros: • Simple nice looks for windowed cases – very clean • Ultra-Durable board (improved cooling; feels sturdy) • Good spacing for multi-GPU setups • Nifty LED trace along audio area • Gold-lined audio capacitors • G-Connector for the front panel cable mess – nice • Fixed lower RAM latches (easier DIMM installation) • 2x USB front panel ports – nice • Clutter-free CPU socket (good for larger heatsink/fan combos) • Dual CPU fan headers (great for AIO water cooler units) • All fan headers are 4-pin • USB Type-C port • Included case badge • M.2 port it right below the CPU socket (allowed Gigabyte to include a couple of legacy PCI slots) • All kinds of video connections on the back (IGP keeps you up and running if your GPU dies) • Good value for the price

Cons: • Lean on rear USB ports (to be expected at this price point) • Lean on SATA ports (to be expected at this price point) • Included App Center software still has issues with Windows 10…

Overall Review: The Z170-P SLI is a great entry level gamer’s board, with just enough features and performance to be the backbone of any lean gaming machine. The feature-set, and performance level, should appeal to all but the most hardcore of enthusiasts. There’s nothing complicated about the Z170-P SLI. Simple accessory pack (back shield + SATA cables); G-Connector for quick and easy front panel cable installation; just enough USB/SATA ports for the user who’s more interested in playing games, than plugging in every device they own; and a clean CPU socket area that allows a wide variety of cooling setups. Industrial good lucks for windowed builds, and solid overclocking performance for the gamer trying to squeeze extra performance out of their machine – not a lot to NOT like about the Z170-P SLI. Put together a quick test build with a 6600K, 16GB GSkill 2800 DDR4, a pair of GTX 780s, Corsair RM850i PSU, Corsair H60, and an OCZ Vector 180 SSD. I did some simple multiplier overclocking to 4.4 GHZ, to see how stable the Z170-P SLI would be for a night of gaming. No issues with stability, using 1.24vt, and picked up my RAM at the proper speeds. I also used a Deepcool Neptwin CPU cooler (very large CPU cooler) with no clearance problems around the clean socket area – nice and versatile, as you won’t find many air coolers bigger than the Neptwin. The included Gigabyte software suite isn’t too bad, and has some useful apps – if you’re using Windows 7-8. At the time of this review, Windows 10 still generates the annoying “This driver can’t release to failure” error. Harmless error that pops up randomly during a computing session – but very annoying if you’re a little OCD about things like I am. Uninstalling Gigabyte’s App Center chases the error away, and I’m sure that there will be a new revision of the software that eliminates the error altogether. With a great board layout, good overclocking performance, and a solid feature-set, the Gigabyte Z170-P SLI is a good value at $150 (price at time of this review). I have no issue recommending it to all but the most hardcore of overclockers, or folks that need to have every feature known to man on their board. I borrowed a 6600k/DDR4 RAM combo to review this board, and I saw across-the-board +20% performance increases over my current 3570k setup. That was with an easy overclock, and middling voltages. The Z170-P SLI proved to be a good foundation for this performance bump, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be quickly shelling out $500 for my own 6600k/32GB DDR4 combo – making the Z170-P SLI the new cornerstone of my everyday gaming build. Good stuff all-around!

Pros: - Sturdy, solid build as is expected from the UltraDurable lineup. The orange LED is a nice aesthetic touch, although it doesn’t go well with my color theme. I see an option to change the colors in the software, but that isn’t included in this model. - Windows 10 functionality is stupendous. Even on non-SSD, fast boot has me on my login screen in under 10 seconds, which I consider fast. - Extra fan headers. I have quite a few fans, and the extra port meant I could forego a tacky power extension for my side panel fan. - Keeping to the apparent standard, the 115db audio driver is audiophile friendly and great for sonic detail in-game. - The M.2 SSD at 32Gb/s is increasingly faster than previous boards. - The included USB3.1 futureproofs the board while 3.0 ports are backwards compatible. (However, there are driver issues in Linux as of this review and only the couple 2.0 ports worked for me, as well as extensions running from the on-board 2.0 headers.) - In addition to On/Off, there is an “Auto” BIOS for the on-board graphics. This is convenient as someone who rarely uses on-board graphics but won't need to reboot to do so. (Also, 4k graphics output is great for HTPC uses.) - It is great GB has incorporated the new eSATA ports. However, the box mentions “The use of 1 SATA Express disables 2 SATA3 connectors.” - Up to 64GB DDR4 RAM (I yearn for the day...) - 3-year warranty will outlast at least one or more upgrades. - Assuming the advertised high-quality PCB components are true, this board is top class for an affordable cost. =Software= The software surprisingly added value to the product. - Intel Extreme Tuner. I opted for the Core i7 6700k processor and the included Intel software is extra nice. - I rarely used GB apps in the past, but the (new, redesigned?) Gigabyte App Center includes many convenient apps like Cloud Station, Autogreen for OTF powersaving, EasyTune for OC’ing, EZRaid disk management, Smart TimeLock to schedule locking the system, AmbientLED for the onboard light and Smart Backup.

Cons: There are no significant cons to hurt the overall performance or utility of the product, but I’ll outline a few negative observations here. - Awkward RAM slots. I get how the new clip-less slots are intuitive and maybe even progressive in design. However, I found them awkward and disagreeable. I had to reposition one RAM sick two times before it would detect. (On that note, the numbering scheme was off between what was printed on the board and in the BIOS. 1 & 2 is 3 & 4. Again, not a big deal.) - I can’t help but feel there is a lack of SATA ports. At least a couple extra 3Gb/s mass storage ports would be beneficial, given the falling price per Gigabyte in the market. I know other sister models to this board have more SATA plugs and 6 is certainly enough for many users. Yet, this is the first time I will have to consider getting a SATA expansion card (or enclosures for my NAS drives), unless I buy an M.2 SSD to use that awesome extra port. For now, I had to unplug my Blu-ray drive to use all my HDDs, which isn’t a big deal. - The Gigabyte driver disk comes with the usual Norton bloatware (Which, is OEM. So beneficial for those who actually use Norton.) While this isn’t *too* invasive, electing for the “Express install” will install Norton, which can be a pain to remove. I know Gigabyte probably makes money off including Norton and I don’t want to knock their business practices. However, Express install would make it MUCH easier. Without it, a user has to click through each install prompt. It also installs Google products such as Drive and Chrome, both of which I use already but I’m sure could annoy others who do not in much the same way as Norton would. If I had to guess, most people building custom gaming rigs are unlikely to use Norton. - The BIOS is [was] somewhat laggy. Mouse movement in BIOS’ is always “primitive” feeling, but even navigating via keyboard lagged on this board. Flashing the newest beta build mostly fixed this, however, and it isn’t bad enough to be annoying or anything. Also, I thought the gray interface/color scheme was unappealing. Though, it is a nonissue considering how often anyone needs to into the BIOS.

Overall Review: I had to wait for the i7 6700k to become available, but it was well worth the wait. Overall, I’d give this board a 4.5 out of 5. It is a powerful mobo for its intended end user and price point. I’ve owned numerous UD’s after building with both MSI and Asus in the past. While this model isn’t superior to more expensive boards, GB is making a clear bid for the OC-friendly market at all price points. Unfortunately, I didn’t go with OC-friendly RAM, but this board pushes my i7 without issue. The power saving features are very useful for keeping a PC on most of the time and Skylake drops down to pulling single-digit wattage. The build quality is superb while the 3-year warranty is reassuring that it will last. With DDR4, SATA Express, 4k video, etc. this board is a sure candidate for futureproofing in an environment of hyper-evolving technologies. The only downsides are mainly trivial, which brings me to my final point about hardware: Gigabyte has a huge LGA1151 lineup. Where this one lacks, there are others to fill the need. The “GA-Z170X-SOC FORCE” is supreme with 3x M.2 ports and enough lanes for two PCIe x16 Crossfire/SLI (though such is unsupported without a Skylake-E CPU). There is a DDR3 model, small form-factor model, one with extra SATA ports, and others. I won’t get on a Gigabyte soapbox by any means (I’m not a huge proponent of blind brand loyalty, personally.) However, assuming a builder is opting for Gigabyte specifically then there are other options to fit niche needs. While I still would recommend MSI for pricier (and Asus for even higher budget) builds, Gigabyte is certainly the value king with regard to getting more than what you pay for. As for the OS, I’ve mainly run Win10 x64, for which Skylake was apparently designed. I’ve run into driver issues with various flavors of Linux, but it shouldn’t be long and a simple recompiling the kernel will fix it. (One other thought for anyone having audio issues, I spend two hours troubleshooting drivers in Win10 before realizing disabling “DSP” in the BIOS was the culprit. Otherwise, Realtek devices do not show up at all.) If anyone reading this is shopping around, I'd say to definitely consider a UltraDurable model.

Pros: The new HD Graphics on the i6700K mus be explicitly enabled in the Grub command line. This is because Intel regards the driver as preliminary. The command to enable it is, i915.preliminary_hw_support=1 On a Fedora system do the following, 1) Edit the /etc/default/grub file to add the hw_support to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line. Here is mine, GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release .*$,,g' /etc/system-release)" GRUB_DEFAULT=saved GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=lv_group/root rd.lvm.lv=lv_group/swap rhgb quiet i915.preliminary_hw_support=1" GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" 2) Update grub. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg The reboot the system.

Cons: Because the Skylake is brand new not everything is plug and play. This will all be resolved in a month or two but early adopters should be aware that they will have to do some work.

Pros: Took some time to gather the components I wanted for this build but finally was able to get things going. The Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI is slightly narrower than a standard ATX board and therefore loses two of its right-edge screwing locations. Right off the bat I was surprised that Gigabyte had immensely improved on their box and board design making them much more appealing than the previous series. As for the price point this board is surprisingly feature rich for an entry level board offering all the major technologies out there. A total of seven power delivery phases (presumably in a six plus one configuration) are used to feed the LGA 1151 CPU and its integrated graphics core. There’s no fancy branding for the MOSFETs, chokes, or capacitors, although Gigabyte does cool the power delivery components with a pair of metal heat-sinks. The black blocks of metal are loosely held in place by a pair of spring-tension pins, so do not expect extreme cooling performance from these units. Gigabyte also uses what it calls a Turbo B-Clock IC. The chip allows a range of BCLK frequency adjustments to made, with a region of 90MHz to 200MHz supported. This is actually a positive for an entry-level motherboard, and may prove useful once locked Skylake CPUs are released. The 32Gbps M.2 connector supports drive lengths of 42mm, 60mm, and the popular 80mm sizing. Support for extended 110mm-long drives is not present, although SATA or PCIe connections are possible. Gigabyte places the M.2 connector slightly below the CPU socket. While this location moves a drive away from the heat zone of my graphics card, it also makes my SSD's green PCB visible inside the build so I am currently looking for one with a black PCB. As for the UEFI bios I was pleasantly surprised that it had been revamped. My mouse and keyboard actually worked and the high resolution interface was gone. Gigabyte included a number of Performance and CPU Upgrade pre-set profiles. The CPU upgrade profiles worked well with my Core i5-6600K chip and used sensible voltage settings. In summary: -One of the lowest-cost Z170 boards to support SLI. -Solid overclocking performance and good built-in overclocking presets. -Dual BIOS chips for redundancy. -USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports. -Good set of features – Intel NIC with cFos software, 32Gbps M.2 connector, ALC1150-based audio system. -Smart layout decisions, especially expansion slots, fan connectors, and USB 3.0 headers. -4K Display Support - Gold plated CPU Socket Design (my favorite)

Cons: There is not all that many for me as I have handled many Gigabyte boards over the years and have gotten use to how they implement their features. Over the years the bios programming (not a very easy plug and play feature), quirkiness and various compatibility issues have been a turn off. I can honestly say that they have made great improvements in this area however are still lagging a bit compared to their competitors. -Seems to have a BIOS bug that hampers memory performance, although this should be fixable with a bios update. -UEFI lacks the features of competing vendors’ solutions, such as good fan control and general interactivity. -Brown, not black, PCB. -Optical SPDIF audio connector may be missed by some.

Overall Review: I'm not a fan of extensive phone support and required troubleshooting support some manufacturers require in order to get my items serviced when needed and that is why I prefer Gigabyte as they have a very straight forward system set up where you create an account and can easily check the warranty and request repair without spending a lot of time on hold with customer support or technical support.

Pros: Seemingly solid board, overclocked my i5 well enough to come to the limit of my cooling capacity @ 4ghz on a H50 water cooling system. DDR4 is so very fast, M2 sata port that I only wish I had a drive to take advantage of. High quality audiophile grade capacitors in audio section, also high quality capacitors used elsewhere. Many UEFI boards I've worked with have left me fairly depressed with the bios user interface. This board unlike most others I've used has a fluid working, clean, and crisp bios. Required settings were easily found, for once clicking and moving between windows did not feel clunky and slow. Lots of USB 3 ports, dual USB3 headers, sata express (for when the drives are available). Bundled apps are always a welcomed bonus, in this case especially if you like having your devices networked. Realtek ALC1150 audio is very high quality for an on board solution, one of the best. Intel gigabit network! It's really hard to beat the quality and performance of Intel network cards. Once in the bios I had some basic configuration changes to make, beyond overclocking mostly fan tuning. This board offers exceptional fan speed tuning that should work well with almost any fan, it can be a bit confusing to a novice but with a little guess and check anyone should be able to fine tune their fan speeds.

Cons: USB ports would not function for none keyboard/mouse (human interface devices) on initial boot before drivers were installed on Windows 7, this caused problems as I left the drivers disc at home, not even a USB wireless device would detect. This isn't a problem with Windows 10, so have a disc ready if you are installing 7.

Overall Review: This is a great cleanup from the last generation boards, especially in the bios which is similar however feels better tuned. On initial boot I had to check the bios for fan speed settings as my water pump was placed on the CPU_OPT port which works fine however defaulted to a normal fan speed setting, if you use water cooling make sure that your fan port is set to FULL speed. While in a multi video card situation not all ports are driven at max speed, this generally is not a performance limiter as the ports are wildly faster than most cards require. If you are looking for a mainboard with good quality components through and through, this board should feed your need.

Pros: Skylake features- The gigabyte Z170XP-SLI is a relatively new motherboard at a very competitive price. It seems that gigabyte has put an impressive amount of value into this board and struck just the right balance between feature/performance and price. This board comes equipped with the latest skylake compatible socket and chipset to include DDR4, 3 SATA Express ports, an m.2 slot, and a USB 3.1 type C connector. The inclusion of DDR4 is an interesting proposition due to it still being rather new with the performance benefit from DDR3 still being quite small… for now. As we move forward I am sure that DDR4 will eventually be to DDR3 as DDR3 is to DDR2. The SATA express and m.2 connectivity is a critical inclusion due to storage speeds continuing to improve to the point where even budget SSD’s are saturating the SATA III bandwidth. The USB 3.1 c connector is also a nice touch due to many boards at this price point have either a single USB 3.1 port, 1 type C connector, or neither. Gigabyte made some interesting choices with how to use PCIe lanes and I believe that it has really paid off in an exceptionally balanced motherboard at a very competitive price. Gigabyte features- Gigabyte has included their usual suite of programs that I have no issues with but have personally never gotten too involved with on my personal rig (I have a gigabyte motherboard but don’t care for extra software). One of the more useful software/hardware features is the dualBIOS which I have had to use outside of testing and it is as easy as they advertise! Gigabyte also chooses to include a PS/2 port on the IO panel which can be a serious life saver when trying to troubleshoot problems and for some this may even be one of the features that makes or breaks this board. The board also has 2 on board headers for usb 2.0 and 3.0 expansion. The final comment I would like to make about this board is the aesthetic appeal, which is quite nice in my opinion due to the very neutral color scheme and very reserved appearance that should go with most builds. Usability- I have had no issues with this board but the few I have had on gigabyte boards always seem to get fixed very quickly with firmware updates.

Cons: I did not run across any issues while using this board but while inspecting the specs/IO I noticed that there is no optical audio out which could disappoint some and after closely viewing the PCIe slots I would not recommend using more than 2 GPUs at a time due to the PCIe limitations even though there are 3 physical slots.

Overall Review: The only thing that I could not make heads or tails on was the fact that it only had 6 USB ports on the IO which could be limiting for some but I would not personally have any issue with it. I am a moderate rear USB utilizer with a usb mouse, keyboard, webcam, and mic but I could easily use all the ports if I used a DAC, and key fob or some other common accessory. Just make sure you pay attention to the amount of USB devices you would like to plug into the rear of the computer.

Pros: Has great features for a good price. USB 3.1, M.2 support, SATA Express support, crossfire and SLI support, up to 64GB of memory, great built in audio and network chips, and easy overclocking! Works great!

Cons: As others have mentioned, this is slightly smaller than a full, standard ATX size board.

Overall Review: I was originally having some occasional boot issues that were caused by using some DDR4 2400 MHz memory modules. After upgrading to the latest bios version (F6), it is now ROCK SOLID!