Gigabyte announced six new Z270 motherboards as part of its Aorus product line – and all of them feature RGB LED lighting and swappable LED overlays. Apparently, Gigabyte opted for the standardization of their RGB Fusion LED lighting up and down their Aorus product line – all of the boards have at least two areas that are RGB LED backlit, including a space on the right edge beside the RAM slots. This RAM RGB lighting can be removed and replaced with different overlays according to the users’ taste, and each motherboard is also equipped with a LED strip header. Dubbed the Z270X-Gaming 9, Z270X-Gaming 8, Z270X-Gaming 7 , Z270X-Gaming K7, Z270X-Gaming 5, and the Z270X-Gaming K5, these Gigabyte Aorus motherboards are quite well-rounded, as you can see after the break.Gigabyte standardized several features across the six boards announced today, with all of them sporting steel plating reinforcements on all of the RAM slots and PCI-E x16 slots, as well as two BIOS chips and support for large VRM heatsinks on all of them. The Gigabyte’s Z270X-Gaming 9 flagship motherboard (the only E-ATX motherboard in the lineup, with the rest being standard ATX) and the slightly lower-end Z270X-Gaming 8 stand to differ from the company’s other Z270 boards thanks to built-in liquid cooling systems (an EKWB solution on the Gaming 9, and a Bitspower one on the Gaming 8). These cover the board’s power regulation circuitry for the board’s power regulation circuitry, and should give them an advantage while overclocking.
Additionally, the Z270X-Gaming 9 also comes with a PEX8747 PLX chip capable of supporting up to 32 PCI-E 3.0 lanes, which can supposedly help in more evenly dividing the CPU’s 16 PCI-E 3.0 lanes to achieve better results while gaming with multiple graphics cards. It also has a Killer DoubleShot X3 Pro, 2x Killer E2500 NICs and a Killer 802.11ac 1535 Wi-Fi chip.
Gigabyte’s top three motherboards also have superior audio thanks to the use of Creative audio codecs (Creative Sound Core 3D ZxRi on the Gaming 9 and Gaming 8, and a Creative Sound Core 3D SBX Pro Studio Audio Suite on the Gaming 7), extra EMI shielding, and additional Nichicon capacitors. Lower-end models should have quality audio still, however, as they also have some degree of EMI shielding and they use Realtek’s new ALC 1220 audio codec (with the Gaming K7 making use of a Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5 in addition to the Realtek ALC 1220).
All of the motherboards support 4x DDR4 DIMMs at up to 4000 MHz, and when it comes to PCIe ports, the Gaming 9 and Gaming 8 make use of 2 x PCIe x1 ports and 4x PCIe x16; and the Z270X-Gaming 7, Z270X-Gaming K7, Z270X-Gaming 5, and the Z270X-Gaming K5 make do with 3x PCIe x1
ports alongside another 3x PCIe x16.
When it comes to ports, the Gaming 9 is expectedly the most packed: 8x SATA-III; 3x SATA Express; 2x M.2 Key M; 2x U.2; 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, and 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A. The Gaming 8 comes in as a close second with 2x less SATA-III ports; and the Z270X-Gaming 7, Z270X-Gaming K7, Z270X-Gaming 5, and Z270X-Gaming K5 carry the same ports as the Gaming 8 except with one less U.2 port.
These motherboards are expected to be released on January 5. Gigabyte did not disclose pricing information.
