Skylake-Based Z170 Gaming Mini ITX Motherboard

Mannymal said:
So, I installed the Thunderbolt 3 driver, and now have an icon on my taskbar. Has anyone tried a Thunderbolt 3 device on it? What's the story, does it work perfectly, or is it a roughly patched-on feature?
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what bios version on your mainboard ?

Btw. it's based on the Intel Alpine Ridge chip, nothing like "roughly patched-on".. The Z170N Gaming 5 just lacks the official certification for Thunderbolt 3.
I just got word that my TB2 to TB3 adapter is coming in about two to three weeks; I'm hoping to get my Akitio TB2 case with a Galax/KFA2 GTX 970 to work with that tiny ITX built (NCase M1 case for now, Dan A4 backed on Kickstarter )
 
Notting said:
what bios version on your mainboard ?

Btw. it's based on the Intel Alpine Ridge chip, nothing like "roughly patched-on".. The Z170N Gaming 5 just lacks the official certification for Thunderbolt 3.
I just got word that my TB2 to TB3 adapter is coming in about two to three weeks; I'm hoping to get my Akitio TB2 case with a Galax/KFA2 GTX 970 to work with that tiny ITX built (NCase M1 case for now, Dan A4 backed on Kickstarter )
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The latest (F4?). I just wanna make sure it works perfectly before I jump in and try to use a device in the future.
 
Hello!

Is there any skylake mitx MB with full size miniPCIe slot with pci lines (NOT SATA, also tried some intel 1155 mitx board (DH77DF) with mpcie, but nothing worked)?

currently I'm using Zotac H67-ITX with this adapter PM2 V2.1 (PCI-E / Mini PCI-E adapter) and attached Creative X-fi THD soundcard with flex pcie x1 riser
 
grade86 The GA-B150N-GSM has a MiniPCIe slot which supports WiFi cards. Generally the WiFi cards use PCIe (some use USB, but most PCIe), so I presume that would meet your needs. You can also get M.2 to mPCIe adapters and many of the miniITX boards have both an M.2 on the back for PCIe NVM, but also an M.2 based WiFi card that you can remove which would give you a PCIe lane.
 
Hi guys

I've put so much money into my custom loop, I am now thinking of saving some money with the hardware parts.

I've got an mSATA drive lying on my desk, so I've searched for such a connector on Z170 motherboards and it seems the only one which still have it is the ASROCK Z170M-ITX.
I know this board doesn't have the latest stuff (no m.2 slot, no USB 3.1 or type-c, no TB) but I can live without them.
Adio should also be on the weak side (Realtek ALC892), but I am not too picky with sound quality.

I am also going to spare a few $ in getting the 6700 instead of the 6700k and try to do a BCLK overclock thanks to a modded BIOS.

I see there is no VRM heatsink and only a 4 pins CPU 12V on the Z170M-ITX.
Should I be worried not getting a good overclock because of that?

Any known drawbacks with that board?
Would it be safer to get the Fatal1ty one instead? (no Z170N Gaming 5 available here)
 
BaK2BaK You can get mSATA to M.2 Adapters for next to nothing. With that you would have more choice as there are more motherboards with M.2 slots than mSATA.
 
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Thx for the tip TCWORLD!
mSata is a thing, but I am also interested at the Z170M-ITX as it is about $60 cheaper than the Fatal1ty.

Hard to find reviews of the Z170M-ITX but I found one german user complaining about the board crashing with a [email protected], while this o/c was stable on another board.
So maybe the Fatal1ty will be safer (eight-phase power delivery system instaed of just six, 60A power chokes instead of 45A).
Will see..
 
So i've read talk about the Z270 coming out in November, what's that going to bring to the table?
 
AFAIK Z270 could bring chipset USB 3.1 as well as even more PCIe lanes (and possibly Thunderbolt 3)
 
So it seems like the two best boards are the Fatal1ty and the G1 Gaming, in which it seems like the biggest differences are IO, Intel vs Killer, and 2 Case Fan headers vs possibly Thunderbolt 3. I'd hope that Z270 brings a more complete package of everything, but can't be too sure for now.

Here's hoping we get colors other than red and black.
 
Thank you for all the info TCWORLD!

I just ordered the Asus Pro Gaming from Jet.com but the company that was to do the fulfillment sat on my order for 5 days without doing anything so they refunded it. Then the item had been removed from inventory. I hadn't actually found this thread prior to that order and just went with what was the cheapest but had Intel ethernet and M.2 and reasonable overclock reviews.

So now I'm between the Gaming 5 and the ASrock , I almost go the Fatal1ty but it seems like based on everything that's been said in the last two pages I should just go with the Gaming 5, plus its nearly 30-40$ cheaper. I'm going to suck up that 15%/30$ savings from Jet.com and order with Amazon since I have prime anyway, I'm tired of waiting around for my motherboard to get here..

Has anyone had any experience with the ASrock's ACPI bug thing? Someone on Newegg had 3 CPU's killed by this..this is actually what caused me to refrain from buying this in the first place and led to my hell with ordering that motherboard from Jet.com (Never order from My Goods / Limited Goods and hope they aren't fulfilling your order anywhere!)

Also, am I going to notice a major difference in gaming/streaming/downloading when using Ethernet because of the "Killer" on the Gigabyte? Someone was trash talking it on pcpartpicker but I don't know much so I am swayed easily, lol.
 
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There's nothing wrong with the Killer NICs nowadays. They do offer slightly lower latency at the cost of slightly higher CPU usage, but most users won't notice it. Their software is primarily based around QoS type offerings, but if you don't download and game at the same time, it's a non-issue.

I've used both the Gaming 5 and the ASRock. I like the ASRock layout much better, but the Gaming 5 was a fantastic board while I was using it as well.
 
Now that the Thunderbolt driver has been released for the GA-Z170N-Gaming-5...
Has anyone here tested plugging in a (4K) DisplayPort monitor into the Type-C/Thunderbolt port using an adapter ? (or dock for that matter?)

Any feedback much appreciated! -JT
 
There is a new BIOS for the Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5, version F5. But it's only on the Gigabyte APP Center update utility for Windows. And it has no changelog. Their website does not list this BIOS, and I can't find anything about it. Anyone has any idea? I'm gonna hold off installing it because my system is rock solid.
 
Mannymal The F5 bios is on the website, but under the new rev1.1 version of the board. Looks like they upgraded the LAN PHY from the E2201 to the E2400 on the new revisions.
 
TCWORLD said:
Mannymal The F5 bios is on the website, but under the new rev1.1 version of the board. Looks like they upgraded the LAN PHY from the E2201 to the E2400 on the new revisions.
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Thanks. I don't see any indication that my board is this new revision (purchased in May) so I'll just keep the F4 BIOS.
 
Mannymal said:
Thanks. I don't see any indication that my board is this new revision (purchased in May) so I'll just keep the F4 BIOS.
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I don't think the 1.1 are actually available to buy. probably soon, though. Due to the bios showing up. I just bought one of these boards a few days ago and could only find the rev. 1.0. Newegg, Ebay, Amazon, etc.
 
Mannymal said:
Thanks. I don't see any indication that my board is this new revision (purchased in May) so I'll just keep the F4 BIOS.
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Printed on the board, under the lever for the CPU clamp, should be the killer LAN which your board has. 22xx for rev 1.0 and 24xx for rev 1.1
 
Given that all the documentation/manuals and the actual link to the rev 1.1 version of the board only appeared mid June, its safe to say you have the rev 1.0 if you ordered it in may.
 
TCWORLD said:
Given that all the documentation/manuals and the actual link to the rev 1.1 version of the board only appeared mid June, its safe to say you have the rev 1.0 if you ordered it in may.
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I disabled the Killer NIC bloat, err, "features", by installing a standard Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 driver, so this "upgrade" is irrelevant to me :)
 
Mannymal I might just do that too. For a while now its been taking 2-3mins for IE or Firefox to load the first time, and pages were 5-10 seconds to load than my old board despite high speed internet. After you mentioned that software, I've just gone and looked at the Killer app (haven't looked a it until now) and disabled bandwidth control, and miraculously webpages now load in less than a second. Teamviewer also connects now in half the time it took before. Man that software is living up to its name - performance killer. Pretty much the only thing that was annoying me about the new computer has now been fixed.
 
TCWORLD said:
Mannymal I might just do that too. For a while now its been taking 2-3mins for IE or Firefox to load the first time, and pages were 5-10 seconds to load than my old board despite high speed internet. After you mentioned that software, I've just gone and looked at the Killer app (haven't looked a it until now) and disabled bandwidth control, and miraculously webpages now load in less than a second. Teamviewer also connects now in half the time it took before. Man that software is living up to its name - performance killer. Pretty much the only thing that was annoying me about the new computer has now been fixed.
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Here you go:
Guide: Turn your Killer E2200 NIC into Qualcomm Atheros AR8161

It works perfectly as a vanilla Atheros adapter. I skip bloat whenever I can.
 
You can just install the killer nic driver only. they have it posted right in the downloads page, for the board. I wonder how it compares to that atheros driver?

*woops, mistake. ***You can get the driver only, from the killer site:

Killer Networking - Standard Drivers
 
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chameleoneel The only download I see for the LAN is "BigFoot LAN driver". That's what I installed - it sticks all the Killer stuff on whether you want it or not.
 
chameleoneel Nice, I'll probably go for that one then. Or just leave it as is for now with the extra stuff disabled. Not as if there is a shortage of HDD space.
 
Any news when the Rev 1.1 will come out to retailers? It seems like it was a very silent release.
 
DrRetina said:
Nobody tried a thunderbolt 3 device on the Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 yet?
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I installed the driver----but no thunderbolt devices : \

I just got this thing all built into a rebranded Raijintek Metis. Clean build, no first boot problems. i3 6100 CPU. It came with the F3 bios. I flashed to F4, no issues.
XMP worked instantly, with the Team Group DDR4 3000 ram. Ran a couple of games and handbraked a video capture from said games, to test temps.

I installed the driver only, for the Killer 2200. No software suite. Seems to be a NIC. Downloads worked fine.
 
Ok, so my ram's XMP profile works great. But, I can't seem to manually change the latency values. XMP or not. Anyone else with the GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 able to adjust individual latency values, for their ram?
 
Anyone have the Asus z170i and higher speed DDR4? Planning on 2x8GB DDR4 3200 with CL18 or lower at a max of 1.35v.

Or the Gigabyte z170n? I see a post above with DDR4 3000 working. Also how "annoying" is the USB3 internal header really on this?
 
limitedaccess The USB3 header on the GA-Z170N is in a bit of an awkward place, but it doesn't really matter that much - its pretty easy to bend the USB3 cable so that it runs neatly out to the edge of the board.
 
limitedaccess said:
Or the Gigabyte z170n? I see a post above with DDR4 3000 working. Also how "annoying" is the USB3 internal header really on this?
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The USB 3 connector is just clear of my NH-L9x65. If your CPU cooler complies with the Intel no-fly-zone it should be fine. (barely)
 
limitedaccess said:
Anyone have the Asus z170i and higher speed DDR4? Planning on 2x8GB DDR4 3200 with CL18 or lower at a max of 1.35v.

Or the Gigabyte z170n? I see a post above with DDR4 3000 working. Also how "annoying" is the USB3 internal header really on this?
Click to expand...

this is the ram I am using with the Gigabyte z170n: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3&cm_re=team_ddr4_3000-_-20-313-633-_-Product

I am using a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU heatsink, in a rebranded Raijintek Metis. If the heatsink is oriented for push/pull from the rear intake/exhaust, you cannot plug the USB 3 into the motherboard. Even without fans on the heatsink. The cable in my case is also quite thick and stiff. bending it sharply didn't seem like a good idea. for the cable or the motherboard. I reinstalled the heatsink so that it is pushing upward, toward the video card.
 
chameleoneel said:
this is the ram I am using with the Gigabyte z170n: Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Desktop Memory Model TLRED416G3000HC15ADC01 - Newegg.com

I am using a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU heatsink, in a rebranded Raijintek Metis. If the heatsink is oriented for push/pull from the rear intake/exhaust, you cannot plug the USB 3 into the motherboard. Even without fans on the heatsink. The cable in my case is also quite thick and stiff. bending it sharply didn't seem like a good idea. for the cable or the motherboard. I reinstalled the heatsink so that it is pushing upward, toward the video card.
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Hmmm, looking to use the same HSF for the time being anyways and I don't want to open the top fan ports on my current case for noise/dust reasons. Case will be much larger though with the Fractal R3. Holding off on the case swap and possible HSF swap later in the year (holiday sales season).

Looks like if I go ITX it'll come down to the Asus z170i Pro Gaming vs the Gigabyte z170n Gaming 5. If mATX it'll be the Gigabyte z170mx Gaming 5.
 
limitedaccess said:
Anyone have the Asus z170i and higher speed DDR4? Planning on 2x8GB DDR4 3200 with CL18 or lower at a max of 1.35v.

Or the Gigabyte z170n? I see a post above with DDR4 3000 working. Also how "annoying" is the USB3 internal header really on this?
Click to expand...

I've got the Asus z170i and some DDR4 2400 is working great with XMP. On my board the USB3 header is on the right side of the board, where it belongs.
 
Amazon has Revision 1.1 of the Gigabyte Z170n, which comes with the Killer LAN 2400, instead of the 2200. I know, because I bought another board and they sent me a revision 1.1.
 
Would it be possible for someone located in the USA to send in a mail order from the post office to Asrock for an I/O shield on behalf of myself? (As I am not located in the USA and they do not take online payments)
I/O shields are $5 per, so it is not a 'large' amount of money by any means.
 
Akitio have released a thunderbolt 3 to PCIe box. Been waiting for something like this to finally be available at a reasonable price (I think this will be a shade under $300). Once somewhere like Amazon picks it up I'm going to buy one and can then finally test if the TBT3 works on the GIgabyte board.
 
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