Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3, Intel Z370 Motherboard - Socket 1151 [Z370 AORUS GAMING K3]

The Z370 chipset is a refresh of the "Kaby Lake" chip sets, which also has a maximum of 24 PCI Express 3.0 lanes and sufficient HSIO lanes (High Speed I / O) brings to several internal connections ( such as SATA or PCIe slots) to be able to use simultaneously. As a Z370 motherboard, the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3 also enables overclocking of K Series CPUs with a freely selectable multiplier.

The features of the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3 at a glance:
- 2 × PCIe (3.0) x16 (x16 / x4) & 4 × PCIe x1
- 2 × USB 3.1 / 8 × USB 3.0 / 6 × USB 2.0
- 2 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 × 4) / 6 × SATA 6G
- Supports max. 64 GB DDR4 RAM up to 4,000 MHz (OC)
- Integrated LED lighting with Gigabyte RGB Fusion support
- Simple overclocking of the CPU by multiplier

The Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3 in detail
The Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming K3 is a top-of-the-line ATX motherboard powered by Intel's Z370 chipset, designed for Intel's 8000 series core processors. The board has a total of two PCIe x16 slots, one of which is connected to the chipset with a full 16 lanes, while the other is connected with four data lines. As a result, the board supports AMD's CrossFireX technology, providing the ability to run multiple graphics cards simultaneously. For plug-in and expansion cards, the board also has four PCIe x1 slots.

Equipped with a total of four DIMM slots for DDR4 memory in fast dual-channel mode, up to 64 GB of RAM can be installed in the four memory banks. The Coffee Lake processors support a memory clock of 2.666 MHz, whereby overclocking also allows memory modules with up to 4000 MHz to be used.

The board provides two M.2 slots for ultra-fast NVMe M.2 SSDs and six SATA 6G ports for 3.5 "or 2.5" hard drives and SSDs to connect disks (including RAID support). The M.2 ports are connected to the chipset via four PCIe lanes in the 3.0 standard and, in combination with the NVMe protocol, enable a data transfer rate of almost 4 GB / s. This makes M.2 PCIe SSDs up to eight times faster than SATA 6G SSDs!

At the I / O panel, the motherboard has a new Type-C USB 3.1 port, which is very thin and can finally be plugged in on both sides. In addition to the Type-C port, the motherboard also provides a backwards-compatible USB 3.1 Type A port. USB 3.1 ports are twice as fast as conventional USB 3.0 ports with maximum speeds of 10 Gbps! For input devices and other gaming peripherals, the I / O panel also has four more USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. In addition to a Gigabit LAN port, this board has six 3.5 mm jack plugs, which ensure proper 7.1 sound thanks to the Realtek ALC1220 codec.

If you do not have a graphics card, you can connect a Coffee Lake CPU monitor directly to the back of the motherboard thanks to the integrated graphics processor - HDMI and DVI-D provide two ports for this. The internal connection diversity also has a considerable equipment and offers various connections for USB, fans, LEDs and more. Of course, a RGB LED lighting must not be missing, which is why this board has several lighting zones and can be illuminated in breathtaking fashion. With Gigabyte RGB Fusion, these LEDs can also be synchronized with other components.

Technical details:
- Format:ATX (305 x 244 mm)
- chipset:Intel Z370
- Base:1151 (for Intel CPUs of the 8th core generation ("Coffee Lake")
- R.A.M:
- 4 × DDR4 (Coffee Lake: DDR4-2.666, 64 GB maximum, OC 4,000 MHz max)
- Dual-Channel
Slots (physical):
- 1 × PCIe 3.0 x16
- 1 × PCIe 3.0 x16 (electric x4)
- Compatible multi-VGA configurations: 2-Way AMD CrossFireX
- 4 × PCIe x1
Internal connections:
- 6 × SATA 6G (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)
- 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4 & SATA; 2242/2260/2280/22110)
- 1 × M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4; 2242/2260/2280)
- 4 × USB 3.0 (two - headers)
- 4 × USB 2.0 (two headers)
- 5 × fan headers
- 1 × TPM header
- 1 × Thunderbolt Add-In Card Connector
- 2 × RGBW header (5-pin)
- 2 × Digital LED Strip Header (3-pin)
- 2 × Digital LED Strip Power Select Jumper
- 1 × front panel header
- 1 × front panel audio header
- 1 × Clear CMOS jumper
- 1 × S / PDIF-out header
External connections:
- 1 × PS / 2 keyboard / mouse
- 2 × USB 3.1 (1 × Type A and Type C each)
- 4 × USB 3.0
- 2 × USB 2.0
- 1 × HDMI
- 1 × DVI-D
- 1 × Gigabit LAN (Intel GbE)
- 6 × audio (Realtek ALC1220 codec)
Power supply:
- 1 × 24 pin
- 1 × 8 pin