Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 Ultra Durable Motherboard Review: Affordable, Uncompromising

by Shawn Sanders — Friday, February 05, 2016, 11:30 AM EDT

Z170X-UD5 Summary & Conclusion

Page 8: Z170X-UD5 Summary & Conclusion

Performance Summary: What's not to like about this scrappy little board? The Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 has proven it can pay to be frugal. The board offers up uncompromising performance equal to or better than more expensive motherboards on the market. It may not be weighted down with as many features as a $400-$500 board, but all of the necessities are there for building a high performance system. Still, we were surprised at the sheer scope of options and features offered on what is a relatively affordable Z170 motherboard.

You get cutting edge goodies like dual Gen3 x4 M.2 connectors, Thunderbolt 3.0 add-in card support, and USB 3.1 + Type-C governed by an Extreme Intel USB 3.1 controller. There's also DualBIOS and Dual Intel GbE LAN with configurable cFos. The number of SATA ports (11x) are adequate--though builders should note: two are sacrificed if connecting to an external USB 3.1 add-in bay or similar. Right on the mobo you have support for USB 3.1 via Intel's USB 3.1/Thunderbolt 3.0 controller. Gamers are not left out either, thanks to the 2-Way NVIDIA SLI and 3-Way AMD CrossFire support using the boards three PCI-E connectors.

Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 - Find It At Amazon, Currently $189

The Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 ran mostly without a hitch--outside of the OC struggles we encountered beyond 4.7GHz, but that was to be expected with our cooling setup and our particular CPU. The system continued to run smooth and stable through our benchmark gauntlet with no hiccups, BSODs, system freezing or crashes at stock or stable overclocked speeds. Again, we're not fans of the drab BIOS environment and the board could benefit from a few more fan headers. Nonetheless, the overall layout of the system components as well as its DualBIOS are clean, well-labeled and intuitive to navigate.

Pricing: But really we're splittling hairs. At this low-cost of entry ($189.99) we couldn't ask for a better performing board.

The Gigabyte Z170X-UD5 Ultra Durable motherboard is sharp and stylish without being obnoxious, plus it goes the distance against more costly competition and ships with a small army of tuning options, both in the BIOS and at the desktop via the included software utilities CD. Its low cost and excellent performance make it a great board for cost-conscious students, gamers, overclockers and digital content creation professionals looking to build a system featuring an Intel Skylake-based CPU.


High-performance @Sub-$200 Dual Gen3 M.2 connectors Onboard USB 3.1 support + Type-C port 2-Way SLI & 3-WayCrossFireX Onboard DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort UEFI BIOS is clean and intuitive Competitive price	Limited multi-GPU support No BIOS GUI for system fans No WiFi support No Bluetooth support