Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 7 Review

Up Close

Packaging design is very much a matter of personal taste, but we have to confess we’re delighted to see a return to a black background on the Gigabyte box, rather than the white one of recent years. The Z270X Gaming 7 is unquestionably an eye-catcher with a bold logo on the front and clearly laid out feature set on the obverse. Accessories are a fairly standard mix of SATA cables, identifying stickers and velcro cable ties, although it’s worth highlighting the high bandwidth SLI bridge that is included in the box – perfect for those of you who seek to maximise their frame rates or benchmark scores.

It appears that every Z270 motherboard is arriving equipped with bracing for both the DIMM and PCI Express slots and the Gaming 7 is no exception. The combination of the black PCB with the shiny slot bracing and bright white Aorus heatsink really looks the business. We love it. Very very attractive indeed. Something of a surprise is the lack of a dedicated water pump header around the CPU socket. A lot of the latest motherboards have one and we expected to find one here. Beyond that minor issue though there are headers strewn across the silicon ensuring you can always plug a fan in to the most ergonomic spot.