Gigabyte Z270X Designare Preview

Gigabyte Z270X Designare Preview

Introduction

As the office slowly fills up with X299 motherboards it is easy to get distracted from the Z270 offerings that are appearing too. If we didn’t know better we’d assume that the big manufacturers are seeking to hog a little bit of the tech limelight that will soon be focussed solely on E3. Either that or they know that summer is the perfect time to release new products. Sorry Little Jimmy, no holiday this year, Daddy needs a new system.

The proliferation of RGB lighting has made big changes to the way that motherboards look. Whereas once they were a whole rainbow of colours, and then a single colour, now they are all monochrome with the lighting providing the colour accents that emphasise your individuality. We are big fans of this sea change, and today’s look is at the Gigabyte Z270X Designare, a motherboard which combines the latest generation of premium Gigabyte motherboards and combines them with the silver PCB that, until now, we’ve only seen on MSI products. 

With the door open to a new corner of the marketplace, let’s see what the Designare brings to the party.

Technical Specifications

Whilst the X99 might be the weapon of choice for those who demand extreme power, and the X299 will soon supplant that, the Z270 is still the motherboard for the majority. Most of us can’t afford the high-end Intel CPUs, and thus the Z270 is the perfect choice, even more so as it supports the earlier 6th Generation CPUs too. So this can be a plug and play upgrade for your current system, something that motherboards rarely are. 

The specifications reads like a what’s what of current motherboard thinking. A plethora of USB 3.1 headers and ports sit alongside M.2 and U.2 connectors to provide you with the very fastest storage around. If you want to extra the maximum bandwidth from your memory then the Designare also supports Intel’s Optane memory, which reduces the length of the trace between the CPU and the memory to extract that last ounce of performance. Add to this an array of fan headers, Gigabytes excellent lighting technology and wrap it all up in a silver PCB and there is much to attract a potential purchaser. Let’s take a closer look.

Gigabyte Z270X Designare Preview Â