Gigabyte Z87X-OC Review
Published by Marc Büchel on 28.06.13Page:
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The first
impression the Z87X-OC from Gigabyte leaves, makes us want more.
We like the individual design of this board, which actually follows the
original X58A-OC as well as the Z77X-UD7. The Z87X-OC is a motherboard that really targets extreme overclockers, but nevertheless Gigabyte succeeded in crafting a product that is equally attractive to the guys handling LN2 or watercooling/aircooling setups. Both worlds will be able to squeeze the maximum out of their systems using this board. |
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Design - 4 x PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - onboard standard USB ports - Price |
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| Layout | + | - | |
| Basically the Gigabyte Z87X-OC's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. There is also a debug display which is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Right next to the SATA ports you find two standard USB ports which are very practical during overclocking. Should you own a case where the front USB ports are connected with a standard USB cable instead of an onboard USB 3.0 connector, then you don't have to route this cable to the I/O panel anymore. Even the placement of the PCI-Express x16 is well chosen. There is a total of four of these slots. Between two slots there is always one empty slot. We think this is a good number of PCI Express x16 slots for an overclocking/gaming motherboard altough most gamers will never use four graphics cards in their build. But still it leaves you with plenty of options if you want to plug in other expansion cards. Overclockers will also like the voltage readouts as well as the OC Brace. | -
Angled SATA
connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Space around the CPU socket - Voltage readouts - OC Buttons |
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| Performance | + | - | |
| A closer look at our average performance values regarding 3D as well as 2D shows that we can find this board concerning 3D on the fourth spot and when it comes to 2D the Gigabyte Z87X-OC can be found in the center span of our comparison tables. Overall we see that this board, when compared with offers from competitors, is doing really well, when it comes to 3D tasks, while it could do a bit better regarding 2D. Furthermore there are no performance glitches with this board and you wont find any weird surprises regarding performance. Another aspect where this board does surprisingly well is the power consumption part of this review. We see that this board is able to score in the top half of our leaderboard. For an overclocking motherboard with plenty of features, this is a great result. | - 3D Performance - Power Consumption |
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| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| The Z87X-OC is the brainchild of Gigabyte's overclocker "HiCookie". If you load the BIOS for the first time this becomes very clear. The first thing you'll see is a splash screen where you find most of the settings relevant for overclocking. Furthermore there are lots of different presets which make overclocking easier for unexperienced users. Overall the BIOS is excellent and it's a joy working with this board. | - Well structured BIOS - Overclocking Features
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you're looking for an excellent motherboard for overclocking, then the Gigabyte Z87X-OC is the perfect choice. Furthermore Gigabyte somehow manages to hit an exceptional price point, which makes this board even more interesting. Everything together this is one of the very few boards to achive our five star award. | - Overclocking - Gaming PC - Enthusiast |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the Gigabyte Z87X-OC excellent five out of five stars. | |||
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Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
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