Final Words & Conclusion
Final words & conclusion
You know I've stated in my Kaby Lake review already, Intel is releasing roughly the same quad-core processor series released year after year in nearly the same performance bracket. Kaby Lake is once again a quad-core processor with minor tweaks, slightly higher turbos and a processor that can tweak to the 5 GHz domain. All in all not bad but let's face it - clock for clock these processors all roughly perform the same. Starting at Sandy-Bridge and the Core i5 2500 / Core i7 2600 series released in January 2011 the IPS has increased something in the line of maybe 25%, the rest is all based on the clock frequencies where you can find the extra performance, not the architecture, but even then... it's all very relative when you accumulate it all.
As such its once again the motherboard manufacturers that will need to save the day. Gigabyte did a terrific job with the Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 as reviewed today, but the enhancements are mainly aesthetically and as such the new Z270 series are going to be a very hard sell unless you haven't upgraded your OC for years. The new 200 chipset on its end is hardly different over the series 100 either. If you pick the Z270 series you will gain a few PCI-Express lanes and the ability to connect Intel Optane, which 0.00001% of you will buy. That's pretty much it.
So the primary reason for you guys upgrade would be aesthetic enhancements and a few improvements here and there. The Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 for example offers two M.2. slots. Optane and SATA Express obviously nobody cares about. With the Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 comes a nicely designed motherboard though. It does resemble and hints a little towards the ASUS TUF Sabertooth series though. But the differences are there. Where the product series will shine is the RGB LED functionality, but surely that alone cannot be a reason enough to upgrade from Z170 ?
Performance & tweaking
The overall performance for this Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 motherboard with a Core i5 I'd rate as "good" for the results as tested with a Core i5 7600K. Temps remain very acceptable (depending on choice of cooling) and temperatures when the CPU is overclocked with added voltage definitely seem to be a notch better opposed to Haswell and Skylake. We have been able to reach 5.0 GHz stable enough on liquid cooling. At that level you are looking at 1.30 up-to 1.35V needed on that CPU core.
Power consumption
If we step back and take the Intel reference board with a Sandy Bridge processor (2600K) without a dedicated graphics card, that platform idled at roughly 50 Watts. Once we stress the processor 100% on that platform we'd see ~120 Watts power consumption. With Kaby Lake (7600K) we noticed roughly 45 Watts in idle and 100 Watts with processor load at 100%. Things again remain relative.
The bottom line
If you have not upgraded for years, Kaby Lake and a Z270 COULD be an attractive alternative. The Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 is a little marvel really, loaded with features and extras. But it is the processors that Intel offers that will put sales on a halt as a Core i7 2600K is merely 20% slower opposed to the 7600K Kaby Lake processor tested today. And remember, any Intel Core K model processor you have purchased in the past 3 or 4 years can easily be tweaked to the same performance levels as they all clock in the 4 to 5 GHz ranges. There's nothing wrong with the Core i5 7600K of course, but it's just more and more and more of the same. Gigabyte did and gave it their best though with the Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 you'll retrieve lovely sound as they embedded a Creative Labs Core 3D audio solution with accompanying SBX Pro Studio audio suite as well as RGB fusion. Yes of course this motherboard takes part in the RGB hype that has found its way into pretty much any PC component that you can plug into something. Obviously there is a lot more going on, what we like for example s that this motherboard offers both a Killer E2500 and Intel Gigabit LAN connector, so you can choose whichever one you prefer. We however sorely miss AC WIFI and hey ... why hasn't the industry moved to 10 Gbit Ethernet jacks anno 2016 just yet? These two lacking features are a bit of a missed opportunity IMHO. In the end the Gigabyte GA-Z270X Gaming 7 is terrific, a stable well designed platform with nice BIOS functions and a lot of bling. If you feel your system is outdated and you would like features such as USB 3.1, more SATA3 ports, better audio, hey that's where Kaby Lake with a Z270 motherboard can make sense. But your urge and need to upgrade; needs to be hard and justified though.
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