GIGABYTE Z170-SOC Force Motherboard Pictured

Here are some of the first pictures of GIGABYTE's flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard targeted at professional overclockers, the Z170-SOC Force. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, this board offers strong CPU and memory VRM, and yet offers a connectivity loadout that's in league with "gaming" class motherboards. To begin with, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX, and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. A 24-phase VRM powers the CPU, its heatsink features preparation for liquid cooling. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots (supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory).

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16/NC/NC/x4 or x8/NC/x8/x4 or x8/x4/x4/x4); and three PCI-Express 3.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 slots (32 Gb/s), three SATA-Express 16 Gb/s ports, and a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (two type-A, from which one converts to type-C if it's populated), eight USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by header), and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports, including two type-A ports near the SATA ports (could help serve as "front-panel" ports in bench-type case setups). Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort (which likely also means availability of Thunderbolt 20 Gb/s). Gigabit Ethernet and GIGABYTE's latest generation Amp-Up audio solution make for the rest of it. A plethora of onboard OC control options are available. Find more pictures at the source.

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