EVGA Z170 FTW (Intel Z170) Motherboard Review

BIOS

EVGA's UEFI is quite functional and has some nice surprises. Compared to their X99 offering, I would say that the Z170 UEFI is more refined and I liked the simplistic nature of its design. The GUI at the top is kind of more for show than anything else, made to look like a gear shift; it provides live statistics on the motherboard.

I like how EVGA has provided most everything required for overclocking on one page and in a very simple format. You chose the multiplier, BLCK, and voltages and select if you want vdroop enabled or disabled. It doesn't provide precise LLC control, but it does provide enough to get rid of the vdroop that is standard in Intel processors. Fan control is also very good; EVGA provides the ability to select if the fan headers will be PWM or DC controlled, and then provides presets or customization depending on which headers you are plugged into. EVGA has put a lot of effort into their UEFI, and it is able to compete with the UEFIs from bigger vendors.

Software

EVGA provided their E-LEET Tuning Utility which provides monitoring and overclocking in Windows. It does use CPU-Z as well, but the Brink-OC feature which was so sought after in the X58 days isn't present in the Z170 version. The software is fully functional, except that voltage control isn't working in the release I had. I do wish that EVGA would bring back Brink-OC, which would automatically grab a CPU-Z validation every time the CPU multiplier was changed.