GIGABYTE Z170XP-SLI (Intel Z170) Motherboard Review

Z170XP-SLI Circuit Analysis Continued

The audio section is quite interesting because it is in line with more expensive GIGABYTE offerings. For starters, the ALC1150 is utilized along with a Texas Instruments OP1652 and 13x Nippon Chemi-Con audio grade electrolytic capacitors. There are 15x yellow LEDs located on the back of the PCB that illuminate the audio PCB divide. GIGABYTE is also using a Texas Instruments GD75232 drivers and receivers chip for COM port functionality.

GIGABYTE decided to use the Intel i219v Intel LAN implementation instead of cheaper alternatives. Surprisingly this motherboard has a lot of legacy connectivity like LPT and two PCI slots. The two PCI slots are provided by this PCI-E 1x to 2x PCI bridge, the ASMedia ASM1083.

The Z170XP-SLI does carry dual 64Mbit/8MB BIOS ROMs, which is interesting since most ROMs are now 128Mbit, but it doesn't seem to have a negative impact on the UEFI. GIGABYTe decided to use the iTE IT8628E as the SuperIO, which provides legacy connectivity, temperature and voltage monitoring, and fan control.

Four ASMedia ASM1480 quick switches move 8x from the first 16x slot to the second for SLI/CrossFireX. The single ASM1480 all by itself in the image above handles switching bandwidth from the 4x slot to the second 1x slot.

Two level shifters from NXP provide the different digital video outputs on the IO panel.