GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Motherboard Review
Thermal Imaging and Power Consumption
System power is measured at the wall with an AC power meter.

Note on Thermal Images: In the temperature section, we use our Seek thermal imaging camera to capture the surface temperatures of major components on the board. I look at the VRM and then all other things that light up the screen. If there is something to worry about, then I will state it. Otherwise, I will just show the hotter running parts of the board for fun. Unless some component is over 80-90C, then there isn't anything to worry about.
All systems will act differently, so I will look for commonalities, such as how far from the VRM the heat spreads through the PCB and the difference in temperature between the front side and backside of the PCB. Keep in mind, the majority of the heat from the VRM goes into the PCB as it is a giant soldered on copper heat sink. A larger difference in temperature between the back and front of the PCB points towards a more effective heat sink.
Thermal Testing at Stock Speeds:
The image on the left is always at idle, and the image on the right is at load. During ALL TESTS, fans above the VRM that cool the CPU cooler's (Corsair H110i GT) radiator are turned on to high (12v).
Full frontal.
Up-close of the front of the VRM.
Up-close of the back of the VRM.
Thermal Testing at 4.8GHz Overclocked Speeds:
The image on the left is always at idle, and the image on the right is at load. During ALL TESTS, fans above the VRM that cool the CPU cooler's (Corsair H110i GT) radiator are turned on to high (12v).
Full frontal.
Up-close of the front of the VRM.
Up-close of the back of the VRM.
The Z270X-Designare's thermal performance is surprising considering the motherboard only has a four phase VRM. It looks like the VRM is decent in performance as the motherboard's VRM didn't hit very high temperatures or keep the CPU overclock back.
Anything under 60C is great, 60-80C is acceptable, and anything above 80C is a bit worrisome (if at stock).
PRICING: You can find the product discussed for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link below to see real-time pricing for the best deal:
United States: The GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Motherboard retails for $XXX at Amazon.
United Kingdom: The GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Motherboard retails for £XXX at Amazon UK.
Canada: The GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Motherboard retails for $XXX CAD at Amazon Canada.
- Page 1 [Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing]
- Page 2 [Packaging and Z270X-Designare Overview]
- Page 3 [GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Circuit Analysis]
- Page 4 [GIGABYTE Z270X-Designare Circuit Analysis Continued]
- Page 5 [BIOS and Software]
- Page 6 [Test System Setup]
- Page 7 [Overclocking]
- Page 8 [CPU, Memory, and System Benchmarks]
- Page 9 [System IO Benchmarks]
- Page 10 [Thermal Imaging and Power Consumption]
- Page 11 [What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts]
Recommended for You
- We at TweakTown openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion of our content. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here.
Related Tags
Latest News Posts
- Dbrands Nintendo Switch skins guarantee no damage to device
- PowerColor teases Radeon RX Vega Nano prototype
- AMD teases Ryzen 7 2800X, could be a 10C/20T beast at 4GHz+
- Xbox One could soon have 120Hz high refresh rate option
- Valve picks up Campo Santo, Firewatch developer
Forum Activity
- FS 40 Pieces Samsung Galaxy S9+ (www.BizFests.com) 128GB $8,520
- Legacy Mode
- Possible Router Issues
- ADATA Premier Memory Cards
- Can't complete BIOS recovery
Press Releases
- Micron Launches Industry's First Enterprise SATA Solid State Drives Built on Leading 64-layer 3D NAND Technology
- Micron, Rambus, Northwest Logic and Avery Design to Deliver a Comprehensive GDDR6 Solution for Next-Generation Applications
- Toshiba Memory America Unveils UFS Devices Utilizing 64-Layer, 3D Flash Memory
- ASUS Announces GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Series Gaming Graphics Cards
- ASUS Announces ASUS Hangouts Meet Hardware Kit