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Gigabyte X170-Extreme ECC Motherboard Released – First Intel Thunderbolt 3 C236 Chipset Motherboard

Gigabyte officially announced the Gigabyte X170-EXTREME ECC motherboard recently, the world’s first motherboard to feature Intel Thunderbolt 3 C236 Chipset. The Gigabyte X170-Extreme ECC is geared towards high-end desktop and workstation users that need to use Intel Xeon E3-1200 V5 processors as well as DDR4 ECC memory, aside from the 6th Gen. Intel Skylake CPUs and DDR4 memory. Check out more details of the new GA-X170-Extreme ECC motherboard below.

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Gigabyte X170 Extreme ECC Motherboard

Gigabyte announces that its support for Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 has expanded with the certification of its upcoming GIGABYTE GA-X170-EXTREME ECC motherboard.

The GIGABYTE X170-EXTREME ECC motherboard is the world’s first C236 chipset board to receive Thunderbolt™ 3 certification from Intel, enabling full support for the fastest connectivity protocol on the planet. Compatible with Intel’s Xeon® E3-1200 v5 processor and DDR4 ECC (Error-correcting code) memory, the GA-X170-EXTREME ECC motherboard has what professionals need to do their best work. The addition of Thunderbolt™ 3 makes the motherboard a definite must-have for any high-end desktop system.

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Powered by Intel’s own Thunderbolt™ 3 controller, the new Thunderbolt™ 3 protocol, which is available over a USB Type-C™ connector on the back I/O of select GIGABYTE motherboards including the X170-EXTREME ECC, brings an unprecedented single-wire bandwidth of up to 40 Gb/s — twice more than the previous generation!

Thunderbolt™ 3 over USB Type-C™ supports DisplayPort 1.2, which is able to drive a 4K resolution display at 60 FPS, and revolutionary industry-first features such as power delivery up to 36W, as well as the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices per USB Type-C port.

Support for Thunderbolt™ 3 on the Gigabyte X170-EXTREME ECC motherboard, an industry first for the C236 chipset, means that professionals are no longer constrained by the bottleneck of bandwidth. With the ability to transfer extremely large files – such as raw 4K video – in a manner of seconds, professionals spend less time waiting and more time creating.

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Gigabyte X170-Extreme ECC Key Features:

  • World’s First Intel® Thunderbolt™ 3 Certified C236 Chipset Motherboard
  • Supports the Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v5 processor and 6th Gen. Intel® Core™ i3/ Pentium®/ Celeron® Processor
  • Dual Channel DDR4, 4 DIMMs
  • Intel® USB 3.1 with USB Type-C™ – The World’s Next Universal Connector
  • 3-Way Graphics Support with Exclusive Ultra Durable Metal Shielding over the PCIe Slots
  • Dual PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connectors with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer (PCIe NVMe & SATA SSD support)
  • 3 SATA Express Connectors for up to 16Gb/s Data Transfer
  • HDMI 2.0 for 4K@60Hz and 21:9 aspect ratio provide the finest viewing experience
  • Creative SoundCore™ 3D Gaming Audio
  • Integrated HDMI 2.0 support
  • Killer™ E2400 and Intel®Gaming Networks
  • LED Trace Path with Multi-Color Choice
  • APP Center Including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ Utilities
  • GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ Technology

Gigabyte X170 Extreme ECC Specifications

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CPU
  1. Support for Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v5 processors/Intel® Core™ i3 processors/ Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1151 package
  2. L3 cache varies with CPU

(Please refer “CPU Support List” for more information.)

Chipset
  1. Intel® C236 Chipset
Memory
  1. 4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
    * Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.
  2. Dual channel memory architecture
  3. Support for DDR4 2133 MHz memory modules
  4. Support for ECC UDIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules
    * To support ECC, you must install an Intel® Xeon processor.
  5. Support for non-ECC UDIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules

(Please refer “Memory Support List” for more information.)

Onboard Graphics Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel® HD Graphics support:

  1. 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2304@60 Hz
    * Support for DisplayPort 1.2 version.

Integrated Graphics Processor+MegaChips MCDP2800 chip:

  1. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096×2160@60 Hz
    * Support for HDMI 2.0 version. (Requires the latest Intel® graphics driver from the GIGABYTE website.)

Maximum shared memory of 512 MB

Audio
  1. Creative® Sound Core 3D chip
  2. Support for Sound Blaster Recon3Di
  3. TI Burr Brown® OPA2134 operational amplifier
  4. High Definition Audio
  5. 2/5.1-channel
  6. Support for S/PDIF Out
LAN
  1. 1 x Intel® GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)(LAN1)
  2. 1 x Rivet Networks Killer™ E2400 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)
    * Teaming is not supported.
Expansion Slots
  1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
    * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.
  2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
    * The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When the PCIEX8 slot is populated, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
  3. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
    * The PCIEX4 slot shares bandwidth with the M2H_32G connector. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2H_32G connector.
  4. 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
    (All of the PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
Multi-Graphics Technology
  1. Support for 3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire™ and 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technologies
Storage Interface Chipset:

  1. 2 x M.2 connectors (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA and PCIe x4/x2/x1 SSD support)
    * If the iRSTe Support item in BIOS Setup is set to Enabled, the RAID function will become unavailable when an M.2 PCIe SSD is installed. (Refer to Chapter 2, “BIOS Setup,” “Peripherals,” for more information.)
  2. 3 x SATA Express connectors
  3. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5)
  4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
    * Refer to “1-10 Internal Connectors,” for the supported configurations with the M.2, SATA Express, and SATA connectors.

ASMedia® ASM1061 chip:

  1. 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 6~7), supporting AHCI mode only
USB Chipset:

  1. 5 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel
  2. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset+Renesas® USB 3.0 Hub:

  1. 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (available through the internal USB headers)

Chipset+Intel® USB 3.1 Controller:

  1. 1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.1 support
  2. 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A port (red) on the back panel
Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
  2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
  3. 2 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors
  4. 3 x SATA Express connector
  5. 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  6. 1 x CPU fan header
  7. 1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT)
  8. 3 x system fan headers
  9. 1 x front panel header
  10. 1 x front panel audio header
  11. 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers
  12. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
  13. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
  14. 1 x serial port header
  15. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  16. 1 x power button
  17. 1 x reset button
  18. 1 x Clear CMOS button
  19. 1 x audio gain control switch
  20. Voltage Measurement Points
  21. 1 x BIOS switch
Back Panel Connectors
  1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
  2. 1 x DisplayPort
  3. 1 x HDMI port
  4. 1 x USB Type-C™ port, with USB 3.1 support
  5. 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A port (red)
  6. 5 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
  7. 2 x RJ-45 ports
  8. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  9. 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out, Headphone)
I/O Controller
  1. iTE® I/O Controller Chip
H/W Monitoring
  1. System voltage detection
  2. CPU/System/Chipset temperature detection
  3. CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed detection
  4. CPU/System/Chipset overheating warning
  5. CPU/CPU OPT/System fan fail warning
  6. CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed control
    * Whether the fan speed control function is supported will depend on the cooler you install.
BIOS
  1. 2 x 128 Mbit flash
  2. Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
  3. Support for DualBIOS™
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
Unique Features
  1. Support for APP Center
    * Available applications in APP Center may vary by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also vary depending on motherboard specifications.
    @BIOS
    ON/OFF Charge
  2. Support for Q-Flash
  3. Support for Smart Switch
  4. Support for Xpress Install
Bundle Software
  1. Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)
  2. Intel® Smart Response Technology (Olny for iRST mode)
Operating System
  1. Support for Windows 10/8.1 64-bit
  2. Support for Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit
    * Please download the “Windows USB Installation Tool” from GIGABYTE’s website and install it before installing Windows 7.
Form Factor
  1. ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Remark
  1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
  2. Most hardware/software vendors may no longer offer drivers to support Win9X/ME/2000/XP. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website.
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Author
Peter Paul
Peter is a PC enthusiast and avid gamer with several years of hands-on experience in testing and reviewing PC components, audio equipment, and various tech devices. He offers a genuine, no-nonsense perspective, helping consumers make informed choices in the ever-changing world of technology.

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