Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 Test Setup
I tested the Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 ITX motherboard with an Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake processor. The full specifications of the system I used are listed below.
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61
Memory: Patriot Viper Elite DDR4 16GB (2x8GB)
Graphics card: Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Edition
Storage Drives: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB, Klevv Urbane SSD 960GB, Seagate Enterprise 8TB HDD
Power Supply: Seasonic 1050W Platinum
Chassis: DimasTech Bench Table Easy V3.0
Below are CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots of the system at stock CPU speed and XMP Profile enabled.
Please note that the motherboard’s performance is as good as the other components you install on it. Don’t expect that the Z170N-Gaming 5 will make your system perform way faster compared to other Z170 motherboards with the same components installed.
Overclocking with Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5
There are no OC buttons of the Z170N-Gaming 5, so the easiest way to overclock the system is via tweaking its BIOS settings or using the App Center. I tried to overclock the Intel Core i7-6700K by tweaking its BIOS settings. I was able to reach a clock speed of 4.7GHz just like with the Z170X Gaming 7.
Unfortunately, at 4.7GHz with 1.45 volts, the system wasn’t stable at all. It was able to finish some benchmarks, but it wasn’t able to finish all of the benchmarks I have in queue. Below are the results I got from AIDA64’s cache and memory benchmark and GPGPU benchmark.
I also tried to run the system at 4.6GHz and 4.5GHz, but it would crash after running other benchmark tests. Perhaps overclocking is not a forte of the Z170N-Gaming 5. I wasn’t really expecting that it would overclock well considering there are fewer components installed on this motherboard and not to mention, it’s a gaming motherboard and not an overclocking motherboard.
The DDR4 memory I used probably might have also caused some instability, and I may update this review in the future if ever I found a good CPU / memory combination that would make the system running stable at overclocked speeds. For now I’ll just have to settle with the stock speeds. Continue on the next page for the benchmark results of the Gigabyte Z170N-Gaming 5 ITX motherboard.
I run the same motherboard(Ga-Z170N Gaming 5) and Cpu (intel 6700k) and I have it overclocked to 4.91ghz at 1.47V and it has ran with perfect stability for the last week through several stress tests with CPUZ, Several benchmarks on Geekbench, and several passmark benchmarks. I think you got a poor silicon sample.
Lucky you! No, my 6700k is not a sample, it’s a retail one we bought. I wasn’t really expecting that it would overclock high though. Getting a CPU with good overclocking potential is not a guarantee. Lucky for those who got ES or CPU direct from Intel.
And I think it is the same case with Kaby Lake. Not all i7-7700k will go up to 5GHz easily as claimed by other reviewers, they got ES so I’m not surprised about it. Some people I know who bought retail 7700k are struggling to get even 4.9Ghz stable.
What I mean by silicon sample is just the small amount of silicon they used for your chip in your batch, Ive always just called it a silicon sample. Yeah as far as I’ve seen accross the internet most I7-6700k chips average at 4.5ghz so Im very happy with my chip.
That makes me less frustrated with the fact that I did not look for any new upcoming chips when I bought mine and so I bought mine after the 7700k had come out at the same price point. lol
Im personally very curious to see if manufacturers are able to resolve the large gap between the performance of the lowest quality chips and the highest. Hopefully at some point they will come out with better consistency.