When comparing ASRock FATAL1TY Z170 GAMING K4 vs Gigabyte LGA 1151 GA-Z170X-Gaming G1, the Slant community recommends ASRock FATAL1TY Z170 GAMING K4 for most people. In the question“What are the best Intel LGA 1151 motherboards for gaming?” ASRock FATAL1TY Z170 GAMING K4 is ranked 2nd while Gigabyte LGA 1151 GA-Z170X-Gaming G1 is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose ASRock FATAL1TY Z170 GAMING K4 is:
The board is able to overclock non K series Intel CPUs, which is helpful for those that want to overclock but do not have a K series chip.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Good overclocking controls
The board is able to overclock non K series Intel CPUs, which is helpful for those that want to overclock but do not have a K series chip.
Pro Good built in sound
The board supports 7.1 digital surround sound with great clarity, which is great for games that support it as it is can be helpful to gameplay when hearing sounds in certain directions.
Pro Audio as good as a discrete card
This board has a built in quad core audio processor as well as a high end 127dB DAC. This allows for a 192kHz/24-bit audio signal.
Pro Good USB options
This board supports USB 3.1 type A and C meaning it is pretty future proof as well as versatile due to all of the options USB C connections allow.
Cons
Con Somewhat flimsy
The board itself feels thin and flimsy which may cause issue when trying to mount as it could break. This also can cause some vibration of the board when using 3rd party coolers.
Con Not a full ATX board
Even though it is described as an ATX board, the size is not as big, which may cause some mounting issues depending on the case being used.
Con Poor software
Starting with the BIOS, it is not very intuitive and takes a lot of poking around in order to learn what all of the features are. On top of this, many error codes are not listed on Gigabytes site or anywhere else, leaving the user guessing when one crops up.
The other issue with software is the bundled apps that work on the desktop, they have memory leaks and are prone to crashing, making for an overall poor experience and support when it comes to the supplied software.
Con Too many shared PCIe lanes
If the user wishes to use two M.2 slots at the same time, this will disable two of the Sata Express ports. So proper planning is required depending on what hardware one wants to use that are PCIe compatible. This can be much time spent on research, which some may not want to invest.