Motherboard Overview »
Gigabyte has one of the largest selections of X99 motherboards. A quick search on their website yields a result of 16 motherboards across three lines. Gigabyte recently released their Champion series. The Champion series of motherboards include four models and have been designed to get the most performance out of your CPU and Memory. This series features extra gold plating on the CPU Socket, DIMM slots, and PCIe slots. Everything that has been done to these boards is for the purpose of getting you the maximum overclock. The board we are reviewing is the Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P which is replacing the Gigabyte Gaming 5. This board is geared towards gamers, as the name suggests and features items such as high quality audio, 4-way multi-GPU, and ambient LED lighting.
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The Gigabyte Eye dominates the front of the box on the Gaming 5P. On the rear of the box, you will find practically all the information you are looking for about this motherboard. The back of the box get into more detail about the board and its features as well as an overview of the board and the rear I/O.

Inside, you will find the box is separated into two compartments. The top compartment contains all the accessories that ship with the motherboard such as SATA cable, Rear I/O shield, etc. In the lower compartment you will find the motherboard safely wrapped in an anti static bag.
Gigabyte didn’t skimp out with the included accessories. Included in the box are: rear LED lit I/O Shield, 2-way Crossfire bridge, 2, 3, and 4-way SLI bridges, 1 to 3 power cable, 6 sleeved SATA connectors, a quick installation guide and user manual and a driver and software installation CD.

CPU |
- Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors in the LGA2011-3 package
- L3 cache varies with CPU
(Please refer “CPU Support List” for more information.) |
Chipset |
- Intel® X99 Express Chipset
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Memory |
- 8 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 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.
- 4 channel memory architecture
- Support for DDR4 3333(O.C.) / 3200(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2133 MHz memory modules
- Support for non-ECC memory modules
- Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
- Support for RDIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx4/2Rx4 memory modules (operates in non-ECC mode)
(Please refer “Memory Support List” for more information.) |
Audio |
- Creative® Sound Core 3D chip
- Support for Sound Blaster Recon3Di
- TI Burr Brown® OPA2134 operational amplifier
- High Definition Audio
- 2/5.1-channel
- Support for S/PDIF Out
|
LAN |
- Qualcomm® Atheros Killer E2201 LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
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Expansion Slots |
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIE_1/PCIE_2)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIE_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIE_1 and PCIE_2 slots.
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIE_3/PCIE_4)
* The PCIE_4 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIE_1 slot. When the PCIE_4 slot is populated, the PCIE_1 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
* When an i7-5820K CPU is installed, the PCIE_2 slot operates at up to x8 mode and the PCIE_3 operates at up to x4 mode.
(All PCI Express x16 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.)
- 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
(The PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
- 1 x M.2 Socket 1 connector for the wireless communication module (M2_WIFI)
|
Multi-Graphics Technology |
- Support for 4-Way/3-Way/2-Way AMD CrossFire™/NVIDIA® SLI™ technology
* The 4-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ configuration is not supported when an i7-5820K CPU is installed. To set up a 3-Way SLI configuration, refer to “1-6 Setting up AMD CrossFire™/NVIDIA® SLI™ Configuration.”
|
Storage Interface |
Chipset:
- 1 x M.2 PCIe connector
(Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280 SATA & PCIe x2/x1 SSD support)
- 1 x SATA Express connector
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3 0~5)
- Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
* Only AHCI mode is supported when an M.2 PCIe SSD or a SATA Express device is installed.
(M2_10G, SATA Express, and SATA3 4/5 connectors can only be used one at a time. The SATA3 4/5 connectors will become unavailable when an M.2 SSD is installed in the M2_10G connector.)
Chipset:
- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (sSATA3 0~3), supporting IDE and AHCI modes only
(An operating system installed on the SATA3 0~5 connectors cannot be used on the sSATA3 0~3 connectors.)
|
USB |
Chipset:
- 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
- 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
Chipset + Renesas® uPD720210 USB 3.0 Hub:
- 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel
|
Internal I/O Connectors |
- 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
- 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
- 1 x PCIe power connector
- 1 x I/O shield audio LED power connector
- 1 x heatsink LED power connector
- 1 x M.2 Socket 3 connector
- 1 x SATA Express connector
- 10 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- 1 x CPU fan header
- 1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT)
- 3 x system fan headers
- 1 x front panel header
- 1 x front panel audio header
- 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
- 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
- 1 x Thunderbolt add-in card connector
- 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
- 1 x CPU mode switch
- 1 x audio gain control switch
|
Back Panel Connectors |
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
- 1 x PS/2 mouse port
- 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
- 1 x RJ-45 port
- 5 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out, Headphone)
- 2 x Wi-Fi antenna connector holes
|
I/O Controller |
- iTE® I/O Controller Chip
|
H/W Monitoring |
- System voltage detection
- CPU/System/Chipset temperature detection
- CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed detection
- CPU/System/Chipset overheating warning
- CPU/CPU OPT/System fan fail warning
- CPU/CPU OPT/System fan speed control
* Whether the fan speed control function is supported will depend on the cooler you install.
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BIOS |
- 2 x 128 Mbit flash
- Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS
- Support for DualBIOS™
- Support for Q-Flash Plus
- PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0
|
Unique Features |
- Support for APP Center
* Available applications in APP Center may differ by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also differ depending on motherboard specifications.
@BIOS
Ambient LED
EasyTune
EZ Setup
Fast Boot
Game Controller
Cloud Station
ON/OFF Charge
Smart TimeLock
Smart Recovery 2
System Information Viewer
USB Blocker
V-Tuner
- Support for Q-Flash
- Support for Smart Switch
- Support for Xpress Install
|
Bundle Software |
- Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)
- Intel® Smart Response Technology
|
Operating System |
- Support for Windows 8.1/8/7
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Form Factor |
- E-ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 26.4cm
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Remark |
- Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website.
- 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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