Overclocking and Conclusion
Overclocking
To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the Z170-Claymore motherboard, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. While we were able to push the CPU to a 4.5GHz clock speed with a 4.5GHz ring bus speed, we were unable to get the board to run at a base clock speed any higher than 100MHz. Likewise, we could not get the system to stabilize with memory speeds configured to run any higher than 2667MHz, even using our 3200MHz rate memory modules. All overclocking sessions remained stable for over 4hrs. System stability was tested running the AIDA64 stability test in conjunction with EVGA's OC Scanner X graphical benchmark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 8x MSAA in stress test mode. Note that 16GB (2 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 and 16GB (4 x 4GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 memory modules were used for the overclocking tests.
100MHz Base Clock Stats
Note that this is is meant only as a quick preview of the board's performance potential. With more time to tweak the settings to a greater extent, pushing to a higher base clock and ring bus speed may have been achievable, in addition to an overnight stability run without issue.
Performance
The Z170-Claymore motherboard performs within expectations under stock conditions with some oddities encountered. Overclocking was decent as well, but memory speed appears to be the one Achilles heel of the board's overclocking performance.
Pricing
As of April 29, the ECS Z170-Claymore motherboard was available at Amazon.com for $159.99 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $139.99 but listed as out of stock as of this writing.
Conclusion
ECS did a fine job in designing the Z170-Claymore motherboard, managing to offer a compelling feature set while maintaining a very approachable price point. The board has several enthusiast-friendly features, including is aesthetic and inclusion of integrated power / reset buttons and 2-digit diagnostic LED display. The layout was not cramped for the most part, allowing easy access to ports and onboard devices. Maintaining the price point came with some trade-offs, like limiting the M.2 port speed to x2 bandwidth, but none of the trade-offs appear to affect the overall worth and utility of the board.
Strengths
- Stock performance
- Price
- Overclocking potential
- Board aesthetics, layout, and design
- Motherboard manual details
- UEFI BIOS design and usability
- Five PCIe x16 slots
- No bandwidth shared between PCIe slots, SATA-Express ports, nor M.2 port
- GigE network controller performance
- CMOS battery placement
- Inclusion of enthusiast-friendly features – on-board power / reset buttons, 2-digit LED diagnostic display
- Removable BIOS chip
Weaknesses
- M.2 port limited to PCIe x2 bandwidth
- Lack of system stability with memory speed above 2667MHz
- M.2 port placement between PCIe x16 slots 1 and 2
- Performance differences between SATA slots
- Proximity of primary PCIe x16 slot to CPU socket causes mounting issues with larger air coolers
- Lack of Windows-based overclocking or monitoring software
These all black connector
These all black connector mainboards are so sad and inefficient. There should be a color scheme to distinguish each slot at first sight.
Anyone who has close to any
Anyone who has close to any idea of how to build a system can distinguish each slot at first sight.
Don’t be so arrogant! Even
Don’t be so arrogant! Even with a good vision you can’t clearly distinguish black PCI-E from black PCI slot or the wiring of each memory channel slot.
That’s all subjective.
This
That’s all subjective.
This board is clearly aimed to be an enthusiast motherboard not meant to break the bank. So a color coordinate/scheme just adds to the cost.
It can add cost or reduce the
It can add cost or reduce the margin included in the $159.99 price which is for my POV far from being ‘cheap’.
You’re referring to the
You’re referring to the non-existent PCI slots in this case, right? Seeing as there are only PCI-E slots on that board, it makes no difference.
As for the memory, if you’re not sure on the channels, look at the manual..?
I love the look of this board.
I hate that boards have too many colours on them as it screws up a good colour scheme.
I’m pretty sure you looked
I’m pretty sure you looked more than once to check the presence of PCI slots and the majority of users don’t look at manuals.
It seems you are more interested in marketing promotion for a mainboard that almost nobody will look at in a closed case than an handy color scheme to identify clearly the board design.
All PCI-e slots are the same
All PCI-e slots are the same in this board. What should they differentiate?
As I stated before, PCI Slots
As I stated before, PCI Slots aren’t supported by modern chip sets anyways, would be especially hard pressed to even see it on an enthusiast board.
Great review Morry!
Nice to
Great review Morry!
Nice to see a review on something other than Asus/MSI.
It sucks that large air coolers like the noctua will interfered with the primary PCIe slot.
>…integrated DVI and HDMI
>…integrated DVI and HDMI video port…< DP and HDMI?? Also how far have ECS come; what is their reliability like these days?
Fixed, thanks for pointing
Fixed, thanks for pointing that out.
As far as quality, ECS seems to have tried to focus more lately on a single good product for a line rather than the shattershot approach they (and other manufacturers) have done in the past….
All my experience with ECS
All my experience with ECS has been negitive. I have a z97 Machine now and it has been nothing but problems even after hair pulling RMA’s. Turns out their board couldn’t handle the weight of 212 evo over the long term, and the board will just die eventually because of it.
I’m going to wait and see if their new products have improved, but I doubt it.
Yea, premature death has been
Yea, premature death has been the recurring theme with ECS since the late 90s or early 2000s. Things may have changed but it’ll take a lot to win back my trust.
Seriously!!! This story has
Seriously!!! This story has been up for this long and no one has made the “What side of this Claymore do you face towards the enemy?” joke.
Im losing faith in the internet.
Most here haven’t heard of a
Most here haven’t heard of a Claymore mine, but I remember setting them up with tripwires…Airborne All The Way
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck nope.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck nope.
what is the point of PCI-E
what is the point of PCI-E number 4 ? you you keep stacking double slot cards in there that slot is usless.
Can be used with peripheral
Can be used with peripheral (read x1, x2, or x4 type card) if you are not using slot 3 or using a cooler or waterblock that doesn't take up more than 1 slot of space…
Indeed! But it’s sad the
Indeed! But it’s sad the board lacks at least one PCI slot for a good old PCI sound controller.
PCI-E sound card are overpriced and in 2016 we should have an efficient digital sound interface instead instead of the current analogic interface or the expensive S/PDIF hardware.
Intel thinks the next audio interface should be digital, great but I’m afraid USB wouldn’t be an efficient audio interface. We need a dedicated audio interface like DVI (stream oriented transmission) whereas DP (packet oriented transmission) should be better a interface for display but the DVI compatibility makes harder to move forward.
Haven’t seen a PCI slot in
Haven’t seen a PCI slot in ages, especially on any recent chipsets (they’re not supported by any recent of intel ICHs as far as I know).
Sorry, correction…they’re
Sorry, correction…they’re called Platform Controller Hubs now.
Just a question of some
Just a question of some poorly chosen words, specifically about ECS taking ‘out all the stops’ in the second paragraph:
What is the keying of the M.2 port? (manual looks like it’s M) How does an NVMe M.2 drive, or a U.2 Drive with an adapter work with this port (Not M Keyed or not PCIe x4, means that there is a stop, so the hyperbole is already identified.)
No Type-C connector on the back IO panel would be a stop.
I won’t go further on the nit-picks on the examples of stops beyond this. Looks like a good board with some solidly compelling features. ECS has a nearly fully modern MB here with 12 phase power delivery should make this great of CPU OCers.
Now, just for kicks, and because I wanted to find out what the M.2 connector was keyed as, I started looking through the manual.
The chapter that it has specifically for Crossfire is pretty dated now. References to Catalyst Control Center, Crossfire bridges, and images depicting ATI Radeon graphics cards.
‘Twas a nostalgic moment.