The GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) uses the Intel LGA 1151 CPU socket. Any compatible Intel CPU will have the same socket entry. It uses the DDR4 memory type, with maximum speeds of up to 3200 MHz, and 0 DDR4 slots allowing for a maximum total of 64 GB RAM.

The E-ATX GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) uses a less common standard than the traditional ATX you most often see. As such, you should be wary of its compatibility with other cases, as well as the compatibility of PSUs with the case you choose.

The GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) has 8 SATA 3.0 hard drive slots. These allow for theoretical data transfer speeds of up to 6GB/s, as opposed to the 3GB/s of SATA 2.0. Generally speaking, only high performance hard drives, specifically solid-state drives, will be able to take advantage of the bandwidth potential of SATA 3.0 ports, though it is backwards compatible, so you do not have to take advantage.

The GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) supports onboard graphics. This allows for integrated graphics when paired with a compatible CPU that supports them. Integrated graphics are a cheap alternative to using a graphics card, but should be avoided when frequently using modern applications or games that require intense graphical processing. There are 2 PCIe x16 slots on this motherboard. This means it is perfectly capable of accommodating the latest graphics cards, although it is important to try and use a graphics card with the same graphics card interface of PCIe v3.0, as anything below will not reach the motherboard's potential, and anything above will have its performance slashed to the bandwidth maximum of the GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0)'s PCIe v3.0. The GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) supports up to 4 Nvidia SLI connected graphics cards or up to 4 AMD Crossfire connected graphics cards for improved overall graphical performance at the cost of multiplied graphics-based power consumption as well as the price of the cards themselves.

The GigaByte GA-Z270X-Gaming 9 (rev. 1.0) has 2 USB 2.0 slots but no USB 3.0 slots. While USB 3.0 slots are so far by no means necessary, and with a plethora of USB 2.0 peripherals to choose from, the USB functionality on this motherboard should be fine. With so few slots, however, you would have to use a USB expansion hub. As such, we would highly recommend a different motherboard, preferably with USB 3.0 functionality as well.