Stefan Mileschin

Hearing the name ‘Z87X-SLI’ took me aback. Z87 supports SLI already, right? Why would a manufacturer need to confirm SLI usage on the Z87 chipset: it is geared up to get the SLI license from day one. What I think GIGABYTE are going for here is a cheaper end SKU with SLI capabilities – the motherboard is devoid of all extra controllers and excess that might appear on more expensive models. There are no extra SATA 6 Gbps ports (six total), no extra USB 3.0 ports (six total), and the power delivery looks like an 8+2 affair, combined with a Realtek NIC, ALC892 audio codec and four total fan headers. The Z87X-SLI is stripped out – the only thing left would be to use a lower end chipset or not use some of the chipset features at all.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7558/g...ch-the-z87xsli