ASRock had some nice looking motherboards on display at Computex, but one in particular caught my attention. The ASRock Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac is a Mini ITX motherboard ready to support Intel's upcoming Skylake processor, DDR4 memory, and a slew of speedy connectivity options.
The LGA 1151 socket is situated in the middle of the compact board and is surrounded by a 6+2 power phase, two DDR4 memory slots, the PCH with red heatsink and ASRock Gaming logo, a mini PCI-E slot with pre-installed 802.11ac Wi-Fi card, and a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot snuggled along the bottom edge. Storage support includes four SATA 3 ports and a single SATA Express port in the bottom right corner. Several websites are also reporting that this board has an Ultra M.2 port as well, which may be located on the underside of the board like existing Mini ITX motherboard implementations (for space reasons). Unfortunately, I was not able to dig up any photos of the back so we will have to wait for reviews to confirm this.
As far as external I/O, the motherboard has the following ports on the rear panel:
- 1 x PS/2
- 3 x Video outputs (two HDMI and one DisplayPort)
- 2 x USB 3.1
- 6 x USB 3.0
- 1 x Gigabit LAN (from Intel)
- 3 x Analog audio output
- 1 x Optical audio output
In all, this pint-size motherboard packs a punch and will make for a powerful small form factor gaming PC when paired with a Skylake CPU and dedicated graphics card! Of course, the all-important pricing and availability were not announced at the show.
Tim >
While at Computex,
Tim >
While at Computex, were you able to invite ASRock to do a show at PCper? They weren’t responsive via their Twitter account — Ryan is aware of this.
I haven’t heard too many good things about ASRock, hence why I never bought any of their products.
Maybe if they come to PCper and talk about their products and answer our questions, we could receive facts out of those rumours/myths.
If they need an incentive, then think about boosted sales — if the rumours/myths I’ve heard are false.
I buy asrock FM2+ boards all
I buy asrock FM2+ boards all day long, solid stuff, good prices.
I pretty much only buy asrock now, cheaper then ASUS boards for what im doing….and I buy a ton.
I took a chance with an
I took a chance with an ASRock almost 6mo ago and I find it a serviceable board. It became very reliable once the BIOS/Driver issues were handled. I’m impressed with how easily it set up and overclocked. It does a pretty good balancing act. Any issues with the system was generally addressed with an update before I picked up the phone.
That said, if you are hard core, it’s a PITA. Doing your own balancing is tedious. Moreover, if you need support, you might need to speak Mandarin or Crickets.
I’ve heard ASrock in a few
I’ve heard ASrock in a few client builds and my brother’s PC. Haven’t heard any complaints thus far. I usually stick with ASUS and MSI, but again, haven’t had any problems with ASrock.
I’ve used*
I’ve used*
I’ve had *
I’ve had *
i love asus and MSI, but i
i love asus and MSI, but i love saving $20.00 or on every board more haah.
now if we REALLY wanna start trash talking some boards…. BIOSTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That would be interesting,
That would be interesting, and I would like to see them in the studio to talk tech and let them share their, ahem, pc perspective heh. Unfortunately, we don't have much of a working relationship with them. Maybe if enough readers reach out to them to show their interest we could convince them to come out 🙂 @ASRockInfo on twitter.
Nice board – was hoping to
Nice board – was hoping to see a PCIe x4 hiding somewhere, but it was only a pipe dream >:D
Yeah, I don’t think there’s
Yeah, I don't think there's enough room :). It should have an Ultra M.2 slot on the back of the board though which is PCI-E 3.0 x4 but really only for SSDs unless there is some kind of adapter to get those lanes from the processor out to a traditional PCI-E x4 slot heh.
So with only 2 DIMM, will the
So with only 2 DIMM, will the DDR4 performance end up being abour the same as DDR3 due to the higher latency?
How many users use sata
How many users use sata ports. New design should have atleast 2 m.2 pcie slots
I am on one now.
I am on one now.