Intel's Coffee Lake was released not even a year ago and it already feels like the standard enthusiasts Intel motherboard, unless you stuck to your Z270 you only just bought! With no backwards compatibility with Skylake or Kaby Lake CPUs, Intel forced you to upgrade to the Z370 if you wanted a piece of the new 8700K for example. You can count on PC enthusiasts to flame about this, and also find a way to actually make the new CPU's work on Z270 motherboards, it's all been a bit cynical.
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The ASRock Z270 Pro4 motherboard is a familiar site. ASRock is a familiar brand and since the birth of the ASRock company, it has secured a healthy and immediately identifiable place in the component market. With the recent launch of mainstream graphics cards, it's also clear that ASRock is looking for more. The Intel Z270 is getting on a bit now, and though it wasn't apparent at the time of launch, it has become a small part of Intel's chipset masterplan, with the release of the 3xx and other chipset models.
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Asus are calling this their “Flagship micro-ATX Z170 with 5X Protection II for dependable stability, fantastic DDR4 performance, and reversible USB Type-C connectivity”. It’s a rather odd claim for this motherboard, Asus have flagship product lines, the Rampage and ROG series for example. Why would they call Z170M Plus motherboard a flagship?
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Every system builder these days will know the name ASRock, and it’s welcome, in the past ten years we have seen the number of motherboard manufacturers dwindle, losing the likes of Abit, Nvidia and even the mighty Intel from the motherboards arena.
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Anyone bought an Intel Z97 motherboard recently? We think it is one of the best Chipsets out there but Intel think it’s time for an upgrade. They recently launched their Skylake range of CPU’s and a supporting Chipset, the Z170. We have a couple of motherboard and CPU samples kicking around the office and we must admit we are already very interested in their capabilities and performance. We love mITX motherboards these days, and though still a compromise on what you can populate them with, there has been a step change from a couple of years ago, making a mini gaming rig possible and a performer too.
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The X99 Chipset has been around for a while now and it’s about time we had a look at another offering from Intel’s premium desktop chipset. There are not many PC enthusiast motherboard manufacturers these days, with a few of the major players disappearing over the last decade. MSI have been around from the early days, and have endured a lot of change in the PC builder’s world, and the latest ranges have very strong branding and marketing so you have a good idea what you are getting into.
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Another Z97 Chipset motherboard is on the bench, and it’s another Gigabyte. The Z97 Chipset by Intel is probably the mainstay of most mainstream, desktop and gamers on a wide ranging budget. It was more a case of evolution than revolution over the Z87, refinement over sweeping changes.
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We are big fans of mITX motherboards, though only in recent years. They have come a long way from their beige roots and now will tickle the geekiness of many gamers around the world. For us it’s the fact that we don’t need another big chassis in the office or in our homes, we generally have a few mITX rigs around, as daily drivers and as test machines.
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With the advent of the X99 Chipset from Intel, a bunch of new motherboards are needed to support this. Intel also released a revised Intel i7 CPUs to support this. Not only that but with the chipset and CPU releases, a new CPU socket was released at this same time; the LGA 2011-v3. While most manufacturers have the elite line of high kit, there is probably no better known range than the Rampage series.
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With the dust settling from the recent Intel X99-E releases, there is a general view there will be no mITX motherboards. When you consider what’s in the Intel X99-E’s spec, it is unlikely to ever be something to cater for the mITX gamers, so what’s the alternative?
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