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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Tag: PCMark 08 Professional
9 Posts
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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We have a nice kit of DDR4 memory for review today, and it’s a 32Gb kit to boot, but first, the introduction! When Hardwareslave design and build systems there’s only one mantra, bandwidth. There is literally no point in having an Intel i3 CPU, an old HDD and an SLi set up, it’ll only bottleneck and cause frustration. Likewise, there’s no point in an Intel i7 CPU if you only give it 8Gb of DDR3 for example. These are all extremes, but the point is basically there, you need to provide each component the means to support the IO traffic throughout the entire system. That includes cooling, airflow, IRQ’s, Power Supply Units and even your monitor. It needs to be a balance and have an equal or greater amount of bandwidth than required.
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We have had DDR4 in the office for well over 12 months, but the first set we ever got our hands on was the Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666Mhz 16Gb kit, and we have been bashing it into a lot of test systems ever since, so let’s see how Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory performs with this quick review.
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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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Memory, it’s often the most generic part of your system, along with a PSU. Not that all system builders would go for any old RAM, but it can be intangible performance for the cost, especially for DDR4 modules these days. If you are an Intel fan, and you are planning a system, then you need to be including DDR4. If you are like most people at Hardwareslave, you will like a clean white system, you’re not always in luck with matching memory, until now. Crucial have released some cool white DDR4 and we have 2x8Gb Ballistix Sport White modules to test. Module size is important, two modules as opposed to four may give better compatibility, latency and ultimately, it will allow for more RAM on your motherboard, whether it’s a mITX like the EVGA Z170 Stinger with two DIMM slots, or a monster X99e motherboard like the Asus Rampage V, with eight DIMM slots and Quad Channel memory support.
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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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We recently review the Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400Mhz Memory and it scored an excellent 4.6 out of 5.0. DDR4 is still new and still exclusive to X99 Chip sets at the time of writing, so though it’s an excellent memory kit, big gains can be main when a technology is learning to walk through its initial phases of development.
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