A few days back we had a look at a cost-effective Z270-based Mini ITX motherboard from ECS, the Z270H4-I Durathon 2, which we found to be a viable option for typical home users but hardly so for advanced gamers and enthusiasts. In this review we are having a look at a Mini ITX motherboard from ASRock, the Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac. The concept and the design of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac are antithetical to those of the Z270H4-I Durathon 2, with ASRock trying to load the most and best possible features on the tiny Mini ITX motherboard, the result of which is an impressive list of features. Regardless, the retail price tag of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is peculiarly reasonable for what ASRock claims it can offer.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/AC Overview

After looking at its list of features, we feel as if someone challenged ASRock’s engineers to exhibit their skills on the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac. From Thunderbolt 3 and dual band 802.11ac WiFi to HDMI 2.0 and SATA Express connectors, the sheer number of features that the specifications of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac list is profound for a Mini ITX motherboard. The designers also implemented advanced power circuitry and heatsinks that we normally see on ATX motherboards targeting advanced overclockers.

The audio circuitry of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is interesting, with Realtek providing the advanced and popular ALC1220 CODEC. It supports the Creative Sound Blaster™ Cinema 3 and it has its front panel audio connector supported by an additional Texas Instruments NE5532 headset amplifier. Despite the small size of the ITX board, the sound circuitry is on an isolated part of the PCB. ASRock also implemented a HDMI 2.0 connector, allowing greater flexibility with high resolutions TVs and displays, as well as a versatile Thunderbolt 3 controller (Intel JHL6240).

Intel supplies both the controller (I-219V) of the single Gigabit port and the WiFi/Bluetooth combo chipset (AC 7265). The WiFi controller is dual band (2.4/5 GHz) and also supports Bluetooth 4.0/3.0. There are six SATA connectors on the motherboard, two of which can be combined to a single SATA Express connector. Due to space limitations, the sole M.2 slot is on the back side of the motherboard. It supports 2260/2280 PCIe ×4 or SATA devices. Note that the use of a SATA M.2 device disables one of the SATA 6Gb/s ports.

Overall, the little motherboard is trying to fulfill every desire of advanced gamers, overclockers and HTPC enthusiasts in one package. After going through the list of features, validating its performance and witnessing its overclocking capabilities, it became apparent that the designer of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac was trying to create a motherboard for the “ultimate” living room entertainment system, seeking to satisfy the needs of every advanced user into a single package.

Motherboard Comparison
	ASRock Z270 Gaming ITX/ac	ASRock Z270 Killer SLIGIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra GamingMSI Z270 SLI PlusAsus Prime Z270-AECS Z270H4-I Durathon 2ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming ITX/ac
Socket	LGA1151	LGA1151
MSRP at Review	$159	$140
DRAM	2 x DDR4	4 x DDR4
PCIe Layout	x16	x8/x8
BIOS Version Tested	1.11	2.00
MCT Enabled Automatically?	No	Yes
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps)	Intel JHL6240	None
M.2 Slots	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4	2 x PCIe 3.0 x4
U.2 Ports	No	No
Network Controller	1 x Intel I219-V	1 x Intel I219-V
Audio Controller	Realtek ALC1220	Realtek ALC892
HDMI 2.0	Yes	No

 

Other AnandTech Reviews for Intel’s 7^th Generation CPUs and 200-Series Motherboards

($110) The ECS Z270H4-I Durathon 2 Review
($140) The ASRock Z270 Killer SLI Review
($140) The MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Review
($170) The Asus Prime Z270-A
($170) The GIGABYTE Z270X-Ultra Gaming

The Intel Core i7-7700K (91W) Review - CPU Review
The Intel Core i5-7600K (91W) Review - CPU Review
The Intel Core i3-7350K (60W) Review - CPU Review
CPU Buyer's Guide: Q2 2017 - Guide

In comparison to the older Z170 boards, the new Z270 board on the base specifications are hardly any different. The Z270 ones have four extra PCIe lanes configurable on the chipset, potentially new audio and new networking controllers, and Intel Optane Technology Support. Although four extra PCIe lanes do sound like a huge difference, it is an important upgrade for the implementation of native M.2 slots (on Z170-based motherboards, this usually meant disabling some other device/port on the motherboard). Also, note that Intel Optane drives should still function on other chipsets as drives; the Z270 only allows them to enable their “smart caching” technology.

The Intel Optane Memory (SSD) Preview: 32GB of Kaby Lake Caching

Individual motherboard manufacturers will be sprinkling on new features onto their Z270 products to aid the transition and provide other tangible benefits over the old platform. To read specifically about the Z170 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.

A Small Note on USB Naming

One thing that we should note is that the advent of the Z270 chipset brought a change on the naming of the USB ports. What we knew as USB 3.0 ports are now being dubbed as “USB 3.1 Gen 1” and the 10 Gbps ports are now called “USB 3.1 Gen 2”. We first encountered this change while reviewing the MSI Z270 SLI Plus a few months ago but it seems that most of the manufacturers are following suit, rewriting their websites and reprinting their manuals. Users need to be extra careful when very high bandwidth connectors are essential. 

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Visual Inspection

ASRock’s engineers did the best they could to combine aesthetics and functionality on the small surface of the Mini ITX motherboard. There is no LED lighting on the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac but it is a visually pleasing motherboard, with an all-black PCB and red heatsinks/DIMM slots. A heatpipe connects the VRM and chipset heatsinks. The heatsinks are good for a Mini ITX motherboard but ASRock had to keep them fairly small in order to ensure compatibility with low-profile systems. The many stickers on the I/O ports may be a visual dissonance for some, especially for users that understand that a “Fatal1ty mouse port” offers no practical gaming advantage and that Nichicon makes capacitors, not audio devices. The sole PCIe ×16 slot features a metallic shield that is serving both as additional mechanical support and as an aesthetic upgrade.

In terms of functionality, there are a few quirks regarding the placement of some ports and headers but that hardly is the designer’s fault - with a motherboard so small and with so many features onboard, there is little flexibility in terms of design. With no space beneath the single PCIe ×16 slot, the designer is forced to find other places to place the ports and headers. We can see the front panel audio header right behind the 3.5 mm audio jacks and, naturally, most of the other ports and headers are placed across the right side of the motherboard. A small quirk here is that the USB 2.0 header is placed right next to the case LED/switch header at the bottom right corner of the PCB and, as the connectors are similar, could cause confusion to amateur or careless users.

Right above those two headers we can see the USB 3.0 header surrounded by its plastic frame and the SATA Express connector sandwiched between the USB 3.0 header and DIMM slots. Considering the currently extremely limited market penetration of SATA Express devices, ASRock probably decided to install a SATA Express connector on their Mini ITX motherboard in order to entice potential users that believe it could gain traction sometime in the near future. Anyhow, for those that have no use for SATA Express support, the SATA Express connector does double as two normal SATA ports using typical SATA cables and is fully compatible with any SATA device. The other four SATA ports are between the DIMM slots and the chipset, making access to them very difficult if a large cooler and/or a discrete GPU are installed. We strongly suggest all-in-one liquid cooling solutions to users that are planning to use these SATA ports and need seamless access to them.

There are three fan headers on the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac. Two of them are clearly visible above the CPU socket, near the DIMM slots. The third header is at the top left corner of the motherboard, hidden behind the antenna connectors. All three headers support PWM fan control.

Turning the motherboard over, we can find the single M.2 slot of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac. It supports 2260/2280 PCIe and SATA M.2 devices, 2242 42 mm devices are not supported. If a SATA M.2 device is installed, one of the SATA 6 Gb/s ports at the front of the motherboard will be disabled.

The rear panel of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is interesting. Starting from the top of the board, we can see a tiny button right at the corner of the board. This can be used to clear the CMOS if overclocking or other BIOS settings go awry. The gold-plated threaded connectors are for the WiFi/Bluetooth antenna. Right next to them we can see a block with two USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen1) connectors and a combo PS/2 port, followed by a block with an HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort 1.2 port and an optical SPDIF port.

As the integrated graphics of the current Intel GPUs are limited to HDMI 1.4a, ASRock implemented a Megachips MCDP2800 Displayport 1.2a to HDMI 2.0 converter.  As a result, the HDMI 2.0 port is capable of 4K @ 60 Hz and it worked great driving a 4K TV for movies and casual usage, which should please HTPC enthusiasts and users that want to use it to drive a very high-resolution monitor. Gaming without a discrete GPU at a resolution of 3840 × 2160 is entirely out of the question, as the IGP will be unable to provide playable framerates even with games that are a decade old at this resolution.

Moving downwards from the HDMI port, we can see two more USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) connectors and then the tiny Intel Thunderbolt 3 connector that is driven by an Intel JHL6240 chip. Note that this chip is not a PCIe ×4 but a PCIe ×2 interface device, with more than enough bandwidth for most devices but it will be a noticeable bottleneck if an external high-performance GPU device is used. Continuing downwards we can see another two USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) connectors and a LAN port. Finally, there are six 3.5 mm analog audio jacks for up to a 7.1 audio output.

ASRock implemented an interesting eight phase VRM design, with six phases dedicated to the CPU core and two for the CPU’s integrated GPU. The controller can be found on the rear side of the motherboard and is an International Rectifier IR35201 chip. This controller has a maximum of two outputs and eight phases that, in this case, are connected in 6+2 mode. NexFET supplies the 87350D MOSFETs and Nichicon the solid-state capacitors of the power circuitry. This is a configuration that we would expect to find on a high-quality motherboard that is designed with extensive overclocking in mind.

 

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Board Features

ASRock’s design approach with the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is an attempt to fit as many features on a Mini ITX motherboard as possible while sustaining a relatively reasonable retail price tag, trying to entice virtually all of the advanced PC users; overclockers, advanced gamers and HTPC enthusiasts. A quick look reveals the presence of high-end controllers and advanced power circuitry. The company even installed features that we would have never expected to see on a Mini ITX motherboard, such as a SATA Express connector. Despite all that, the price tag is not as salty as we originally anticipated, with the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac currently retailing for $159, a reasonable price for an advanced gaming motherboard.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming ITX/ac
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	Link
Size	Mini ITX
CPU Interface	LGA1151
Chipset	Intel Z270
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Two DDR4 Supporting 32GB Dual Channel Up to 3866 MHz
Memory Slots (DDR3L)	None
Video Outputs	HDMI 2.0 DisplayPort 1.2
Network Connectivity	Intel I219-V Intel 802.11ac AC7265
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1220
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	1 x PCIe 3.0 (x16)
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	None
Onboard SATA	Six, RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard SATA Express	One
Onboard M.2	1 x PCIe 3.0 (x4)
Onboard U.2	None
USB 3.1	One Type-C (Intel JHL6240)
USB 3.0	6 x Type-A Rear Panel 2 × via headers
USB 2.0	2 × via headers
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Pump/Aux (4-pin) 1 x System (4-pin)
IO Panel	6 x USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 1 x CMOS Reset Button 1 x Network RJ-45 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 1 x HDMI 2.0 1 x Combo PS/2 6 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port

 

In The Box

We get the following:

• Driver Disk
• Quick Installation Guide
• Software Setup Guide
• Rear I/O Shield
• Two black SATA cables (one straight, one with a 90° connector)
• Wireless antenna

ASRock decided that the correct place to be frugal is the bundle, omitting any extra accessories that would increase the price tag of the motherboard. Inside the box we only found the typical user’s manual/software guide, a drivers/applications DVD, a metallic I/O shield, and two SATA cables. There is also a single square antenna that works for both the WiFi and Bluetooth. Its WiFi range does not seem to be significantly different than that of a typical antenna but the Bluetooth reception was astoundingly powerful, at least in comparison to that of cheap USB to Bluetooth adapters. During our testing, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac seamlessly pushed an audio stream to a Bluetooth speaker nearly 8 meters away and through a 12 cm wooden wall.

Overclocking with the ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac

ASRock is placing a lot of marketing effort on the promotion of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac as an “overclocker’s” motherboard. On paper, ASRock did install a relatively advanced power circuit and high-quality components with a very significant overhead that are equal to or better than what we usually find on most motherboards around this price range, regardless of their size.

A dive into the motherboard’s BIOS reveals a very good selection of frequency and voltage control options, yet most have a very narrow range. For example, the CPU voltage can “only” be set up to 1.5 volts. That will be more than enough for the average home gamer and casual overclocker but may be limiting for experts with exotic cooling solutions.

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclock Results

Although we were hesitant at first, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac proved to be a very stable overclocking motherboard, pushing our Intel 7700K ES all the way up to 5.0 GHz. What kept us from going further is the thermal performance of our CPU, which is a lousy thermal performer due to its poorly seated lid. Despite the very high CPU temperature and its relatively high-power demand at 5 GHz, the  Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac successfully completed prolonged stability tests.

The automatic CPU overclocking options, or the “optimized CPU overclock settings” as ASRock likes to call them, do work but they are hardly optimized. As ASRock had to play it safe and maximize the stability of a potentially poor overclocker CPU, the CPU voltage that each of the automated options sets is quite high. This can result to much higher energy consumption and temperatures with chips that are mediocre to good overclockers and do not require as high a voltage. Our own 7700K failed the test at 4.8 GHz due to the exceedingly high temperatures, whereas manual control allowed us to perform fully stable overclocks at 4.8 GHz and beyond. Ultimately, what limited us was the thermal performance of our CPU and not the motherboard.

The Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac also handles high BCLK frequencies well, with the maximum fully stable frequency that we managed to reach being 182 MHz. Note that the newer motherboard designs decouple the CPU bus from the rest of the frequency domains in order to allow for these high BCLK overclocks, meaning that the performance of other components and the system’s overall bandwidth remains unaffected. On the contrary, frequency misalignments can cause an overall performance drop. Thus, this technique is useless to users who have unlocked CPUs and should be used only to overclock locked CPUs.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Test Bed and Setup

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency/monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is one of the few motherboards that we have reviewed recently that has multi-core acceleration disabled by default. The FCLK frequency is set to 800 MHz by default as well and all current/temperature limiters are enabled and set to their default settings.

Test Setup
Processor	Intel Core i7-7700K (ES, Retail Stepping), 91W, $340 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 4.2 GHz (4.5 GHz Turbo)
Motherboards	ECS Z270H4-I Durathon 2
Cooling	Alphacool Eisbaer 240
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2400 C15 2x16 GB 1.2V
Memory Settings	XMP @ 2400
Video Cards	MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost)
Hard Drive	Crucial MX200 1TB
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 7 64-bit SP1

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB MX200 units are strong performers. Based on Marvell's 88SS9189 controller and using Micron's 16nm 128Gbit MLC flash, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 100K random read IOPs and 555/500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds. The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 320TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX200 (250 GB, 500 GB & 1TB) Review

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU. The AX1200i was the first power supply to offer digital control and management via Corsair's Link system, but under the hood it commands a 1200W rating at 50C with 80 PLUS Platinum certification. This allows for a minimum 89-92% efficiency at 115V and 90-94% at 230V. The AX1200i is completely modular, running the larger 200mm design, with a dual ball bearing 140mm fan to assist high-performance use. The AX1200i is designed to be a workhorse, with up to 8 PCIe connectors for suitable four-way GPU setups. The AX1200i also comes with a Zero RPM mode for the fan, which due to the design allows the fan to be switched off when the power supply is under 30% load.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Corsair AX1500i Power Supply Review

Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory. G.Skill has been a long-time supporter of AnandTech over the years, for testing beyond our CPU and motherboard memory reviews. We've reported on their high capacity and high-frequency kits, and every year at Computex G.Skill holds a world overclocking tournament with liquid nitrogen right on the show floor.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Memory Scaling on Haswell Review, with G.Skill DDR3-3000

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

BIOS

Like every advanced motherboard these days, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac features a graphical BIOS that defaults to an “EZ Mode” homepage. This is a single page mode that includes only basic configuration settings and informative dials. From this page, the user can only switch the boot device priority, engage DRAM XMP profiles, change the fan speed setting and engage pre-programmed CPU overclocking profiles.

BIOS upgrade, device identification, and fan speed tuning tools are also accessible through the icons found at the bottom right corner of the screen. The “Instant Flash” tool can be used to flash a BIOS that is already stored into a local disk drive and the “Internet Flash” will access and check ASRock’s servers for a newer BIOS version. The “System Browser” tool brings up an image of the motherboard and its rear I/O panel, where the user can “explore” the board using the mouse pointer. The tool will display information on the device that is attached/connected on the port or slot that the pointer is placed on. Finally, the “FAN-Tastic” tuning tool brings up a red screen where the thermal profile of the cooling fans connected to the motherboard’s headers can be either selected from four pre-programmed presets or be manually programmed.

The full BIOS of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac can be accessed by pressing the F6 key and has eight major tabs, yet the bulk of the tweakable settings and options can be found under just two of them. The first tab is the “Main” Tab and only includes system information and a list of settings that have been flagged by the user as “Favorite”. Skipping down to the fourth tab, the “Tools” tab that is, we find the same tools that are accessible via the “EZ mode” screen, plus two more: the “UEFI Tech Service”, which is practically sends a direct message to ASRock’s customer support from inside the BIOS, and the “Network Configuration” submenu that allows the user to manually set up the system’s IP rather than having DHCP do it automatically.

The fifth tab, dubbed “H/W Monitor”, initially appears to be a purely informative screen. However, scrolling down the page reveals the fan settings, allowing the user to choose pre-programmed or program new thermal profiles for the cooling fans connected on the motherboard’s headers. The “FAN-Tastic” tuning tool is also accessible via this screen.

In the three last tabs, we find typical BIOS options that have to do with the system’s security and boot options, options that we do typically see programmed into any motherboard BIOS. That leaves us with just two tabs, the “OC Tweaker” and the “Advanced” tabs, each of which holds many submenus and numerous sub settings.

The “OC Tweaker” tab initially displays only one configurable option, the “Load Optimized CPU OC setting” option that can be used to automatically overclock an unlocked CPU at a specified speed, and three submenus. The first submenu hosts all of the CPU settings, the second the DRAM settings, and the third all voltage configuration settings.

The “CPU Configuration” submenu includes all of the CPU-related options, such as the multiplier, BCLK frequency, Intel-specific features and power limits. The “DRAM Tweaker” begins with the XMP settings and basic RAM timings. As the user begins scrolling down, the menu expands to “primary”, “secondary”, “third”, “fourth” and “advanced” timings, offering a ridiculous number of possible timing adjustments that even seasoned overclockers will not be fiddling with. Finally, the “Voltage Configuration” submenu allows for the manipulation of the CPU, DRAM, PCH and other voltage lines. It is interesting to note that neither the range or step of the voltage settings is great. For example, the CPU voltage can only go up to 1.5 volts and in 50 mV steps. Still, these settings will be more than adequate for most users.

The “Advanced” tab includes all of the configuration options for the motherboard’s features and onboard devices. Once again there is a “CPU Configuration” submenu, with the options that ASRock probably assumed that they are not relevant for overclockers. Most of these options control features of the CPU, such as hyper threading and virtualization. Among these options lies the disabling of thermal throttling, which may be used by experienced overclockers but can be very dangerous.

The “Chipset Configuration” submenu includes advanced options for the chipset’s link speeds and iGPU, and allows the disabling of the onboard audio and LAN devices. The rest of the submenus are straightforward, with the “Storage Configuration” including the SATA control options, the “Super I/O” the settings for the PS/2 port, etc. There is nothing out of the ordinary in any of these submenus.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Software

The driver DVD comes with a very basic automated installer software with five tabs. The first tab lists all of the drivers and software that are compatible with this motherboard, plus Google’s Chrome Browser and Toolbar, even though these have their own tab. There is an “Install all” option that automatically installs everything, without leaving any room for the user to select what should be installed and what not. The Sound Blaster Cinema 3 utility and Adobe’s reader can be installed via the Utilities tab, manuals and guides can be found under the Information tab and, finally, the company’s contact information is all that can be seen under the Contact tab.

The core software package that accompanies the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is the ASRock App Shop, which doubles as a software and as an updates installer. Extra software packages that can enhance the system’s devices, offer more options, and even games can be downloaded and installed. Some software packages such as the “Fatal1ty Mouse Port” cannot be found in the supplied DVD but can be downloaded through the App Shop for free.

ASRock’s F-Stream utility is the single software package that allows almost full control of the motherboard’s BIOS options via the OS. In its “OC Tweaker” tab we found most of the settings that are accessible via the BIOS screen, allowing for casual overclockers to experiment with minimal risk, as the settings reset when the system restarts. It is also handy for people who do not want a permanent overclock forced via the BIOS but prefer to boot with stock settings and force an overclock whenever they want or after the OS has booted.

The ASRock XFast LAN technically is the well-known cFos software with ASRock’s skin. This software allows the user to prioritize network traffic according to his/her needs. For example, it can be set to prioritize the traffic of a specific game/application over a downloading/file sharing app or server. This is particularly useful for applications where seamless network traffic can be vital, such as, for example, when there are IP security cameras connected to the computer and they should not be disturbed by the downloading of a large OS update or other files.

Finally, the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 application offers very limited extra audio control for audiophiles and HTPC enthusiasts. Technically, it can only control the SBX Surround technology setting that enhances the audio surround. It has four preprogrammed profiles, music, film, game, and voice, plus a custom profile that allows the user to program SBX surround as he/she sees fit. Regardless of it including virtually only one tweakable option, the SBX Surround is rather effective, especially in the case of limiting 2.0 and 2.1 speaker configurations.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Corsair AX1200i power supply. This power supply is Platinum rated, and as I am on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

The energy consumption of the ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac falls exactly where we expected it to be. It is only slightly lower than that of typical ATX motherboards (when their onboard lighting is disabled) and equivalent to that of other Mini ITX motherboards based on the Intel Z270 chipset.

Non UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) 

The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac displayed good boot time behavior, with a default boot time of 17.6 seconds that can be shortened down to 10.8 seconds by simply tweaking the BIOS quick boot settings.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test, we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on board, as well as the Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise.

The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac has interesting audio performance figures. It features the Realtek ALC1220, one of the best audio CODECs currently available on retail motherboards. The dynamic range is outstanding, reaching 106.1 dB(A) and significantly surpassing the performance even of other motherboards that are using the same chipset. However, the THD + Noise reading was -79.5 dB(A), which is a good performance figure but falls behind those that we took from advanced ATX motherboards using this chipset, suggesting that, regardless of the designer’s extensive effort, the isolation of the audio circuitry on the small Mini ITX motherboard is not as effective.

USB Backup

For this benchmark, we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second HD videos. In an update to pre-Z87 testing, we also run MaxCPU to load up one of the threads during the test which improves general performance up to 15% by causing all the internal pathways to run at full speed.

The USB 3.0 performance of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is good and directly in line with any Z270-based motherboard that we have tested. Unfortunately, we could not assess the performance of the USB 3.1 controller as Intel’s controllers seem to (still) be incompatible with our USB 3.1 Type-C device, dismounting the device during testing or giving us false readings.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time.  This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops, and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

With a DPC latency figure of 108 μs, the Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac may not be the best performer that we have tested recently, yet it undoubtedly is a low reading and representative of the motherboard’s price and class.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

CPU Performance

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

As it can be summarized by all of the following graphs, the ASRock Z270 Gaming ITX/ac falls victim to its own default BIOS settings, as it is the only motherboard that does not have MCT enabled by default. As such, it always falls shortly behind all other Z270 motherboards, especially in multi-threaded performance tests.

Video Conversion – Handbrake v1.0.2: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. For HandBrake, we take two videos and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container: a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short. We also take the third video and transcode it to HEVC. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2017. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test v2.1: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here. We are using the latest version of 3DPM, which has a significant number of tweaks over the original version to avoid issues with cache management and speeding up some of the algorithms.

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

 

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Gaming Performance

The issue of FCLK settings might play a big role here. At launch, the default setting for the communication buffer between the CPU and PCIe stack was 800 MHz, even though Intel suggested 1000 MHz, but this was because of firmware limitations from Intel. Since then, there is firmware to enable 1000 MHz, and most motherboard manufacturers have this - but it is unclear if the motherboard will default to 1000 MHz and it might vary from BIOS version to BIOS version. As we test at default settings, our numbers are only ever snapshots in time, but it leads to some interesting differences in discrete GPU performance.

Total War: Attila

The Total War franchise moves on to Attila, another The Creative Assembly development, and is a stand-alone strategy title set in 395AD where the main storyline lets the gamer take control of the leader of the Huns in order to conquer parts of the world. Graphically the game can render hundreds/thousands of units on screen at once, all with their individual actions and can put some of the big cards to task.

For low-end graphics, we test at 720p with performance settings, recording the average frame rate. With mid and high range graphics, we test at 1080p with the quality setting. In both circumstances, unlimited video memory is enabled and the in-game scripted benchmark is used.

GRID: Autosport

No graphics tests are complete without some input from Codemasters and the EGO engine, which means for this round of testing we point towards GRID: Autosport, the next iteration in the GRID and racing genre. As with our previous racing testing, each update to the engine aims to add in effects, reflections, detail, and realism, with Codemasters making ‘authenticity’ a main focal point for this version.

GRID’s benchmark mode is very flexible and, as a result, we created a test race using a shortened version of the Red Bull Ring with twelve cars doing two laps. The car is focus starts last and is quite fast, but usually finishes second or third. For low-end graphics, we test at 1080p medium settings, whereas mid and high-end graphics get the full 1080p maximum. Both the average and minimum frame rates are recorded.

The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review

Conclusion

The Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is ASRock’s attempt to deliver a high performance, flexible Mini ITX motherboard, capable of fulfilling the needs of most advanced PC users. In order to achieve that goal, ASRock had to squeeze a huge number of features on the tiny Mini ITX PCB, more than what we usually find on middle range ATX motherboards. The sheer number of supported devices/connectors is outstanding for a Mini ITX motherboard.

Mini ITX motherboards are inherently limited to a single expansion card slot but the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac supports an extensive number of drives, with only one M.2 drive slot but six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two of which form a SATA Express port for users that want to be on the safe side in case the interface gains market traction. USB device support is very good, with six USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A connectors at the rear I/O panel, plus two internal headers for additional USB 3.1 Gen 1 and two USB 2.0 devices. The Intel Thunderbolt 3 connector supports numerous compatible devices, ranging from NAS drives to monitors, but also doubles as a typical USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. Note that the Intel JHL6240 Thunderbolt 3 chipset only has two PCIe lanes and could become a bandwidth bottleneck with high performance eGPU devices.

ASRock also chose the subsystem controllers of the  Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac very carefully, so as to cover the needs of every advanced user. The Intel I219-V Gigabit LAN controller is a very popular and proven device, allowing enough bandwidth control options for any kind of user. Similarly, sound is important for advanced HTPC users and gamers alike, so ASRock went with one of the best audio controllers currently available, the Realtek ALC1220, and supported it with an excellent audio circuit and an additional front panel audio amplifier from Texas Instruments. The Intel AC 7265 WiFi/Bluetooth card is known to be a very good performer as well, providing stable connections and capable of speeds up to 867 Mbps. We also found the Bluetooth range to be excellent, significantly superior than that of typical USB-based adapters.

The presence of an HDMI 2.0 port onboard is a rare and interesting feature that will please both HTPC users that do not plan to perform any gaming and gamers that want to connect a 4K TV as a secondary monitor. While Intel’s integrated graphics are unable to provide usable 3D performance at such a high resolution, the 2D performance is more than enough, saving HTPC builders from the additional cost of a discrete GPU.

The Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac also has an outstanding power circuitry for a motherboard of this size and class, surpassing in the power output and quality of most mainstream Z270-based motherboards that we have tested recently. As a result, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is an excellent motherboard for casual overclocking. The range and step of the voltage control settings may not be great but the maximum values are much higher than what any user would ever use for a stable, reliable system. With the use of an advanced liquid-based cooling system and an Intel 7700K processor with a well-attached lid, stable overclocks well above 5 GHz should be easily attainable.

Undoubtedly, the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is one of the most feature-packed Mini ITX motherboards that we have ever seen. The sheer number of features and connectors make the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac a suitable motherboard for any advanced user that needs to build a compact gaming/entertainment system. It could even be easily used as the basis of a rather powerful home server, capable of simultaneously serving as an entertainment system, a NAS/media server, and a surveillance system server/recorder. The current ($159) retail price of the Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is more than reasonable for a Mini ITX motherboard with such numerous features and quality subsystems, making it the ideal choice for almost any user that wants to build a powerful, yet compact system.

Recommended by AnandTech
The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming ITX/ac