Z77 mITX Round-Up: Five of the Best – MSI, Zotac, ASRock, EVGA and ASUS

Zotac Z77-ITX WIFI In The Box

Zotac packages, in terms of dimensions, rarely go beyond the width and length of the motherboard itself – approximately 17cm x 17cm.  As such, all the additional gear has to be piled on top of the board.  In previous reviews of Zotac products, more often than not we do get a good selection in the box to play with.  In terms of the Z77-ITX WiFi, we get:

User Manual
Driver CD
Rear IO Shield
Four SATA Cables
Two WiFi Antenna
mDP to DP Connector
8-pin CPU Extension Cable
USB 3.0 Rear Bracket

For a mITX package, this is a substantial amount in the box – the four SATA cables take care of all the SATA connectivity on board, and the USB 3.0 bracket allows the onboard USB 3.0 header to be used in the event of no USB 3.0 in the case.  The mDP to DP cable is also beneficial such that users do not need to go out and purchase their own.  The 8-pin CPU power extension cable is rather a necessity given the location of the 8-pin CPU power port positioning.

Zotac Z77-ITX WiFi Software

Motherboard manufacturers can put similar hardware to each other on their products, but what separates the top tier from those chasing the pack is the software package on board.  At a bare minimum, we usually expect a form of fan control software and a BIOS update tool.  With a little more time and effort we may get a series of overclock options, and then we can spiral off into enhancements on current software or bring in more features as required.  Unfortunately Zotac falls down on all accounts, by virtue of the fact that there is no software. 

Starting with the install disk, we have no option to install all the drivers necessary for the board in one fail swoop.  Each option has to be selected individually – even the Intel drivers which have a switch that allows for a silent install. 

Under ‘Utility’ we get USB Charger, and while clicking this does install ‘software’, we get nothing in the way of an interface to tell us what it does or if it is working.  What amazes me with this package is that despite the use of Realtek NICs, we do not even get any Realtek ‘Network’ software included in the box in order to manage our network connections. 

It is hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the software issues.  Either the person in charge of making these decisions just is not aware of the competition, or more than likely there is not enough staff to make all the changes.  They could be too busy with new products to keep the company going, rather than build a strong foundation with which to build future products on.