Intel Skylake Z170 Motherboards: A Quick Look at 55+ New Products

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• SirKnobsworth - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link

  The uplink to the CPU is only 32 Gbps, so there's no point in attaching something with more 4 lanes to the chipset.

• SirKnobsworth - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link

  x8 isn't going to be a bottleneck for the GPU.

• repoman27 - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  In case anyone else was wondering what LSPCON actually stands for, it's a Level Shifter / Protocol CONverter. I've been trying to parse that ever since the initial Alpine Ridge announcement / slide leaks.
  
  I'm glad to see that Alpine Ridge actually includes an integrated LSPCON, because that wasn't entirely certain based on the earlier reports.
  
  MegaChips appears to be first to announce a discrete LSPCON with their MCDP28 family: http://www.megachips.us/products/documents/MCDP28x...

• timbotim - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  So far, I have only found that ASRock have a workaround for the win7-install-via-USB stick situation. Found it in the z170m pro4s manual on p.41 (Win7 USB Patcher). Out of interest does anyone know if using a USB adapter card in an expansion slot gets around the no-EHCI-in-Z170 problem?

• Mithan - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  I want to buy a mITX board and upgrade to one of these babies, only issue is ... which one. I am sick of big cases.

• Mr Perfect - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  Everyone loves a mini-ITX gaming motherboard, right?

  
  
  Right!
  
  

  Even if it says Fatal1ty?

  
  
  Damn it...

• meacupla - Thursday, August 6, 2015 - link

  I think Asrock's mITX board is still better than Gigabyte's, if for only one little detail, which is the presence of a killer branded NIC.

• Xpl1c1t - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  Gamers these days...
  Look at all the flashy slots, shrouds and heatsinks.
  Embarrassing.

• dtsavage - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  3/55 = 5%
  
  5% of these boards are mATX. What is happening with this form factor?

• Diagrafeas - Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - link

  I don't like these motherboards.
  My ideal configuration would be:
  
  1st Slot: PCIE x16(x16)
  2nd Slot: none (m.2 PCIE x4)
  3rd Slot: PCIE x16(x8 electrical from CPU)
  4rth Slot: none (m.2 PCIE x4)
  5th Slot: PCIE x16(x4 electrical shared with 1st m.2)
  6th Slot: PCIE x16(x4 electrical shared with 1st m.2)
  7th Slot: PCIE x16(x4 electrical)
  
  Which leaves
  6+4 USB3 (preferably 2 internal)
  4 USB2 (preferably 2 internal)
  2 SATA3
  1 Gigabit LAN
  x1 PCIE for wifi ac